Bamenda

Bamenda is cool, i like Bamenda. It is affectionately termed 'Russia' by Cameroonians due to its climate, but the temperature is fine by me as i'm not sweating bullets 24/7. There's been a nice breeze today and a bit of drizzle. Lovely weather.

We went on a wee tour today, we visited the old town and a giant market. Men clicked their fingers at me and blew me kisses to try and get my attention and business.

"Oh White! What do you want, what do you need?"
"Nothing thanks, as you're selling illegal pharmaceutical drugs, good-day to you sir"

I bought some gifts for friends and family (not street paracetamol) and we wandered through the brown streets to an old bar for an afternoon beer.

Bamenda lies in a natural basin surrounded by cliffs and mountains, there are two waterfalls visable from most parts of the city, it's quite a spectacular site. There is only one road into the metropolis and it's a steep one, the hill is at such a deathly gradient that they have built a run-off crash ramp at the bottom of it incase your brakes fail on the way down. Ingenious.

Someone who is of a cynical mindset could look at cities in Cameroon and come to the conclusion they are shabby, tired and dilapidated. Not me though, i like them. The buildings and huts that jut out of the land fill the space in a versatile and oblique way, it's like they are part of the earth, the cities are organic.

The roads are bloody terrible though....

Ines and i were sitting having a beer the other day when we witnessed a car fall into a hole!! People all scrambled round to push it out. Normality. Much of the damage on the roads has been the effect of the fuel strike where crazy boys decided to set alight to tires on the tarmac. It all adds up to a bumpy, perilous ride in a taxi.

Bamenda is also home to the 'Social Democrat Front' (SDF) who are the main opposing party tp Paul Biya's 'Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement' (CPDM). Ebiebi is the leader of the SDF and we visited his craft shop today. The motto of the party is "Power to the people" and never have John Lennons' words been more meaningful. I bought an old drunk a beer the other night and he gave us his tale of woe about Biya's Cameroon. "That man in Yaounde has given us nothing, we work and work and we have nothing" These sentiments are widely held in places like Bamenda.

So i leave tomorrow back to Buea. I've had fun playing with Ines' sun Paul and her wee two year old cousin Ryan. They think i'm their own personal clown, everything i do is apparently hilarious to them. Ines' mother has been very hospitable and i've ate really well.

I'm going to say goodbye to the place this evening when Ines and i go find a restaurant that sells pizza. I'll see Bamenda by night.