Fête Nationale – Cameroonian Independence Day

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Independence Day here in Cameroon. They have a HUGE soccer match tomorrow with France and so most of the celebrations took place today. So- without an announcement on the radio or in the paper -- the date of the military celebrations was suddenly changed this morning to today.

The military base in located on the top of a hill overlooking the city -- they have been practicing fighter jet maneuvers all week. I've heard them, but have been stuck in the kitchen and so had not seen what all they were working on.

The fighter jets had some pretty cool maneuvers -- man, they go soooo fast!!!

At 3:00 PM - we climbed up on the water tower (sound familiar LML folks?) to watch the show. The Training Center where I work is actually located at the top of a pretty high hill, so by the time we were on top of the water tower -- we had an AMAZING view! In fact, I kept kicking myself that I hadn't lugged my camera up there because I have found a wonderful spot to get some good shots of the city (from afar).

. . . . Tuesday, I had to run into town with Jonas to buy some things for an unexpected party that came up - we nearly got stuck on the opposite side of town due to the soldiers practicing their marches. We rounded a corner just in time to see truckload upon truck load of soldiers driving up and unloading - we quickly circled around to try a different road and barely made it through before they closed the road for the rest of the day. . . . .

While they have TONS of foot soldiers -- their air force consists of 4 fighter jets, two helicopters, and two large cargo planes. The fighter jets had some pretty cool maneuvers -- man, they go soooo fast!!! We asked Jonas where the pilots train --these planes are all French, so he thought probably France. Apparently, last year, when the last pilot was landing, he didn't the runway quite right and the plane exploded. Jonas said that the announcer told the crowd not to worry, it was just an oil leak.

The fighter jets were followed by helicopter pilots circling around - very low .. . in fact, we were worried about the telephone cables.

And then - the parachuters. These poor guys . . . . they drop about 40 of them at a time and we watched as they all (for the most part) landed in the HUGE trees that cover the surrounding hills leading up to the airport. The paratroopers are held in pretty high esteem here and now I know why . . . they risk life and limb- literally!!!!! being dumped over 30 and 40 foot high trees.

The last four jumpers had shoots made with the Cameroonian flag colors -- they were really pretty as they came down -- two of the four actually hit the target at the airport and we could hear the crowd cheering for them from where we sat a mile away.

!Vive Cameroon!