Gandalf Around The World: Yaoundé, Cameroon

Yaoundé, 2019-09-03/05. Two days in the orphanage with Mariane and her team.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Arrival in Yaoundé

Yaoundé

The orphanage is located at the end of a 1.5 km dirt track in the south of Yaoundé. We can only find it thanks to the coordinates of iOverlander because nothing indicates it. Even at the gate we are not sure we are really there. I ring. A young person opens after a while, he confirms that we are in the orphanage and that, yes, it is possible to camp here, they are used to it! But we have to wait ten minutes for the manager to come and open the gate for us.
Her name is Marianne, a very jovial pretty woman and responsible for the site with her husband. We settle in the paved parking lot next to the villa. Marianne asks us to wait for Baba, her right arm who will explain the terms of the stay. It is this young man who is in charge of the hotel business, if you can call it so.

Gandalf at the Yaoundé orphanage

In the meantime, she is chilling a beer for us for a later.
I don't know if I'm going to last tonight because the day has worn me out. I begin by collapsing on the bench. It must be said that the climate is no longer as pleasant as in the mountains, we have again almost 30 ° C in the cabin.
Baba arrives and pulls me out of my torpor. Camping costs 5000 CFA per night. He shows me the showers and explains some additional details including those concerning the catering. For this evening we will do without. We're just going to be happy with a good salad in the motorhome, because we had good lunch at noon. Of course, I got our beer from Marianne.
It starts raining a bit, but nothing really very serious.

Wednesday. September 4, 2019

At around 11:00 am Marianne offers to show us around the facilities. The orphanage, created by a Polish father, can accommodate up to just over 40 children. Today around 20 orphans of all ages reside there. Marianne shows us the children's rooms, the stores, the storage area and much more. It is very well kept and well equipped. It is an orphanage where life is good and the children feel very good there. Unfortunately no state aid exists, it is exclusively funded by donations and support from the Polish father who no longer lives here but in Poland and who organizes the containers. Once again the state takes advantage of foreign goodness and shies away from its responsibilities under the motto "why should I put money into this kind of project since foreigners take care of it?"


Marianne shows us around the orphanage.

Very beautiful flowers adorn the garden.

The building with the children's rooms.

The storage

Marianne will also show us around the villa where she lives with her husband. A very nice house with modern and functional equipment.

Marianne and Christine in the living room of the house.

Christine is helped by Salomé for the washing by hand. Salomé is not longer a child for a long time with her thirty years. But she's still a girl from the orphanage. One of the first to have been collected. She left for Gabon after completing her training in the hotel branch. She had 2 children before leaving her partner and coming back to live here. She's looking for a new job.

Two other women are peeling and drying peanuts. One of them is completely blind from a strange illness. Google will explain us later that it is Lyell syndrome, a very rare disease affecting about one in a million people a year worldwide. In the vast majority of cases, this is an allergic reaction to certain drugs. The symptoms are terrifying: the skin swells up and eventually peels off, leaving the flesh alive in the open air, similar to major burns. The mucous membranes (mouth, eyes, etc.) are also concerned. Despite this stroke of fate, Merveille, that's her name, is a jovial young woman and although 100% blind, she makes pretty little pearl bags and elegant clothes as well.
We took advantage of the visit to order tonight's meal. It will be fish.
We will spend a quiet but hardworking afternoon. The children come home from school around 1:00 p.m. and immediately the site comes alive. But the kids are really lovely and don't bother us as we so often experience.

Marianne has set up a table for us in front of her villa to eat this evening. Mackerel, sea bass and fries washed down with two large beers.