Tole Tea Consults and The Race of Hope

 

I almost forgot to mention…when I got back from the mountain I was in serious need of a shower, and to my surprise as I was drying off a cockroach fell out of my towel! How disgusting is that! There were definitely some shrieks!

Tole Tea Farms

Two Fridays this month we went out to the Tole Tea Village about 30 minutes away from Buea. We taxied out there with Yanin one of the Reach Out volunteers. When we got there we went to the Chiefs house and we set up for consulting some of the children in the village. They basically all has some sort of rash.

We finally got a system set up that went along pretty well. The others that worked at Reach Out took their names and we looked out their rashes and took pictures of them. After looking at close to 45 kids it was time to call it a night. We had seen so many rashes, but so many adorable little kids. It was awesome and it went really well.

We left earlier than planned, but we all wanted to go to the US Embassy meeting in Limbe at the Wildlife Center so we left around 2:45 or so. Mary and I rode on a moto and Sarah and Tabby rode on the other moto. It is a pretty sketchy ride to Limbe, but we all made it safe and sound. On the way down from Tole the roads are all gravel and broken pavement, so its kind of a rough ride and poor Mary had to be on the metal…ashia (sorry). I wish I could have taken a video of the stop light intersection in Limbe, it’s quite the experience. A car on the way to Limbe clipped Tabby and Sarah, but luckily nothing happen to them and they are still safe!

The US embassy meeting was fun and super interesting; we met some neat people and had a great time. We ate supper at Arne’s Café and enjoyed visiting with the people who worked at the Embassy in Yaounde

The next Friday we went back out to Tole to give out the medications and do more consults at the school in Tole. Most of the kids had the same rash due to hygiene and how easily the rash spread to others. We gave out the medications to those who we saw the week before and then we did more consults on the children at the school. We gave everyone a bar of soap in order to help with the hygiene because that is the main reason all of these people have rashes. We gave the ones with more severe rashes some antibiotic ointment and anti itch cream.

Whatever we had leftover from the medications and bars of soap we “diagnosed” the children at the school and gave them soap and medications. We wrote down all of the instructions on a piece of paper for them to take home! When we finished we packed up and headed home around 5…on motos…again. I think we saw over 40 patients today!

By the time I got back home, I felt so itchy because of all the rashes I took a shower then felt a little less itchy. Why is it that after being around kids with rashes all day I have the itching sensation? It was an amazing experience and so much fun to help the people out at the Tole Tea village.

Side note: on the way out to Tole we saw some guy butt naked bathing in the river.

 Sarah and I examining the little ones!

 One of the women that works at Reach Out with Yanin

 Our health talk at the school for all of the children to hear about hygiene!

 Handing out the medications/soap and HANDWRITTEN directions on how to use them, I dont know what we were thinking!

 Another one of the women that works at Reach Out with Yanin

 Yanin and baby Favor who we is no longer at Tole but at the Cancer Center in Yaounde 5 hours away due to the positive biopsy that she had! She is now being treated for Lymphoma!

One of my favorites! This little girl is just so adorable!

Race of Hope

Today was an early morning, the only Sabbath I will ever wake up before 8 am. Sarah and I woke up early because we wanted to see the Race of Hope. The Race of Hope is a race that starts at Checkpoint in Buea and you run to the summit of Mt. Cameroon and back down to Checkpoint. The race “started” at 7 am, so we were up early so we made sure not to miss the runners pass the clinic. I enjoyed some coffee and then when we heard all the noise from the street we ran out to watch.

We were waiting for our new friend Kate who is volunteering here in Cameroon, because she paid to run the race, but it sounded like she wasn’t going to be able to run it, however when we saw her run by with a number we were all super happy for her! I have so much respect for anyone who runs this race, it’s a beast of a mountain! About 30 minutes after the race started the rains started coming down; I could see how this would present a huge challenge while running up and down the mountain!

Sarah and I got ready to go and headed down to the Stadium (the beginning of the race) where we helped Reach Out and Peace Corp with HIV awareness. They also did condom demonstrations both male and female, it was an interesting morning! 

