Then I came back to lovely Cameroon with Hilary Muffin Griffin '08. While Hil was here, we did about the same route as when my dad came to visit. We came straight to my village first. I figured do the least exciting thing first; then there is always something to look forward to after. We spent about a week and a half in my village, but we did quite a bit of tourist/sightseeing just around Gangassaou. I heard since last year that there is a cave and waterfalls close by, but had never been to them. I asked a friend who works at the hospital, Babba, to take us to them. We went to see the cave first on that morning. I thought our headlamps were strong, but they were no match for how dark and deep the cave was. Hil and I wanted to explore, but legit could not see a thing, so we didn't stay too long.
Then we went to see the waterfall, which also involved Hil's first Cameroonian photo shoot, or a CPS as I like to call it. Other Peace Corps Cameroon volunteers know just what I'm talking about by a CPS. And for others who do not know; let me break it down. A CPS is an opportunity to take as many photos as possible, with as many combinations of people as possible, in as many stances/positions as possible. A CPS could easily be transferred into a wild math problem. For the waterfall CPS:
Number of people (Hil, Babba and Alison) * Combinations possible (HandB, BandA, HandA) * Stances in front of waterfall (standing up with back to waterfall, standing up looking at waterfall, standing up against rocks, crouching down with back to waterfall, crouching down on rocks, crouching down by water) = many many photos
While around Gangassaou, we also went and did something I've been wanting to be since I arrived; climb Mount Nganha. Nganha is the district in which my village is located and there is this huge point-in-the-sky mountain there. Everytime I run in the fields, or walk home from the hospital or walk to the high school; I see this mountain and have always wanted to climb it. So Hil and I get the number for a guy that works up in Nganha and we call him the day prior to let him know we are coming. We hire a guy from here to take us up to Nganha on his motorcycle. The road starts out as pavement and then become dirt. In the rainy season (as it is now) the dirt part of the road is a hotttt messssss. But it hadn't rain for a couple of days when we headed up so it was mostly just bumpy. So we get up there and find the man that we called. He goes and tries to find another guy who is the guide for the mountain. He finds our guide; this tiny tiny little man wearing a winter red and blue snowmobiling outfit. No joke; zip-down the front. It gets better: he wore this outfit the entire hike up and down the mountain. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So we find snowmobiling guide and he's like "you have to slaughter a goat before going up to the mountain because of the ancestors". And I'm like "um, we are pressed for time, is there any way we can not do the whole goat thing?" So we go and talk to the Chief of Nganha and he's just more interested in us and why two little white girls have come to Nganha than in eating goat. So we leave the chief's house and the snowmobiler is like "It will be 16000; 8000 for the chief and 8000 for the motorcycle and us two guides". Our other guide was this little town punk, but it was fine. He was the one with the motorcycle so he got to come along. Hil is like "Al, that is so expensive no let's not" and I'm like "no we're here already, it's cheaping than killing a goat let's do this". So snowmobiler and punk go off to get a snack to eat and then all 4 of us head up to the base of the mountain on the moto. We park the moto and we head up. It takes us about an hour total to make it all the way up. Side note: as soon as I told Hil that I wanted to climb the mountain a couple of days prior, she was like that looks like an awful idea. And she was right. At many points in the climb, due to the incline, we had to crawl and grab legit grass to pull us up the mountain. The pants Hil was wearing, that she had freshly patched, we ripped all up in a matter of minutes. It was great though. Snowmobiler leading the way (sweating completely and all over his suit) then me behind pulling myself up using grass, then Hil swearing at me because I made her come on this unsafe hike, then the punk pulling up the rear. A few times, our two guides stopped to have a cigarette while Hil and I drank water. That is how in shape these dudes were. Even with smoking up the mountain they were still struggling less than us. Once we got to the top (where we were informed monkeys live), we had our lunch. Hil and I had brought hard-boiled eggs and popcorn. The dudes brought bennets and beans. Snowmobiler collected a little from us and took a little from him and put them on a leaf on the ground for the ancestors. I have a feeling I know who will get to them first though...and it rhymes with donkeys. Then we took some photos, but not a CPS because the dudes smiled in the photos, and made the trek back down.
