Yaoundé
In this post: Highway robbery, enchiladas, HIV healing, phototography superstitions
I spent the last week in Cameroon’s capital city, Yaoundé. I worked for the Aigle Voyages branch there during the day and stayed with my host-mom’s older brother at night.
On the bus to Yaoundé we got stopped by some guys in gendarme (national police) uniforms. They got on the bus and checked everyone’s ID. I passed the gendarme my passport; he told me there was a problem (that he didn’t specify) and beckoned me along with several others off the bus to the nearby 10ftx10ft security checkpoint hut. The guy there examined my passport and asked for my immunization record, which I don’t carry around with me.
‘It’s not necessary. The police in Douala say it’s not necessary’
‘You should carry it with you.’
‘You only need it to get your visa.’
I shot out a quick prayer for favor. Remembering a tip from my Cameroon travel book, I asked,
‘what’s your badge number?’
‘what are you going to do with it?’
‘Verify that all this is legal’
By this point they had let the couple cameroonians who had ‘problems’ with their ids go back to the bus and the bus’s co-pilot (there’s always someone who accompanies the driver) asked me to get my things off the bus. I knew it was time to take some kind of action or I would be spending the afternoon with the dishonest gendarmes on the side of the road. One of the gendarmes, an anglophone, told me to ‘speek een eenglish’ so I asked,
“Do you want a bribe?”
I was frustrated and had no intention of being subtle in the face of blatant corruption. He responded.
“I want to drink a beer.”
So I exchanged 2000CFA ($4) for my passport and stormed back to the bus.
“Voila les bandits” I said when I got back to the bus. One of the guys who had gotten off the bus with us said in defense of the gendarme ‘you should get your immunization card’. “C’est pas necessaire” I said as I went back to my seat to resume watching Flight of the Conchords on my iPod.
This second interaction with the people on the bus frustrated me most of the whole situation. They didn’t seem to care that people wearing the uniform of a public servant are robbing people on the side of the road. The one man even went so far as to defend them and tell me to get my immunization card, even though that is not the law.
I ate dinner one night with Joe, Donna, Tyler, and Austin Rider, a family of Wycliffe missionaries who are connected to Grace Bible Church in Nacogdoches. Before them, I hadn’t talked to more than 2 americans since I arrived (and those for not longer than 30 minutes). As Donna brought the food out from the kitchen, she said “I bet you’re missing tex-mex” and she set a giant dish of enchiladas on the table. “ooooh yesss” I replied. The food was delicious and I got to hear about their experiences and work here in Cameroon. It was a night where I really felt at home.
My host-uncle Emmanuel Leunde, the guy I stayed with, hires a couple, Moïse and Odedt, to do the cooking and cleaning in the house. I spent some time talking to Moïse one night and he’s a certified pastor. He eagerly showed me his certificate and the stack of photos from his life. I got to go to his church on Sunday. His congregation consists of about 15 people that meet in the bottom floor of a house under construction. The house is owned by a Muslim woman, but she lets them use it for their church meetings.
Moïse also told me that when he and Odedt got married, he found out she had HIV. He showed me the two forms from two tests that were positive. So they prayed and prayed. He showed me a third test that showed negative. I’m not sure, but my understanding is that HIV false negatives are very rare, especially if the potential exposure to the virus wasn’t recent. False positives happen from time to time, but not false negatives. I also met a woman that Moïse explained used to be lame until they prayed for her in the name of Jesus. When I met her she was walking. I am encouraged to hear stories of what God is doing.
Due to the elevation, the climate in Yaoundé is much more pleasant than Douala. I would still probably prefer another 5-10F cooler, but at least sleeping without air conditioning you don’t sweat all night long like you do in Douala. One day after it rained it was cold enough for a long sleeved shirt. The only downside of the cooler climate is that it makes cold showers a little less tolerable.
Sunday afternoon I went with Mr. Leunde’s nephew (who is also named Emmanuel) to go take pictures of the city. We took a taxi to Mount Febe where there was a good view of the city. I found an excellent rock from which to take some HDR panoramas, but as soon as I pulled out the camera we got yelled at by a nearby soldier with a large gun. We hopped back in the taxi and took off. Apparently photography is not permitted there because someone could potentially take a photo of the presidential palace (which is about 1/4 mile away). Cameroonians (maybe other african nations also?) are very sensitive about photos. From what I understand it’s a cultural thing that goes back to superstitions that photos steal a part of you. In some cases, such as the one I encountered, they’re considered a security threat. Although if someone wanted a photo of the presidential palace they could find it on google. You could probably also find a good layout of the grounds on Google Earth. You can’t build an ornate building on top of a hill and then expect to keep it a secret.
Mr Leunde took great care of me. I had my own room and a number of delicious meals at his house. He works at the central african bank (BEAC) so I got to hear some of his thoughts on economics and development.
While I was in Yaoundé I also got my visas for Congo and Gabon. Marius and I will be in leaving next week (most likely Wednesday) for Gabon and then for Congo. We will be setting up networks for Geoges’s travel software company Galileo. I’m excited about seeing two other African countries if only for a few days. Georges is paying our plane tickets (which are ridiculously expensive for the distance) for which I am very grateful.
We have internet in the house now in Douala although it’s only 64kbps and costs the family 65000CFA/mo (~$130/mo). Surprisingly, this is enough to have a decent skype voice call. It’s nice to have internet, but really I’ll only be in Douala for another handful of days before I come home.
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