Pullman Akwa Palace Douala

... all around and Moïse and I drove back to my hotel. The drive back had its share of interesting sites: the markets never fail to fascinate. One will see strange things on the street, like parts of a butchered pig being pushed along in the street on a handcart with a half-dressed insane person on the sidewalk behind. Love it or hate it, Africa will rarely bore you. Once arrived, we talked for another hour ...

... palm tree sap that is a local delicacy. The driver complained to us that a gendarme had transported a container of it just before we used the taxi and the container had opened, spilling the contents all over the trunk. Moïse said even the back seats were damp with it. But with his power as a gendarme he insisted the taxi driver pay for the lost "wine," and the poor little guy had no choice.... The fumes were quite intense. On the way ...

... and diarrhea.... At 1:30 we started the seminars: I gave PowerPoint presentation for 90 minutes on being aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We took a 20 minute break and then covered Fundamental Beliefs for another 90 minutes. It was around 5:00 when we finished, tired by the exertion of concentrating and discussing important issues in very hot, and even more humid conditions. We had told the taxi drive ...

... shrimp in the mouth of the river, and named it Rio dos Camarões (Shrimp River). And Camarões became Cameroon. We landed half an hour late and trudged through the entry formalities: a check of our Yellow Fever vaccination cards, then the immigration desk where our visas were checked. Then we shuffled into the baggage claim area. They have two brand new baggage carousels in a baggage claim area that is much too small. This evening two flights ...

... the flight out that night. At 12:00 Bernard brought his luggage to my room and checked out of his. The Harpers and Mr. Mabout returned about 1:00 pm. We said goodbye and thanked Mr. Mabout for his help during the camp and with our stay. As soon as he left to go home and rest himself, we took a taxi to a restaurant down on the Wouri River called Le Dernier Comptoir Colonial (The Last Colonial Trading Post). It's a picturesque place near some port ...

... make it here, sits in the back of the hall and listens to the Christian Living presentations, and the Q&A Bible Studies - many taking notes. After my Journalism class where I helped the campers write short articles that encouraged them to think about topics useful to them, I had several unsolicited articles handed to me from the adults. They want to participate too. Another fellow asked me only partly joking "so when will you have ...

... would take place. First there were team building activities that helped the young people think through problems and also think in terms of helping each other. We had to remind the adults several times not to yell advice; they were quite absorbed by the whole process. After about an hour, we moved to volleyball. Several men had dug holes to sink posts on which we could run string to make a net. One of the things I wanted to show the church members here is that you don ...

... here too, so both young and old were very absorbed during those scenes especially to see themselves on the video screen (or in this case, the white table cloth nailed and taped to the wall...). A bit before 6:00 pm we had our Bible Bowl. Some of the young people have a very substantial knowledge of the Bible. It's very encouraging to see that their parents have spent the time to get them off to a good start in ...

... of tourism from 12 years ago, invited various officials to a conference where they would discuss how to make Cameroon more friendly to tourists. It explained that there had been many complaints from tourists about police and other government agents, especially in the airport, for hassling them and otherwise being disagreeable, and giving a bad impression of the nation. "How interesting" I thought to myself. As if on cue, right at this point, a female ...

... for Americans at the Douala Airport. Just back from the Middle East, I hadn't had enough time anyway to get a visa from Washington before my departure from the States, so we had to work things out on the ground. We showed our Yellow Fever vaccination cards and then informed the immigration agent that we needed to buy visas. She cheerfully had us wait until everyone else had been processed and then took the four of us back to the visa office. The bureaucracy/inefficiency ...