A few weeks ago, I got a call at 10pm on Saturday night that we had to go to Yaounde (the capital) on Monday to do the visa paperwork - leaving at 5am. I had been preparing to give tests to my students that week, but this was priority so I changed my plans. I spent Sunday getting things packed and sorted in Tatum, then got a taxi down to Kumbo in the evening to spend the night in the Bishop's house.
The next morning we left at 5:30am (only 1/2 hour late) and arrived in Yaounde around 1pm - which is making pretty good time. There were 8 of us, plus our bags, in the car (a small SUV made to seat 5-6 comfortably). Besides me, it was Frank, Ilan (a Texan who is working with Frank), 3 sisters from Zambia (or Zimbabwe - I can't remember which at the moment), the driver (Alfred), and Fr Dan (who had picked us up from the airport. And we all had over night bags because we knew it would take at least 2 days to get everything done including the travel time.
Fr Dan was great, he was able to get the paperwork started on Monday so that he finished everything on Tuesday. We left Yaounde early Wednesday morning and had to stop in Bamenda on the way back because Bamenda is the regional government headquarters and we had to get photos and fingerprints done there for everything to be complete.
Ilan is a recent college grad who is teaching at SAC with Frank because his philosophy prof (at Univ. of Boulder) is from Kumbo and suggested the idea to him. (Miki - maybe you could look the prof up. Oh and many of the cars here, including one of the bishop's have cracked windshields like the Beast.)
As we were finally getting ready to leave Bamenda (after a lot of "hurry-up-and-wait"), we got stuck in traffic because the leader of the opposition party (who is from Bamenda) was returning home and the security force was blocking traffic. There was marching and shouting and we had to find a different route out of town because the road was blocked.
We got back to Kumbo about 7pm and had dinner with the bishop. I spent the night in the Bishop's house again and then was able to get a ride back up to Tatum with a priest on Thursday morning. It was a long, tiring week and I was glad to be back. I took a long weekend and then had to give all the tests the next week.
That's my latest adventure in Cameroon. Today (Nov 7) is a public holiday in Cameroon because it is the start of Ramadan. I managed to get down to Kumbo to do some shopping and use the internet. It's getting drier. During the day, it's warmer but in the early mornings it's colder than it was before.
