Day 10: The Professors (Dschang)

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Day 10: The Professors (Dschang)

Written by Eric Mathurin

Sunday, 11 November 2007

We slept like the dead last night, only waking up from David's knock on Il's door. We did our usual preparations and hit a restaurant on the edge of town for our usual omelets and Nescafé.

David says:
A prominent feature of Bamileke architecture, especially for chieftaincies, is multiple high pointed roofs. Traditionally these roofs were covered with thatch. The modern adaptation is corrugated metal roofing. There is other common decorative motifs as well: Carvings or drawing frequently contain double gongs, spiders, turtles, lizards, snakes, lions, leopards, elephants and other symbols of power, wisdom, longevity and health.

The folding system on my handlebars had been rattling/shaky so I tried to fix it. The end result is that the handlebar post won't fold anymore. That's not an issue until it's time to leave — but hopefully it'll shake itself loose again.

It was another easy day of cycling — flat, some rolling, and a light net descent to Dschang. We saw some interesting architecture (Il upset a gendarme by taking a picture of a palace — she thought it was allowed) and we stopped for a short break in one of the villages along the way.

A midafternoon break.

Towards Dschang we met some long hills, but were rewarded with a nice descent into town, which is about 1,400 metres above sea level. Dschang is a university town — they have about 16,000 students — and one of the nicest we've been in, both in appearance and general friendliness. People still take ganders at us, but there are few outright stares or catcalls.

We had a lunch of rice and beans and then Julius took us to visit his "uncle" (who is actually his wife's uncle), a professor at the university. Their house is on a quiet road on university grounds — both the houses and classroom next door are actually rented from a cacao plantation.

A woman selling us some boiled peanuts as our afternoon snack.

We were introduced to Fai, a physics and math professor at the university, his wife Patricia, and the rest of the extended family and children. We had some interesting conversation on a variety of subjects and I also had the chance to attend to my bike — the brakes needed some readjustment due to my disappearing brake pads. We took turns bucket-bathing until we were all relatively clean again. And ate delicious fruit salad.

David says:
Another chemist we met was studying the active chemical in traditional medical plants that were used to treat diabetes.

Gill climbing a hill.

We went out in the late afternoon for a walk into town. It definitely has that distinct university-town feel: so many students walking around looking cool with their clothes and ear buds and other modern accoutrements. As with everywhere else though we had to pay constant attention to avoid being mowed down by motorcycles.

Back at the house we relaxed while dinner was being prepared. Then the power went out (and already there's no running water). Candles were lit and when dinner was brought out it was a delicious cabbage-type dish with fish in it, plus sides of cassava and potato.

A view of Dschang from the university grounds.

Fai brought out his laptop so David could give himself to his email while they served us coffee with honey from Kumbo and everyone else chatted and enjoyed themselves. The candles, fire, coffee and conversation made for a relaxing and convivial end to the day.

Because there weren't enough beds in the house for all six of us it was decided that David and I would sleep at the apartment of a friend of the professor's. Around 9:00pm two motorcycle taxis came up the pitch-black road to the house. Martin, an assistant lecturer, rode on one and the other was for David and me. The two of us got on the back — with me about half on the rear rack. With a death grip on the back bar we rode thebumpy roads into town, occasionally bottoming out the bike's suspension. It was actually an exhilarating ride though I had to repeat my mantra inside: "Must not die... must not die... must not die..."

Martin, our very sweet host for the evening.

Martin was so sweet and seemed genuinely happy and excited to see us. His wife is a doctor in another town and he only sees her one week a time each month. We chatted for an hour or so before retiring to our comfortable room. There is both power and running water here so we actually kind of lucked out!

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