Around 10:30 since Bill was speaking up at church we decided to head up and listen to him speak. He was supposed to speak last week, but the pastor wanted to because it was National Youth Day so they moved Bill to the next weekend. On the way up to the church the first guy was coming down the mountain just 4 hours after he left the stadium! 11000 ft elevation gain and 14 miles roundtrip he was coming down the street. As we were standing there watching him pass us there were cars surrounding him and I was out in the street too far and got hit by the mirror of one of the cars! I was kind of pissed that they hit me, but it was kind of partly my fault! We then went up to the church and listened to Bill speak. Throughout the whole service we heard a chopper outside, but we never saw it.

Kate was back when we got back from church, come to find out she got so cold because of the rain that she couldn’t go any further. Luckily some of the people at intermediate hut offered her their jacket so she could take off her cold wet clothes! He new friend even walked back with her, some people are just so nice!

Come to find out the chopper was going to go rescue someone from the mountain because they were so cold they couldn’t move, but they said it was too expensive so they didn’t. I’m not sure what happen to that person, but hopefully they survived. This race is amazing and I have so much respect for anyone who even attempts to run up that mountain! Good work to all of those who attempted to run the race!

 Kate showing off her number! So glad she got to run it!

 The mountain and her beauty!

 One of the blind people running the race up to Hut 1

 There they go!

 The first guy down! He looks a little beat up, but not bad at all for 4 hours!

The Mountain Explosion Along With Some Awkward Moments

Awkward Moments

Our friend Hache introduced us to his brother Joseph over the phone while we were in Koza in case we had troubles with the Gendarm on the way back with the fake ID’s. Luckily we didn’t have to call him, but Thursday morning in the clinic Joseph showed up. I had no idea who he was, but it finally clicked. Joseph came to greet us and invite us all over to his home.

That same evening Joseph came back to the clinic to pick us up and take us to his home. Joseph lives in the Gendarm compound up near the General Hospital. He and his family live in a bunker there. He invited us into his home. He introduced us to his 6 children and his wife. However, there were two women there. We all questioned, well maybe he has two wives (polygamy is legal here), but then we didn’t want to assume anything so we thought maybe it was his wife’s friend. Our first assumption was correct; Joseph has two wives, what a lucky guy.

That’s not the only thing that was awkward about the evening. Joseph speaks very little English making it difficult to communicate with him, and his WIVES and children don’t speak English at all. We told him about our trip to Koza and our translation got mangled into we milked cows while we were in Koza, which we definitely did not do. Mary then went on to tell him that his house looked like a game board. Lets just say it does have some weird painting on it, but I wouldn’t go as far to say it looked like a game board.

We had several good laughs that evening with Joseph and his family, however I must say they were very hospitable. Still to this day Joseph will show up at the clinic and insist that was come to his home, and there is really no way to say no. I think we have been there 4 or 5 times now. They are very nice people; it is just very awkward at times due to the communication barrier between us.

Since they have invited us over several times we decided it was time for us to have them over. So we invited all 8 of them over and enjoyed some "American" food even though it was Mexican food. When they came over they were all dressed in their matching clothes and looked their best. It was the most adorable thing ever! We made them tortillas with veggies, rice, gluten, fruit salad and banana bread or banana cake as one of our little friends calls it. It was an amazing dinner, well as least we all thought so, I'm not sure what they thought of it, but they ate it. I know they really enjoyed the banana bread because they even went back for seconds! It was a good evening and I'm glad we got to have them over. They are a cute family, even if he does have two wives; I guess he's just a lucky guy! haha!

2^nd Attempt at Climbing Mt. Cameroon

Not even 3 days after we got back from traveling up north, Sarah and I were on our way to summit Mt. Cameroon. We all decided to leave Saturday morning rather than Friday morning mainly because we wanted our friend Walters to come along.

We left Saturday morning and soon found out that our friend Walters wasn’t going to make it because his exam got moved. We also soon found out that people were coming off of the mountain due to an explosion that occurred at hut 2. But we continued on.