That was worse by far than coming back up. Half the time, we were crab-style hands and legs shimmying down the sharp incline. We were in the same order going back down, although I'm sure this time, Hil was cursing at me about more for dragging here on this suicide hike. Snowmobiler kept telling us not to look down and that "everything will be alright as long as you don't look down". Everything was fine though. Right when we got to the base and we were walking back to the moto, it started pouring. Thank goodness that hadn't started earlier. We moto-ed back to Nganha which was now a slip 'n slide mud road. Once we got back, we hung out in front of the chief's house and waited for the rain to stop. Hil and I munched on popcorn, and stayed close together for warmth. We were soaked through to the bone. We paid our snowmobiler and then looked for a motorcycle. We found one and started to leave....and realized that that was not happening on this now mud pie beneath the moto's tires. So we waited for a car....for another half hour or so. We squeezed into the normal-sized car with 6 other people and 4 sacks of manioc in the back. It smelled like mud, sweat and manioc. Yum. The car was sliding all over the road and I thought for sure we would be stuck halfway down the mountain but our driver was good and he slowly but steadily drove through the mud furrows in the road. We arrived back at Gangassaou soaking wet, exhausted, and freezing but accomplished about the day.
Another thing we did around Gangassaou was to visit the market of Goprey which is up the dirt road about 45 minutes. My boss, Essaya, brought us. I love the market there because it's so big, there is a huge cattle selling area, they have yummy meat for sell, and my friend Lundee is Mbororo and comes in to sell milk. Because the market hadn't picked up yet when we arrived, we went to visit a friend of Essayas before coming back. We walked through the cattle market and Hil and I bought some sweet knives. We searched for Lundee first and when we couldn't find her, we sat down to eat what is, inmy opinion, the best cow meat in Cameroon. Of course, as we're sitting down, I see Lundee walk by. "You are coming to stay with me?" is the first question she asked. I met Lundee last year when she came to visit a sick relative at the hospital. When she stayed at the hospital, she stopped by Rose and Essayas next door in the evening to ask for something. They invited her in because they were eating a watching the news on the TV powered by their generator. It was her first time ever watching TV. When I arrived at the hospital, she started asking me questions and wanting me to come stay with them at the hospital. We needed a translator because my fulfulde is awful and she doesn't speak any French. The time after that when I traveled to the Goprey market she was there and asked if I had come to live with her. I said no, not this time and that I had come to buy a shirt like the once she was wearing. We went behind someone's house and she just took the shirt off her back and gave it to me. I have not been to the Goprey market as often as I could, but before I leave Cameroon, I have to go and see what her village is like and where she lives. So Hil met Lundee, who, of course, asked us to come and stay over with me. Essaya politely told her another time for me. Then we headed back to Gangassaou.
After the time spent in village, Hil and I headed up north in search of animals. We met a guy who took us up to see hippos. That was a long moto ride, and shady in some parts while it was rainy and making the road difficult, but worth it. We arrived in Maga and negotiated a price to go see the hippos. We ended up getting the price down to less than half of the guy's original offer. So the hippos are all in the water, right? And the only way to get to them is on a boat. But not a boat like we know in the US. This boat was make out of random wood pieces and tin and cardboard to mend it in places. There was water leaking all over the place, but it seemed to just all leave at the end. A motor was attached to this Tom Sawyer boat and it took us about 20 min to get out to the hippos. Mind you, this was right after Hil told me the previous day that hippos are the most vicious animals on the planet. So here we are, in our cardboard boat, just going up to this herd of hippos. "Oh look they're so cute!! YAAA" Hil said. "Oh shit, we're going to die!" I said. In one bite, those hippos could eat through our canoe and then what would we do? After Hil sang "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas", we peaced out. I was also feeling kindof sick. The entire time we traveled, Hil and I had some sort of bug/amoebas/something going on.
Then after that, we came upon a group of young giraffes. So, you're not supposed to get out of the car cause these are wild animals and blah blah....but we did. We got up close to the herd of young giraffes. They were so beautiful.
Also, up in the north, we went to the artist market. Haggling haggling galore but we got a few good gifts off Hil's list.
