August 18, 2017
Hello All!
After being away on furlough for twenty months, we returned to Cameroon with the knowledge that we needed to move our stuff from Bamenda to Yaounde. This was weighing very heavily on me, (John) ,since leaving the US. One of the issues is that there is no 'moving company' here, just some guys you can hire to move your stuff. Like two guys and a truck.
Good Bye Bamenda House, you were good to us.
I was very fortunate to get a ride from a Cameroonian friend. Since our truck was still parked in Bamenda. I really didn't want to take the bus or the overnight bus, so I was glad to ride along with him. We left Sunday July 30th at 5:45am and we arrived at Bamenda at 5:50pm. Now you are probably shocked that it took us 12 hours to go 230 miles. Usually I can make that trip in seven or eight hours. The road is very bad in spots, those spots cover half the trip... It also didn't help that my friend needed to purchase some stuff in Bafoussam. Now I had no problem what so ever with him picking stuff up nor the trip taking that long. It actually really helped me re-adjust to life here. 😆 Also at one point we had to rewire the battery because the steering pump was leaking on the existing battery wire and caused a short. We also got stopped at a police check because the police man wanted to ask about the fencing we were transporting and where he could get some. 😊
I had to pack up our four bedroom house in six days, so they could load it on Sunday and drive overnight and unload it Monday morning. Plenty of time right? I was so wrong. But as with these kinds of things, it just had to be done and it didn't have to be perfect.
The craziness started to happen on Thursday. The truck drive came and looked at all our stuff and was confident that his truck could carry it all. Awesome. He wants to bring the truck on Friday and then park it somewhere safe. Great. He arrives Friday with his other 'movers' and they start to pack up the truck. About five minutes into packing his truck he tells me he is starting to have fear about his truck working. 😩 Now he wants to bring a bigger truck, bigger by 3x, and pack Monday. Well this won't work. So we spend another two hours trying to find another guy with a truck that size. We find one but he wants to leave Friday. 😰😰😳😳 Which I realize that it is Friday and he wants to leave after dark. By now it is 3:00pm, it gets dark at 6:30, when the other truck arrives. And it is huge. I think, perfect! We'll have plenty of room! I was wrong!! We still had too much stuff!! I was left donating some of our furniture to the nice men that packed the truck. C'est la vie.
