Mom and Mike Visit Cameroon: Part 5 -- American Family, meet Cameroonian Family

Having my family visit Akono was no doubt an incredibly special opportunity for all of us.  This evening, my mom and I were talking about how it wasn't so much of a "touristy vacation", but rather an "experience".  More important than any sites to be seen in Cameroon, Mom and Mike got to get a taste of what my life is like here and meet the people that they hear about all the time on the phone or when we Skype.

Our first day, Carole and Michael invited us over for lunch.  Carole has been my best friend in Akono since my first week here, and Mom and Mike quickly learned why.  Her family – Carole, Michael, and their three children – are not just incredibly kind and hospitable, but they are full of life.  Not only do they have hearts of gold, but they are full of laughter and love, and are always looking to have a good time.  The minute they opened the door, they gave Mom and Mike big bear hugs, totally thrilled to meet people that up until that moment, were simply names and ideas of people that existed in my American life.

Carole prepared a big feast for my family: spaghetti omelets, koki, salad, bananas, papaya -- I don’t remember what else, but I'm sure there was more.  Then Mom, Carole, and the two Michaels sat on the couch together flipping through old photo albums.  While Carole doesn’t speak English, Michael is Anglophone, so between he and I, everyone was able to get along and communicate just fine.

We spent a lot of time with them.  The kids took a huge liking to “Uncle Mike”, constantly jumping on him, driving Hot-Wheels cars across his face, and borrowing his watch.  

One night, Carole and Michael came over around dinnertime while Mom and Mike and I were playing cards, so I whipped up some pesto pasta (they were astonished to learn that I knew how to cook) and we spent the night drinking wine, playing Uno, and discussing development and education.

Carole came along with us for evening walks, taught my mom how to make a local dish (fish with black sauce), and even accompanied us for a trip to Mbalmayo to go on a canoe trip through the forest.  

On my family's last day in Akono, Carole prepared a final lunch for us to eat together, and they presented Mom and Mike each with a traditional Cameroonian outfit.  

It was fun to share Carole and Michael with my family, and vice versa.  Now my Cameroonian family knows a piece of my real family.  Finally they can put faces to the names.  And more importantly, I think my mom was happy to learn that I truly am surrounded by wonderful people here in Akono – people that are not only fun to be around, but who protect me and look out for me, and will treat me like family.

Of course they also met other key people in my life here – we had a brief encounter with my counterpart Madame Manga, shared a beer with Madame Obama, spent time at my good friend Patience’s bar, met Mama Sofie and her exuberant and kind family that owns the main boutique in town, bought bean sandwiches from Mama Melanie and plantain chips from my neighbor Marie.  With just a week’s visit, my world here in Akono was transformed from simple stories to real people and places. Now my Mom will have a understanding of what I mean when I say things like “today I was hanging out with Patience…” These people and places that exist in my Peace Corps life are real to her now as well, and to me, that is invaluable. 

Mom and Mike Visit Cameroon: Part 4 -- Mike’s Favorite Day (From Limbe to Yaounde)

I might be the only Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon who loves (not even just “likes”, or “doesn’t dislike”, but actually “enjoys”) public transportation in Cameroon.  There’s always so much to see outside the window and there’s always a chance to meet interesting people.  I never find it particularly uncomfortable, and I enjoy just listening to music and spacing out.

I pampered Mom and Mike for their first few days in Cameroon.  We started by "depo-ing" taxis (meaning to rent the whole taxi rather than squish in with x number of strangers picked up along the way).  We even took the train to Douala followed by a car to Buea, rather than the direct bus ride from Yaounde to Buea.  Talk about spoiled brats!  But honestly, it felt great to be luxurious and put us all at ease. (Plus the train gave us free chocolate croissants, so that was pretty awesome).

After Limbe however, the gloves came off.  It was time for the bus ride from Limbe to Yaounde – typically a 6 hour ride. There was really no other choice.  It was squish in this bus, or stay at this fabulous beach forever.