When we arrived at hut 1, Hilary (our cook) and Vitalise (our guide) conversed and decided we couldn’t go any further today due to the explosion they decided for the best interest and safety for us; that we stay at hut 1. We arrived at hut 1 around 10:00am. Today is going to be a long day. Hilary then took us on a “vegetation watch”; turned out to be a little walk through the jungle to find monkeys, but we didn’t see a thing.

Andrea, Barb, Rosisin, Sarah and I spent all day playing games, teaching each other games, laughing together, laughing at each other and a little complaining here and there while we waited for our guide to come back to hut 1 with drinks he went to get back in Buea. They finally arrived around 5 with our drinks.

You all are probably wondering why we stayed at hut 1 when we could have just gone back down, because summiting is no longer an option. It was a real bummer, especially for those who haven’t summited yet. We spent the evening eating, talking, singing, drinking soda (at least for Sarah and I) and enjoying the warmth of the fire. We then crashed in our tents for the night.

The next day we started the journey to hut 2. We made it. I wrote on the walls where Lizzy and I stayed last time. We then headed back down. I don’t remember the trip down being as long as it was, but it felt like forever. Remind me never to do a two-day trip again; my knees were KILLING me by the time I got down to where we started! Even though the trip was disappointing we all made the best out of it, too bad we didn’t go Friday, that would have been quite the adrenaline rush being up there. However, I think someone was looking out for us, thanks God.

 The mountain, so big and so beautiful!

We made it to Hut 2, but that's as far as they were going to let us go, it was disappointing, but we did it

 The mountain is much greener than when we climbed it the first time! It was BeAuTiFuL!!!

 This is where the explosion occurred at Hut 2 on Friday night and people had to start running down the mountain!

 This is our toilet, in other words we had to "Poop in a hole," its a GREAT experience!

Valentines Day

 

Today the clinic wasn’t super busy seeing that Trixy is gone and it’s only a nurse clinic. Mary and I decided to go out into the lawn and spell out Happy Valentines Day with the hibiscus flowers. When we finished everyone was starring at it, one patient/friend Papita even came over and took a picture of it with us girls, it was a lot of fun! Once we finished it was back to work because the clinic started picking up.

This evening the 4 of us girls and Yanin went down to Bill’s house and made a feast. We had spaghetti with white sauce, veggies and rice, a fruit salad, a real salad and delicious peanut butter chocolate cookies. After stuffing out faces, we all watched a chick flick together, which turned out to be a disappointment to me, but that’s alright, it was a good night, filled with amazing food.

 Our patient from the clinic that comes in all the time to check his BP what a lucky guy, having a picture with 3 white girls...on VALENTINES DAY!

Interesting People

This month we had one gentleman come in who wanted to be cleansed. He told us he had just stopped smoking and that he wasn’t going to smoke anymore. We then told him that he could find nicotine patched in Douala, but we told him in order to cleanse himself he needed to drink lots of water. He kept asking what medicine he needed to take in order to cleanse himself, we kept telling him he didn’t need to take any medications.

We soon found out he wasn’t smoking cigarettes, but he was smoking “big brother Africa” or “wheat” mistaken for weed or marijuana. He then went on to tell us, for everyone to hear, that he was having troubles sexing for a long time. He didn’t have as much energy sexing and he couldn’t sex for as long as he used to when he smoked. We then at that point in time told him he needed to see the doctor.

We started asking him the normal questions “how old are you, where do you live and what do you do”. He told us that he worked at the brigade up by the Seven Days church; this is the same place our friend Joseph works so we asked him if he knew him. He told us he knew Joseph and the first thing out of his mouth was, “you know he has two wives?” We told him that we knew that and that we were friends with Joseph.

He then went and sat down waiting for Trixy to call him in. We were also waiting for Trixy to call him in because Mary and I were trying so hard not to laugh at him; he was a pretty entertaining guy. As he was sitting there he told us he was lonely and wanted one of us to come sit by him to keep him company. Mary and I just laughed and Trixy called him in…finally.

Trixy quickly did the history and physical then sent him on his way and told him to drink plenty of water to cleanse him. The sexing, well she didn’t discuss that. It was an entertaining day with him, some people are extremely interesting people.

 Yes, this girl is trying to take a poop outside of the clinic when we have a toilet inside, why do you need a toilet when you've got the GREAT OUTDOORS!?

