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May 20, 2009
20 May 2009 – Bamenda – Cameroon National Day!
Happy National Day! Today Cameroon celebrates the Anglophone and Francophone sections coming together to form the wonderful nation that now exists. But they really celebrate by taking three days off work.
Charlie, Ryan, and Carson met us at the clinic before we departed for the march down Commercial Avenue. Ryan and Carson (other VSO volunteers) avidly checked their e-mail on the clinics computers because they live and work in villages with no Internet connection (ah! I couldn’t do it).
We went down to Commercial Avenue, but were too late to get seats in the grandstands. Our view was slightly compromised, but we could still see most of the action. The ceremony began and there was a great deal of talking and one guy who was yelling (I have no idea what he was saying….just kind of screaming). Then, the divisions of military and police marched by us. Everyone in the grandstands hooted and hollered for their marching, but everyone on the street (including us) was not applauding. Apparently standing in the hot sun makes you exempt from cheering. I was really impressed that there was a marching band! Needless to say, they sounded….well…let’s just say I’m glad that we don’t sound like that.
After the forces marched, all of the children in the local schools (including technical colleges) marched – there were TONS of kids; followed by the political parties in the area (we found out later that there are roughly 228 political parties in Cameroon – wow!). For this portion of the parade, we went to a restaurant and sat on their balcony to watch (out of the sun!). Unfortunately, some VSO volunteers who were at the restaurant before us got their cameras, money, and ID’s stolen by a man claiming to be in the military. He told them they were taking pictures of the march because they were spies and confiscated their items. Thankfully, we didn’t take out our cameras so Jane and I were safe. Despite help from real police and the restaurant manager, I don’t think they’ll be seeing their things again.
We proceeded to lunch, made short calls home, and then went on to the Yaba Hotel. Here, Ryan, Charlie, Jane, and I sat by the pool and enjoyed the relaxing environment. We kept moving to Gerard’s bar (I’ll reiterate that Gerard is outstanding), where we met his 7-week old daughter who is “100% Cameroonian.” I tried Castel beer (still not as good as Mützig, but not bad). The four of us also tried “Pepe soup,” which contains goat, plantains and lots of pepe (very hot spice) – it was pretty good! We continued further to Thermometre for a dinner of grilled fish (probably Jane’s favorite Cameroonian dish).
The power keeps going in and out – very frustrating. Right now all of our power is out, but for some reason, the outlet in which my laptop is plugged is working, so I guess I can’t complain too much.
Power outages: 14
Posted by ajvandeu at May 20, 2009 02:36 PM