Easter in Kribi

Kribi is a small coastal tow in south west Cameroon about 3 hours by bus from Yaounde.

After working hard for the last 10 days, writing the process for developing councils in Cameroon, we thought we deserved an Easter holiday. So, on Thursday, Linda, Marg, Elle and I set off on the bus.

We were hoping for a large coach but, unfortunately, as it was not early morning, we got a 20 seater minibus. All buses here are privately owned and none of them have timetables. The rule is that you turn up, sit on the bus and when it is full it leaves. If you do not want to wait too long you get to the bus station at around 7am, for the first bus. This is the most popular and may leave within 30 minutes of you getting on it. But, it may be longer.

We waited 1 1/2 hours – on a very hot and airless bus as bags and people were stuffed into every available space. Eventually we set off with 38 people and as many cases.

But it was worth it. We checked into our hotel at 6pm and by 6.15 I was swimming n the warm warm sea as the sun set and the stars came out.

It is a picture postcard beach shaded by palm, mango and avocado trees with whie sand and warm lapping waves. There were no shops close by and all there is to eat is fresh fish caught on the beach and cooked over charcoal in little makeshift cafes on the sand. The fish is marinated in an oil and peanut sauce, served with plantains and eaten with fingers.

For three days we did little but sit in the sun, flop into the sea to cool off then stagger to the shade of the café for fish.

We all set off in a taxi for one outing to a waterfall that fed straight into the sea. It was beautiful but Elle and I decided to take a motorbike taxi back to ‘our’ beach whilst the others took a canoe trip to look at ‘Pygmies in the rain forest’.

The local fishermen and their families were so friendly and we soon got to know the children, who loved to swim with us. The teenage boys were spellbound at our ‘white man magic’ of being able to lie on the water without drowning. Try as we might, we could not make them see that floating is just about being able to relax. They really thought we had special powers or were super-intelligent beings. Every time we went into the se they followed for lessons. Every time they sank, and this just confirmed that we were from another planet.

Marg brought some origami paper to the beach to show the girls how to make birds. They were fascinated but it was a little complicated for them so I showed them how to make fortune tellers. They loved playing with it although they did struggle with the movement of their thumbs and fingers.

With my stage B French and the help of Linda, who speaks French, we explained how they work and asked the girls what we should write inside. They were perplexed at our questions. We tried ‘what do you wish for’ or ‘what do you want to be or do when you grow up?’ We gave them ideas – famous singer or dancer, rich, a doctor?

Then my new little friend Lore’s face lit up. “I know, I want to marry a white man’.