Part 2 - The end of our Journey up North

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.

 All of us at dinner. It was amazing and everything was so beautifully done, it was a peaceful dinner.

 

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!

Part 1 - Our Adventures Up North!

Day 1 – And were off!

 Friday, January 20, 2012

Today we had a very early start; we woke up at about 4:15 and were headed down to the bus station. We arrived at the bus station half awake; we saw a big bus running so we asked the driver where it was going he replied “Yaounde” so we got on it. I had a feeling we weren’t on the right bus, come to find out…we were on the WRONG bus, we got off and got on the right bus with our big bags on our laps. When we left for Yaounde we had 30 people on a 20-person bus, gotta love public transport in Africa.

On our way to Yaounde we had several good laughs. Mary sleeping on some RANDOM guys shoulder, Mary, Tabby and Sarah trying Kola nut for the first time, which let me tell you, I wouldn’t advice anyone to try it, it is nasty, tastes like dirt or maybe even worse and then best of all, the 3 white girls using the bathroom along side the road. Just as I was finishing up the bus horn started honking, so I was running back to the bus while pulling up my pants.

We finally arrived in Yaounde after 5 hours of being CRAMPED and uncomfortable. Thankfully when we got to Yaounde one of the guys we met on the bus was also headed to the train station, so he took us there. We got our tickets no problem and then headed to the hotel. Lewis took us there as well, and we said our goodbyes, exchanged emails and went our separate ways.

The hotel didn’t have our name, so we sat around for a bit, then we were finally able to get into our room. The SIL Bible Translator compound was like a safe haven, everyone there spoke English and it was all fenced it; I felt SAFE and didn’t want to leave.

The hotel was very nice, and we felt comfortable there, it even had a kitchen. We explored a little but after all it’s very difficult when you don’t speak any English. We crashed at about 8 pm, traveling is exhausting.

 

 Exhausted after Day 1 of traveling!

 

 Hmm,  didn't realize that people stood on the toilet seat to use the restroom.

Day 2 – Beautiful People

Sabbath, January 21, 2012

Bon Sabbat. This morning we decided it would be a great idea to go to church in Yaounde, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I was against it either. We told a taxi to take us to an Adventist church, so that’s what he did. At first we weren’t sure if we were at a church or at a school, but since we heard music we figured there had to be a church someplace. We found the church and were more than welcomed. They even had an English Sabbath School class just for us girls.

Mary, Tabby and I did a special music for church, we sang “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, when we finished they were all so thankful to have us sing for them and they made us feel super WELCOMED. When the sermon began they even had someone translating for us. The service was absolutely amazing, the music was beautiful, the people were beautiful, and the whole experience was so wonderful. We talked to several people when the service was finished; we exchanged emails and had a very pleasant time. One family invited us over for lunch, but we couldn’t make it because we had to get back to take the train in the evening.

We all napped and then headed for the train station. On our way to the station just as we were leaving the SIL compound we met a white lady who was headed into town and was more than WILLING to take us to the train station. So we piled in and headed to the station; she was kind of a scary driver, but everyone here is.

It took us a little while to get to the station because there was an accident that caused a lot of TRAFFIC! We felt pressed for time, but we soon realized it was hurry up and wait. We finally arrived. Got our tickets and boarded the train. It was so EXCITING at first.

We got situated on the train; even though we weren’t in our correct seats we figured people would switch with us. They did. We sat on the train for about 1 hour and then Mary and I decided to go out an EXPLORE. We spent a ton of money and got a bunch of junk food, remind us NEVER to go out again.

The train finally left at about 6:15, basically on time, which is a surprise to me because after all TIA.  When we first started moving it was awesome and we were all super stoked to be heading to the north. On the train ride up, we started slowing down and we soon realized that there were tons of people outside of the train selling all kinds of food and tons of fruit. We thought it was the coolest thing in the world. We bought bananas, pears, and other random things that we wanted to try that were wrapped in banana leaves, but we soon found out that most of those had FISH or MEAT because of the communication barrier it was hard to ask that.

