Ibis Douala

Traffic was heavier today on the drive to the hall. Douala was back at full speed or nearly. Taxis, trucks, motorcycles, all were spewing fumes, honking and weaving in and out trying to reach their destinations. The last part of our path takes us through a market and down sandy back streets and roads. Today we wrapped up the temperament profile analyses. Using the translation of David Register's PowerPoint ...

It was a rather dark morning, heavy clouds threatened rain. To add to the gloomy atmosphere, I noticed clouds of large bats flitting in the city's sky as I ate my breakfast. They're almost always here in the center of Douala, but I'm often surprised to see them. These are daytime bats, out morning and evening, looking, I suppose, for insects. More power to them! Moïse arrived with a new taxi, yesterday's driver wanted Easter off, and we drove ...

Today was a full and soggy experience. It's the rainy season in coastal Cameroon and so it's hot like it always is, but also more humid than usual - if that's possible. I broke into a sweat as soon as I stepped out of the air-conditioned hotel and remained in various stages of wet until I stepped back into it again about 10 hours later. Moïse was right on time with a taxi at 8:30. He had been able to collect ...

Today was a travel day. I worked in my room this morning on various projects and checked out of the hotel just before noon. Mr. Fiaboé picked me up in his pickup and we drove to the airport about 25 minutes a way. Since today was "Good Friday" there were a number of streets blocked off to enable processions of the cross, and we saw several of them: a man carrying a very large cross, followed a large crowd in brightly colored clothing. We waited at ...

... near a mangrove stand. The food is good and safe, if expensive by local standards (about that same as one would pay in France), but the views of the river with the boat and ship traffic and the ambiance are quite pleasant and calming. Daniel had fresh, broiled fish, the other three of us had zébu (the local name for beef) with fried plantain and potatoes. We splurged and shared a bottle of wine. From the restaurant we drove to a craft market, not far from ...

... adult camp? We want to have one too." This really has been a very positive experience for the members in Cameroon. After Christian Living the campers changed into sports clothes and the campers and staff headed back over the blacktopped playing field where they had played Friday. It took two taxis, plus Mr. Mabout's car to get the whole group to its destination. They had nearly three hours of football and ultimate frisbee. I stayed ...

... have to have lots of money or material to have an interesting camp. They can use makeshift items and have a great deal of fun and teach important lessons if they have the spiritual values and the practical ideas and are willing to act on them. We're very short handed in the French region. And air travel is getting extremely expensive to this part of the world. We can't be sure we from the outside can come and help them hold a camp next year or the next, but we can ...

... knowledge of the Scriptures. We threw candy to campers who gave especially good answers and then gave everyone some at the end of the game. At 7:00 we left. Leaving a bit earlier would allow Mr. Mabout to return before it was too late and therefore more dangerous for him. He doesn't usually go out in his car at night. We had another Cameroonian "adventure" on the drive back to the hotel. In the central Akwa section of ...

... some meters away, yelled at me "Monsieur, Monsieur, stop reading that, you are not allowed to read that!" I went back and sat down, and continued waiting. The Commissaire arrived at 8:45. There had never been any question of his spending the night at the airport. About 15 minutes later I stepped into his office and explained our situation briefly, and how I thought there had been a misunderstanding (which was a euphemism, but a gentle description ...