photos from Douala

We arrived at the Procure Generale des Missions Catholiques guesthouse in Douala in the late afternoon, on the second day of our road trip. I took a few pictures of their beautiful chapel, and a few portraits in the late afternoon light that show some of the city of Douala in the background. The guesthouse itself was the most architecturally comfortable place we've been in Cameroon, for us -- a no-frills, rambling place with big verandas and comfortable furniture, high ceilings, and plenty of light and space. The Cameroonian sense of space, and architectural use of light, is very different -- houses tend to be much darker and more full of furniture than back home, and often have more residents as well, at least in our limited acquaintance. This place felt European. The fact that Christi and the Belgian Catholic brother who checked us in were speaking Dutch probably had something to do with that. After dinner we sat outside in the warm Douala night drinking beers and talking late.



The chapel, with afternoon light streaming in.

Chapel windows.

A chapel statue.

This is Isaac, who drove for us on this trip, on the veranda at the guesthouse. He said he had a good time.

Me and Ann.

Ann.

Christi. You can just see a bit of the pool through the rail behind her, but we didn't swim.

This is Douala, a small slice of it anway, looking toward the ocean from the veranda. Ann said it looked like West Oakland.

Self-portrait with stiff upper lip.

The veranda upstairs. There were two, one atop the other. The one downstairs had more shade and more comfortable lounge furniture. It was so nice up here, at the end of the day, that I just said in a chair and read, in spite of the hot sun.

Christi, Ann and Isaac talking as night fell, looking at the lights across the water.