Winter vacation without snow!
Well, I finally am sitting down to write an entry! I started teaching at the university last week--really!-- so I have all kinds of excuses for why I haven't been writing in the blog, ha, ha. It's been very busy here, with the university courses and also we had to move from the big house into a smaller new house in the compound. That took some time and effort! Linden's dad Scott was here for three weeks and that also kept us busy. And of course I got a nice new years present: a week of yucky stomach, et. al. All that handshaking in the village for the new year did me in!
We had a wonderful trip to the north, taking the train from Yaounde to Ngaoundere, and then we hired a pickup and driver to take us to Garoua, Pouss, Maroua, Waza, and Rhumsiki. We had lovely hotels, with "boukarous" (individual round bungalows) and pools. The only problem was all the partying all the time at the hotels, which make a lot of their money from locals renting the pool or the restaurant and/or having live bands. The last night we were up until 4AM because we were next to the pool. But that's the only complaint. I won't even complain that we didn't see lions or elephants at the Waza Reserve, cause we did see giraffes, at least!
Rhumsiki was the best part of the trip, and I am attaching a photo. It is a lovely village in the middle of nowhere, in a wonderful landscape that resembles in some ways the Southwest of the U.S. There are several "piques" that emerge in the landscape, which used to be the centers of volcanoes. In the area there are small villages with small round houses made of stone, some built into the stone--lots of black and gray volcanic rocks around. Very, very dry and dusty--the whole North is a big cloud of dust (which for one thing, helps me understand why the women wear veils--just to keep the dust out of ones face! And the men do, too). Anyway, these small houses have delightful roofs of grasses that form a twirl at the top.
Rough dirt roads to get there and very isolated. Most villages have no electricity, although there was a very large water pipe running along the road and we visited a dam. In Rhumsiki we stayed at a hotel with a small pool overlooking the valley, it was just lovely. In Garoua we stayed at the Hotel Relais St. Hubert, which was also great (except for the last night). In Maroua we stayed at the Le Sare, which is nice but the pool is very odd. Just so you know.
The Rhumsiki hotel had a great restaurant where we had soup! We hadn't had soup since coming here so Linden and I were thrilled. It was a puree vegetable soup, just great given the cool evenings. Yes, it was cool up North although not as cool as in the States, I hear, ha, ha.
We ate some different things on our journey, in particular couscous made with millet (here it is made with manioc or corn) and "Cob de Bouffon", which is a type of animal like a small deer. We thought we were getting beefsteak, but this was clearly different. It was okay, nothing to write home about.
More later. Take care everyone.
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