Sometimes, we get lucky – the bus is new, there’s air conditioning, the trip goes pretty fast.  This particular day was not one of those lucky ones: we got the oldest, slowest bus on the planet.  This bus was chugging along at a snails pace, as all the other cars and buses breezed past.  On top of that, the seats were particularly cramped.  This is never an issue for me – I am physically uncomfortable with too much legroom and would rather be squished and constricted to small places. (Call me weird, or whatever.  Ain't like I haven't heard it before!)  My brother – a rather tall dude whose legs were sore from hiking the tallest mountain in West Africa – was less than pleased with the seating arrangements.

He was also less than pleased with the extreme heat and humidity in the bus – actually, pretty much every Cameroonian passenger was also complaining about how much of a sweat-box it was.  Not only was there no air-conditioning, but none of the windows opened.  The only airflow in the bus came from the rooftop emergency exits and from the door, which kept slamming shut.  Luckily during our stop in Douala, the sweatiest city in the world, a man sitting next to me came back onto the bus with ice cream.  I asked him where he bought it, and instead of just showing me, he treated us each a refreshing cone.

Physical discomfort on the bus rides not only comes in the form of lack of legroom and ultra-sweatiness, but also from the lack of bathroom breaks.  I felt like a parent, warning Mom and Mike that they were not allowed to consume to many liquids, and they should be wary of things that might give them rumbly tummies – you never know how long the driver will go before stopping for a bathroom break, if he even stops at all.  Fortunately for me, I’ve had years of training for this.  Summer vacations with my Uncle Ron have trained me to endure 10 hours in a car without peeing.  (Thanks Uncle Ron!  I knew this would come in handy someday!)  It takes a delicate balance of hydrating yourself enough to make up for the liters of sweat pouring out of you, while staying dehydrated enough to not need a pit stop – a delicate balance, indeed.

All physical discomforts aside, Mom was quite enthralled by the on-bus live entertainment.  The ride started out with a pastor coming on to sing some prayers and pray for a safe journey.  Now, I’m kind of fuzzy on the details, and I’m sure if you talk to my mother, she’ll either set me straight or give you a completely different hyperbolized version of the story, but I think the pastor finished up the prayers and started selling cookies?  I’m not quite sure how the logistics were.  All I know is that he was selling multiple brands, and we got free samples.  Once he left, a few other salesmen popped in and out along the journey, selling everything from medications, toothbrushes, candies, and deals at a hotel in Yaounde.  Most of them advertised loudly and steadily for at least a solid half hour.  I, like my mother, usually find this quite entertaining.  Towards the end of the ride, most of the passengers around us were telling the salesmen to just shut their mouths. When I get tired of it, I just turn my iPod up at full blast to drown out their sales pitches, but for the most part, these live infomercials continue to be an amusing aspect of public transportation here in Cameroon.

We arrived in Yaounde around 6PM – two hours later than scheduled.  It was an 8-hour bus ride (and I have to admit, it was not the easiest trip), the sun was setting, and we still had another hour-long trip to get to Akono.

We lugged all seven bags (three of which were filled with candies and treats) down to the car park, and loaded ourselves into a crowded van.  We were the last passengers on the van, so we were unable to sit together – Mom and Mike near the back, and myself sharing the passenger seat with a woman named Rosalie (who later turned out to become a very wonderful friend and work partner and is actually on her way to visit as I type.)

By the time we arrived in Akono, we were the last passengers in the van, so the driver was kind enough to drive us directly to my house.  At long last, we were able to shower, pee, relax, and eat some delicious mac & cheese.

It was a tough day for my visitors, but I think it taught us all a valuable lesson: if Mike ever moves to Cameroon, he should definitely have his own car.

Mom and Mike Visit Cameroon: Part 3 -- Limbe fun times!

