Back down south
Our train pulled into the station after 10:00 a.m. As soon as we got off we knew we were below the Adamoua’s. The impatient porters boarding the train before you’ve got a chance to get off. The nasty attitudes of a security guard; trying to collect your ticket, but you want to keep it. You know he had the audacity to attempt to detain Akilah because I didn’t want to give him our tickets.
We stood there like, “hey, we’ve got time.” Then one of the other guards came over and spoke in english to me. He said I could keep the tickets, but he just needed to tear them slightly. Why couldn’t the first “ignorant” guy do that?
Anyway, then as we left the station between the people bothering us to buy something and the taxis following us to convince us we wanted a ride, we knew all to well the “resort-like” trip to the North was over. We walked away from the confusion and tried to calm down. Today was Akilah’s day to get irritated at every little bother; mine was yesterday.
We walked past the Artisanant and just browsed at a few things. Most of what they have, I can most likely get in Foumban. So I really didn’t want to purchase anything. Our walk took us past Score and Niki’s (grocery stores) and one pricy fabric store, but we made a stop at the Mobilis cell phone office. We already know wgat phone to get Akilah, but now we’re price shopping.
We need to get out of the downtown area, so we hopped in a taxi and went to the casse, which was full as usual. We saw Bill who thanked us for the salad dressing we’d left a few weeks before; I’m glad he appreciates it.
Folks were there just kind of chilling, washing clothes and watching a movie, Gladiator. Since I’d never seen the movie, I tried to avoid watching it, but after Akilah got comfortable in front of the screen, I sat beside her. I guess we saw the last sixty percent of the feature, because we were there for like an hour or more.
As we were preparing to leave, one of the young ladies was a little shocked that we were leaving already. We would’ve stayed, but the house had way too many people for folks that just wanted to revel in a little quiet space.
When we reached the gare, we noticed there were a “ton” of people at Binam. We checked the list, and it was confirmed; all of these people were waiting for vehicles to arrive. There were six waiting lists! Wow! I’ve never seen any wait that long. Not wanting to be a part of the crowd, we walked up and down past the other agencies (Kami, Confort and one other I can’t remember) for about fifteen or twenty minutes before we found one, Castor Voyages, that just had a vehicle pull in to unload and load.
The ride on Castor was our first time, and it was pretty interesting in the beginning. The chargeurs did as they do at all agencies; begin adding the last few people without having purchase an “official ticket.” Only this was the first time I’d noticed more than one person visibly irritated that a vehicle was being filled to capacity (or beyond depending on how you look at it), not by the agency, but it’s employees.
There had to be about five people that paid about 2500 CFAs each for the trip, and the money went directly into the pockets of one of the three or four chargeurs. There was plenty of heated exchanges between one of the guys and a passenger who had no intentions of being squeezed in on a row with someone who hadn’t purchased a ticket (a billet in french). When he got the vocal support of at least two or three others, Akilah and I were astonished. We’d always wondered what it would be like when people finally put their foot down because they had enough. Could this be the beginning of something wondrous?
At the gas station, everyone was still fussing with the chargeur, who accompanied us so he could pay for the gas and take the receipt back to the agency. One guy even told him he should just be quiet and go on, because no one has said anything about the fact that he just put “six mille” (6000 CFAs) into his own pocket. We gasped. It’s more than obvious that bribing and pilfering is accepted, but apparently not when it becomes blatant that this is what you’re doing. Go figure, you mean people actually care?
Other than this little episode, our trip to Bafoussam was essentially an easy one. The driver did as usual, dropped passengers off, and picked up new ones. I would love to see the day when there’s a people’s revolution against the blatant bribery and pilfering occurring. But I’m sure that won’t happen until they see how it affects them directly. Nothing matters to anyone here unless it affects them.