What are your thoughts?

Timlapse from Dan Speicher on Vimeo.

So here is a quick recap.

we arrived in Cameroon last Sunday evening. After a flight that was way to long, we got on a bus that was WAY to cramped and headed from Douala (the most populated city) to our home for the next two weeks Kumba. Our first week was really just getting situated, opening up our office, starting some meetings, and working towards solidifying the plans for the summer. It also to us a week of continual pushing to get our internet to work for the office. Its not a hard wire system, it is a small stick like you would buy from a wireless retailer, but This Is Africa…

The weekend was spent in the capital city Yaounde. I went to my first professional soccer game, and Cameroon tied with Senegal. This was a qualifier for the African Cup,and since Senegal was ahead of Cameroon in points, they needed a win to still be competitive. People rioted, tear gas was fired, and the stadium was left missing gates that were torn down.

After a long, cramped day of buses back, a breakdown on the side of the road, and waiting for a new bus,  we finally arrived in Kumba to rest for a few hours, shower, and then for me, repeat half of the trip.

I picked Nick up at the airport, and after a long weekend of travel on buses, I was so thankful that both trips were on a bus that had a more traditional seating method. Two by two with an isle in the middle. IT WAS AWESOME! Still cramped, but significantly better than what I had been previously experiencing. For the first time I didnt feel totally suffocated and cramped. I didnt have to gently unfold my legs like I had been folded into an accordion, and wasnt seated next to five or six people on a bench made for three or four.

When we arrived in Douala, we made our way across town to meet up with a friend of ours named Biggie. Biggie works as a security guard, and used to be a bouncer at a club.He would fit in so well with the American night club scene… Dude is a hustler and a father of two beautiful children. We went to his girlfriends house, where his youngest baby lives,and hung out till it was time to shoot over to the airport and pick Nick up, In typical African fashion, we were late, and the odd thing his plane was early.

We made our way back across town and two taxi’s and 1000 FRC (about $2.25) we arrived at the bus park. Again, God was smiling down because we got on the same bus that we had taken into town, and while it is a bit slower, the comfort to me is worth the extra time that it takes.

Dinner was an amazing fish stew over rice, and since the power had gone in the house, we ate with a flashlight illuminating the room. A cold shower and a way to short conversation with you and I went to bed as sweat poured out of my body. A massive rainstorm then came, and cooled the room down to a nice almost comfortable temperature.

Today we worked out in the morning, and had crepes with a chocolate hazelnut spread (similar to nutella) and Im now at the office watching the electrician try and fix the fan switch, while Nick sits in the corner and reads, and Justin and the team are out meeting with a lawyer, and then on to the city council to try and get a permit for this health summit that we would like to produce.

After I finish this, I am heading out to shoot some portraits of people around the office. I want to shoot a video portrait series, in an unconventional way. If it works, awesome, if not it could be a massive failure, Time will tell. I am also going to be shooting photos. which is something that I have not been doing enough of, It is very hard to juggle cameras, and intent.

On the bus home: First day in Cameroon

Biggie with "little biggie"

I had planned this on being a longer introduction, but i wasnt saving often enough, and when I went to publish the post, my internet had kicked out and I lost everything. So here are a few photos since I am heading to breakfast. 

I still vividly recall mass graves. Thousands of bodies dumped into the earth, unceremoniously left to rot. A woman I met, missing part of her skull from the swing of the machete, her husband murdered just a few years before by Hutu militia attacks, was left her fending for her children on her own.

I was 18. The nightmares I had are still vividly burned into my memory. The nightmare that killed nearly 1 million Rwandans and left so many more with broken families struggling to survive, dwarfs mine in comparison.

With a slogan of “Never Forget”, Rwanda works towards rebuilding, yet the threat of Hutu militia still looms over unprotected towns and villages in the Congo and Rwandan countryside.

I’ve been to Uganda and Kenya since then, and this summer I head to Cameroon to work with a the Cameroon Football Development Program. We will be working with schools to leverage soccer to start a conversation on HIV awareness and prevention, conflict resolution, leadership skills, and basic health and other life skills. To learn more visit CFDP and take a look around.

If I have time to get home this week, I’ll find some of my very amateur photos from the trip. Until then visit the link and view James Nachtwey’s amazing photos from there in 1994.