Blogs from Cameroon, Africa - page 3

We made it safely to Yaounde' Cameroon after almost 3 full days of travel. We had two overnight flights and had some restless (seated) sleep on the planes. Exhausted to the point of brain damage. Tantoh, the man organizing the work we are conducting and community leader from the village we will visit, is an amazing personality. He is very animated, lively, and is excited that we are here. He has mentioned that the TBI program he participated is finally creating impact by all of us arriving. Bryon VL would be so proud and excited to hear him talk about the impact the program has had (even if it is 1.5 years later that the major impact is felt!). All of our luggage made it safely except for Cathy's personal bag. I feel terrible for her ... read more

Getting ready to leave tomorrow. Wanting a way to keep in touch without having to memorize everyone's email addresses! Be back in 2009. ... read more

The Republic of Cameroon, located in the heart of Africa at the cross points of West and Central Africa, is full of mystery, tales, and stories. Cameroon is one of the oldest countries in Africa. The creation of what is now Cameroon remounts to 8000 BC and was considered as a meeting point of cultures, ethnic groups and peoples. The country is blessed with miles of cost line, beautiful beaches and gorgeous mountains and picks, rain forest and waterfalls, and wildlife and savannas. Modern day Cameroon started in 1472 with the arrival of the slave traders and colonial masters known as the Portuguese explorers. Their boats took them to the top of the Wouri River which they named Rio dos Camaroes, hence giving the country its actual name. Travel in West Africa is an enormous challenge ... read more

On the night of the semis of the Africa Cup between Cameroon and Ghana, me, Audrey, Brian, John, Dave and Cam went to town to see the match on the big screen, it was very lively, crowds dancing and cheering, I have never experienced this kind of excitement watching on big screen TV, the crowd welcomed us, urging us to join in and Brian did his girlie dance to Cam's amusement. Eventually Cameroon won and will play Egypt in the finals. There was a commotion early on as a Ghana fan almost got beaten up on the bleachers just above where John is sitting, got worried for a bit as we dont know how rowdy the fans would become, anyway the fan escaped without harm. Dancing and cheering with the locals we made our way back ... read more

After several hours at the Nigerian side of the border trying to exit that country, we ended up spending the night at the Cameroon border post as we were already hitting night fall by the time entry was being sorted out. This is the real disadvantage to group travel, because border crossings take 10 times longer when you're trying to get 20 people and a large truck across. Christmas day was one to remember. We drove a total of 36km in 8 hours, the roads were that bad. This, after several locals and police men had told us the roads were very good. In fact, they were good because they were dry. During the wet season our truck would not have had a chance at getting through. We made it the rest of the way to ... read more