Limbe

      This past weekend we went to Limbe, a beach town in the Anglophone region. There is a definite difference between the Anglophone and Francophone regions, not only is it a matter of language, but also behavior. Anglophones are considered to be more reserved than Francophones which I definitely felt -- for the first time, no one called out to us on the streets with "La Blanche!" or "Watt!" (Watt is the Francophone Cameroonians attempting to say "White" in English). The trip to Limbe was pretty uneventful/I was asleep for the majority of it, but I did get to see a bit of Douala. Douala is the biggest city in Cameroon, whereas Yaounde, though much smaller, is the capital so it's kind of like New York City v. DC in the US. The most memorable part of the ride was waking up to everyone shouting and seeing cattle being herded on the highway. The whole scene was pretty spooky because there wasn't any street lights, just the herder's flashlight and our van's headlights and out of the shadows were the cattle, with their sharply curved horns and bony, brown bodies.

            We didn't get to the hotel until 8:30 pm, so we just had dinner and went straight to bed. The next day we woke up at eight and had breakfast at the hotel and then were off to Buea, a nearby town. There we saw a tea plantation (which is to say a green field) and this famous Cameroonian artist Max LastNameIForget?. Max's paintings were pretty cool -- lots of bright colors and very impressionistic, but I was a little confused about all the fuss. At one point, the UN offered to buy one of his paintings for ten million francs and he said no on the basis that he only sells his work after feeling that he has a positive exchange with the customer. Meanwhile, he has come to Dickinson and spoke at Hope Station, the community center in Carlisle where I ran Girl Scouts last semester. Best part of this was his navy sweatsuit with "Harrisburg" written across the front. How fantastic? I'm across the world and there it is, the glorious central PA.

            Afterwards, we watched the Mount Cameroon race that was going on in Buea. Insane, these runners run up and down Mount Cameroon, the second tallest mountain in Africa, in six hours! Afterwards we headed to the zoo/rescue shelter and saw all the monkeys/crocs/pythons. Finally, at 2 we were at Semme Beach which was beautiful. At Semme, we swam, ate an excessive amount of ice cream, and even got to ride horses on the beach. It really wasn't a long ride, but at one point our guide started trotting ahead which then my horse tries to catch up with him -- I definitely was not ready for this and only barely managed to hang on. Then we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner, Julio, our driver, brought us to downtown Limbe. Julio's family was there too, so all of us went to this bar overlooking the water and just relaxed outside until 11. Next day, we headed home bright and early and got back to Yaounde at three pm.