But in all seriousness, that is what traveling in Cameroon is like - at least for a type-A, plan-ahead-every-tourist-site-and-meal traveller like me. If you have ever traveled with me (shout out to Laura Vossler who has dealt with it more than most of my travel buddies), you know exactly what I’m talking about. In the past, when I travelled to Amsterdam or to Athens, I have walking tours planned and museums scheduled; I can tell you which three foods we have to try; I know where we’re staying and how we get there from the airport and how much it will cost. I’m not psycho, I swear; it just makes me feel comfortable and relaxed to have a plan.
In Cameroon, you don’t have a plan. You have a destination, and you figure it out along the way. At every step of the trip, I wonder how we’re going to manage the next one. And yet, miracle of miracles… it always just works out. You can’t anticipate how, or when, or why. It make take twice as long as you anticipated, or cost a little more. Yet somehow, IT JUST HAPPENS!
Let me explain.
PCVolunteers are organized in “clusters” which put different sectors (Youth Development, Health, Agriculture/Environment, Community Enterprise Development, Education) close together so that we can work together if applicable. My cluster mate, Justin, invited all the new additions to the cluster, to visit Dschang (pronounced “chong”) and spend the night with him in his village Fongo Tongo (another awesome Cameroonian place name) so we could all meet.
Danielle and I were excited about visiting new places and new people, so yesterday morning (Tuesday, November 26th), we set off with only a vague idea of how to get to Dschang and what would happen when we got there. We planned to meet at Baneghang, which is the intersection on the main road below our two towns. Or so we thought. We ended up waiting for each other at two different Baneghangs (I still don’t get it) before figuring out what was going on. Then we just started walking towards each other on the main road with no idea of how far apart we were and with no real certainty that we were going the right direction… and miraculously found each other less than five minutes later.
We went back to an intersection to wave down a travel agency vehicle on the road from Bafoussam to Dschang. None would pick us up. What were we going to do if we couldn’t find someone to take us?
Luckily, an enterprising “taxi brousse” (bush taxi) driver convinced us to take his taxi to Balessing, the closest main crossroads. So we hopped on and rode over there, to find an agency van with exactly two spots open and ready to leave for Dschang. We hopped on and only 30 minutes later we spotted a sign announcing “Bienvenue a Dschang!” (Welcome to Dschang!).
We made it! But… now what? Where should we get off in this city? What should we do? Perhaps most importantly, where should we eat? We just decided to hop off at a sign marked Centre Climatique… and found the pool! A real swimming pool, chlorinated and everything! Since Dschang is at a fairly high elevation, it was cool and we had no interest in swimming, but it’s still comforting to know. Instead, we just grabbed a moto and said one of the few things we knew existed in Dschang from talking to Justin: “marché artisiant!” (artisan’s market!). After being deposited there by the friendly moto-man, we discovered that the University lies right up the hill and a great café distinctively decorated with red Coca-Cola tables and chairs borders the marché artisinat, which boasts absurdly high prices for some awesome traditional art, masks, and other goodies. And it was all uphill (both figuratively and literally) from there.
All in all, I had a great time in Dschang and Fongo Tongo with Justin and my other cluster-mates and some German volunteers. We subsequently made it home without much bother. And soon Danielle and I will be stretching our wings again for a trip to Bafang in order to celebrate our take on one of the best American excuses to eat and make merry: “Bafang-sgiving!”
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