A Journey and a July 4th
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 06/Jul/2010 08:35, 34 days ago
My week in Yaounde was enjoyable. I spent some great time with Greg and Caroline along with Karen and Jonathan. I played some tennis, ate some pizza, tried a new Korean restaurant and enjoyed some Bibimbap. I also did get some work done. I spent most days with Greg and Caroline at the VSO office helping Caroline do some preparatory work for in-country orientation as well as doing some work on my project proposal. I am currently working on a project proposal on HIV and AIDS sensitisation on buses. As you may or may not know, the majority of travel between main cities in this area of Cameroon is done by large bus. These buses can usually hold 50-70 people. Now, these journeys are usually quite long and arduous, especially due to the fact that it is not uncommon for salesmen to use these buses to sell their wares. One of the most popular items to sell on buses is ginseng candies which the salesmen tend to convince people to buy because they feed them with false information...such as ginseng cures and protects people from HIV and AIDS. My idea for a project would involve having people give presentations on HIV and AIDS on buses. Providing people with the accurate information about the disease and about how to protect themselves. In addition, condoms will be handed out. So far most locals and NGO people have thought this is a great idea...now just need to find some funding...so if anyone is interested, let me know.Speaking of bus trips, I had an interesting trip back to Bamenda on Saturday. I was supposed to travel with the VSO staff in their vehicle. However at the last minute they had to stay in Yaounde to finish a pressing work matter so I took the bus. I got to the bus at about 745am and got my ticket. Managed to get a window seat in a 3 seat row...would have been ok except that the two women in my row could have each used 2 seats which made it very squished. We left at about 930am which is only half an hour late– not too bad by Cameroonian standards...actually on par with being on time. The journey was going well until about halfway when we suddenly came to a stop and the driver got out and didn’t come back on the bus...everyone was waiting rather patiently but after 30 min people began to ask the driver what was wrong.. initially he said it would be a quick fix but turns out we had two flats and something wrong with the front suspension. In short, this wasn’t going to be fixed anytime soon...with the black thunderstorm clouds rolling towards us I decided to grab my bags and find other transport. Last thing I wanted was to be caught travelling in the dark which is very dangerous.I flagged down a car and got taken to the next village. From there I got on a small bus to the next town (Bafoussam). At the town we got dropped off at one end of the town and we needed to get to the other end where the Bamenda buses departed so I had to take a moto taxi...super dangerous as I didn’t have my helmet with me but I was stuck between a rock and hard place, take the taxi and get home in the light, or possibly be stranded in the dark and the thunderstorm in a town I didn’t know. Anyways, as soon as I got on the moto taxi the clouds opened up and rained began to teem down. I wassoaked. But I got to the bus for bamenda. It was another small bus and it was already pretty full so I had to sit facing backwards on half a plank of wood behind the driver chair.... But I made it to Bamenda in one piece thankfully. I did however miss the Canada day party that some Canadians were throwing in Bamenda. But I got invited to an American July fourth party at Mary’s house (an American law student doing an internship).The party was a lot of fun. Mary’s room mate, Lars, is a German DED student, and he made some really good bread that was like bannock. We cooked it on sticks over the fire (BBQ).Lars and his german breadMary with the help of some other VSO volunteers (amy and courtney) had made all types of salads, some veggie burgers and guacamole. She had also had a stars and stripes dress made for the occasion. I wore my Canadian dress to ensure to it was clear that I was from Canada not the US :)Mary and all  the foodThe party was complete with S’Mores!!! Philli really enjoyed them as they don’t have them in the UK!Philli says "More s'mores!"Everyone enjoying the BBQ