Throughout the train ride to the north we had some really good laughs. It was great for the first couple hours, but it got kind of old after awhile. It was then time to try and sleep so we all tried to get as comfortable as possible even though it was UNCOMFORTABLE to sleep.

Day 3 – Thieves and Fake ID’s!!!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Well, didn’t get much sleep last night because I was awakened at 2 am in the morning to people selling things along side the train, but also the fact that I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable didn’t help at all. We ate and just a couple hours before arriving in Ngaoundere we discovered that Sarah’s bag was missing. We looked all over the place trying not to FREAK out; we attempted asking someone, but no luck, that was useless. Mary and Tabby then start going through their bags and find out that Tabby’s little bag that was in her backpack was stolen along with Mary’s camera that was in her backpack as well. We all took a moment to pray about it. We made some phone calls. What a GREAT way to start the morning!

We arrived in Ngaoundere, with two people missing identification that is NECESSARY to get around in Cameroon and we had no idea what to HECK to do now. We got a hold of someone who lived in Ngaoundere and they met us at the train station. They took us to an Internet café to print off a copy of the girls Visa and Passport, but no luck, the Internet was all done! So we got the BRILLIANT…idea to use someone else’s copy of their Passport and Visa. We got them and headed to catch a bus to Mokolo.

 We got to the bus station and immediately someone took Sarah’s bag of clothes, she went and got it back from him. It was so CHOATIC, people were yelling and pushing and it was so overwhelming, especially since they all spoke FRENCH! We went to Mokolo Express, bought a ticket and waited for about 5 minutes then loaded on the bus. It was perfect timing.

We were on our way to Mokolo, FINALLY! However, we weren’t there yet and we still hadn’t tried out the new passports yet. When we got to our first checkpoint, they took the passports, looked at them and then took them back to one other POLICE to look at it, came back and said “Bon Voyage”. We made it past the first one, but barely...

On our way Mary and I talked with some guy sitting next to us, or at least we ATTEMPTED to. We learned quite a bit while talking with him, it was entertaining to say the least.

We made several stops along the way to either let people off or to let the Muslims PRAY. There were a ton of Muslims in the North, I was amazed by how many there were. We got stopped THREE times by the police and one time they told us to get OFF the bus. As we started to get off everyone on the bus told us to STAY.  The guy was super grumpy and so he took “our” passports and took them back to the 5 other police. They brought it back, gave it back to us and said “Bon Voyage” we replied, we will greet YOUR PEOPLE in Koza. FIVE people looked at the fake ID’s with expired Visas, but said nothing, SOMEONE was watching over us.

We arrived in Garoua, but still had a lot of traveling left. While we were stopped in Garoua there were a ton of people coming to the window selling things. We bought one thing that was actually pretty good; I think it was a fried cocoyam. The cutest little boy was trying to sell us plastic bags filled with juice that he had made. We kept telling him “No merci”. He would just stand there and smile at us with his ADORABLE smile. He walked to the other side of the bus, where some JERK pushed him and he fell into the gutter and let me tell you these gutters are NOT small! The poor thing was crying, so we decided to buy the juice from him. We gave him 100 francs thinking we would get 1 or 2, we got FOUR so lucky for us we all got one…not! When we bought them from him, his face LITE up! It was so cute! We drank our juice, however Mary and I didn’t finish ours all the way because there were BLACK-floating things in the bag. This could end very badly!

We finally left and were on our way to Maroua, I think we may have been stopped once more with no problems. The last three – four hours went by SOOOOO slow! We dropped people off wherever they wanted to be dropped on the way and we were super worried about having to show our IDs.  We bought sesame patties along the whole way because we were so hungry.

We finally made it, at least to Mokolo! Our new name for Mokolo Express is Pokolo Express, because it took FOREVER! We were all so thirsty from not drinking water because we didn’t want to have to use the restroom along the way. We were all so thankful to see Spencer. We got on the motos at 10:00pm and headed for our 1 hour MOTO ride to Koza. The breeze felt so nice, and the moto ride was a good CHANGE.

We finally arrived in Koza and we were so THANKFUL to be there, it was a long trip!

 Our new home for the next week! This is Spencer's house in Koza, it was beautiful!

