|
|
|
“a small boy who sat in the bottom of the canoe scooping out water as fast as he could that was coming into the boat” |
Last week, one of the single teachers that I met my first week invited me to a Spring Break beach trip that some of them were taking. I immediately said yes as I have no idea how often opportunities for travel will come up while I am here. I had better jump at every chance that is offered!!!!
Tuesday morning, the Jr. Hi Social Studies teacher, Liz, came by and picked me up. We were able to check out one of the SIL vehicles (a Van) so had plenty of room to load up all of the food we brought as well as the six of us: Emily, the art teacher – here just six months; Julie, the ESL teacher – she’s from Scotland and just a JEM! We’ve really hit it off. She’s leaving after school’s out L!!!! Esther & Jean Luc – they are newlywed Cameroonians. Esther is the French teacher and Jean Luc is a Pastor; myself and Liz. We also brought Caroline along (she’s with another mission) as she needed a ride to Kribi en route to somewhere else.
The trip to Kribi was surprisingly pleasant. What I hadn’t known and was quite happy to discover was that the road between Kribi and Yaoundé is a main transport route for trees (later cut for lumber) to Kribi for freight shipment and fish coming from Kribi for other parts of the country. So . . . the road was paved the WHOLE way and is well maintained.
We made it here in three hours. I thought that the altitude change would be more apparent going from 5000 feet to sea level, but I didn’t notice any difference. The heat, however, is merciless! During the day, there has been a pleasant breeze, but night-time . . . ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! We’ll come back to that part!!!
It is Spring Break for the Rain Forest School (obviously, since most of my traveling partners are teachers and have time off in the middle of the week.) Kribi is a favorite vacation spot for SIL. So, there are TONS of SIL families dotted up and the down the beach. Next door to us are two families staying in adjoining rooms. One of the husbands plays classical guitar. He serenaded us every night – just beautiful!
Our place is RIGHT on the beach!!!! We have a large patio and then, a separate covered deck where the tables for eating are located. I’m sitting at the table now writing and listening to the waves right below me. Amazing!!!
Esther & Jean Luc are in one room. They were married in September. In November, their house burned down and they lost everything. They have been living with family in an over-crowded house ever since, so we felt a quiet 2nd honeymoon was totally in order for them!!!
Our room has a bathroom – shower in the corner (no curtain of coarse) and the main bedroom with one set of bunk beds and a double bed. Totally “self-catered” as Julie says. We brought our own sheets, towels, pillow, and soap etc. Our two adjoining rooms included a small outdoor kitchen with a stove / oven, small sink, small fridge, and a few dishes (plates, glasses, silverware). Absolutely perfect!!! Additionally, a broom was provided with strict instructions – rough French translation “We firmly require all rooms to be cleaned and maintained by guests.”
The beach is GORGEOUS!!! here!!!!! Huge black rocks litter the edges of the water all along the shoreline. The sand is super fine – a mixture of yellow and black sand. Search as I may, there are no shells here! I had hoped for some to keep as souvenirs, but no such luck! The water is really warm – imagine a hot salt bath! It is hotter than the air, so I’m guessing mid to hi 90s – wish I had one of my thermometers with me so that I could know for sure!
On the way, we stopped and loaded up on fruit from various fruit vendors – mangos, papayas, pineapples, avocados and bananas. mmmmmmmm. Breakfasts have been amazing. I made a big batch of yogurt to bring. Emily brought granola. We make a huge fresh fruit salad and pour yogurt over the top with granola sprinkled on the top. Lunch has consisted of tomato and avocado sandwiches. Gotta say – the French know what they are doing when it comes to baked goods!!! The bakeries here rival the ones in Paris – that is for sure!!!!!
The first night, the girls brought various Cameroonian dishes. I have yet to taste anything that I haven’t just loved! The spices are so wonderfully matched with the various meats and vegetables for each different dish. Delicious!
Sleep here, for me, has been a challenge! The room has a small window that backs up to the kitchen wall – so, no air coming in there. Our ceiling fan – HA!!!!! is permanently set on the winter direction – sucking air UP rather than circulating around the room. It is oppressive!!!!! The first night, I tried to wet sheet trick we used in college to get to sleep. It is so humid here that the sheet never dried. I quickly discovered the sheet became a hot, wet covering that only compounded the moisture accumulating under me as I flopped back and forth on the plastic mattress. My sweat glands were in over drive!!!! Before coming, I had been warned that many people coming to Kribi get malaria. After tossing and turning until 4 AM it dawned on me why!!! It’s too hot to sleep in the room, so desperate folks MUST move to the patio for relief!!! Night 1: I finally drift (swim) to sleep around 4:30 am until almost 8. Thank goodness for coffee! :-)
Day 2: after breakfast, we headed for the surf and played frisbee for a few hours. One of the SIL moms a couple of houses down the beach, generously offered the remaining seats in her vehicle to those of us wishing to accompany them to the ocean water falls. Kribi has one of the two waterfalls from a river tributary falling directly into the ocean in the world. It was spectacular! The river water was very cold and refreshing. For 1500 Francs, you could climb in a canoe and be paddled directly into the mouth of the waterfall. Each canoe had a strong Cameroonian to do the paddling – pretty amazing considering the strong currents created by the ocean’s pull out to sea and the waterfalls pull back toward the falls . . . AND a small boy who sat in the bottom of the canoe scooping out water as fast as he could that was coming into the boat. I opted to stay on shore as the official camera woman.
