Evacuation

Man! Things are just never easy in this part of the world. We are finally in Yaounde, Cameroon in a super swanky hotel up on a hill overlooking the city. And I finally have time to tell the whole story:

We were at our training at Dougia, which preceeded normally for the first few days. We actually started off the training with Nelson (the director) talking to us about the security situation and the “tripwires” that would require activation of the emergency action plan (ie rebel movement so many km from ndj, etc). It seemed relevant, but not alarming, as the rebels were still snuggled safely out east.

On Wednesday, we got news that they had taken Mongo, which is a volunteer site and were marching along the main east-west road. The eastern volunteers were told that they probably wouldn’t get to go back to site for a few weeks.

Then at 5 am Thursday morning, we were awaken by our associate director pounding on our doors saying “We’re evacuating, get up, pack your bags!” Quite a wake up call… The rebels had made it into NDJ and were fighting in the city. So everyone threw their bags together in the dark and hurried out. The plan was to take a boat across the river and be picked up by cars from Peace Corps Cameroon. We lugged everything to the riverbank (the hotel was on the river), only to find out that the boat man was at a funeral. We sat and waited and joked and laughed. The reality of the situation hadn’t set in at all. Finally, the guy showed up and we got in the boat. BUT, then a chadian immigration guy showed up and told us we couldn’t cross the river for some official reason. Hmmm. So we hauled everything back up to the hotel. The plans kept changing - first we were leaving at 9, then 3:30, then 5:30 and then…staying the night. The PC Cameroon cars weren’t able to get to us early enough and night travel is not safe in northern cameroon. This worked out quite well, as we were able to have our much anticipated Peace Corps Prom, which was more bittersweet than fun.

Friday morning, as we waited for the boat man, the fact that we were leaving had sunk in. People were calling their host families and Chadian friends to say goodbye. It was very difficult sitting there, looking at the peace corps cars waiting on the other side of hte river to whisk us away. We piled into the boat (which was a big wooden boat with an outboard motor) and motored across with lots of tears and heavy hearts.

We drove ALLLL day Friday, stopping for lunch in Maroua, Kayt Dicken’s site. We were shocked at how much more developed Cameroon is than Chad. I can’t even start to describe it in an email. People were coping in different ways. I spent a lot of time looking out the window and crying. We arrived at our hotel in Garoua at about 8 pm on Friday, exhausted and dirty.

The intitial plan was to fly to Yaounde on Sunday, meaning we had Saturday to relax in Garoua. I spent my time writing notes to be sent to friends and family in Bol, which was therapeutic. It was good to have a day to rest. So then Sunday morning, we packed up our stuff bright and early, expecting to fly down. But, as I said, nothing is easy in Africa. We couldn’t fly because it was Easter Sunday and the plane people couldn’t buy gas for the plane without authorization from some guy, who was gone for Easter Sunday. We were stuck for another day in Garoua. I was amazed time and time again by this group’s ability to go with the flow and not freak out.

Finally, this morning, we drug our bags down to the lobby, wondering if we were really going to get out today or not. We were told that we were waiting for a phone call confirmation of the plane’s departure from Yaounde to Garoua. Peace Corps had chartered the plane just for us. We waited….and waited…and waited… and finally at 12:30 or so, got the call. So we packed everything into the trucks and went to the air port, which had NO AIR CONDITIONING, were we waited and waited and waited and waited. The flight was supposed to leave at 1:30, but we finally got on at 3:30 or so. It was an old RUSSIAN 29-seater or so. The signs were all in russian with bad english translations like “Saving rope” and “call of service”. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, so our administrative officer sat on the bags (which were not underneath the plane, but in the back by the one flight attendant.)

Long story short, we are now safely in Yaounde in the lap of luxury. They’ll be giving us phone credit tomorrow, so I’ll call you sometime tomorrow evening (morning for you!).

I’m doing okay. At least it seems real now instead of a weirdo impossibility. Writing notes to the fam and Kaka was helpful. We’re all processing it. It is what it is and we’re dealing. I really feel like Washington made the right call pulling us out. There are rebels coming up from the south now and apparently the rebel groups are calling for retribution against the French for their involvement. The situation is going even further down the tubes.

So that’s the scoop. I’ll call you tomorrow and elaborate. Sorry to have kept you in the dark, but communication wasn’t at its easiest. Please email this out to everyone. Thanks to all for the support and encouragement.

Love,
Kate