the train ride...

Well, it's been a little while since I last posted anything and I think it's probably because of several reasons, one of which is that I've been busy travelling (back up to post after the training workshop) and then back down a few days ago to Bafia, a city about two hours from Yaounde where the new training group is. I'm here doing a few sessions on infectuous diseases and food security. anyway, I figure I'll write a little bit about my journey down, as it was definitely a different experience than anything else I've had in this country.

I had a reservation to take the train on saturday with another volunteer, Kim O. We got to the train station in Ngaoundere at a decent hour on that morning to pick up our tickets but unfortunately they were all out of the two-person sleeper car rooms so we had to get spots in a four-person one, and split it with a cameroonian couple. We kind of lounged around for most of the day, I grabbed lunch at a decent restaurant down the street, watched some Office episodes, and then at about 2:30, Kim and I went across the street from the peace corps house and hung out at this restaurant/bar to watch the cameroon-congo soccer match which is a qualifying match for the 2012 african cup of nations. I'm going to take a step back and first say that the match was in Garoua that day. Garoua, the city 35 minutes from my post. I was pretty pissed when I found out that the game was going to be in Garoua because I HAD to take the train on the 9th in order to be in Bafia on time to help with training. anyway, Kim and I had a beer or two and watched the game. While we were sitting there, I started chatting with this chain-smoking Lebanese guy who lives in Ngaoundere now and he was a pretty interesting guy. We talked a little about religion and language and then about the conflicts that have been going on there for a while. Around half-time he got up and left and paid for our beers which was pretty awesome. Kim and I ordered some food, I got a meat sandwich that I ate there and then a hamburger that I was planning on eating on the train. I called a volunteer at the game and expressed my extreme disappointment at his lack of getting a wave started. Less than five minutes later, the TV cameras were focussed on the wave circling the whole stadium. Kudos to you, Mike.
After the game (a disappointing 1-1, own-goal tie) Kim and I got our stuff together and made our way down to the train station and got there at about 5. The train is normally supposed to leave at 6 but when we pulled up, we didn't see it there. We heard an announcement which I thought said something along the lines of "the train will leave an hour and a half late" but kim thought said something about 1:30 in the morning. Anyway, I ordered a beer and said "well, if the train's leaving soon then I'll have to finish this quickly and we'll hop on." I asked our bartender if he had any news on the train and he shrugged and said "nothing. It hasn't come yet." Normally, the train gets in at around 10am, so I thought he meant it hadn't come back from being serviced yet, but he clarified and said "no, it hasn't arrived from Yaounde yet." Merde. About that time I got a call from Brian, the volunteer in Ngaoundere who said he'd just got a call from another volunteer, Anais, who was on the train and stuck about 3 or 4 hours south of Ngaoundere because the engine was broken and they were waiting for another one to come and pick them up. After this, I called Anais and I said, "so you think it'll be about 3 or 4 hours 'till it gets here?" to which she replied, "try 8 or 9 hours." Merde.
So I went into the train station and talked to a woman who gave me her phone number, said to go home and call her in two hours and she'd let me know the news. So Kim and I gathered up all our stuff, headed back to the peace corps house, ate the food we'd bought for the train, and then I went to grab a beer with Brian and one of the guards for a business next door. We sat around for a while and around 8 I called the woman again and she said "it's still not here, call back in two hours." I didn't mind too much, though, because I was having a decent time shooting the shit with Brian and his friend. Around 10, I tried to call her again and she didn't answer. Being overly optimistic, Kim and I thought maybe the train had arrived and she was too busy to answer her phone. So we went back to the station and, my god, it looked like a refugee camp. Hundreds of people crammed into a small waiting room, sleeping on the floor, fluorescent lights glaring down. We found the woman who said, "train's still not here, call back in two hours." So (for the third time that day) we went back to the peace corps house. We watched an episode of the office, though I started falling asleep during it. We started another episode when Jessie, one of the volunteers at the house came out and said "you guys came back?! I thought I just heard the train whistle." Then, we called the woman again and couldn't really make out if the train was leaving in an hour and a half or if it would arrive in an hour and a half. I called this guy Brian knew and he said "the train will arrive in 13 minutes." So, it being about midnight, Kim and I gathered our stuff again and made our way over to the train station.
