Day 8 –Failed attempt to see Baboons
Friday, January 27, 2012
This morning was an early morning; we woke up at 4:30 and headed to find baboons. We borrowed one moto from Hache and Vambi and another moto were going to come, but only Vambi showed up. Mary, Tabby and I all piled on with Vambi and Sarah and Spencer rode with Jumaka. It’s a good thing I decided to wear a jacket, it was so good out this morning and I was FREEZING.We barely got out of Koza when the other moto disappeared behind us. Vambi called them and find out after the fact they had gotten a flat tire. We unloaded from the moto in the middle of nowhere and he went back to find them. As we were sitting there waiting for him to return, it felt like a SCARY movie; squeaky bikes road past us, a man walking his cow, doors opening and random people walking by, it was very creepy!
After practically freezing to death on the moto ride to Mozago we finally arrived, however we were missing the other bike. My toes felt like they were about to fall off because they were so cold; I was wearing flip flops…terrible idea. We sat there waiting for the other bike for quite sometime, we finally decided to go EXPLORE and see if we could find a fire to warm up, but we thought it might be awkward if we just showed up to some fire, so we just decided to walk around. The others finally trickled in eventually, after the sun had already been up for a good hour. We finally started walking into the forest, but Jumaka and Vambi quickly turned us around because they were scared of the baboons.
Instead we decided to go to the onion fields to see if the baboons would come steal them. We met two little boys who wanted to show us around, so we went with them. On the way out one boy stepped on a thorn that probably went about 1 inch into his foot, he pulled it out and kept walking like it was no big deal! They took us into the forest, but we found nothing. The boys were super DISAPPOINTED that we didn’t get to see any.A failed attempt at finding baboons, but a morning full of making MEMORIES! What more could we ask for, it was quite the morning.
We headed back to the house to make some breakfast. On our way back, we stopped to get some gas, but then decided NOT to get it, about 10 minutes later, we were walking down the road while Vambi was pushing the moto. Yep, that’s right, we ran out of GAS! We walked for about 20 minutes and reached a gas stand (a little stand with gas in used plastic bottles). The four of us piled back on the motoa and we were then on our way back to Koza. Spencer, Sarah and Jumaka waited for us along the way, they didn’t see us pass, so we beat them back to the house.
This afternoon we walked to Djanglia, it took us about an hour to get up there, it was super hot, but totally worth it, not only did I get a tan, but the view from up there was beautiful! On the way up the mountain there is a church that is outdoors where people come to make sacrifices, it was pretty neat little place.
When we got to the top of the hill, we bought stuff in the store and then went and bought clay dolls from all the little kids. After enjoying some drinks we headed back down. The sunset was absolutely GORGEOUS! The kids were AMAZING! The kids made little wheel burrows out of the gears on a bike; it was GENIUS! And it was a good way to bring in the Sabbath. When we returned, we got ready for church.Unfortunately…well kinda haha, we missed almost of all vespers. However, after vespers we went to Spencer’s choir practice and listened to them, it was beautiful! We finished with prayer and then headed home. We talked for a bit and then called it a night. It was a LONG day!
An awesome tree that we saw when we went to find baboons.
Well we found baboons foot/hand prints, but no baboons!
Our refreshments after hiking to Djanglia, they were good.
Some of the little kids that followed us on our way home, they were so cute!
The beautiful sunset over the dam!
Day 9 – NO MORE BWE!!!
Sabbath, January 28, 2012
Went to church today, but couldn’t understand a word that was said because it was all in French. Church (pictured on the right) went by super fast today, so that was nice. The only thing I understood all morning was the song the choir sang in English, which might I add was beautifully done! We hung around the church for a little while talking to those who spoke English, and then we headed back to the house to make some French toast!The French toast was amazing! After lunch we took a nap before heading over to Hache’s house. We didn’t actually take a nap because we were all to busy talking. We soon there after headed to Hache’s for dinner. The only thing I was hoping is that we weren’t going to have bwe for dinner.
We arrived at Hache’s and guess what was for dinner, BWE (an African dish that is basically pudding with rice in it)! There wasn’t just one bowl of bwe, but another HUGE thermos full as well! He filled our first cup full…everyone finished and I was still on my first cup. I CHOKED my first cup down and Hache was sure to fill me back up. I just couldn’t do it, I took about two SIPS of it and my gag reflexes were kicking in. Spencer was like “ok, I’ll drink half of mine and then we will trade.” He finished half of it and we DISCRETELY traded cups by placing them on the ground. Even then I COULDN’T DO IT! So Mary said she would finish it for me! We again DISCRETELY traded cups; I really hope Hache didn’t notice, although he probably did…ooops. Thanks to Mary and Spencer drank it for me! I had one and maybe a half cups of bwe, while everyone else had three and then some!
