What a Day!

As everyone knows, we arrived in Cameroon on Saturday night and received a warm welcome at the airport. Although our tool kit was left in Paris, all of the solar panels, aluminum, and pump made it safely. When we first got to our hotel, we all saw the amazing views from our rooms. The Cameroon soccer team stadium is right outside our window!

On Sunday, we planned to take it easy as it was resting day but it ended up being an awesome day. We started the day with fresh pineapple and croissants for breakfast and then went to the Hilton Hotel to exchange our money. We did not think we were getting the best exchange rate so we went to an internet cafe to check exchange rates, post blogs, check emails, etc. We found that the exchange rate we were getting was fine and returned to the Hilton to exchange our money. After this, we ate lunch at Vita Dolce, which was very good and had great cheeseburgers.

After resting in the hotel for awhile, we went to Olivia's house for dinner. There were many people there and all were extremely nice and very intelligent. I even met a Boston Celtics fan who stays up till 4 am to watch the games because of the time difference. Dinner was excellent as we had potatoes, plantains, spicy beef, fish, rice, and koko. Dinnertime ended up being at the same time as the big Cameroon soccer match versus Zambia in the African Cup of Nations tournament. Rather than eat at the set table, we all gathered around the tv and ate while watching the game, which I enjoyed because I love soccer. The game was very exciting and everyone was into the game and reacted to every play like it was life or death. The game ended well as Cameroon won a close back-and-forth game 3-2 with a late goal. When Cameroon scored the winning goal with 5 minutes remaining, everyone went crazy. It was an amazing sight.

We returned to our hotel and discussed our plans for the next day. Today, we are going to try to find the polypipe we need and a way to ship it to Bamendjou. Then, we will hopefully get our tool kit back at the airport. So far, everything is great and we will be leaving for Bamendjou on Tuesday morning.

- Sean