Posts
January 15, 2010
After a wonderful holiday... I returned… back to Cameroon for another few months. In many ways, it was as if I hadn’t left, though I did have a little perspective. Seriously, it felt like during the time I had spent in Cameroon before the holidays, nothing ever happened, but then I go away for a few weeks, come back, and boooooommmm... my favourite restaurant right across from my work moved (How could they?!?!?), all the okada (motor-bike drivers) were suddenly wearing proper fluorescent yellow vests with numbers on them, two buildings were built, my neighbour got a hair cut, the container city was being ripped up (literally overnight, a new law was passed that said no containers could be in Bamenda, so the hundreds of containers that lined the streets and markets with shops and hair-salons and pubs were quickly demolished, garbage and destruction everywhere… Bamenda never looked the same!) and finally, the entire city was now covered in a film of brown dust! There was so much dust in the air, it hurt the lungs, the eyes, the smelly feet. Wow,. my house was all closed up, but you won’t believe how quickly the dust was able to sneak in and settle and even how quickly the cobwebs took over. It was quite a mess. And, I still had to wipe the dust off everything each day.
After a wonderful holiday... I returned… back to Cameroon for another few months. In many ways, it was as if I hadn’t left, though I did have a little perspective. Seriously, it felt like during the time I had spent in Cameroon before the holidays, nothing ever happened, but then I go away for a few weeks, come back, and boooooommmm... my favourite restaurant right across from my work moved (How could they?!?!?), all the okada (motor-bike drivers) were suddenly wearing proper fluorescent yellow vests with numbers on them, two buildings were built, my neighbour got a hair cut, the container city was being ripped up (literally overnight, a new law was passed that said no containers could be in Bamenda, so the hundreds of containers that lined the streets and markets with shops and hair-salons and pubs were quickly demolished, garbage and destruction everywhere… Bamenda never looked the same!) and finally, the entire city was now covered in a film of brown dust! There was so much dust in the air, it hurt the lungs, the eyes, the smelly feet. Wow,. my house was all closed up, but you won’t believe how quickly the dust was able to sneak in and settle and even how quickly the cobwebs took over. It was quite a mess. And, I still had to wipe the dust off everything each day.
The first few days back in my house were pretty busy, had to fix the electricity and water, get a new gas bottle, and clean up the dust... and pay the bills... funny there should be so much to “fix” when they hadn’t been used in a while???? My neighbour was adamant I was gone for at least two months... it was just too long he said. Anyway, back to the old rhythm, with mixed emotion… strange how that happens.
These are just a few pics from a hike I took to the local Dam with friends, Karly, Marcy, and Divine.