After drinking lots of bwe and eating tons of groundnuts the next meal was salad. We all ate out of one bowl, and we ate our salad with our HANDS. I was super worried about either eating something that would make me sick or eating a worm. I may have eaten something, but it’s Africa, I’m used to it by now. We even all shared a spoon that was filled with salad DRESSING. I’m not used to drinking salad dressing, so that was pretty gross. Hache and his family with all of us are in the picture on the left.We played with the kids after eating, trying to keep a bike tire upright with just a stick, lets just say, it’s a lot harder than it looks! The things these kids do to entertain themselves is AWESOME, so creative! We then took pictures, said our goodbyes and headed back to Spencer’s place. Hache walked us home holding Spencer’s HAND the whole way home! It was great; us girls got a good laugh.
We played Dutch Blitz, visited with Lauren’s friends then called it a night!
This is Bwe, and everyone had 3 whole cups of it and I could only get 1 and a half down, it was pretty nasty!
This is our new friend Jumaka, he was such a cool guy! Lots of fun to hang out with!
Oh Pier, I miss this guy, he was hilarious! When we gave him a piece of banana bread, he said "se bon, tre bon" and then he started jumping up and down! We always got a good laugh from him!
Day 10 – Whiteman!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Went to market today before leaving for Rhumsiki to find some plastic shoes I wanted, I found one that fit me perfect, but they didn’t have the other matching shoe. Lame. We looked around and then bargained with someone to by some Muslim scarves, we walked away after yelling and decided not to get them. But after talking to our friend we met last night at Spencer’s house, he said 1500 was a fair price, so we went back and bought them. We looked for more PLASTIC shoes, but no luck, so we decided to head back to the house. We said goodbye, I’m going to miss everyone, especially Pier who when he eats cold lettuce, he claims his stomach becomes a refrigerator. Everyone up north was amazing, and so NICE!
When we got back the motos were there and ready to go, we grabbed our things and piled on the motos. On our way to Mokolo, there were a couple times I thought we were going to crash which would have been very bad seeing we weren’t wearing a helmet, we were wearing skirts and flip flops. We made it to Mokolo just in time to catch the bus to Rhumsiki. There were four WHITEMAN on this bus, but not NICE whiteman.
While Spencer was trying to negotiate the price, the white dude was yelling at him and the driver to just start driving because they had been waiting for “us” for the past hour. The white guy told Spencer he would take our s*&! off the top of the bus if we didn’t start going. He then told me to just tell me friend to get in the bus or we would leave without him! Spencer got it and we left, after quite the seen.
It was a long bumpy ride to Rhumsiki, and every time I thought we were there, we weren’t. We stopped by a bunch of kids and they asked what we had to give them, so the white guy asked what they had to give him, a little kid offers him a cookie and he just laughs, seriously, what a JERK! That kid was giving him all he had and all the guy did was laugh at him, it was so RUDE.
Just as we were about to Rhumsiki we got a flat tire, we all unloaded, and about 10 minutes later we were back on the road, I think that is the fastest thing I have ever seen done in Africa.
We finally arrived in Rhumsiki (pictured to the right) in the late afternoon. We decided on a hotel after debating where to stay for quite some time. Once we got it, it was time to go exploring. On our way down to market we met some random guy who wanted to show us around, Spencer kept telling him we weren’t going to PAY him to show us around. He took us through market where they make millet beer and then he took us to the WEAVERS. He took us to the clay pots that the villagers make and showed us a perspective restaurant to eat at. And he told us the story of how the village was named Rhumsiki.We headed back to the hotel after a tour of the village of Rhumsiki, we made dinner “reservations” at Kribi a little restaurant about a 10 minute walk away. But before heading to dinner, we climbed to the top of one of the rocks nearby to watch the sunset. It was quite the hike up there; it was more like scrambling up a ROCK face. I was sketched out a few places on the way up wondering how I was going to get DOWN it. We watched the beautiful sunset over the Nigerian horizon and had a great view of the village of Rhumsiki and the pinnacle; it was a STUNNING. Picture below is the beautiful sunset we saw from the top!
It was now the TREACHEROUS climb back down. It was super sketchy, did I mention I was wearing FLIP FLOPS. We made it down to the bottom safely, just in time to head to dinner.Dinner was amazing, it was so peaceful (at least until the other white people showed up) and the set up was beautiful. When we arrived we realized it was some guys house who he made into a place to stay and eat. The food was wonderful! We had fresh bread with fresh garlic. We had a Cameroonian salad consisting of cabbage, tomatoes, eggs, carrots and limes with some sort of dressing. We then had personal sized pizzas and fruit of dessert. We had a grapefruit, which made me think of home because my dad would cut me a grapefruit every morning. It made me homesick. We drank our tea then headed back to the hotel, tomorrow will be an early morning and a long day.