The train had just pulled up when we arrived and so we put our stuff down out front of the station and sat there for about an hour, during which time the train pulled away to be serviced and cleaned. There were so many people inside that we couldn't really see the doors so around 1 we moved inside, pretty close to the front. Needless to say, I was getting a little grouchy. The German girl standing behind me who's backpack kept hitting me in the head wasn't helping. Kim and I sat on our moto helmets, backpacks between our legs and essentially took turns dozing off until the train finally came back from being serviced around three. Everybody stood up and the porters started coming through pushing people aside and carrying bags around. One guy in front of me pushed a porter who was trying to get through and yelled at him "there's no room here! Go back and around!" then the porter tried to go past me and I did essentially the same thing, which really pissed him off. He started yelling at me about how we're not at "Chez les blancs" and how he doesn't like "les blancs" in his country and how if he dropped that bag, I would have to pay for it. I then used some of the nifty French my French friend in Ngong taught me to tell the guy to piss off and find someone else to bother. When he persisted I increased my profanity and was actually quite proud at how in my tired state I was able to express myself how I would in the states when some jackass is judging you based on arbitrary reasons. When the guy kept muttering things about me as he was walking away I loudly said something about how if he wasn't drunk he could probably walk straight and stop bumping into everyone. Those who weren't too tired laughed at the idiot walking away.
The doors opened a few minutes later and Kim and I made it to our cabin, claimed the top bunks, and then discovered out window didn't open. Shiiiiit. I was too tired really to care, so I just went to sleep and then I think we left sometime after four. Around 8, I woke up because an annoying guard came in and demanded the two Cameroonians in the room pay him money for some onions they had in a box. Then, after 10 minutes of arguing and they paying him, he finally started to leave. As he was closing the door, though, he started bothering them again about something and I sat up in bed, looked at the guard and said "We are trying to sleep. Get out of here and stop bothering us." He started apologizing and explaining to which I said, "I don't care. You can't see I want to sleep? You talking is not helping." Well, I didn't really get back to sleep after that as it was too hot in the room so I went out to the front of the car where a couple guards were hanging out and had the doors of the train open. In the US this would be against quite a few safety regulations but here, well, one of the doors didn't even latch closed. So I sat there, on the floor, next to the bathroom, between two open doors and two guards and let the cool wind blow over me. I talked with one of the guards for a while and then found out he was Congolese. A little later I found out he was actually a UNHCR (UN human crisis relief) Refugee who'd been in Cameroon for a few years. Really nice guy and for the next three hours I spent sitting with them and talking. Kim and I split a plate of chicken and fries and then she came out to sit with us too. Around 3ish, (keep in mind the train normally arrives at 9 or 10am) it started raining, and the cool mist wafting in the doorway felt so soothing and relaxing after all the heat and grime. I stood a little behind the doorway at one point and let my head get wet. Then I went back to our room and tried to sleep, which I accomplished for about an hour and a half before the heat because too much again. When I woke up, I looked down at the lower bunks at the food the Cameroonians had purchased and seeing that it was baton de manioc (a very stinky cassava concoction) I decided it was time to go hang out with my guard buddies at the front again. Well, Kim and I ended hanging out there until we got to Yaounde, about another 1.5-2 hours. Finally, a little after seven we got in to the train station. By far the worst train ride of my life, and one of my worst experiences here, so far, but there are a few silver linings. And they are...

I wasn't alone so I had someone to commiserate with.
I didn't have to quickly finish my beer at the Ngaoundere train station.
At least there was a cool place at the front of my car, albeit next to the bathroom.
I wasn't stuck on it for 36 hours like the volunteers who had been on their way up.

Well, maybe bronze linings is a more accurate description. Hopefully the train has recovered and isn't so shitty on the way back up on thursday.