Weekend in Kribi
I wrote this blog post in October 2024 during my Fulbright Grant in Cameroon.
On October 26th, Woody and I took off for a weekend in Kribi (a coastal town in Cameroon’s southern region. We planned to leave at 9 am, but when we arrived at the bus station, we were told that the next bus wouldn’t be leaving until 1 pm and that whatever was online was a website created by a scammer. Very glad I did not purchase the tickets online...
So, we went back home as there was nothing else we could do but wait. Originally, we had planned to just arrive at our hotel and book it then. However, leaving late would put us in Kribi after dark.
Finally, after arriving back at the bus station and then waiting until they fixed the bus, we were off by 3 pm. Now I know travel in this region of the world is slow, but it still gets me whenever I expect to be somewhere around 3 pm and do not arrive until 10:30 pm. Thankfully, our hotel was able to pick us up from the bus station and had some grilled fish prepared for us to eat. :)
It was nice to get away from the city and have some time to relax with no noise. Most of the weekend was spent hanging out on the beach and exploring the waterfalls near our hotel. Our hotel was right where the river meets the sea near a waterfall that dumps almost directly into the ocean. The hotel had a boat that we were able to go out in and go right under the falls.
In the morning when I was out on the beach, I got recruited into helping some sardine fishermen who had come back from an early morning catch. As we tugged the net out of the boat bit by bit, we pulled all of the small fish that were trapped inside and threw them in buckets. Once we were done, the fish were taken to the market to be sold. Every day, they do this, and once in a while, they go on a few-day trip out into the deeper waters to catch barracuda, sharks, and other large fish.
All in all, it was so nice to see another region of Cameroon and get to experience another side of living in this country. Something else I found interesting was that people in this region were speaking their local language much more than French, which is something you do not see in Yaounde. With over 250 languages spoken in this country, it makes sense that here in the capital, French is the lingua franca.
The linguistic future of Cameroon is captivating to think about, as many villages still have a strong presence of local languages, while the larger cities are quickly losing them. Some people in Yaounde do not even have a native “mother tongue” anymore because both of their parents come from different backgrounds and only speak French to their children. Many people I talk to about this issue are worried about the loss of culture and history that comes with less local language use.
This trip reminded me how diverse Cameroon truly is, not only in its landscapes but in its languages and traditions. It was a refreshing experience and a reminder of why I wanted to be here in the first place - to learn about and appreciate the incredible richness of life in this country.
