I made the Houston/Paris/Douala flight ok and have been in Cameroon, West Africa since November 28. This is my second trip to Cameroon and not the nicest of assignments and I’ll be here 3 ½ weeks returning home on December 19—a week before Christmas. It is very hot here, humidity remains just short of rain, and the mosquitoes are everywhere. In other words, it’s just like home in Texas!
The hotel here is ok—one of only four hotels in the city that are approved for Westerners (in my case, “American”) to stay in. Security is very tight here and the company I’m working with, a contractor to ExxonMobil, requires that all employees stay fifth floor or higher in the event of car bomb. There have been no major incidents here in Cameroon but everybody is very cautious and the company headquarters is literally a fortress with controlled access—very much like some of the embassies I’ve worked with over here. Street violence against foreigners is very prevalent here and I’ve been advised not to even go across the street from the hotel to the grocery store alone. I was assigned a code name and travel only in company chauffeured cars and after exchanging code names with the driver before getting inside the vehicle. Photography is officially banned in public here so I won’t have a lot of photos this trip.
My hotel room is clean and safe but there are no grounds or an exercise room so I’m restricted to the room although there is free wireless Internet in the lobby but whether or not I can connect varies from day to day. The medical and malaria requirements here are also pretty intensive. I had to sign a statement that I’m taking anti-malarial medications and agreeing to random urine testing not to check for alcohol or drugs, but to verify I am taking the medication. I was issued a very strong mosquito spray and another spray for my clothing which I spray on the collar and cuffs very morning. I am required to wear long-sleeved shirts here because of the mosquitoes. I was also issued a “malaria survival kit” to give my doctor or any hospital after I return home should I show any of the symptoms of malaria up to six months after return. I am one of the few Americans here at the hotel—most seem to be French (and some British) oilfield workers and not the best bunch. There are no “no-smoking” zones in Cameroon and there is a white cloud of cigarette smoke literally hanging everywhere in the hotel but my room, thankfully, seems to be clean of smell and smoke. Most of the westerners here are rough looking, heavily tattooed, always drinking at the bar and loud—in other words, European rednecks
My first five-day class went very well and I then did a two-day refresher course with four students I trained three years ago. Two were from Cameroon and two were from Chad and it was good to see familiar faces again but I have trouble realizing I’ve been doing overseas training for three years now. While this is not the best of assignments—in fact, I would call it a “primitive” assignment—I keep reminding myself that I’ve been doing neat jobs in places like England and Thailand and staying in five-star hotels so I was probably overdue for a reality assignment and this has not really been all that bad.
Eating food in Africa is always cause for concern and I have a kit of medications for intestinal problems but so far everything has been ok. The hotel food is pretty safe but I’m still cautious of certain foods but generally I’ve decided to “dive in” and eat most everything. Three years ago I was so afraid of the food in Chad that I lost sixteen pounds and starved myself until I was miserable then ended up getting sick as a dog anyway. For lunches we eat at a local restaurant called the London Belle but which features typical Cameroon food. Cameroonians eat a lot of chicken and fish which basically matches my personal diet. They do a lot of grilling here not unlike Texan BBQ. I don’t eat fruits here but the pineapples are supposedly very good and the vegetables are really good so long as they are peeled and rinsed in a chlorine/water solution first. A very popular Cameroon dish over here is called “Endoula” and is served with almost every meal. As best as I can tell, it is a combination of greens such as spinach, collards and mustard greens, cooked with onion and spices and has meats like chicken, beef, and fish mixed into it. Pork is eaten and served here but I stay away from it and since a considerable percentage of the population is Muslim you don’t see too much of it on the menus. I noticed the hotel did put a Christmas tree in the lobby yesterday. Ironically it is one of those white, snow-flocked trees. I doubt if there has ever been a recorded snowflake ever fall in Cameroon.
I’m off for one day today then work five days and will be off two days next week. The company has offered to have me chauffeured out into the countryside and possibly down to the beach and I’m probably going to take them up on it. Maybe once I’m out of the city it will be ok to take some pictures. The job has gone better than I expected so far but basically my routine is work, return to the hotel, shower, check emails, eat, read, go to bed and do it all over again the next morning.
I'm in the middle of a three-day layover and stuck inside the hotel--choice of my room or the lobby where there's wireless Internet. Surprisingly time has gone by pretty fast this job. There have been logistics and scheduling problems througout but the people have been great to work with--something that has always been the case in Africa. We finished up a refresher course with some students I worked with here and in Chad three years ago and I got a photograph out at the training site. Again, I'm the one in the middle.....
the bay from my hotel window when I was here three years ago. It is beautiful and has amazing sunsets as you can see. 
the bay from my hotel window when I was here three years ago. It is beautiful and has amazing sunsets as you can see. 