Douala to Bamenda

Trip from Douala to Bamenda:

Chocolate for the Road:

When we were on the outskirts of Bamenda, we made our first stop,  to gas up for the trip.  We paid.  After refueling, the driver took a container from under the seat and proceeded to ‘grease’ an area of each of the two front doors.  My jaw dropped when he began licking his fingers.  Chocolate!  Taxi drivers when in the city must display a registration number.  Travelling out to the country, he was turning into a chauffeur instead of a taxi.  Can you find the city licence covered with chocolate?

Police Stops:

We were probably stopped a total of 10 times.  They put out a road block sometimes using a pile of tires on each side, sometimes a spike belt, sometimes a striped bar.  Our driver had papers for outside the city, different from papers in Douala. The police stops have different requests aimed at money.   At our first stop, our driver said, ‘No speak.’   The longest and most difficult was when our driver refused to pay money so the policeman had our driver unload all the luggage on to the road, then put it back.  The funniest was when the guard went on and on and finally Allan produced a Canadian pin.  After that all was fine.  The village stops are easier because our driver knew exactly how much money to hand them.  But, at most stops all kinds of people surround and follow the car selling bananas, ground nuts, bread, vegetables, plums, etc.  Our driver bought a big bunch of bananas for his family whom we were going to visit along the way. 

Visit to the drivers’ family:

So our driver had not seen his family for more than a year.  He is number 6 of a family of 10.  Just before we headed down the road that looked impassable, we picked up his sister who would show us the way.  And just before that, he asked us to pay him in full for the trip which he immediately handed over to his mother. Sixteen hours driving time for him in one day.  Fortunately we declined the invitation to visit.  The two smallest grandchildren had chicken pox!  Here is our driver with his sister, two nephews and his Mother.

Welcome to the Sorflatens’

We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted at the hotel by an enthusiastic group from IDF, all dressed in their new shirts.  Oussematou in her ball hat, Norbert the driver, Evodia from Wum, Evelyn from Kumbo and Oussematou’s neice from Bana.  The hotel lobby served as a great spot to meet, quiet with nice chairs.  Here we are with Oussematou and Rotarian Paul Yemele from Bafoussam who just happened by.

   

We had a rough settling in.  Hotel Ayaba has not been well maintained. This hotel is government owned and run.   The rooms they showed us all had problems, the biggest being non- functioning air conditioning.  We sweated out the night determined to resolve the situation or find new accommodation.  By the next evening, we had a room with most everything working.  Seems the hotel has new flat screen TVs in every room that don’t work well, new electronic locks on every door but sinks and bathroom counter fallen away from the wall, generally poor maintenance.  Our present room is good.  Allan used duck tape to try and direct spurting water from the shower wall attachment into the tub. Since then hose to the shower has been replaced, the leaking toilet fixed, etc.   The hotel is very secure and we are comfortable.  The food can be very good.  Some dishes are very salty. We love the fresh fruit morning and night (papaya, watermelon and pineapple).

February 11, 2014.

Oussematou gave us warning  us to come early to the IDF office as there would be big crowds celebrating National Youth Day.  Thousands of children including university students marched past for four hours, all from Bamenda.  Here’s how it looked from our office window once we had made it through the crowds.  Every school in full uniform!  The second picture is nurses in training.