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on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 07/Nov/2009 17:03, 34 days ago
Let me start off by saying that finding internet here is not as easy as I had thought. I know I promised you all individual emails and skyping but it just isn’t realistic right now for me to be able to do that. I won’t have my own place for at least a month...hopefully by Christmas, and the internet cafes are far and few between with very SLOW speeds. I am hoping to set up my gmail to outlook so I can prewrite emails and then just log on at the internet cafes and send them and download yours and then I can read them in my room and feel a little bit less lonely. Right now, nou will have to make do with the mass blogging but know that I am thinking and missing all of you all the time. And even if I can’t send you an individual email it means the world for me to receive an email or even just a text message from any of you with just information about what you are doing today or how you are feeling.The journey to Maroua started at 4pm on Thursday and ended at 9pm on Friday. It was quite a trip to say the least. Left the hotel in an SUV and a taxi because we had so much luggage. You can see the picture of what traffic is like on a good day in Yaounde. There were six of us (5 volunteers and 1 VSO staff person). We arrived at the train station and right away we were hounded by porters who wanted to carry out belongings into the station. Our VSO staff knew some of the porters and after a lot of inter-porter fighting we had one porter. He carried all our bags into the station which involved pushing through crowds and crowds of people trying to get into the station but they only let people with reserved places into the station. We waited around being jostled by all the people also waiting. Sadly, even though we had tickets for 1st class couchettes we couldn’t get into the 1st class waiting area because the guards kept wanting bribes to get in so we were in the 2nd class area, although I am not sure if the 1st class area had any advantages it also looked busy and crowded and you had to go to the second floor which meant carrying everything.We waited for about 2 hours there with no real idea of when the train was coming. Eventually at about 7pm the train arrived (an hour later than it was supposed to be) and the crowd went crazy. The guards had closed the main gates into the station and literally people were being crushed up against them with all the people who were pushing trying to get into the station. I would not be surprised if someone told me people were seriously hurt after that incident. Guards were beating and fighting people away from the gates. We were inside the station and as soon as the train arrived and whistled people began en masse rushing to the train and so many people were pushing from outside the station the gates opened and a flood of people came into the station. We were all watching our bags and waiting for our porter, we didn’t have to rush because we had reserved spaces. Everyone who was rushing was rushing to get a seat or more importantly somewhere to put all the bags and suitcases and boxes they were carrying. Our porter came to get us and led us to the train car.When we arrived to our train care the police were there and began yelling at our porter. Essentially you get a porter not only to carry your things but also to be a spokesperson on your behalf. The police officer was looking for a bribe or“cadeau” as they call it here. Our porter was telling him we had tickets and could get on the train and the police was saying no we didn’t have tickets. Soon after a while of yelling and pushing a train person came to us and asked to see our tickets which we showed and then he gave the policea nod to let us through. We had one couchette with 4 of us and all our bags and two of us were in another couchette. After the train started to move a lady came by with a menu asking if we wanted food. A couple people ordered some food and got chicken and fruit and bread. I am told it was actually pretty good. I stayed awake for a while, the train stopped a lot for different villages. At each stop you could see ladies and children calling up to the passengers asking if they wanted to by oranges, honey, water, other fruits or veggies. I fell asleep quickly thanks to melatonin, benalyn and gravol  I slept soundly from about 9pm until 8pm, and I was told in the morning that during the night there was a big rain storm and the train stopped for a while so it could pass.In the morning we had some omelettes from the servers on the train and by 11:30am we were at Ngaoundere. Once again we got porters to help us bring our bags to the bus. We had bought bus tickets on the train by giving our names to a bus representative. When we go to the bus in Ngaoundere there was a process to getting the ticket, a man stood on a box and yelled out the names of people who had got tickets. We got ours and got on a big coach bus which had two rows of seats, one row of two and one row of three. IT was very crowded and had no bathrooms. The bus made about 5 stops a long the way, two of which were for prayers. I only dismounted the bus once to go to the bathroom in Garoua. The bathroom was better than I thought it would be. It was a cement structure with no roof and a metal door and then you walked in and it was a hole in the ground. Better than going on the side of the road which some of the stops at smaller villages required. At the bus stops people would get off the bus and buy water and fish or meat from the vendors on the side of the