Back in Douala--Eventually

Hello Everyone,

Before we left Cameroon the first time, we had gone to the U.S. Embassy to ask them if we needed a visa when we came back in to the country for four days at the end of our overseas tour, and they said no. However, when we arrived at the airport in Douala on Wednesday night, they would not let us in the country without a visa. They looked at our passports and told us our visas were expired, which we had just told them. They said we would be illegal if we went into the country without a visa. We were happy to see Paul, our amazing helper, coming to greet us. He instantly realized that we were having issues. Paul is the person who does everything for us when are in Douala; he arranges taxis for us and negotiates prices for us. He has been a great help! He argued with the airport people for awhile, then they took us to a separate room, which was right by the jail. We were all very annoyed and nervous. Thankfully, Luke, our team leader, dealt with the conflict pretty well. Luke and Paul talked to the airport people for a long time. They showed them our itinerary and plans for leaving the country in four days. Ironically, there was a sign on the guy's office that said "transit visas are free," but we quickly learned that transit visa are what you get if you stay in the airport. Luke called Heather (our YE boss) and told her what was up. Later, he called Pastor Adolf, who soon came to help us out. Luke also called Prosper, who was still in Yaounde. We were happy to hear that Prosper successfully got his visa to the States. Pastor Adolf spent a lot of time figuring out how much we would have to pay for visas. Us four girls sang "Lean On Me" until we got yelled at. We prayed together. Surprisingly, we were all pretty calm, just anxious to eat and go to bed. Eventually, it was settled that we would pay 105,000 CFA, which is $210. That was quite a lot for us to pay considering it was an unexpected expense. We felt that we were being taken advantage of, but didn't know for sure. After three and a half hours in the airport, we finally got to leave--with our passports that had been stamped with a three day visa. However, there is a slight problem with that--we were in the country for four days. At the airport, they could only give us a visa for three days; therefore, our last day in Cameroon, the five of us were their illegally. A member of the congregation named Joel was also at the airport and Pastor Adolf said that he worked at the airport and would make sure we got of the country without any problems. We were all extremely happy to get out of the airport. Thank God everything end up fine!! We stayed at the Catholic procure again.

When we arrived in Douala, it was about 77 degrees, which was way cooler than we were used to. However, during our three and a half hours in the airport it had warmed up to 88. We were happy to crawl into our comfortable beds at the Catholic procure. There is air conditioning there, which we normally only experience in banks. We all slept extremely well that night because we were so exhausted from our long day. We slept into 9 or 10.


Thursday, we all enjoyed a much needed day off. Thankfully, Prosper had told Pastor Adolf that we would be tired when we arrived, so he had arranged for us to have a day off. We went over to Pastor Adolf's house for lunch. We enjoyed watching some news in English, that was the first we had heard about the swine flu. Pastor Adolf's wife cooked us an amazing meal of fish, fried plantains, a delicious vegetable sauce, and mangoes. We figured out our schedule for the next few days and the went back to the procure. We were all impatiently waiting for Prosper to come because he said he would come between noon and three, but he didn't get there until 7. We had already went out to eat by then. We decided to spoil ourselves and have a treat your team meal. I enjoyed a cheeseburger, french fries, cold D'jino (a delicious pop), and ice cream! We got to sit in the V.I.P. room. When we got back to the procure, Prosper was there waiting for us. We sat and talked to him for several hours. We were all laughing so hard as we shared stories of our past ten days. It was a fun time!


Peace,

Tiffany