It Took Nearly a Full Day, But I Made it to Douala…..

…..From the time I left my front door until the time I checked into my room, it was a 22 ½ hour trip but that included over six hours layover at the Paris airport. For the most part, the trip went smoothly with only minor glitches.

On the flight from Paris, one of the passengers came up to me on the plane and introduced himself. He was the head of security for ExxonMobil here and he remembered me from two years ago. We had a good talk at the airport and he will be giving me a detailed personal security orientation as part of my first-day initiation on Monday. I’ll also have a detailed medical orientation and will be issued a malaria survival kit—I have started the mandatory anti-malarial medications yesterday and will take it daily until a week after I’ve returned to Friendswood next month.

As far as personal security, not much has changed since the last job here however there was a recent taxi strike that turned violent and there have been public demonstrations in support of the taxi drivers. One of the fallouts of that is that cameras and photography—always restricted—are both very touchy subjects right now.

At the airport, COTCO met me and walked me through the complicated customs and passport issues here and arranged a minibus to the hotel. I had tried to change hotels but they overruled me because of security reasons and booked me in the same hotel I was in two years ago. I checked in—the typical room above the fourth floor facing away from the street—and and the room is much nicer than last time. One major upgrade is free Internet access in the room so I should be able to post regularly and email every day. I’m including a photo I shot out of my room window this morning.

I hardly slept during the trip so I had a full night’s sleep last night and we’ll see how quickly my body adjusts to jet lag today. I went down and had lunch earlier and was only moderately hungry—we’re seven hours ahead of Texas so it was breakfast time and I don’t eat much breakfast. I have a $141 per day meal allowance while I’m here and, believe it or not for one of the poorest countries in the world, it will cost me about that much to eat here. One favorable thing I do remember about this hotel from last time is that the food was good and safe—and that in itself is a major plus. Of course, you pay for it…..

Another upgrade from last trip is that the room now has two English-language channels—CNN and BBC. I also get Al Jazzera, but it’s in French. And I now have a flat-screen TV in the room. Life is good and I will come across a lot of people this coming month that have little food, no electricity and no drinkable water. I feel under house arrest in the restricted confines of the hotel but it is really a very good and safe environment that most Cameroonians will never experience in their lifetimes.

I’m basically spending this first layover day taking it easy—watching TV, playing with the Internet and trying to adjust to jet lag. The work begins tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be training Cameroon COTCO employees to teach their tractor-trailer transport drivers safety techniques in hauling fuels and hazardous chemicals in dangerous driving conditions. This is what I enjoy doing—this and working with embassy drivers for the State Department—and it sure beats doing the basic instruction myself in downtown Houston as I’ve done almost all year in 2009.

We had a “bat invasion” just now outside the hotel. I’d forgotten about them, but several times a day there are literally thousands of bats that come out and swarm in huge circles around the city for fifteen or twenty minutes then go back to wherever they stay during the day. I’ve been told the underground parking garage at the hotel is like a cave with the ceiling covered with bats. I remember seeing some of them in the stairwells but never in the hallways or rooms. Actually, the locals here are big fans of the bats—they swarm several times a day and eat probably millions of mosquitoes. And mosquitoes are the biggest cause of malaria—one of the biggest medical problems here and a huge killer of children in this country. I tried to take a picture but they’re really small and really fast…..

I’ll eat supper a little later and will probably be a little more hungry and will sleep at least several hours tonight. It usually takes me two to three days to make the full adjustment after I arrive. I’ll try to post regularly but the photos may be few and far between. So far, off to a good start……