Year 3 – Volunteering in Cameroon

Trekking into the forest, NWR, Cameroon (Photo by De-Ann Abraham)

Recently, I took a walk in the woods with the lovely De-Ann Abraham (PCV science teacher among many other things) and some of her students. I had been asking her to climb this one mountain by her village for some time, so she organized a hike guided by some boys from the village. The hike was very tough at the end, seeing as we had to literally bushwhack our way up—I’m very grateful for her efforts in putting the trip together, and for climbing through mud and thorns and over slippery rock to reach the top! I owe her one for supporting my crazy ideas.

View from the summit

Before reaching the summit, we visited a small village on the way up. To rest, we sat under the shade of a tree and were given palm wine to drink (fermented Raffia Palm sap) called Fuchou in the local language. We were joined by some of the villagers who were really nice and who offered us some jungle fruit, as well as Aföfou, which is a strong drink made of distilled palm wine. There is no electricity in this particular village, so it is very quiet, and people can just sit around talking. We had a great time sitting around and gave out bitter kola nuts as well as bought roasted Groundnuts (peanuts) for everyone.

Before moving on, I was asked for my phone number. Since no one could find any paper or a pencil, I just carved the number into the earth with a cutlass (machete). As a parting gift, the father of the house at which we were gathering gave us a bush rat. Later that evening the boys made a yummy peppé soup with it, which was great after a long day of trekking.

Some other highlights from the trip were numerous log bridges lashed and tied for those trekking to make it over the rivers that cut through the jungle. These were fun to cross, if not a little scary too, especially when raging whitewater was rushing by several meters below!

Crossing a log bridge while trekking in the forest

Village woman giving fruit (Photo by De-Ann Abraham)

Carving number in the dirt (Photo by De-Ann Abraham)