Canada, here I come!
After 18 weeks home is calling me back, I’ve packed half of my things, Ive said goodbye to some key people (the spaghetti egg man across the street, my favourite waitress at my favourite restaurant, coworkers, and a number of others), and Im on my way to buy some last souvenirs, in this case a bag of delicious cameroonian coffee. Tonight I will catch my plane at 11 45 local time and I will land in Ottawa at 3 in the afternoon tomorrow. Although I dont actually leave African soil untill this evening, the process of actually “leaving” feels like it started about two weeks ago after some close friends left, I finished work, and the clock started pressing down on me. I would sway between moments of joy and sadness at the thoughts of returning home and of leaving this place that Ive grown really attached too. By the way, feel free to tune into “Forever Young” while you read, the final song choice of Banningadoescameroon!
When I first arrived, it felt like Id opened up a new wound that I had never really known before. I could not stop thinking about my family and friends and home and an ache of homesickness would throb inside me. Luckily, most of the time I was too caught up in the daily adventures of Cameroon to be thinking about it all the time, but the ache and the wound lingered. Then I met and got to know some great people, and I began to adjust to the crazy life here (although Ive been here for almost five months, this place is STILL crazy and incomprehensible!), this had the effect of stitching up the wound that had been caused by being ripped out of my life in Canada. About one week ago, it began to feel like each one of these stitches were slowly giving way again, reopening the wound and restarting that ache in the deep of my stomache. This time I was slowly being pulled out of a very different life.
I think when I get home tomorrow a new healing process will begin. So please, be patient with me folks, i know ill be talking about this experience in Cameroon for months to come!
Now, as I said, this leaving process started almost two weeks ago, but strangely, it has taken a brief hiatus since last Tuesday. Last Tuesday I left with Akwa, Diogo, and Kaisa for my last adventure in Cameroon, and during this whole adventure, my thoughts were almost entirely in the moment, not thinking about home, not thinking about goodbyes. I just lived in the moment as if it would never end, and it was a great way to end my time here. A big thank you is owed to the company, without them, my last week here might have been very different. We travelled to the West and North West regions of Cameroon, and my god, some of the places were simply breathtaking! And of course, many laugh worthy moments occured.
Now my friends, this will be me last post from Cameroon, so enjoy!
Akwas house. Akwas family lives on a farm in a little village called Kekem, about 4 hours from Douala. We started our trip their and got to know Akwas family. I thought this might shed some light on how Akwa became the crazy and entertaining character he is, but that still remains a mystery. We hiked deep into the bush and up some hills to find his family farm where they grow cocoa, guava, and a number of other fresh fruit. I enjoyed sampling much of it myself! Its amazing, for something as simple as hiking up to his farm, many tourists would pay big money for an exotic experienec like that, the landscape was so beautiful. But for him its just the usual routine. We decided that while walking to the farm is boring for him and exciting for us, if he came to Canada walking down a street in downtown Toronto would be borig for me and fascinating for him. Afterall, were all drawn to what is new and exotic for ourselves.
Dschan. Dschang is a city about an hour from kekem, up in a highland area of the West, nesteled in amongsth mountains hills and valleys. Dshang is home to the ONLY tourism office Ive ever seen in Cameroon, and they claimed they are the only one that exists! Its shocking, this place is so beautiful and has so MANY attractions and wonders. Yet almost no tourists! Here we found a guide to take us to a tea plantation, a grotto, and a waterfall called Mamay Water. I thought the plantation would be kind of dull, but it was so beautiful. Up in the mountains, covering rolling hills almost as far as the eyes could see was this huge plantation with tea leaves of such a rich vibrant green color, it doesnt even seem possible that such a natural tapestry could exist in the world. Really amazing! We also toured a processing factory to see how fresh tea leaves turn into the tea we find in our tea cups around the world, it was quite interesting.
Next we went to a grotto which took a bit of a hike (once again, our car became stuck on the roads here, no surprise) but it was worth it! The grotto is a huge natural opening in the rock wall of the mountain, reaching almost 50 metres deep and 75 metres high. To top that off was a thin waterfall plunging straight down infront of the opening. Quite the honeymoon spot! The BIG waterfall came next and required a hike through some jungle without any clear tracks. What made it so beautful was the fact that its so isolated, and theres no one else around, almost like one of the worlds best kept secrets!
Bafoussam. After spending the night here, we decided to visit a small chiefdom. A chiefdom is a small village with a compound in the centre, where lives a chief as well as his dozens of wives, and countless children. When we arrived at the compound, the gate was locked and all of the openings to the compound were walled up…except for one hole between two buildings where the family of the chief lives. Without a soul in sight we decided hey, theres a hole, might as well go in! So we wandered inside and soon met a swarm of children who wanted to introduce us to Mama. So unexpectedly, one of the chief’s wives was presented to three random people who had wandered into her home. Given the situation, she was extremely welcoming, took us into her house and had a nice long chat with us. I found out that one of her daughters was actually living in Montreal. Quite a random situation, but hey, turns out being curious and sneaking in can have its benefits!
Foumban. Next we moved onto Foumban, which is at the heart of an old African kingdom. We toured the palace and visited the museum and had an excellent guide. Although he spoke French, I got the gist of the history and it was really fascinating. It was the first and only museum of its kind I have ever seen in Cameroon, truly impressive. On a patriotic note, there was also a little plaque from decades ago thanking Canada for its contributions which allowed the musueam to be established. Preserving this impressive history was deffinetly worth it! We also took some time to visit the market here. In this city, the Islamic influnece was deffinetly visible, its so amazing that such a contrast exists in the same country.
Bamenda. We arrived in Bamenda late on a rainy night and found our hotel. The next morning, we found some moto drivers to drive us to a small town called Ndob. Why you may ask? Bamenda is one of the main starting points on the ring road circuit, a road that runs in a circle linking a number of old old villages in the most amazing landscape you could imagine. Driving along a winding highway on a moto, looking at mountains, valleys, towns surrounded by waterfalls, it is so peaceful that it almost feels like a religious experience driving down this road…and we only saw a tiny fraction of it!
Thus ends a wonderful trip to the West of Cameroon!
Some people have said that now its “back to reality” or “back to real life” but I really dont like these labels. Clearly, these last few months have been extremely exceptional, and can not represent my typical day to day life, and it may not even cleanly fit in with the path I have infront of me. Yet the way I think about this is as just another part of one life, my life. This life has been extremely different than the other part in Canada, but they will always be connected somehow and infact I plan to take all measures to prevent this from becoming some dream of the past or “that time in Africa.” Im going to try to keep these experiences and the relationships as real and meaningful 10 years from now as they are to me today. This will be tough, so wish me luck!
Now, I think this covers my final adventures as well as my final thoughts in Cameroon. This was a big lengthy post, and thank you to all who had the patience to read it. I hope my blog has been enjoyable for you all, and although I was reluctant at first to keep such a public diary of my time here, im really glad that many of you kept telling me to keep it up. Im sure if it wasnt for that I would not have recorded so many of these thoughts and experiences and now looking back, so much has taken place that it would be very difficult to remember so many events, places, people, happy and sad memories. Im sure this will be of great help to me in the future when I reflect on my times here in Cameroon.
And finally, my final message… goodbye to my blog readers, this is matt signing off from Cameroon! Its been a slice and I look forward to seeing you on the other side of the Atlantic!
Cheers!
Matt
Adventure Finale
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