 

Day 4 – Tour of the Hospital

Monday, January 23, 2012

Nothing to exciting happened today, we were all EXHAUSTED from traveling! We took a tour around the Adventist Hospital in Koza. The hospital is HUGE compared to the hospital in Buea. It was really neat being able to see it. We had the opportunity to met Spencer’s colleagues and see some of the things that Spencer was working on. The hospital has an Urgent Care unit, a Maternity ward, a Pediatrics ward, two surgery rooms, pharmacy and an X-ray room.  It is a full functioning hospital with currently two doctors from Congo. In a couple day they are going to be doing a hysterectomy on someone who has had way too many kids.

After the tour of the hospital and meeting tons of people we headed back to the house. Spencer fixed a crutch for a family, however they were UNABLE to buy it because it was too expensive and they couldn’t afford it.

When we got back we ate some pasta with tomato PEANUT sauce, surprising it was super good, I was very impressed by Spencer’s cook; he made some really delicious food.

We took the rest of the day easy, played some Dutch Blitz, hung out and called it a night.

Day 5 – Tribal Songs

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Today we went to Maroua to check out the hotel with animals. The only way to get in and out of Koza is by moto, so we got some motos and headed for Maroua about 2 hours away. When we arrived in Maroua, we found some motos that would take us to the HOTEL. Mary and I got one and Tabby and Sarah on the other and Spencer on his own. Mary and I soon disappeared from the rest of the group; they could no LONGER see us in front of them. We had no idea where we were going let alone the name of the hotel. LUCKILY we arrived at the hotel with the others to arrive a few minutes behind us.

The hotel had a tortoise, monkeys, peacocks, ducks and two ostriches. One of them was really nice and we were even able to touch it while the other one was super mean! The one ostrich got mad and was kicking the fence and rammed into the fence trying to ATTACK the “owner”. All of the people at the hotel were very nice and extremely welcoming. The main guy was calling peacocks for us and he even CHASED after the ostrich with a stick.

When we finished we returned to the tortoise and we were looking at it and taking pictures when one of the guys just comes over and stands on it! We then all wanted to stand on it and pick it up. We all took a turn, we STOOD on it, picked is up, RODE it, it was great fun! Poor thing probably hated us!

As we left the hotel, there were two motos that had come, so we asked to have them take us back into town. After being observed by the moto driver, Sarah, Tabby and I all got on one moto. They didn’t know where we wanted to go so we went to the Artesian market.

We ate lunch at some little street vendor then went to the bakery and got some pastries. We used the restroom in the back of the bakery, it was quite disgusting, but at least it was a “TOILET” or a private hole in the ground.

We got some refreshments then headed back to Koza. We grabbed some bread in Mokolo then rode back to Koza. The ride back to Koza was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It went really fast, we were going soooo fast. It was a great ride, we saw people playing volleyball, the sunset of the Koza valley was STUNNING, and our moto driver was singing tribal songs the whole way back!

We went to a little concrete building to get some tea, all of us girls thought it was a bar when we came to it, but when we went in there was a little table with cups sitting there. The cups were kinda DIRTY, but you definitely get used to that when living in Africa. Surprisingly the tea was super good; but anything with lots of SUGAR is good!

Today was a good day, it was neat being able to go to Maroua, and the sunset this evening was just spectacular!

 

Day 6 – Barefoot in the Operating Room? and COOKING with Zara

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Today we went to the Hospital to see a surgery. Began the day with eating bean benye from the ladies pictured to the right. I wasn’t feeling so hot, I felt very nauseated this morning, so I decided to head back to the house. I napped for awhile and then decided to try and go back to the hospital with Lauren.

We “scrubbed” in and went into the surgery room. I wore a cloth around my face as a mask, a hat and then since there were no more shoes left, I went into the operating room BAREFOOT.

After a while I was getting tired of standing, so I went and sat on the counter next to Lauren. As we were sitting there, we were observing, the nurse was picking out FUZZ balls from the patients hair. Once they finished taking the uterus out of the patient they laid it on the table, so we all went over to observe it and the surgeon kept playing with it, poking it and touching it, it was quite gross, especially when it would stick to his finger.

