Sight Seeing in Yaounde

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It's been a busy week of high school graduations, receptions, good-byes as ex-Pats prepare to return to their home countries to get their grads enrolled in college. I can't believe that it is June already. In two weeks, I'll have been here for three months. Amazing!!!

Saturday am - I got up early to decorate the last of four cakes that were ordered for the week. I finished about 9 AM and had originally planned to head back to bed for a while. However, my friend Lois called to let me know that there was a sight seeing tour planned for the afternoon if I would interested in coming along. Why YES! I would and yippee . . . we are going places where I can take some PICTURES!

A little background if you can indulge me -- Danni is a gorgeous and hilarious! Canadian who has been here in Yaoundé teaching Textiles at the high school. She is here on loan from her school in Canada (2nd time to come) and is preparing to return home. Some of her friends / supporters from Canada arrived earlier in the week to visit and see where she has been living. While I'm quite sad that Danni is leaving - she is a LOT of fun!!!!, I have been given the opportunity to move into her apartment in late June after she leaves.

This is VERY exciting for me as living where I work can be tedious at times. The new apartment is within 5 minutes walking distance of the AOC. Many of the singles who are here with Wycliffe live in these apartments which makes social life fun. Next door to my apartment is Lois and Julia's apt. Immediately upon my arrival, they were quick to begin inviting me to get-togethers -- they made me feel very welcome and part of the group from the very beginning. I am thrilled to get to live next door to them!!!!

Around 2 PM, we headed off to the city in a big van. Our first stop - the Hilton hotel. The 11th floor has roof access and from here, we were able to take quite a few amazing photos of downtown safely hidden above guards who could officially confiscate our cameras. We also had the privilege of watching a HUGE storm come in. It was amazing to watch the mountains quickly become covered in clouds to the point that we could no longer see them off in the distance.

George and Jean-Paul also joined us today -- George used to be Lois and Julia's gardener and guard and is now attempting to move into the business of driving diplomatic cars. Jean-Paul is one of the basketball coaches at the high school. He helped coach the basketball teams to a city championship this year – first time ever for the Rain Forest International School (RFIS). RFIS is the school run by the mission here. However, there are kids from many walks of life attending the school – not just missionary teenagers.

The architecture here makes me think that maybe back in the 70s, perhaps when the president was newly in office, money was poured into downtown Yaoundé -- perhaps an attempt to modernize the city.  However, many of the big buildings are now in disrepair or construction was never finished - evidenced by partially built buildings surrounded by old, rusted scaffolding.

We then trekked over to Mt. Febe. At the top of Mt. Febe is a monastery with rooms available to stay for anyone needing to get away for a quiet retreat. The view was breath-taking. However, almost immediately upon our arrival, the downpour began. Within seconds the city was completely covered with clouds and rain. 1/3 of the way down the mountain is a gorgeous hotel – Mt. Febe hotel. So – we decided to go wait out the storm there and have some hot chocolate. Attached to the hotel is a beautiful golf course (I’ve included some pictures). Something I had never seen – the “greens” are actually made of black sand.

I was finally able to get some really good pictures of the city. The pictures all reflect the overcast-ness of the day – but, they will hopefully serve to give you a better idea of what Yaoundé looks like from way above the city. I hope to make it back up to Mt. Febe on a sunnier day and take additional photos.

Our next stop was the bakery – I know that I’ve said this before . . . but I LOVE the bakeries here! YUM! It was late and we were hungry – we bought them out of what was left at the end of their day for individual pizzas, mini quiches, beignets, and pain du chocolate. Hmmmm – fabulous dinner!!!! We had hoped to watch an inner city basketball game in which Jean-Paul was playing. However, the game was postponed and then, cancelled due to the electricity outages in that part of the city.

Instead, we headed back to Lois & Julia’s and watched a movie.

Enjoy the pics – be sure and click “view more photos” so that you can see them all. :-)