SHERRY IN CAMEROON...: Patience Express... to the extreme!

Muddy adventures... ready to push?

So, last weekend, a bunch of us vso volunteers headed up to the village of Kumbo. Unfortunately, the rain and mud, kinda put a downer on the whole “travel” experience. I think the photos tell the story.

The way there wasn’t soooo bad. We were packed into a mini-bus as per usual, nice and squishy, no one really all that comfortable. We slowly made our way through the bumps and the mud and due to another collapsed bridge, we had to take a detour, through some rough and muddy territory. Got out to push the bus through the mud a few times, but eventually made it to Kumbo. Whew.

The return trip however, was slightly different, you see... that detour got rained on for three whole days and became mud soup, so all buses had to go to the bridge. Let me first say that the bus itself should not have been on the road. We had to change tires, and I was on the sliding door seat and the door did not stay shut... I had to keep slamming it shut every ten minutes! I thought I was going to fall out of a moving bus (into the mud!). Nothing in that bus looked healthy I really thought it would just crumble to pieces at any moment. But anyway, amazingly, it got us to the bridge, where we had to unload, cross over on foot, and climb into another bus.

Except, there was no other bus! Only cars! They said: we’ll just put seven people in each car. (Apparently children, like real ten-year-old children, do not count as people!!!!) After waiting a couple hours to get organized, we were shown to our car. And so, can you believe, five vso volunteers, two Cameroonian women with their three children and all their worldly possessions (yes, that’s right folks, these people were moving and had a bed, kitchen, luggage, everything they owned with them), and then the driver of course, all fit into a two-door little Toyota for the two-hour drive to Bamenda???? Yup, you see, two of my vso colleagues in the back with the two ladies and their three children, another two in the passenger seat in the front... but wait a minute, where will I sit? With the driver? Yup! Unless I wanted to be strapped to the back or the roof with all the luggage and bed frame and dishes, I sat with the driver... who was driving a stick shift!!!! On the plus side, I think I was the most comfortable passenger!

Don’t think I’ll be travelling again anytime soon.