Trip to Limbe--Voyage down

So after nine months of being in the North of Cameroon, Jessie, Emily and I took a vacation to the south. I had been planning on going to India to my friend Becca's wedding and at the last minute was not able to get the visa, so I decided since I was heading down there, to go on with the other two to the beach, Limbe. Sometimes 9 months feels like a long time, but mostly it feels pretty short. But the long trip down south revealed to me how long it had been since we had been in the Sahel region. It really was something amazing. So surreal to be making the same trip, each leg exactly the same as when we first came to Cameroon, in reverse: Garoua to Ngoundere, train to Yaounde, bus to Douala. And when we got to Yaounde, the new batch of trainees were there, having just arrived a few days before, adding to the odd feeling of experiencing the whole trip in reverse. However, in Douala we didn't get on a plane heading to the US but instead took another car to Limbe, to rest and recuperate.

The first leg of the trip was a bus to Ngoundere in the Adamawa, and we stared wide eyed and open mouthed as we looked out the window. The father south we drove the more and more vegetation there was. At some point we were in a teak forest and another point we began to see pine trees. Pine trees! We haven't seen those in 9 months. I didn't know they existed here. And its that sort of thing that makes you realize how much time has passed, how unaccustomed we had grown to lush and varied vegetation. The whole route was spent just soaking in the vegetation, the green, the lushness. When we got to Ngoundere, we had a few hours to kill before the overnight train left at 5pm or so. And went out to lunch and got caught in a rainstorm. Lovely at first, although after walking back in it for 10 minutes and being soaked to the bone, I was freezing (first time I felt that in 9 months too) and my fingers and lips were actually blue. This time, we took sleeper cars on the way down to Yaounde (as opposed to our first class seats for the ride up to training), which was so much nicer, so cozy and comfortable, in fact more comfortable than my mattress at Mafa Kilda; and the motion of the train, the swaying and even the bumps, was nice, just like the motion of a boat is nice, as long as you can curl up in a bed. My eyes were glued to the window again, until it got dark, looking at the changing vegetation. As we passed through Adamawa on the car and on the train, I thought, I really could see living in that region permanently and wish in some ways I could have been placed there. It is so beautiful.



The morning, waking up on the train was much of the same, only this time, the landscape outside had completely changed into tropical rainforest. Houses, trees and plants, and peoples clothing all were different. "We're not in Kansas anymore" kept ringing through my head.

We stopped in Yaounde for a total of four hours, getting a chance to talk briefly with some other volunteers in our stage, who were there for other meetings or getting ready to fly out of the country. We also stole glimpses and brief conversations with the new volunteers who had arrived in Cameroon a few days earlier and who looked so remarkably fresh and so clean, so peppy, compared to us, the weather beaten, aged volunteers! Ha. At least that's how we feel. From Yaounde we took a bus and started heading towards Douala.

Guardian Angel #1: Isabelle
We met a beautiful woman on the bus at the tail end of the trip, just pulling into Douala. We were running behind schedule and starting to worry about arriving in Limbe before it became too late. It was already dusk. So I turned to a woman behind me and asked about where to get cars going to Limbe. She was a young professional woman who had just taken a trip to Yaounde for fun because she "likes to travel and wander a bit." She told us where to get off, but when we arrived she grabbed us and said, we'll drive you to the carrefour! So she took us in her car to the point of getting a car to Limbe, and helped us find one, sending us off with her number. She was so sweet, and actually called later in the night to make sure we had arrived safely in Limbe. It is always such a blessing to met such beautiful people, especially when traveling in other countries.


Guardian Angels #2: Richard and ?forgot his name!
When we got to Douala, to get a car to Limbe, we were snagged by two brothers and their car, saying they'd take us. This is the normal way of travel around Cameroon for short distances, and we figured it was just them trying to make their money, but found out that they just happened to be going home to Buea and wanted to give us a ride because they like to help people. They spoke English, French and Pidgen, like most people we ran into during our week, and truly were hysterical people. The one brother was a talker. He talked the whole time, with a really funny accent, more American than Cameroonian English, because he studied English in Australia. He was a businessman and is very well traveled. His brother was picking him up from the airport because he had been living in Korea for 1.5 years, after Australia. Anyway, I was laughing, in stitches most of the hour and a half ride, and even considering our lovely police stop for 30 minutes, it was a really nice and memorable ride. They even dropped us right off where we asked, meeting an ExPCV who now lives in Limbe.

The two brothers, me and Emily, and the tail end of their car

Jessie and Emily with the two brothers

Finally we arrived in Limbe and were graciously welcomed by an exPCV who now lives there permanently working on computer tech, one specific project developing a program for documenting property titles in order to help Cameroonian widows susceptible to family members stealing their property.

All and all a long full two days journey. All to reach the ocean. (And I prayed all along to be posted in a village near the ocean, ha!) But all worth it and we arrived very well safe and sound, if a little tired.