Our last day in Cameroon. Our plane leaves at 10:45 tonight from Duoala. The electrical power is off when we got up. But since it was about 7:30 it was quite light outside. No electricity did not affect the hot water though….there isn’t any hot water anyway. We’ve had cold showers every day we’ve been in Njombe. Thankfully it did come back on before it was time to eat breakfast. Johnnie said the power went off once in the middle of the night, came back on and then went off again early this morning. She was aware of that because she woke up in the middle of the night and heard scurrying sounds in her room. She thinks it was one of the little lizards but didn’t want to get up and turn on the light in case it was right there on the floor. When the air conditioner came back on she said something flew out of the vent onto her bed. Again she didn’t know what it was but flipped the covers to throw whatever it was onto the floor then she pulled the sheet over her head. She didn’t hear the scurrying any longer so figured the lizard went out under the door into the hall.
Breakfast was bread and omelet again…for me. Just bread for Sam and Johnnie had fresh pineapple and some bread. The team was already at our hotel but left just about the time we went to breakfast. Normally they eat much earlier but because of the power outage their breakfast time was delayed. After breakfast Sam took off for town center again so he could get the photos of Godwill and Rachel printed that he had taken with us yesterday. The team saw him in the town as where they were eating was right next to the photo store. They commented on how easily he went about town. It’s only about 2 blocks big. More like a town square and is about 1 block from our hotel. He was back fairly quickly with the prints and as soon as the team came back we gave them to them.
Cyrille wanted a time with all of us so we all went out and sat in the garden. We took pictures of everyone and many of the JF team members were asking us to send them copies. We will either have to send them to Cyrille by computer or print them out and mail an envelope to Cyrille sometime after we get home. We had a time of giving thanks and then a time of prayer. It was nearly noon time by the time we were finished so Cyrille told us we need to get some lunch and then get ready to leave. He said we should be ready to go by 1:30. Lunch was our usual of chicken and steak with rice and plantains. We had a tomato and onion salad first and the sliced pineapple for dessert. We couldn’t finish the pineapple, in fact most of it was left, (such a shame to not be able to eat such a good thing!) so Johnnie took all that was left out to our team who were sitting in the garden. Right after lunch Cyrille met with Sam & I in our room to go over the expenses for the last week and a half. It is all on his phone so he will email us and the JF a copy. He did give us the paper receipts.
Then we got all the suitcases and JF backpack out to the garden and on over to the street. All the team members are also going on back to their respective homes except for Rachel. She’ll be going out to Boubou on some business for at least the next day or two. Several buses came by and stopped but not all were going the way we were. One came by that had live goats sitting up on top! Finally a bus stopped that was going to Duoala. The driver and Humphrey agreed on a price and our luggage was loaded on. We said our goodbyes to Rachel. I didn’t see Godwill anywhere. I don’t know for sure when he left. The rest of the team are riding with us. This bus was much less crowded thankfully. On the way into Duoala we saw a bus with what looked like large pig carcases on top of it. The ride into the edge of Duoala took just over one hour. Just on the edge of town where we changed buses on Tuesday Abraham and Gabriel got off to go on their way to Buea. Cyrille and Humphrey stayed with us. Our plans are to go to a location where there is some shopping and then we’ll head to the airport planning to be there by 7:30 p.m.
The traffic going into Duoala was ridiculous! It is a paved two lane road but no one pays attention to that. If you can go around someone to try to get further ahead on the road then you just take off around the vehicle in front of you. It doesn’t matter if it is on the right or left of that vehicle. If you pull over to the right of that vehicle you just make a new lane or two or three, inching or speeding along until you can force your way back into the original lane. If you go on the left side of the vehicle in front of you that’s ok also. The oncoming cars, trucks, etc will move over making their own new lanes off to the side….through mudpits, on areas where all the shoppers are standing or selling things, etc. To top it off the hundreds of motorbikes are weaving in and out and around trying to find their way to the front. It’s like a big game of chicken…..and everyone is positive nobody is going to get in front of them while the other driver is positive that yes, he is going to force his way into the lane. We did pass that bus that had the pig carcasses on it. The pigs were still alive! It was nearly 5 p.m when we finally got to where the end of the line was for this particular bus. All stop and go traffic with more stop than go for miles. Then we had to unload everything while Humphrey went and negotiated for a taxi to take us the rest of the way to the airport. We’ll have to forgo the shopping experience.
It was a 5 passenger taxi but we got all six of us in with tall Humphrey sitting on a pillow between the driver and Cyrille. Once we were finally able to inch our way out onto the road this driver was able to find a fairly free flowing route to the airport and it only took us about an hour to get there. Cyrille and Humphrey got out of the taxi also as they will have to find another driver to take them on to their towns. Here we said our goodbyes. The airport porter took our luggage on a cart up to the inside of the airport. He tried to take us on over to the check in area but we saw a large area of the terminal where there were several small booths of souvenirs. We asked to porter to push our luggage to that area and we instantly bombarded with people trying to sell things. All of us did buy a few things and then the porter urged us to move on to the check in counter. He couldn’t to through the door to that area of the airport so we thanked him and took the luggage cart on it to get our luggage checked onto the plane. Then through all the process to get us into the departure area of the airport where there were a few small shops. We finished up our shopping in this area. We are early….it’s still a couple hours until time to board but that’s much better than being late and missing the plane.
There was a very small shopping area where we bought the rest of the souvenirs we wanted to get and then we found our gate. So far we haven’t gone through any type of security check but apparently that happens when one goes through into the waiting area. We also just found out we can’t take the drinks we had just purchased into the waiting area since one has to go through security. The guard to the entrance of security agreed to keep Sam’s drinks at his counter because one can go in and out of the secured waiting area. Sam has medications to take this evening before boarding the plane so he will have to go out at least once. Johnnie and I decided to drink our whole bottles down and not waste it. Not too hard to do as we are both very thirsty after that long, long hot, dusty bus ride where we probably sweated off all our stored fluids! Security barely looked through Sam’s carry on bag but went completely through mine looking at everything in detail. They then opened up my manicure set, which is legal to take on planes as per TSA rules but decided the nail file was forbidden, then the cuticle tool because it could be used as a weapon, then the embroidery scissors, then every piece of the set except the nail clippers. They handed me back the case with one the nail clippers in it. I gave it back to them and told them if they wanted it that bad they could just have the whole thing. Not only did I get frustrated with that but everything they pulled out of both my purse and my carryon they just stuffed back in randomly to where neither could even be zipped closed. But, oh well..take a deep breath! It was now about 7:30 and we just have three hours to wait until time to leave.
Finally boarded the plane about 9:45. No organized boarding line either. Just everyone cramming up to the door trying to edge their way in. Well, why should I expect differently….it just like driving on the roads. Now time to head on home. Not long after the plane took off they started food service. We were served a nice meal of beef tips, green beans and mashed potatoes. Then time to try to sleep for this overnight flight to Brussels.
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