Some little kids in the village of Rhumsiki just hanging out relaxing and enjoying themselves.
Day 11 – A "Toyota" ride!
Monday, January 30, 2012
This morning we woke up early because we were catching the 6am bus out of Rhumsiki to head home. As I was showering the water pressure kept getting lower and lower and by the time I was finished there was no water. The unfortunate part is that was chose this hotel specifically for running water, and we got NONE! We finished getting ready then headed to where we needed to catch the bus.
Come to find out there was no bus, so they were going to bring us a “Toyota”. We kind of thought it would be just for us, but then found out that it wasn’t, it was for us and probably 25 other people. The bags were all piled in and then we piled on top of them. The first 30 minutes was a ton of fun watching the sunrise and enjoying the experience, but after awhile it got old. Little did Spencer and I know, but soon to find out, we were sitting on a bag of peanut paste that was not sealed very well. When we got up about 20 minutes later we had peanut paste everywhere. Thankfully the guys were nice enough to grab something to wipe it off and help wipe it off of everything. We were then on our way again. Along the way we hit many bumps, but one bump we hit, one of the guys sitting next to me wasn’t prepared for it and I though for sure he was going to fall right out, I grabbed him with both hands and the guy next to him grabbed him as well and we saved him from flying off the side of the truck. Mary was up sleeping on some random guys shoulder, she does that often. After a long ride in the back of a truck and some good laughs we finally arrived in Mokolo. As soon as we arrived we walked to the Mokolo Express and left shortly after we arrived.
We got the best seats in the house, up front. To make a long ride short, we got stopped several times by the gendarm, but luckily we had contacts here in Buea; Haches brother Joseph. We never had any really problems and made it to Ngaoundere at about 10 at night. I wasn’t in the mood to take a bus to Yaounde all through the night, so I told them they all could head back but I was going to stay in Ngaoundere with our new peace corp friend. I was out as soon as we got to her place!
The beautiful sunrise from the "toyota"on our way out of Rhumsiki.
The bus we took to Ngaoundere had a moto on it! We were all pretty amazed by this!
Day 12 – Another Train Ride
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
This morning we went to the train station to reserve our tickets for the evening train to Yaounde. The lady at the train station was so sweet; we got out tickets and were ready to explore the city of Ngaoundere. Pictured below is one of the Mosques in Ngaoundere.
We took showers and went out into the unknown! We met some nice people, and we bought a lot of things. I finally found myself a pair of plastic shoes; I was pretty stoked about them! Bright yellow! We explored the market, bargaining for a good price, did I mention this bargaining was all in French, which made it a little more difficult. We all came back with at least a little something.
We were invited to join some of our friends for lunch, so we told the driver to take us to the place and he took us somewhere totally different. After an adventure of trying to find the place we finally found it. The food was great.
We napped and got ready to head out. On the way to the train station each one of us got out own moto, they took us to the wrong place and first, but we finally made it to the train station, in one piece luckily. On our way my moto was following close behind another one and some truck stopped in the middle of the road and we had to swerve out of the way to miss him, it was an exciting ride, not to mention seeing another moto with about 15 cow hid on it.
We boarded the train and then of course like always Mary and I went out to get food. It was once again a bad idea; we came back with a huge tub of bambi, a coconut, bread and some Siberian dates. We cracked open the coconut and ate what we could then threw the rest out. We then dug into the Siberian dates, the first one was good, but then Mary found a worm crawling out of hers, so I slowly threw mine out the window. Remind me not to buy dates again!
We slept tonight, but we were much more conscious of our things to make sure nothing disappeared! Goodnight.
Day 13 – Home, finally!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The next morning we woke up and everything was there. It wasn’t a very good sleep and at this point in time I was just ready to be home. We finally arrived in Yaounde and had only 6 hours left until we would reach Buea. Home.
We got to the bus station and we caught that bus about 30 minutes before it was about to leave. Today wasn’t too exciting; other than we peed along side the road, which definitely isn’t something I do everyday in America or here.
We finally arrived in Buea around 4 in the afternoon, thankfully because as we were leaving Yaounde I begin to not feel well and I felt like I needed to vomit the whole way back. When we arrived at home I just sat on my bed for quite some time. We all went to dinner over at Bill’s and I just sat on the couch because I wasn’t feeling well. I decided to call it a night shortly after. It was a rough day, but I am so glad were back home and we had a fun, safe trip!
My huge mess when we got home!
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