First Day in Yaounde

From the window of our 3rd floor room, I can see that life starts early in Yaounde. At 6:45 in the morning, vendors are already setting up their stall by the side a street in bad need of repair. Further on, children in bright blue uniforms dot the school yard and battered yellow cabs, nothing like those we see in films of New York, beep their horns in the hope of a fare.

Yaounde is the capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of 1 million and the main language is French. It is built on the side of a big hill and is mostly in need of repair. There are a few exceptions like the big modern multi sports facility that was a gift from China. Everyone is welcoming and ready with a smile. Residents are, of course, black. Although men wear mostly western type clothes, women are often seen in beautiful multicoloured African dress and it is not unusual to see them with bundles on their heads.

We are 13 volunteers (including 3 Canadians, 1 Dutch and 1 Australian) here ready to begin assignments all over Cameroon, though 6 of us are headed for Bamenda. The length of our assignments varies from 8 weeks to our 2 years. We are eager and a bit nervous at the prospect of what is facing us.

Despite the oppressive, humid heat, our first day of orientation was easy. Due to our late arrival on Monday, we did not start till 11 a.m. We walked about 15 minutes to a modern internet café where we had breakfast – either continental or omelette – followed by a short internet session for the purpose of e-mailing friends and families and registering with the local embassy. We then piled into VSO vehicles to be driven to a monastery for lunch with local VSO staff.

It was a pleasant restful 2 hours. The monastery compound sits on the side of a hill with beautiful vistas of the city which extends all the way down the valley and up the other side. On one side, a huge tree, heavy with maturing mangos shaded the goats, lambs, roosters and chicken roamed the grounds. Men worked on completing a new building. Low clouds and an occasional fresh breeze helped us cope with the heat. We were served a delicious meal of vegetables, plantain, rice, chicken, fish, a bean salad and fresh watermelon, sweat juicy pineapple and papaya.   Conversation was animated and full of optimism about the work the VSO is doing. Afterwards, we visited the monastery museum which held some impressive artefacts.

At about 4, we were driven back to the hotel, having completed the programme for the day. The 13 of us sat on the hotel patio enjoying a beer and discussing our impressions of the day and the city and speculating about what would come next.