The Journey Over

Off to Cameroon!! On May 24^th I left for the summer, and I will be followed by Sarah in a few weeks. After a tasty last lunch in the United States with my grandparents, my brother dropped me off at JFK around 4pm for the first leg of my journey. My flight to Casablanca was on Royal Air Maroc, though nothing about the airline struck me as particularly royal. I made friends with my seat-mate, Anniessa, and chatting with her helped pass the long time between take-off and our first airline meal. Anniessa’s dad was already in Casablanca and her grandparents live there, so she suggested I chat with her father to get some tips on where to go during my 14 hours in the city. Sleeping on the plane was only mildly successful, and I was thrilled when we finally landed at 7AM. After some confusion as to whether my baggage was actually checked all the way through, we made our next friend, Nate, who also had an all-day layover.

Cute kids and delicious snacks

Anniessa introduced us both to her dad, Rafiq, who works for the U.S. Army doing cultural sensitivity training. Her dad immediately offered to drive us in to the city, and take us to their grandparents house for tea and snacks. He was incredibly friendly, and seemed to know or chat with everyone in the airport and on the streets. The grandparent’s apartment was quite impressive, with a Moroccan-style sitting room in one half and a Western-style dining room on the other. They adopted an orphan recently, Oumnia, who was the sweetest thing and immediately came over to sit in my lap. Rafiq warned us ahead of time that grandpa is rather grumpy, and indeed after he greeted us hello he retreated to the rest of the house. Grandma proceeded to bring out juices, delicious fresh peppermint tea, cookies, and pancakes with honey, jam, and cheese to spread on them. Heavenly.

Rafiq had a quick dentist appointment that we all walked to, and then he took us on the bus downtown. He showed us around the medina (the marketplace) and warned us not to get lost, and showed us a central sculpture that he refers to as ‘the pimple of Casablanca’.

My New Friends with 'The Pimple'

Then he walked us to the train station where we needed to catch a train back to the airport that evening, and helped us buy tickets. Nate and I bid farewell to our wonderful tour guides around mid-day. We went to a café to relax, get out of the sun, and hydrate. Then made our way back in to the medina, where we wandered narrow alleys for a while, looking at all the goods for sale, getting harassed by salesman, and smelling all sorts of scents.

Small Arli, Giant Mosque

After the medina we headed over the Giant Mosque, which was true to its name. I wandered down a flight of steps to the side of the mosque into the women’s washroom, where women come to wash themselves before their five daily prayers. I met a nice girl who showed me around and explained that the Jews and the Muslims are like brother and sister here in Casablanca, they just want love and peace. We continued our cab ride to another marketplace, and unfortunately got a bit ripped off on the ride, but so it goes on your first day in another country. Then we high-tailed it back to the train station to catch a 5:30PM train back to the airport. By that time we were both having trouble keeping our eyes open to watch for our stop because we were so tired.

My flight from Casablanca to Douala, Cameroon left at 9:30PM, and I slept whenever the flight attendants were not bothering me for a meal until we landed at 3AM. I got a nice Cameroonian man to help me get a good exchange rate at the airport (450 Francs for $1), and crossed my fingers that there would be a taxi driver, Seraphin, with my name on a piece of paper when I exited the building, as arranged by my organization. He was indeed there, though we couldn’t communicate much because he spoke mostly French. We made it to the Baptist Mission at 4AM, where I had a reservation for the following night. However, the night guard did not have the key to the office, and so there was nowhere for me to wait inside. Seraphine decided we must wait in the taxi, as there were too many mosquitos outside. He reclined his seat and promptly fell asleep, while I lay awake sweating in the hot car and listening to the mosquitos enter the car through his open window. I was thrilled when the first signs of daylight peeked through the trees, and even more thrilled when people finally began to emerge from their rooms. I paid Seraphine extra before sending him off, and yes it would have been worth it to rent a room for my arrival night.

The mission served breakfast at 7AM, and after some tea and eggs I felt slightly more human, though still incredibly dirty. I made friends with a Canadian family that had just spent a month travelling in Cameroon. The father, Marvin, grew up as a missionary kid in Bamenda, and took his family there to show them the sights. He gave me plenty of tips on living in Bamenda and surviving Cameroon. I finally got a room around 11AM, and slept for an hour and a half before heading back to the airport in a taxi to meet my classmate Ashlyn. I had a communication failure while buying a SIM card to use for calls in Cameroon, and ended up spending much more than I wanted to and getting very frustrated, but it worked out fine and the credit on my phone should last a good while.

Ashlyn’s flight landed a bit late, and we fought our way out of the airport refusing offers to help us with bags or show us to a luxury taxi, and made it to a yellow taxi with a small crowd following us to ‘help’. Douala airport seems to have a bit of a reputation for being pushy. We hung around the mission for a while and checked communications, and then ventured out into the streets for supplies. We got fruit and pastries for the bus the next day, and ended up eating half of them for dinner because it started to get dark and we could not find a cheap place to eat. We lay down to read around 8PM and were sound asleep not long after.

Gospel entertainment on the bus

The next morning we caught a taxi to the bus station at 7AM, grabbed our bus tickets, and went to a little snack shop for breakfast. We both had our first spaghetti omelets, a popular dish here of spaghetti mixed with egg with tomato and other seasonings. I love it. We met a nice older white business man who told us lots about Cameroonians, and when we asked where he was from he replied ‘from earth’. The bus finally took off around 10:30AM, and almost immediately a woman stood up at the front and began to preach. She was a gospel singer, and got all of the bus singing and clapping along with her. After a lot of talk about Jesus, she moved on to talk about her new CD, which sold quite well amongst the passengers, then her soap, which miraculously removes all skin problems. We had another salesman come on later in the ride, and we bought his candies that help you piss out any impurities. Everybody on the bus loved those.

We had a bit of a mishap over the lunch stop, when our new Cameroonian friend had us sit down with him to eat grilled plantains and meat, and grilled sour plum. We were not aware that the break was a strict 15 minutes, and were just starting our bathroom trip when we spotted the rest of the bus filled with passengers and ready to take off! We got some glares as we rushed to our seats in the back of the bus. All things considered the bus ride was quite pleasant, not too bumpy and great scenery. We arrived safely in Bamenda¸ greeted by Roxana and James, our wonderful work colleagues and guides to how to survive life in Cameroon. Roxana and James are from Britain and have been working with ALL for Cameroon, the legal aid organization where we will be working.

Updates to come soon from my first few days in Bamenda and work at the legal aid organization!