Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween everyone! Today is off to a rough start. I didn’t sleep much last night due to the rain along with getting eaten alive by a darn mosquito; halfway through the night I got 6 bites, and after that I had a hard time falling back to sleep because I was worried about getting more bites! Then to top it off the power went out last night so I had a nice cold shower to wake me up! However, Trixy was a sweetheart and let us go to Kumba with Mary, Tabby and Spencer. So we left after worship.
We decided to take public transportation. So we took a bus from Buea to Kumba, which is about an hours bus ride away. Let me tell you we get nice and cozy in the 15-passenger van with 19 people, it is quite the experience, and a long one to say the least! We meet a really nice college student on the way to Kumba, so when we got there he took us to the lake, and even paid for our taxi over there.
When we got to the “entrance” he even argued with the lady there and told them that we didn’t need to pay just because we were white, and the taxi driver argued as well! Anyways he paid the 5000 francs for all of us and we headed into the park. However, we couldn’t drive, so we all got out and walked to the lake.
It was a beautiful walk to the lake and we took several pictures, it was amazing! When we got to the lake some local told us that we couldn’t “snap” any photos unless we wanted to pay 5000 francs. So we stopped taking pictures until he got out of sight and then we started taking some, but about 20 minutes later he came chasing after us in his canoe telling us we needed to pay him (we don’t really have to pay, this is just one way to get money from us, even the black guy who took us told us that). So Kelly (the black guy who took us there) argued with him for us for 10 minutes and then paid him 2000 francs. Then the other guy asking for money came and told us he felt disrespected and whatever else, it was ridiculous. The bugs there were also ridiculous, my legs were all bloody from the bug bites I was getting, today is just not my day with the bugs!
The bus ride to Kumba with 18 other people! It was great!
Spencer and I at the lake in Kumba!
All of us in a little "cave" on the trail down to the lake!
Some of the canoes that we could have taken to one of the village across the lake.
The group (minus me) with Kelly, the black guy that took us down there!
Kelly and I on the way to the lake!
The water running from the lake, it was really beautiful!
We then started walking out of the park and headed back to the place the bus had dropped us off. Kelly found us a bus to take back to Buea and we exchanged numbers with him. He was a super nice guy and not like most people who just want your money, all in all he paid 3000 francs to get us to the lake and we insisted we pay, but he wouldn’t let us pay for that.
Me eating some corn on the cob, tasted a bit like corn nuts that weren't quite hard!
When we got back we bought some things at the little market then headed back to the health center. We also stopped and got some ice cream and then we heard Spencer’s phone ringing…it was Kelly, he wanted to make sure we got back safely! What a nice guy! I cleaned up, finished laundry and made lots of yummy food! We even made cookies! We took what we made down to Bill and Trixy’s, hung out and then got ready for bed. Well goodnight world!
The fried plantains that we made for dinner tonight, they were delicious!
Cookies that we made for dessert, they turned out quite well for being cooked in a kettle using a stove top!
Alyssa you sure are becoming quite the cook, interesting what you can do with very little...:)I'm impressed!
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