When we came back down through Ngaoundere, we took a car through the East region of Cameroon. This is the first time I had been there and honestly I was a little nervous to go. The East is all rainforest and rainforest means water and the more water you have the bigger the creatures like cockroaches and snakes are. It was beautiful though and Hil's favorite part of Cameroon. She loves rainforests. In the East, we went to the chimpanzee reserve outside of Belabo. Another moto ride, but this time a gorgeous one, through forests. This chimp sanctuary was started 12 years ago by a woman from the US. There are 40-something chimps living there. They don't breed them, the girl chimps are all on human-birth control, but just raise the chimps. The take care of chimps found in the wilderness whose parents were killed and eaten. Or people will bring them chimps that are found. Or they take in chimps that people have as pets, because that is illegal in Cameroon. It was a bit surreal arriving there because the majority of people working and helping out there are from the US and UK. Bizarre to walk into the middle of a forest I guess and meet people that live right next to where Hilary is working for the summer in Oregon. Small world after all.
After the East, Hil and I continued (in a very very long and trying day of transportation) to the west to the beach town of Limbe. Limbe is in an anglophone region of Cameroon. We stayed at a lovely little hotel on the water that overlooked the beautiful mountains, scenery and - a large oil rig off the coast.
We spent a couple of days lounging around, eating fish and shrimp, and thoroughly enjoying ourself. Then we headed back (in a much less-painful bus journey) to Yaounde and I dropped Hil off at the airport - just joking. The engine of the airplane/no fuel/a bird of somesort caused il to extend her vacation in Cameroon for two more days. Brussels Airlines put her up in a hotel, and I hung out with her there. Hil and I celebrated my 24th birthday on June 30, 2012, in the nice hotel room, with a bottle of wine and some x-men :)
PHOTOS OF HIL'S TRAVELS TO C-ROON: more photos of hilary's travels in cameroon
Hil and our two guides in front of the cave
Then we went to see the waterfall, which also involved Hil's first Cameroonian photo shoot, or a CPS as I like to call it. Other Peace Corps Cameroon volunteers know just what I'm talking about by a CPS. And for others who do not know; let me break it down. A CPS is an opportunity to take as many photos as possible, with as many combinations of people as possible, in as many stances/positions as possible. A CPS could easily be transferred into a wild math problem. For the waterfall CPS:
Number of people (Hil, Babba and Alison) * Combinations possible (HandB, BandA, HandA) * Stances in front of waterfall (standing up with back to waterfall, standing up looking at waterfall, standing up against rocks, crouching down with back to waterfall, crouching down on rocks, crouching down by water) = many many photos
Hil's first CPS
Hil was getting a bit annoyed at the waterfall CPS, but clearly that was her first one and she just wasn't used to JUST how many photos can possibly be taken. Side note: in all CPS photos, you must look dead serious. No laughing, no smiling. Serious Business face.While around Gangassaou, we also went and did something I've been wanting to be since I arrived; climb Mount Nganha. Nganha is the district in which my village is located and there is this huge point-in-the-sky mountain there. Everytime I run in the fields, or walk home from the hospital or walk to the high school; I see this mountain and have always wanted to climb it. So Hil and I get the number for a guy that works up in Nganha and we call him the day prior to let him know we are coming. We hire a guy from here to take us up to Nganha on his motorcycle. The road starts out as pavement and then become dirt. In the rainy season (as it is now) the dirt part of the road is a hotttt messssss. But it hadn't rain for a couple of days when we headed up so it was mostly just bumpy. So we get up there and find the man that we called. He goes and tries to find another guy who is the guide for the mountain. He finds our guide; this tiny tiny little man wearing a winter red and blue snowmobiling outfit. No joke; zip-down the front. It gets better: he wore this outfit the entire hike up and down the mountain. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So we find snowmobiling guide and he's like "you have to slaughter a goat before going up to the mountain because of the ancestors". And I'm like "um, we are pressed for time, is there any way we can not do the whole goat thing?" So we go and talk to the Chief of Nganha and he's just more interested in us and why two little white girls have come to Nganha than in eating goat. So we leave the chief's house and the snowmobiler is like "It will be 16000; 8000 for the chief and 8000 for the motorcycle and us two guides". Our other guide was this little town punk, but it was fine. He was the one with the motorcycle so he got to come along. Hil is like "Al, that is so expensive no let's not" and I'm like "no we're here already, it's cheaping than killing a goat let's do this". So snowmobiler and punk go off to get a snack to eat and then all 4 of us head up to the base of the mountain on the moto. We park the moto and we head up. It takes us about an hour total to make it all the way up. Side note: as soon as I told Hil that I wanted to climb the mountain a couple of days prior, she was like that looks like an awful idea. And she was right. At many points in the climb, due to the incline, we had to crawl and grab legit grass to pull us up the mountain. The pants Hil was wearing, that she had freshly patched, we ripped all up in a matter of minutes. It was great though. Snowmobiler leading the way (sweating completely and all over his suit) then me behind pulling myself up using grass, then Hil swearing at me because I made her come on this unsafe hike, then the punk pulling up the rear. A few times, our two guides stopped to have a cigarette while Hil and I drank water. That is how in shape these dudes were. Even with smoking up the mountain they were still struggling less than us. Once we got to the top (where we were informed monkeys live), we had our lunch. Hil and I had brought hard-boiled eggs and popcorn. The dudes brought bennets and beans. Snowmobiler collected a little from us and took a little from him and put them on a leaf on the ground for the ancestors. I have a feeling I know who will get to them first though...and it rhymes with donkeys. Then we took some photos, but not a CPS because the dudes smiled in the photos, and made the trek back down.
Alison, Hil and snowmobiler guide at summit
That was worse by far than coming back up. Half the time, we were crab-style hands and legs shimmying down the sharp incline. We were in the same order going back down, although I'm sure this time, Hil was cursing at me about more for dragging here on this suicide hike. Snowmobiler kept telling us not to look down and that "everything will be alright as long as you don't look down". Everything was fine though. Right when we got to the base and we were walking back to the moto, it started pouring. Thank goodness that hadn't started earlier. We moto-ed back to Nganha which was now a slip 'n slide mud road. Once we got back, we hung out in front of the chief's house and waited for the rain to stop. Hil and I munched on popcorn, and stayed close together for warmth. We were soaked through to the bone. We paid our snowmobiler and then looked for a motorcycle. We found one and started to leave....and realized that that was not happening on this now mud pie beneath the moto's tires. So we waited for a car....for another half hour or so. We squeezed into the normal-sized car with 6 other people and 4 sacks of manioc in the back. It smelled like mud, sweat and manioc. Yum. The car was sliding all over the road and I thought for sure we would be stuck halfway down the mountain but our driver was good and he slowly but steadily drove through the mud furrows in the road. We arrived back at Gangassaou soaking wet, exhausted, and freezing but accomplished about the day.
Another thing we did around Gangassaou was to visit the market of Goprey which is up the dirt road about 45 minutes. My boss, Essaya, brought us. I love the market there because it's so big, there is a huge cattle selling area, they have yummy meat for sell, and my friend Lundee is Mbororo and comes in to sell milk. Because the market hadn't picked up yet when we arrived, we went to visit a friend of Essayas before coming back. We walked through the cattle market and Hil and I bought some sweet knives. We searched for Lundee first and when we couldn't find her, we sat down to eat what is, inmy opinion, the best cow meat in Cameroon. Of course, as we're sitting down, I see Lundee walk by. "You are coming to stay with me?" is the first question she asked. I met Lundee last year when she came to visit a sick relative at the hospital. When she stayed at the hospital, she stopped by Rose and Essayas next door in the evening to ask for something. They invited her in because they were eating a watching the news on the TV powered by their generator. It was her first time ever watching TV. When I arrived at the hospital, she started asking me questions and wanting me to come stay with them at the hospital. We needed a translator because my fulfulde is awful and she doesn't speak any French. The time after that when I traveled to the Goprey market she was there and asked if I had come to live with her. I said no, not this time and that I had come to buy a shirt like the once she was wearing. We went behind someone's house and she just took the shirt off her back and gave it to me. I have not been to the Goprey market as often as I could, but before I leave Cameroon, I have to go and see what her village is like and where she lives. So Hil met Lundee, who, of course, asked us to come and stay over with me. Essaya politely told her another time for me. Then we headed back to Gangassaou.
