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Let’s Go Cameroon

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

I think Pamela must be in the air, but I have no message confirming that Kenya Airways allowed her to board.  Jean Pierre saved the day by getting documentation from Cameroon and passing that to KA in Cameroon.  What a mess!  I’ll look forward to discussing it all with KA in Nairobi.  That, I guess, assumes I will be going back to Nairobi.  I am obviously quite concerned about the slippery slope to civil war that Kenya is now on.  Tribal identity over national identity… add in a faulty election and then stupid remarks from the guy that retains power and the other “leaders” plus an assasinaton and civil war is suddenly very close.  We have three weeks to watch and decide what to do.  I bought masks today and spent the rest of the day working on Kenya photos.  Uganda is done and I uploaded some, but the internet is too slow here to allow me to upload all.  Will keep working on the photos (Egypt and Brazil someday) and upload them as soon as someone’s internet connection is good enough.  Douala has been charming for a not-so-charming city.  It is sweltering here, but this is the dry and cool season.  The women and men dress colorfully and I sense I am in West Africa.  I think it is more like the coastal areas of East Africa than anything else in between although this is not a Muslim area.  And everyone speaks French.  And I have found few yet that do not speak English although they all claim to not speak it well and then have a lengthy conversation with you.  Africans are way smarter than most of us with languages and it is humbling.  When I was with the Ba’Aka I learned they can mimic anything and that is an amazingly good tool for learning languages fast.  They can sing anything back pretty clearly and they have no idea what the words mean!  Two year olds sit around whistling (I kid you not) and humming the songs their parents sing.  No wonder there is so much musical talent in Africa.  I’m pretty sure Cameroon is going to impress me a lot and make me wish for more of West Africa.

Downed in Douala

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

I am glad that I could not have predicted the last forty-eight hours.  It seemed simple enough, but this is Africa and anything can happen here and you should be guaranteed that anything will happen especially when you’re thinking everything is going well.  Let’s see the plan was to fly out of CAR to Yaounde Friday, do some sightseeing or rest in Yaounde, meet Pamela at the airport Saturday night and then head to a beach on Sunday to relax before starting the Cameroon adventure.  So, it is now Sunday evening and I am in Douala and Pamela is in Kenya and I don’t think this will change before Wednesday!

[read on]

Out of One Jungle and In To Another

Saturday, January 26th, 2008
This is a just brief update to let you know that I have safely returned from Central African Republic and I am now in Douala, Cameroon.  Shocking to go from the Congo Jungle to this Concrete Jungle of 3.5 million.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

Leg Four – Start

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
I am looking at the most difficult travel so far. I have an overnight trip from SFO to London, followed by a six hour layover and then another overnight flight to Nairobi. After twelve hours in Nairobi, I fly west ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Tribes

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
I haven't discussed Kenya yet for a couple of reasons. Namely, we had a bad experience there that colored my whole experience a bit. I need to press forward with all the good stuff about Kenya. When I went ... [Continue reading this entry]