This evening we went to Zara’s house to learn how to cook AFRICAN food. We helped prepare the meal, while the GOATS ate what we didn’t need to cook. Zara’s son Audrey was the most ADORABLE thing ever, we played with him, did gymnastics, threw him in the air, it was lots of fun together with him. Zara was a kick in the pants, she demonstrated to us, how an American WALKS (fast) compared to how a Cameroonian walks (s…l….o…w…), we all laughed extremely hard. We helped her with the grinding of the garlic and the mashing of the cous cous. Her and her daughter did the rest, and it was then time to eat.

We all sat down on the mat, washed out hands in some water, and then Zara brought out some HAND SANITIZER, I was so surprised. However, it was nice to have because we were eating with our hands. Which BY THE WAY is my new favorite way to eat, SORRY MOM. Zara sang a song to bless the meal and we dug in. The food was amazing; it was cous cous and some African peanut sauce with vegetables. We then ate squash with peanut paste and sugar in it, it too was good, and I was stuffed to the brim!

We sat around with everyone, Jumaka (one of Spencer’s friends, now ours as well!) and Zara taught us some French. Jumaka speaks English, however Zara doesn’t, but it was such a WONDERFUL evening, filled with laughing and great people. Zara then walked us home and we called it a night.

 

 Barefoot in the operating room...check!

 

The surgeons/physician assistant doing an hysterectomy.

I love this little guy, he is so cute!

All of us sitting around the food ready to dig in with our HANDS! It was amazing!

Day 7 – Visiting the Chief of Bardom

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Today we went out to a little VILLAGE about an hour moto ride from Koza. We left thinking it would be further away, but it wasn’t as far as we thought. The village was closer than we thought, however it was a long moto ride due to the terrain. Mary and I picked the WRONG moto or we are too fat, because the first big hill we came to, well we couldn’t make it up it. Mary and I got off and ran up the hill. Mary and I made sport all morning long, we had to get off the moto at least THREE times on the way out to the village; it was definitely a good laugh!

We had to walk a little ways to the village, when we arrived we sat and had everyone translating, Spencer translated English to French and Vambi translated French to Mafa, the local dialect. We gave the Chief Top, his EIGHT wives maggi and TWENTY-EIGHT kids bon bons. We started to walk around the village, us girls tried to balance the clay pots on our heads, the women in the village got a good LAUGH from that.

The men were bringing a goat to the house, and we all thought they were going to kill it and cook it for us right then and there; instead, they gave it to Spencer as a GIFT. This is not just a small gift; the goat was a huge gift for them to give to us. It was an amazing experience! We walked around the village, seeing where they made their beer, where the women cooked, where the wives lived, and got to experience a little bit of the African CULTURE.

Before leaving, Spencer danced with two guys who were super drunk at about 11 in the morning, everyone got another good laugh and then we headed back to the motos. When we got back there was no goat, but we met them further down. They tied up the goat and put it in Spencer’s lap.

On our way back to Koza we stopped at a little village that was making clay pots. It was so sad, all of the kids had catarrh (basically a runny nose), they had distended stomachs, one boy had one leg shorter than the other, but yet these kids were so HAPPY. It was just heartbreaking to see them, but I think we made their day. The ride down from the village was extremely TREACHEROUS, but we all made it back safely.

This evening Pier came and made some bwe in the kitchen and he wanted all of us to try it. I was the last to come into the kitchen, but he very quickly got me a bowl and put some bwe in it. Good thing he only gave me a little bit because it wasn’t very good. He then started eating off of the spoon that he served me with, Sarah finished hers, so he gave her some more, with the same spoon, I started laughing super hard, but only to have him put more in my bowl with the SAME spoon he had been eating off of. Gotta love Africa. I gagged it down.

Once Pier finished his bowl of bwe, but practically licking he clean, he helped Hache finish the egg salad and bowl of onions. Pier wasn’t going to let anything go to waste!

What a great day! We had some GREAT laughs and really good times together! I love it here!

Spencer getting his new goat from the "Chef" in French.

 Vambi with our goat "Mazda" or something like that in French means black, so he got the name Madza.