anniversary in Kribi

Here are a few pics from Kribi, the coastal resort town three hours from Yaounde. Some coworkers invited us down with them for the weekend before New Years'. We stayed at a hotel, swam, saw the waterfalls, went out for dinner. Ann got food poisoning the night of our anniversary, and the power and water went out in the room, so she had no air conditioning or running toilet. But they found us a new room the next day, and she started feeling better. The ocean was about 70 degrees, and the waves were high enough (~1 meter) to do a little body-surfing. You can see fishermen in dugout canoes on the water, and further out, tankers refueling at the offshore oil pipeline terminus. It's beautiful and hot with a steady ocean breeze.

The beach at Kribi near the waterfalls, in the afternoon, with fishermen's dugout canoes.

Our journalist friend Fanny on the beach with Ann.

Valery and his son Imaan, on the beach with Ann.

Surly me, in front of the waterfalls.

The hotel room, and our first use of the mosquito net we bought in San Francisco for this trip, since our places in Yaounde both had them already. This net is treated with a nasty chemical called promethrin. I woke up with my face close to the net, having dreamed I was trapped in a room with smokers. But there's malaria in Kribi, so the net is a good idea.

Valery, Imaan and Terri. Valery is RELUFA's coordinator (essentially the director). Terri is American, and also does environmental development work for another organization. Imaan is currently unemployed. They had us over to their place for New Years' Eve right after this trip. They have invited us over every so often since we've gotten here, and Valery checks in with us at work regularly to see how we're doing. We try to repay him for this by making ourselves useful; I set up a wireless network for the office last Friday.

Kribi, near sunset.

Our new place, on the south side of town, in quartier Mvan. The small building at left with the water tank on it is the in-law unit, or dependance in French. There's a Cameroonian guy (named Guy) living in there now. We may live there ourselves the last two months of the trip, when our friends come back to Cameroon and move back into their house.