I have been very neglectful of this blog for the last few months so this is to catch up the remainder of my trip. I am now back in Canada where it is cold, cold, cold and dry, dry, dry, especially compared to Douala. Today the weather is -27 C but windy so with the wind chill it is -40 C with a weather warning so it is a good day to stay inside and catch up the blog. There have been some warmer days so I've been able to get out into the mountains for some cr...

I attended two end-of-term school concerts which involve songs and dancing and skits by the younger children then announcing the top students in each year. The younger kids, which can be as young as 3 years, were very cute, and sure could dance. The two concerts were slightly different but both were much more elaborate than ours typically are - the kids had outfits for some of the dances, the program had more than 20 items, the kids memorized and delivered f...

A few weeks ago I took a weekend trip to Kribi with Martin, which is "the" beach town for Cameroon, and I can now see why. The beach goes for miles each way, is clean white sand and was almost deserted. We stayed in a hotel that was right beside the ocean, when you open the door there is a private beach right in front of you, and the sound of the waves crashing lulls you to sleep. We also took a trip to the Lobé Falls, which has a set of falls just as the r...

I went to church with Massana, the mother of my new homestay house. It was the annual inauguration of new members to the Catholic Women's Association (CWA) and given there were 97 new members and they all had family members there to help them celebrate, it was packed. The CWA leadership sat me in a chair at the front of the church along one side so I could see everything that was going on. Then they introduced me to the entire congregation of at least 1,000...

I joined Excel on a visit to Bamenda, a town about 5 hours north of Douala in a hilly area with an elevation of just over 1,000 meters - it is the area where he grew up and where his father now lives. I was warned that it would be cold, and it was cooler but definitely not cold, just closer to comfortable. Excel's sister is engaged to be married, the purpose of the visit was for the two families to meet and share a meal together and talk about the marriage, a...