My first international African travel
* Late night Dec 25
+ Liz and I worked the night shift Christmas day.
* Late start – naturally we left a lot later than planned
+ 8 am
* HIPPOS!!!! We got to see them before the new year which was our goal.
* Hospital truck to Kelo
* Beaucoup packages at the post office!! – 3 for me
* Van/Bus/trash of metal to Tchadian boarder
+ Climb in the can and we’re the first row that faces EVERYONE!
+ Fun kids begging for money, so I put my hand out for money and they gave me a coin so I plunk it down into their bowl. Goes on for awhile.
+ Liz realizes our door is not a door because a door can close and stay with out a rope holing it to the rest of the vehicle.
+ I think our car wanted to be able to go faster so it stripped all extra fabric and cushions out to help the speed.
+ We start to leave but our contraption doesn’t go. So they start to push, including those kids who were asking for money. That didn’t work so they get us four westerners out so they can do something mechanical under our seat and Voila! It roars to life and we dash back in and squish together for our hour ride.
+ Liz has a great view from the non existent door until a man climbs on and holds on.
+ Liz looks out after a few min and realizes the man has disappeared! We found out a bit later a foot with a flip flop dangling from the roof. A better seat up there I guess.
* Arrive with out incident to Bangor
* Get motos to take us to the frontier of Cameroon
* Stop at police to register leaving
+ Only pay 1000 CFA – 2$ to get our “visa” – praise God!
* Get to frontier Hans is harassed as being an American spy by Tchadian drunk Arab. Then they took him into a grass tent for talking too. They came to an agreement, after about 30 min, that he’s not a spy but then the man wants each of us girls to come in one at a time with our passports to document them and Hans says, “No, they’re under my care and just like for the Muslims the man takes care of the women I’m taking care of them and they won’t come in at all, I’m in charge”.
* We decided we were all Muslim and Hans was our husband. We’re his 3 wives :0) Our protector. God saved us from having to pay more money – money that we don’t have.
* Cross river in a canoe
* Enter Cameroon!!!!!!!
* Right away we see a difference. There is electricity, nice cars and all sorts of stuff!
* Taxi to town of Yagoua
* We get to a bus station that can take us to Maroa. We wait and we wait. WE arrived at 4ish and it’s scheduled to leave at 6. So we wait.
+ While waiting power comes on and we realize we can read at night!
+ We wait some more, eat snacks we brought with us, take a stroll and saw a Texaco then we wait some more.
+ Hear a Muslim prayer call and laugh a whole bunch—what a strange group we are :o)
* 7pmis the bus arrives. It’s a nice bus with lots of space to sit.
* 3hr ride to Maroa, lots of electricity and electric poles.
* 11pm Yaya, a Muslim friend of Dr Greg Shank, meets us in Maroa and takes us to a Baptist Mission. The mission has given our reserved room to someone else and they want to charge us 15,000 CFA for the night for a house – we are only going to be sleeping 6 hours so we say we’d rather sleep on the ground outside than pay 30 US dollars for just a few hours in a bed. Yaya graciously offers us his floor to sleep on even though he doesn’t have anything more than a floor mat to sleep on. We jump at the opportunity.
+ The room looks like a ballroom. It’s a big room with out any furniture and has a hanging chandler with only one bulb.
* Awake to prayer calls at 5ish so we pack up to get on the 7 am bus to Mokolo. Please note that we left EARLY – in Africa!!!!
* Arrive in Mokolo and get moto’s to drive us over the mountains to Koza!
+ Fun ride, lots of rocks and holes to avoid and hills to coast down.
* Arrive 9:30 am safe and sound!!!
+ Liz and I worked the night shift Christmas day.
* Late start – naturally we left a lot later than planned
+ 8 am
* HIPPOS!!!! We got to see them before the new year which was our goal.
* Hospital truck to Kelo
* Beaucoup packages at the post office!! – 3 for me
* Van/Bus/trash of metal to Tchadian boarder
+ Climb in the can and we’re the first row that faces EVERYONE!
+ Fun kids begging for money, so I put my hand out for money and they gave me a coin so I plunk it down into their bowl. Goes on for awhile.
+ Liz realizes our door is not a door because a door can close and stay with out a rope holing it to the rest of the vehicle.
+ I think our car wanted to be able to go faster so it stripped all extra fabric and cushions out to help the speed.
+ We start to leave but our contraption doesn’t go. So they start to push, including those kids who were asking for money. That didn’t work so they get us four westerners out so they can do something mechanical under our seat and Voila! It roars to life and we dash back in and squish together for our hour ride.
+ Liz has a great view from the non existent door until a man climbs on and holds on.
+ Liz looks out after a few min and realizes the man has disappeared! We found out a bit later a foot with a flip flop dangling from the roof. A better seat up there I guess.
* Arrive with out incident to Bangor
* Get motos to take us to the frontier of Cameroon
* Stop at police to register leaving
+ Only pay 1000 CFA – 2$ to get our “visa” – praise God!
* Get to frontier Hans is harassed as being an American spy by Tchadian drunk Arab. Then they took him into a grass tent for talking too. They came to an agreement, after about 30 min, that he’s not a spy but then the man wants each of us girls to come in one at a time with our passports to document them and Hans says, “No, they’re under my care and just like for the Muslims the man takes care of the women I’m taking care of them and they won’t come in at all, I’m in charge”.
* We decided we were all Muslim and Hans was our husband. We’re his 3 wives :0) Our protector. God saved us from having to pay more money – money that we don’t have.
* Cross river in a canoe
* Enter Cameroon!!!!!!!
* Right away we see a difference. There is electricity, nice cars and all sorts of stuff!
* Taxi to town of Yagoua
* We get to a bus station that can take us to Maroa. We wait and we wait. WE arrived at 4ish and it’s scheduled to leave at 6. So we wait.
+ While waiting power comes on and we realize we can read at night!
+ We wait some more, eat snacks we brought with us, take a stroll and saw a Texaco then we wait some more.
+ Hear a Muslim prayer call and laugh a whole bunch—what a strange group we are :o)
* 7pmis the bus arrives. It’s a nice bus with lots of space to sit.
* 3hr ride to Maroa, lots of electricity and electric poles.
* 11pm Yaya, a Muslim friend of Dr Greg Shank, meets us in Maroa and takes us to a Baptist Mission. The mission has given our reserved room to someone else and they want to charge us 15,000 CFA for the night for a house – we are only going to be sleeping 6 hours so we say we’d rather sleep on the ground outside than pay 30 US dollars for just a few hours in a bed. Yaya graciously offers us his floor to sleep on even though he doesn’t have anything more than a floor mat to sleep on. We jump at the opportunity.
+ The room looks like a ballroom. It’s a big room with out any furniture and has a hanging chandler with only one bulb.
* Awake to prayer calls at 5ish so we pack up to get on the 7 am bus to Mokolo. Please note that we left EARLY – in Africa!!!!
* Arrive in Mokolo and get moto’s to drive us over the mountains to Koza!
+ Fun ride, lots of rocks and holes to avoid and hills to coast down.
* Arrive 9:30 am safe and sound!!!
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