Mbororo girls at the Goprey market, girl in the middle
is Lundee's daughter
After the time spent in village, Hil and I headed up north in search of animals. We met a guy who took us up to see hippos. That was a long moto ride, and shady in some parts while it was rainy and making the road difficult, but worth it. We arrived in Maga and negotiated a price to go see the hippos. We ended up getting the price down to less than half of the guy's original offer. So the hippos are all in the water, right? And the only way to get to them is on a boat. But not a boat like we know in the US. This boat was make out of random wood pieces and tin and cardboard to mend it in places. There was water leaking all over the place, but it seemed to just all leave at the end. A motor was attached to this Tom Sawyer boat and it took us about 20 min to get out to the hippos. Mind you, this was right after Hil told me the previous day that hippos are the most vicious animals on the planet. So here we are, in our cardboard boat, just going up to this herd of hippos. "Oh look they're so cute!! YAAA" Hil said. "Oh shit, we're going to die!" I said. In one bite, those hippos could eat through our canoe and then what would we do? After Hil sang "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas", we peaced out. I was also feeling kindof sick. The entire time we traveled, Hil and I had some sort of bug/amoebas/something going on.
Hilary on cardboard boat to go see the hippos
Up north, we also went to Waza for a day. There we saw tons of antelope, birds galore, warthogs and giraffes. So we're going along in our little Jeep four-wheel drive in the park, and we get stuck in the mud. Hil and I peace out and go chill in nature to let the men work and fix the problem, or so we thought. So they are throwing sticks and grass under the tires and trying to shovel stuff out to get us out, when Hil notices that the reason they can't get out is that they didn't lock their wheels right. I never knew this but Hil said with older 4-wheel drive vehicles, you have to manually lock the wheels when you're going from 2-wheel to 4-wheel drive. As soon as she fixed the wheels, he drove out of the mud. Piece of cake. What would we do without Hil? Be stuck in the mud in the wildlife park for a very long time? 
Our lil jeep stuck in the mud in the middle of the wildlife park
Then after that, we came upon a group of young giraffes. So, you're not supposed to get out of the car cause these are wild animals and blah blah....but we did. We got up close to the herd of young giraffes. They were so beautiful.
a baby giraffe :)
Also, up in the north, we went to the artist market. Haggling haggling galore but we got a few good gifts off Hil's list.
When we came back down through Ngaoundere, we took a car through the East region of Cameroon. This is the first time I had been there and honestly I was a little nervous to go. The East is all rainforest and rainforest means water and the more water you have the bigger the creatures like cockroaches and snakes are. It was beautiful though and Hil's favorite part of Cameroon. She loves rainforests. In the East, we went to the chimpanzee reserve outside of Belabo. Another moto ride, but this time a gorgeous one, through forests. This chimp sanctuary was started 12 years ago by a woman from the US. There are 40-something chimps living there. They don't breed them, the girl chimps are all on human-birth control, but just raise the chimps. The take care of chimps found in the wilderness whose parents were killed and eaten. Or people will bring them chimps that are found. Or they take in chimps that people have as pets, because that is illegal in Cameroon. It was a bit surreal arriving there because the majority of people working and helping out there are from the US and UK. Bizarre to walk into the middle of a forest I guess and meet people that live right next to where Hilary is working for the summer in Oregon. Small world after all.
After the East, Hil and I continued (in a very very long and trying day of transportation) to the west to the beach town of Limbe. Limbe is in an anglophone region of Cameroon. We stayed at a lovely little hotel on the water that overlooked the beautiful mountains, scenery and - a large oil rig off the coast.
Hil + Alison, not happy about the oil rig ruining the beautiful Limbe beach scenery
We spent a couple of days lounging around, eating fish and shrimp, and thoroughly enjoying ourself. Then we headed back (in a much less-painful bus journey) to Yaounde and I dropped Hil off at the airport - just joking. The engine of the airplane/no fuel/a bird of somesort caused il to extend her vacation in Cameroon for two more days. Brussels Airlines put her up in a hotel, and I hung out with her there. Hil and I celebrated my 24th birthday on June 30, 2012, in the nice hotel room, with a bottle of wine and some x-men :)
PHOTOS OF HIL'S TRAVELS TO C-ROON: more photos of hilary's travels in cameroon