While hanging out in Limbe, we tried to split our time pretty equally between beach and town.  I was hesitant to book the hotel for three nights, rather than just two, knowing that Mom gets antsy and needs to have a jam-packed schedule (this turned out to be a very difficult obstacle for her to overcome during her two weeks in Cameroon, where things move at their own pace).  Nevertheless, once we got her in the water, she was quite at ease.  The three of us spent hours jumping over the waves, under the waves, through the waves.  Mike and I particularly enjoyed pretending to be sea-trash, floating wherever the water took us, log-rolling on the sand as the waves pushed us in and out.  I haven’t met any PCVs who I can comfortably have such stupid fun with, so being sea-trash was truly a special moment.

But the beach isn't the only highlight of Limbe, and neither is the Wildlife Center, despite my mother’s love for monkeys.

Each day when going into town, we would stand on the side of the road and wait for a car…essentially hitchhiking.  This is such a normal way for people to travel around here, that I’m sure I had never even mentioned it to anyone, even in a phone call.  Sure, sometimes we’d get picked up by a licensed cab and squish in alongside 3 large mamas in the backseat and another in the front (making for a total of 7 passengers), but occasionally we’d get picked up by a random man just willing to do us a favor.

Once we got to down, our main destination was typically Down Beach.  This is where Mom and Mike ate their first “poisson braissé" – grilled fish, eaten whole, and eaten with your hands. (Never a fan of fish, I sought out beans and rice nearby).  We ate at a table on the beach, sipping beers, and occasionally bargaining with the salesmen who came by offering CDs, souvenirs, and other snacks.

Mom particularly had fun at the market.  We were on a mission to buy pagne – traditional African printed fabric.  As we popped in from one boutique to another, I think my family was both shocked and amused by my ruthless bargaining.  No matter the price, I will always try to get it lower.  (Much to my dismay, we got no great deals, and no free gifts.  But at least we had some laughs).

Walking along in the market, Mom would say, “what’s that woman cooking?”  Kosai!  White bean beignets!  Basically ground-up white beans that are then deep-fried, they taste chicken nuggets.  Being high in calories, they are very popular in the Muslim community during Ramadan, and were a staple dinner for me last June (thank goodness for running and for skirts with stretch waistbands).  I excitedly bought three for us to share as we continued to roam the market.

And that was Limbe!  Lots of swimming, monkeys, fish, bargaining, beer, wine, and card playing.  Not a bad time at all!

Mom and Mike Visit Cameroon: Part 2 (finally!)

I haven’t blogged in a while, partly because I’m content and comfortable and at the end of the day I want nothing more than to settle down with my sketchbook or a good read, and partly because I feel that I cant write anything until I write the several episodes of “Mom and Mike Visit Cameroon”.  Yet I can’t seem to write about that either, because while it was incredibly special to have them here, they were just seeing what I see every day, experiencing “my normal” – and how does one write about “normal”?

Sure, we hiked Mount Cameroon.  That was a blast.  But mountains are mountains – you’ve all hiked them, or heard or read tales of people hiking them.  This was no different (aside from the fact that it started pouring rain halfway up, our clothes got soaked through, and at the summit we were stuck in a cloud so thick that my camera lens could hardly make out an object 4 feet away).  We did enjoy camping in tents, listening to our porters banter in Pidgin English and joking around with remixes of children’s songs (Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes – with a twist!).  I enjoyed waking up Mike in the morning first-day-of-school style, and our fellow hiker, Annelise, never complained about the racket in the tent next door.

But that’s a mountain.  And then after that, we went to a beach.  Typical tourism, typical life, ya know?

So what is there to write about?  While climbing to the highest point in West/Central Africa and playing in the waves in Limbe were no doubt exciting adventures, the best part of Mom and Mike’s visit to Cameroon (in my opinion), was having them experience what I experience on a daily basis: negotiating at the market, buying random street food just because it looks interesting, *super comfy* transportation, chitchat with complete strangers, constant marriage proposals, breakfast beers, hanging out with friends in village, etc.

These are the things that have become my “normal,” and consequently I probably don’t mention them very much in my blog.  But I guess now I’ll try to address them, so that the rest of you will have an idea of the experiences that I got to share with Mom and Mike.

And thus it continues – the adventures of Mom and Mike in Cameroon!