A WELL-OILED MACHINE Whoever said travel is glamorous has never spent the night in an airport. That one guy in France who lived in the airport for years has my utmost admiration. I have thus far spent time in nine different airports on this trip. I’ll be in double digits by the time I …
Monday, January 23, 2023 I am writing this travel post while enroute to Tanzania. After a three-hour flight delay last night in Bhubaneswar, I had to run at a pretty good clip for about a mile down the concourse to make my flight connection in Delhi to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I proudly refer to …
It has been an exciting couple of days here in Gopalpur. On Thursday morning I awakened somewhat refreshed and finally feeling at full strength after the long journey to get here. After my morning hygiene routine, I fumbled through my luggage and realized I had left some toiletries and my bag of Starbucks coffee and …
After almost 40 hours of travel, we finally arrived in Bhubaneswar, which is known as the “City of Temples.” While we made it unscathed, I cannot say the same for my brand-new luggage, which suffered significant damage to one of the wheel rollers making it difficult to roll. But despite this minor annoyance, it was …
I’m excited to commence my travel schedule for 2023 with a trip to India and Tanzania. Even more exciting is that one of my dear friends and ITEM Associate Trainer Caleb Hilbert is with me. Caleb pastors one of the great churches in the Pacific Northwest called Lewis and Clark Bible Church in Astoria, Oregon. …
Dotted along the gold coast of Ghana are a series of glistening 16th century slave castles, magnificent in beauty and nefarious in purpose. Inside these haunted walls, an unspeakable terror occurred. African slaves captured and sold to the European colonizers were herded into prison cells awaiting their passage to the New World where they would be divorced from their families and culture, given new names, and spend the rest of their days in miserable servitude in a foreign land without any hope of freedom. The door through which these condemned slaves passed to board ships to the New World came to be known as “The Door of No Return.”
It has been quite an eventful couple of days since my last post. On Saturday morning we departed from Bafoussam before sunrise for Yaoundé. About two hours into the trip, just as the sun had risen–its golden rays accentuating the glory of the rolling verdant countryside and dazzling my eyes–it happened again. Our vehicle broke down! Unfortunately, this time we were in the middle of nowhere, the closest town located about thirty minutes away. If I were superstitious, I might be tempted to believe I have a curse attached to me since this keeps happening.
It was an interesting night to say the least. Beside my hotel is a huge bus station. In front of the hotel is a taxi stand along with several food vendors. Then there is a DJ who brings his van and parks in the bus lot and blasts music pretty much all night. Though to his credit, he is quite an animated DJ. It’s hard to describe the perfect storm of traffic and noise that converge at this hotel. Perhaps the most annoying thing is the unrelenting fury of horns blaring from vehicles because the entrances are blocked with taxis and boda-bodas.
It was an interesting night to say the least. Beside my hotel is a huge bus station. In front of the hotel is a taxi stand along with several food vendors. Then there is a DJ who brings his van and parks in the bus lot and blasts music pretty much all night. Though to his credit, he is quite an animated DJ. It’s hard to describe the perfect storm of traffic and noise that converge at this hotel. Perhaps the most annoying thing is the unrelenting fury of horns blaring from vehicles because the entrances are blocked with taxis and boda-bodas.
I have a difficult time sleeping in a hot room. I mentioned in my previous post that the air conditioning wasn’t working, and the room was stifling hot when I arrived. Fortunately, it is the rainy season in Cameroon which means cooler temperatures. So, I slept with the windows open and got enough air circulation to sleep decently. Having awakened around 6:30am I endured a cold shower (or more like a rinse bath) and repacked my suitcases for our trip to Bafoussam. Then it was down to the hotel restaurant to meet my host Joseph Ngwani for breakfast.