That night, after dinner, Jean Luc kicked off a great discussion that opened up into question / answer time about many aspects of Cameroonian life & culture. Hugely educational! He and Esther are so solid in their faith as well as their overwhelming love for each other – it is truly inspirational!
One by one, lights began going out in the various SIL cabins. when all was quiet, we decided it was time for Emily to experience skinny dipping as she had never done it before. Liz, Emily and I headed to a remote section of the beach. The water was warm, but relaxing. I was mid sentence of a silly thought of how my boobs float amazingly well in salt water when – OUCH!!! fire and pain all over my arms and stomach! A jelly fish was wrapped and stuck on me! I began yelping and running for the shore! The brunt of the sting happened on my right arm. Sleep for Night #2? HA! HA!!!!
Day 3: By breakfast, I was pleased to find that my arm no longer burned . . . but opted against going back into the ocean again this visit. After a shower and a quick organization of my things, I discovered that my money pouch / purse was missing. Waves of panic set in – my certified copy of my passport was inside. If caught without it, immediate arrest is in order as well as a steep fine! While we had not been stopped for a security check on the way to Kribi, it does happen occasionally. I was also sick about how much money was in there. Fortunately, not all of my money as I had divided it out over several locations in my luggage. Mentally, I began to retrace my steps over the past day. It could be one of 2 places: on the floor of the SIL vehicle we had taken to the waterfalls – or, when we were dropped off at the gate to our cabin, I wondered if I dropped it while we were all piling out of the car on the roadway never to be seen again.
About three hours after discovering the missing pouch, Roger, the owner of our cabins, stopped to let me know that the Schmidts had called and had found the purse when they were unpacking the car in Yaoundé. HUGE relief and additional prayers that we wouldn’t be stopped on the way back home.
I was sitting on the patio mid afternoon reading a wonderful book about John the Baptist when suddenly, it began to get dark fairly rapidly. I looked up and saw that a giant storm was rolling in. At 3 pm, the winds began picking up and it was obvious that we were in for a beauty! Several hours of crashing rain and lightening. Just at sunset, the storm broke and we were witness to orange, pinks, and golds as the sun sank into the ocean on our left. To our right, occasional streaks of lightening continued throughout the sunset. All of the SIL high schoolers staying at various places around Kribi had been invited to have dinner with the families staying next door to us. They sat in the dining room bungalow mesmerized by the storm. I tried to picture 15 to 17 year olds in the US taking 2 hours out of their day to watch a storm with such fascination.
Esther and Jean Luc had gone to the fish market earlier in the day and purchased fresh fish and shrimp. We borrowed a large flat stone called a “grounder” as well as a large heavy rock form the owners of the cabins. Esther showed us the traditional Cameroonian way to make “mboongo tijodi” – basil spicy fish. Beginning with basil, Esther ground up onions, garlic, serrano peppers (not called serranos here – just peppers), mboongo nuts, spices, bark and a few things I had never seen before, into a green paste. It was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!!
After dinner, Liz taught us a new card game called Dirty Rotten Thieves. I will teach you all how to play upon my arrival home! It is a BLAST! Very fast moving game that is almost impossible to predict a winner until the last hand!! We actually had the pleasure of Miles, the guitarist, taking song requests all night. He can play ANYTHING! We sang and played cards for several hours. What fun!!!!
When Esther & Jean Luc headed to bed, Jean-Luc pulled me aside and asked if I would like to borrow a small fan they had in their room. I nearly started to cry!!!! Cameroonians have so little, but are so!!!! generous with what they have! He said they were used to the heat and would feel happy for me to use it and get a good sleep for my last night at the beach. wow!!!! I couldn’t help myself – I gave him a BIG hug even though it isn’t typically Cameroonian to show such a gesture of affection and thanks!
Hannu, a Finnish translator staying a few cabins away walked up. He couldn’t sleep and wondered what we were up to. We invited him to join our card game. Liz & Emily were fading fast and I was concerned that after several nights without sleep that my snoring may be an issue. So, they headed to bed before me with the thought that they would be fast asleep before I came to bed and started snoring. :-) He wanted to keep playing cards but didn’t know any 2 person games. I volunteered to teach him our home-grown version of Gin. He loved it and we played for quite sometime. Beginners luck – he whipped my butt!!!!!
AHHHHHHH sleep!!! Like an angel – all night long, I did! I am finishing this journal entry after taking a break to pack and clean the kitchen. I can’t believe my unexpected retreat to Kribi is coming to an end, but what a BLESSING!
enjoy the pics . . .
previous travel blog entry
Would you like to comment or ask a question?
Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).