After we went to the gorilla sanctuary that first week, we spent the afternoon near the village of Ebogo, on the River Nyong; a group of villagers gives dug-out canoe rides on the boats they’ve made. We parked the van and walked down toward the river—this is Fabian, one of the school’s drivers and the guy who sold us our car. He knows everyone, and as we were driving down this random dirt road in the middle of the forest, we passed a beat-up truck, and the two men in it honked and waved, yelling, “Hey Fabi!” Impressive.
Before we went on the canoes, we stopped at the little outdoor restaurant by the river. Some of the teachers had been there before and said the food wasn’t very good (and expensive), but we still wanted to support them. As a compromise, we brought our own sandwiches but everyone bought drinks.
While we were eating, it started to pour, and it was even louder than usual because the place had a tin roof. 
It cleared up quickly, as it always does here, and we headed out on the water; Brian let me sit in front. 
I’m going to use this as a way to introduce a few of our friends here. The person in the front of this boat is Anjana. She’s from the Bronx, teaches the combined second-and-third-grade class, has a hilarious sense of humor, and is a semi-professional poker player. Behind her is Angela (yes, their names get switched a lot), who is a student teacher in ESL from UNI—she connected with the director at the same fair where we got hired. She leaves in a few weeks to do the other half of her student teaching in Senegal, and she’ll be missed. (Notice the different types of chairs in each boat—these are cane-back chairs with the legs sawed off.) 
This is Dusty and Lara, another teaching couple. He’s the PE teacher and is originally from Phoenix, and she’s from Syria and teaches first grade. (They met when he was teaching in Damascus.) We’re taking an African drumming class on Wednesday nights, and they’re the other people in it with us. (Their chairs are sawed-off deck lounges.) 
Kevin is the counselor at ASOY and is from Oklahoma. Elaine is the wife of the school’s assistant director and is a chiropractor—Brian has enjoyed that addition to our little community. She’s from Alberta originally, but she and Harry lived in Saudi Arabia for 8 years before coming to Yaoundé last year. They’ve both really helped the new teachers find their way around and are some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. 
As you can see, the chairs in her boat are car seats. Very resourceful. 
It was so peaceful drifting along the river. 
Here’s a feet shot for Emily! 
At the far point of our journey, we pulled to the side to get out and explore a little. 
This is a shot across the river—the trees have really interesting shapes here, and I liked these tall, skinny ones. 
You can’t see them that well, but there were pretty little pink flowers along the grasses where we tied up the boats. 
During the heart of the rainy season, the river rises quite a bit, as you can see from the exposed roots of this tree, which would be under water. 
Walking through the forest felt like being on a movie set—everything was so green, and vines snaked up most of the trees. 
Jean Paul, the group’s leader and the person who paddled our canoe, showed us just how strong the vines are! 
He also showed us the orange caterpillars that you see in all the forests here. 
Elaine got to hold it, too. 
We hiked to a massive tree that reminded us of the ones we saw on our trip out west last summer. Brian thinks it was some kind of cypress. Here’s the whole group in front of its base. 
And this is looking up into its branches. 
It started to rain on our hike back to the boats, so the guides herded us towards a big overhanging rock that we could stand under. We had to wade across a small creek to get to it, and when we hesitated the guides said, “No insects—it’s ok!” We hadn’t actually been worried about parasites, so that wasn’t really reassuring; we didn’t have much choice, though, so Anjana and I led the way. (We were pretty pleased with ourselves.) 
Here’s one of the guides helping Elaine cross. 
The rock did the trick and we stayed perfectly dry. It actually ended up being a highlight of the trip to watch the rain from beneath it. 
Once again, the skies cleared, and the ride back was even more beautiful than the first leg. 
The water was calm and glassy, and the paddles dipping into it lulled all of us into a daze. We tried to post a video so you could hear the sound, but it wouldn’t load right; this picture gives a decent visual representation, though. I remembered the word the Peruvians always used: tranquilo. 
When we neared the shore, we took pictures of the hill where the restaurant was…
…we didn’t realize that at the same time, our friends Brent and Tom, who had stayed behind after lunch, were taking pictures of us coming in.
I like this shot of our four canoes approaching the dock.
And this photo makes me laugh because Brian looks so cramped, even though it was actually very comfortable.
Dusty and Lara took the relaxation part of it to a new level.
Before we drove back to Yaoundé, I took one last shot down the river. The clouds here are always amazing, and this day was no exception. We had such a good time and definitely want to do it again—hint, hint for those of you thinking of visiting!
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