road. Many people would also sell things through the windows to those who stayed on the bus.After 9 hours on the bus we arrived in Maroua. We were greeted by a VSO staff person who brought us to the Baptist mission. It is basic but nice. I have a room to myself with three beds and a bathroom. I have attached a few pictures. You can see two of the three beds, I am sleeping under a mosquito net on the unseen bed. I have a small table and an armoire which I have put my bags into. I haven’t unpacked my big backpack since I don’t have any place to put anything else and I don’t want to leave anything lying around. It had a fan and AC (luxury), I still don’t know if I am allowed to use the AC it seems to make the room cost more but I am using it until I have the chance to ask VSO if I will have to pay or if they will. Supposedly it also has wireless internet but that has yet to become evident. My bathroom has a shower, you can see the curtain on the left of the photo, a toilet and a sink which is to the right of the photo. It is pretty basic.I will be here for one month because my apartment has someone else (another volunteer) living in it until the end of the month. I hope that is indication that the apartment is decent and hopefully I will inherit some household items. It is going to be a very different lifestyle for me for two years. Maroua is almost like a big campground, the roads are all sand, and everything is very low to the ground. Houses seem to be simple cement structures. Even when we went to the restaurant (it was a collection of tables and some huts) people come up to the table and beg. It can be quite awkward because you can’t start giving out money or else everyone will come and ask for money.The interesting here in Cameroon which I didn’t really think through or expect is that even in Yaounde people only pay for things with cash. No one takes debit or visa or any other method of payment even in stores which are more structural. So if someone wants to buy a car or motorbike, they have to go to the bank and if they don’t have anaccount use their visa card to withdraw money but they may be limited by the amount they can take out per day and per week by the card provider as well as the machine. It is an interesting system to say the least.I also want to say that no one should book any tickets to come and see me yet. The over 24 hours journey here has definitely instilled a fear in me so deep that I never want to have to go through the chaos of leaving and doing this trip again. As I meet other volunteers I will find out other travel options to get here or for me to leave to meet you somewhere else. Supposedly there is a 5 hour bus to Chad which is a possibility...I just need to know the safety and security details first. Let me just say that the journey I took– train from yaounde, then bus – is definitely a “never want to do myself again, or have any of my friends have to go through that sort of stress” event. I really think people got seriously hurt at the train station being pushed against the bars.Here is a tidbit of information about Yaounde a past volunteer we met in Yaounde passed on to us. One day he was walking along the street and a little boy was hit by a car. He was obviously seriously hurt. One of the volunteers friends rushed to the scene to help. The helper was then pretty much mobbed by a crowd and beaten up and blamed for the incident. The volunteer told us essentially that if we try to get involved in any sort of accident like that it will always be our fault. If we provide medical care or first aid and the person doesn’t make it it is our fault. If we provide help and the person makes it and goes to hospital it is our fault he wasn’t cured completely and we should pay the hospital bills. His advice to us was in that situation to just get away from it. He said it is the hardest thing to do (walking away from someone injured) but if we didn’t do that we could end up in a lot of trouble. I know already that Maroua is not like Yaounde, there are not a lot of cars, only motorbikes and the pace of life is less busy. But as a volunteer and being white I always have to be careful not to get into trouble or place myself in uncertain situations. It is definitely harder to help here than one would think. It is useless for volunteers to come here and put into place something unsustainable but that is what we will be asked to do on a daily basis. I am eager to start work so I can have a better sense of whatkind of a difference I can make.This is what my week looks like so far: This week we have in country training which should hopefully help me get a bit more settled. We will have a tour of Maroua on moto-taxis tomorrow afternoon. Monday we have an introduction to the Maroua VSO office, a lesson in Fulfulfe, the a session on culture in the far north. Tuesday we have a session about the work we do in the area of hiv aids. We also have a session on Gender in the afternoon. Wednesday we get a first aid course and a security briefing. Then we get a talk on health in the far north. On Thursday we have another Fulfulde lesson and sessions on nutrition, money, and shopping. Friday we visit the hospital and we meet with our partner organization (for me it is ACDES). Then we have the weekend free and we start work on Monday.I hope everything is well with each of you. I wish I could write to you all individually but although time is in excess here, the internet connectivity is not.PS. It was 38 degrees today and it isn’t even the hot season yet. You don’t know hot until you have experienced this African desert. You also can’t imagine the dust.