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The Cameroon diaries

Collected here are all my blog entries for the (almost) year we spent in Cameroon (July 15th 2006 - June 7th 2007).

Talbot Cultural tours: Korup, Kribi, Douala, and Home

13 February 2007 - 3:38pm -- Joseph

Jan 29th - Feb. 3rd Our journey to Korup was another interesting one. The first leg is a two/three hour bus ride to Kumba, followed by a quick taxi ride from one bus park to another. The tax driver tried to over charge us (of course), but Hev quoted him the correct fare and told him "We've got friends here, you can't cheat us", and they say I'm the mouthy one, one of these days she's going to get me lamped ... From the other bus park, we got a car to do the four hour run up to Mundenba.

Business as Usual

13 February 2007 - 3:56pm -- Joseph

After the uncertainty of the Visa extension debaccle (we have them now, we are illegal aliens no more) and the excitement of my parents' whistle-stop tour of the country, normal service has resumed (after limping through last week somewhat with a stinking cold each). I'm teaching my Web Design class again next week (only three students signed up so far, maybe word's got round that I don't magically transform you into professional web designers in three weeks?) and have been doing revisions to the material. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I think I've ironed out most of the gitches.

Breaking and entering

16 February 2007 - 4:10pm -- Joseph

Well, Hev's had all the excitement with the snake yesterday, an interesting phone call:

Me: Hi honey

Hev: There's [traffic noise], not sure what to do?

Me: Sorry, what? Can't hear you...

Hev: SNAKE, there's a SNAKE...

Me: Oh right! I'll be right there, as soon as I find someone who owns a machete...

I didn't even get to se the Snake.

Mountain Race weekend

20 February 2007 - 3:51pm -- Joseph

People have been talking about the Mountain race ever since we arrived, it's the event of the year in Buea. So finally it happened. The start point and finish line for the race is the stadium in Molyko. Most Sundays, that's where I am, huffing and puffing with the rest of the SUFA guys for a couple hours, until we call it a day and go and have a beer in Figaros. This Sunday though, SUFA left the stadium to the proper athletes and skipped straight to the Figaros and beer bit.

Take a Deep Breath?

5 March 2007 - 11:29am -- Joseph

We've been using Skype a lot since we've been here in Cameroon. I noticed that the title of the homepage of their website is 'take a deep breath'. I noticed this because, for the first ten minutes of loading their website, that's all I see. Their website is incredibly slow (and beleive me, I know the meaning of slow pages on this connection. Flickr? Forget it, stopped going there months ago.).

Waza, Here We Come!

17 March 2007 - 9:52am -- Joseph

We're off to see Waza tomorrw. I know what you're thinking: why have they suddenly decided to stalk Manchester United and England's Shrek-look-alike non-scoring striker, and if they're coming back to England, why haven't they called? I understand your confusion, but no, the Waza in question is Waza national park; Cameroon's premier (only?) Safari desination and excuse for the above poor gag.

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