Kumbo

We went on an excursion to Kumbo for a pig roast. This involved a 14 hour train ride from Ngaoundere to Yaounde. We tried to reserve beds but surprisingly, the person that cleans the office in Ngaoundere did not get the tickets on time, so we were in seats for the ride. The train leaves at 6pm. There were very loud people in our car that were screaming until about midnight and they do not turn off the lights during the ride, so I brought a sleep mask. We got in around 8 am. Then we went to the Peace Corps office to brush our teeth, and immediately got onto another bus. First we waited in our seats on the bush for over 2 hours. It was a seven hour bus ride, but we were happy because there were many corn and pineapple sellers along the way to buy snacks through the bus window. We arrived in Bamenda at dusk and went to meet our friends directly at a bar. We ate some meat then went to a restaurant to eat delicious chicken and jamma jamma. The next day we went to the bus station to catch a car to Kumbo. Luckily there were many of us so we filled the car fast and left. The road was fine until the last part which was unpaved and mountainous and made our heads hit the roof of the van many times. It took about 4 hours. The first day in Kumbo we prepared the food and the second day we had a feast, including ribs, ham, pulled pork, and a bucket (literally) of potato salad. We ate lunch and dinner without moving from our chairs. It was definitely the best meal I've had in Cameroon. I have not had pork in SO long because I live in a muslim community.

So on the last day in Kumbo we went out to breakfast and of course it had rained the night before and the road with slippery and muddy and when I got off a moto I took a huge tumble in the middle of the street. I bruised my knee really badly, scraped the other and my elbow. All my friend Janelle said that was a very graceful fall. I said I was due for a serious injury, the last time was when I fell down the stairs in Union Station so badly people had to hand me my shoes back. My kind friend Claire cleaned the mud out of my wounds and I was good as new.

We took the car back to Bamenda and then we missed the last day bus, so we had to take the night bus to Yaounde because we had a meeting the next day at 8 am. The night bus is supposed to leave at 9 pm. We left at 10:30. The bus arrived at 4:30 am and we took an overpriced taxi to the office/house. I needed a shower very badly, as I had not showered in 5 days. This is the longest I have ever gone without at least rinsing, but it was SO cold in the Northwest so I could not stand a the water temperature. So I was really looking forward to a hot shower at the house. Unfortunately the hot water heater was not on, so I took a cold shower at 5 am and it was not fun. Then I threw some laundry into the machine (!!!!!!) and went back to sleep for an hour.