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 Douala is a full city. More than any other African
city I have been in, it throbs. Music fills the air from every
other
storefront, car and kiosk. While at 8 AM the streets are still
relatively quiet, by 9 AM they are full of cars, motorcycles,
mopeds, carts, vans, taxis and bicycles, the side walks of full of people
and
vendors - well in fact they all sort of overlap; car encroach on the sidewalks and
people walk down the streets. The city seems full of purpose and is all surges
and flows like blood through an artery, though here instead of red and white
blood cells and platelets, the stream is cars, pickups, bicycles, mopeds, vans, taxis, buses, push carts and trucks.
Pictures of the city on this page are few because urban Cameroonian seem
to love to make issues of picture taking. On the one hand they
want you to praise the country and say what a beautiful and wonderful
place it is, but if you try to take a picture of something to show your
friends what a beautiful and wonder place it is be prepared
for someone to come out of nowhere and make a not so beautiful and
wonderful issue of it.
The service at the hotel restaurant was slow and lack luster and the
food undistinguished, so we set out to have breakfast where the
Cameroonians have breakfast. A
few blocks from the hotel was a big crowd at a table
 where a woman was
cooking vegetable omelets. Sounds great to us! It looked
like a good bet so as space became available we sat down. With the
omelet you could get a baguette and coffee,
tea or chocolate. If you want the bread will come spread with
mayonnaise. Forgoing the mayonnaise, the omelets, bread and coffee
were unanimously acclaimed as excellent. Liking the food always
makes for a good start to the day. (The picture was taken with the
permission of the chef.)
 The overall initial reaction to Douala from
the group split between excitement and overwhelmed (or was that appalled
and scared.) Regardless of the nuance, it was unanimous that it was time to get out of
there and see more of the country. With some trepidation we mounted the
bicycles and heading out into traffic. For this I am happy to report that the
consensus is that bicycling
in traffic out of town wasn't as bad as everyone
expected it to be. While the motor vehicles can be squirrelly,
especially the taxis, the speeds are not too fast and the drivers in fact gave
us
plenty of space while passing our bicycles.
 In a traffic circle
(rond point Diedo) at the
edge of the downtown there was a twelve meter high statue, made largely of
found objects, that at first take is sort of a techno-man. It was not
clear to us what the symbolism is or what it commemorates, but it is provocative. It was
done by the famous Cameroonian artist/sculpture Joseph-Francis
Sumégné.
He calls it "La Nouvelle Liberté (1996). The is not a lot of
public art in Douala, but what there is is generally very striking. |
Addendum:
Our hotel had a swimming pool, which for a fee non-residents
could use -- typical in Africa.
On the weekend the pool drew a large and lively
crowd. |
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