My journey to the North of Cameroon

When I woke up, I wanted to go a Bethel church that was maybe in Maroua. I had heard that it existed here, so I wanted to go and search for it. As I got out of bed, I felt the thirst and pangs of hunger hit me, and my head started to spin. Why did I feel so dehydrated, weak, and with a possible headache? I put it down to the excitement of a motor-ride that I had enjoyed the previous day, which was now giving me the present symptoms. When I had got myself ready, and asked the cleaner to take a picture of myself in front of my hotel door (it was a spiffing looking hotel), I went on my search for some fruit, and a church. By the time I had decided to get my fruit, I thought that I shouldn’t go to church, seeing as I didn’t have a skirt to wear, nor any appropriate ‘Northern’ clothes. Furthermore, I thought that treating my health was more important, because I didn’t want to faint during the service! Now, that would have been tragic! I suddenly thought that I should also look for a swimming pool, as this may have been the reason for which I felt so groggy- I needed to cool down my body temperature.

On my walk down the main road, I came across a woman in her phone cabin (people sell credit to put on your phone, or food in small wooden cabins). The method of putting credit onto your phone is by giving them your number, telling them how much you would like transferred, and they use their own mobile phones to transfer the credit. I guess they receive a profit by the number of people they serve. All clever stuff really. I asked the woman where I could find a swimming pool, and she said, just down the road, to my left. So, I went to the motorcyclist to ask if he could take me to the swimming pool, and he told me that there wasn’t one at the hotel that this woman was mentioning, but that I should go to one near the main city. So, he took me there, and said to the owner what I wanted, and rode away.

What I noticed was the fact that the motorcyclist behaved like he knew the people of this swimming pool. When I took a look at the swimming pool, before paying, I saw that it was directly under the sun, and not very appealing to swim in; it had green algae in it! Eww. The security guard asked me why I was leaving and questioned if it was because of the cleanliness of the pool, and when I replied yes, he told me to come back in an hour, which is when it would have been treated. I took this as an opportunity to go in search of my fruit, and thus, went on another bike ride to a fruit stall.

While the motorcyclist was patiently waiting for me to buy my fruits (300cfa for two whole watermelons and some melons for 200cfa-very cheap) he shared one slice of his melon with me, and away we rode. I also noticed that he behaved like he knew the fruit sellers. Mmm, it seems to me that when I ask the taxi motorbikers to take me somewhere, they take me to someone that they know, as opposed to somewhere that they know, meaning that they still keep their friendly relations with certain people. In England, nobody really knows each other, and most things are written down, so one is more likely to tell a taxi driver exactly where they want to go, without the taxi man using their own method to navigate to your desired place.