Wazaaaaaaaa

Nope, not a super bowl commercial reference. Went to one of Cameroon’s few National Parks this week called Waza, located in the Extreme North. Cameroon’s tourism potential is absolutely incredible- one part of me wants this country to get its act together and start promoting itself to help out for a major economic boost. On the other hand, there is something so beautiful about how untouched much of Cameroon is.

We arrived in Waza after an 8 hour bus ride through Garoua and Maroua, where we went to some incredible marches. Florence is overrated; the leather products in Garoua were unbelievable. We bargained with vendors for hours, were given some impromptu Fulfulde lessons, and all pretty much bought an entire sheep or cow worth of leather products (and I think I bought an entire Boa worth of snakeskin products as well…)

Tons of monkeys in the trees as we pulled into our camp site for the night. Slept under the stars right outside the park, and woke up at the crack of dawn to head out on our safari.

Around 6:30, two ancient, white Toyota pick-up trucks pulled into our campsite. We piled into the truck beds and set off along a barely marked dusty road. I won’t be able to do justice in describing the scenery (Kat, I wish you were in my pocket for this voyage so you could help me attempt to depict the absolute beauty).

Waza was just completely wild in every sense of the word. We began our voyage as the sun was rising, beating down on our incredibly touristy straw hats. It became apparent that elephants enjoyed traveling on the dusty truck route, as their giant footprints provided us with some extremely bumpy terrain. The two inch dagger thorns flanking either side of the truck didn’t help either.

Saw tons of giraffes- incredibly majestic and graceful animals. Lots of antelope, ostrich, boar, monkeys, and huge birds. Found some lion tracks, but even Flobert (SIT’s head driver/renaissance safari man) couldn’t track them down.

Rode back 28 hours to Yaounde with 2 goats tied to the top of our bus. (Our bus driver really wanted to bring them back to Yaounde because they were so cheap…) The unexpected bathroom breaks of the goats kept us all on our toes and provided endless entertainment for those on the front of the bus (not getting sprinkled on).
We dropped of the 2 BIR officers (Cameroonian military elite) on our way back. These dudes were HUGE and ridiculously intimidating (as were their giant automatic guns and endless amo refills). Fortunately, the Coupers de route decided not to strike (we would’ve been a goldmine for them).

ISP (our 4 week independent research period) has officially begun. I’m heading to Buea to research the microfinance branch of LINK UP, an NGO focused on child development. I’m really looking forward to a month of total independence (no other students are traveling to Buea to conduct their research). I’ll be living with a Peace Corps Volunteer and German volunteer in Muea.