October 2009

The southwest province provincial meeting was scheduled for late October. I was excited to go, and have a break. I haven’t traveled anywhere in a long time. The roads around mamfe are horrible from so much rain, so vehicles aren’t leaving from mamfe. I had to take a motorcycle. I woke up at 330am to leave around 4am on my bike. It was pitch black out when I left, which was strange. A dirt road in the dark is weird when it is dark. I literally couldn’t see anything. Luckily I had a really good rider. A while down the road, I met up with other volunteers, so we could convoy. Parts of the road were absolutely terrible. At one point, we had to get off the bikes and trek through the bush, so our bike men could carry the bikes above the chest high water. It was bad. I was soaking wet and muddy by the time we reached Nguti, the halfway point. From there, we wanted to take a vehicle, but the road was too bad, so I had to hire another bike. I rode on the first bike for about 7 hours, then the second for another 2 hours. My behind was killing me by the time we arrived in konye. From there, we could take a vehicle, but we had to wait over an hour. Finally we arrived in kumba, then took another vehicle to buea, our destination. I was staying at jessamyn’s house (another pcv). She was having a party, so I ate really great homemade Indian food, and crashed early – about 9pm.

The next day, I traveled to douala for a few hours. I went to the marche de fleur, an artisan market, which had some really great crafts. I bought a few things, but not too much. We had Mediterranean food for lunch (which was delicious) and headed back to buea. The other volunteers had arrived, so we had our meeting and had dinner.

Following this, I traveled to Limbe for the day. There is a tailor there that makes custom made suits, so I got one made. Im not a big suit-wearer, but im sure it will come in handy when I get home. Of course, I stopped in at the beach, ,and visited one that I have never been to before, Etisah. It was nice, but I prefer my usual beach. After, we all went to down beach for fresh calamari (its to die for, and at $1 a stick, you cant go wrong). This calamari is amazing. Instead of cutting it horizontally and making rings, like we do, the cut it vertically so you have strips. Then, the put the strips on a stick, like a shish kebab and grill it. Its the most amazing thing ive ever eaten. This was only an appetizer, and later we ate grilled fish.

I ended up going to limbe again. My body was tired from the moto trip, and I couldn’t bear to do it again so soon. I went to the old beach, which is really nice. It was a crappy day, and started raining, but the water was so warm. It was really fun, bc the waves were really choppy. Its fun to act like a kid and play in the waves. Sadly, I almost lost my glasses in the ocean (again). I ‘m lucky though, I haven’t lost them yet. After the beach, we ate a double cheeseburger dinner. I don’t really miss cheeseburgers, until I eat one from hot spot. Eating it, reminds me what im missing.

I made a major purchase in buea. There is this new thing out; a USB key that has wireless internet. Its brand new here, and expensive, but I was so tired of not being able to keep in touch with anyone. We rarely have internet in mamfe, so now its really nice for me to have in the house.

When I returned to mamfe, I had to take a bike again. It wasn’t quite as tiring this time, but it was muddier and we got rained on. It really sucked arriving wet, muddy, and not having any light or running water. This week marked the 3 week of no light/water in mamfe. Not cool. But anyway, I was glad to return home to mamfe and rest.