The Final Stretch

Our trip with the immersion students went really well. In the nation's capital, Yaounde, we visited the US Peace Corps office and learned that Cameroon has the longest continuously running peace corps program in the world. They currently have about 130 volunteers here and plan on doubling that number for next year. We also visited the Brasseries (breweries). We got to tour the brewing plant that produces 33 Export and many other beers found here in Cameroon. It was incredible to see how industrialized and developed the plant was. Cameroon drinks A LOT of beer. The company is mainly French owned with the Cameroonian government owning part of it as well.

We also visited the US embassy and got to meet with the ambassador. The security was incredible. Our names had be submitted in advance for background checks, they caught a couple people taking pictures of the building while we were still on the bus and called them out and made them delete them, all the doors were explosion proof, and many other things. I learned a lot during the talk about the role of embassies in countries and the fine line between being there to make changes and impose our way of things and being there to promote relations. There is corruption in all levels of government here so that is one of the main things they focus on changing. They make public announcements about their disapproval of things the President does and are always sure conduct business in a fair manner.

In total we spent about 20 hours driving throughout the country. It was awesome to get to see all of the landscapes. In the north there were lots of mountains. We also got to see all of the agriculture throughout the country: Bananas, plantains, mangoes, papaya, rubber trees, corn and many more. Cameroon has an amazing amount of resources. They help feed many of the countries in West Africa. That is one of the major things that has helped Cameroon become so developed. And it is something that could allow them to continue to develop and become quite powerful in Africa.

We have about 10 days left in Cameroon and are going to be SUPER busy. We have trips planned to 4 villages during this time to finish up designs and do some final survey work. It should be a lot of fun.

I will post pictures of our travels soon!