Travelling Breakdown

September 20, 2012 – Thursday

Travelling day

Location: JFK to Brussels

10:15am: Leave Crowne Plaza hotel for JFK

12:30pm: Arrive at JFK

4:30pm: Meet at gate 37

6:45pm: American Airlines flight 172 leaves JFK for Brussels

 

September 21, 2012 – Friday

Travelling day

Location: Yaoundé, Felydac Hotel

7:00am: (Belgium time) we arrive in Brussels

9:45am: Leave Brussels for Yaoundé

5:45pm: (Cameroon time) arrive in Doula, remain on the plane.

6:20pm: Leave Doula for Yaounde

6:50pm: Arrive in Yaounde

7:15pm: Meet Jackie and Sally and prepare to head out.

8:30pm: All trainees on the bus.

9:30pm: Arrive at the hotel

Only half of our luggage at Hotel Felydac

 

We were met at the airport by Jackie Sesonga, the Peace Corps Officer of Transportation and three Host Volunteers, Yaya an Environmental volunteer who is almost done with her two years of service, Kristen who is a Health volunteer and Laura who is a Youth Development volunteer (like me!), Laura and Kristen have both been serving in Cameroon for a little over a year now.  

Yaoundé is the capital city of Cameroon, while Doula is bigger and the commercial center – kind of like Washington DC and New York. 

Peace Corps Cameroon is a great thing to be a part of.  It is the longest continuous-running Peace Corps program in the world, with our group of PCTs happening to arrive just in time for the 50^th anniversary, which is pretty cool.  I think our swearing-in ceremony which is November 21^st (Uji’s birthday! And the day before Thanksgiving) will be quite a big celebration.  There is also currently 178 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) plus us 55 PCTs, which means there is a wealth of experience to learn from.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to explore the city at all.  They didn’t let us leave the hotel unless we were doing PC business (which of course was with drivers and escorts), and there were always 2 Gendarmes, which are the military police, with AK47s guarding us.  The staff explained to us that it was necessary to have the Gendarmes accompany us because we didn’t have all of our immigration paperwork completed.