Exploring Beyond the Familiar Streets
Good day. December 19th. Today it was time to look around a bit further in town. That quickly led me through some fairly rough neighborhoods. The roads aren’t finished, which makes getting around difficult. You end up weaving through holes and broken sections. This is during the dry season, so from that perspective it could be worse, but it still slows everything down.
A Missed Visit and a Shifted Plan
Looking ahead, I found out there is an Angolan representation here. I managed to locate it, although it wasn’t very clear that this was actually the right place. After waiting for about an hour with nobody showing up, I decided to skip that plan entirely. Most likely, that’s something I’ll need to handle later on in Cameroon.
Searching for Coffee and Food
After that, I went looking for a place to grab coffee, tea, or something to eat. That search is often less straightforward than it sounds. Quite often, the place I’m hoping to find either doesn’t exist at all or exists somewhere else entirely, and I just can’t figure out where.
Eventually, I found a place that was acceptable, though it had its own complications. Every time the person helping me needed something, he had to go out through another door to a different part of the store to retrieve it. Everything took a while, but I had the time, so I just went with it.
Evening Music and an Unexpected Encounter
In the evening, I was hoping to find some music. I did find a spot close to where I’m staying, but it didn’t really start until much later, so I ended up waiting around for a bit.
While doing that, I ran into two German guys in their mid-twenties. One of them is on a mission to attend soccer games in as many countries as possible. They don’t have to be big matches, but he insists on watching the entire game in person, on the field, not on a screen.
He’s already been to 64 countries doing this and somehow missed several that are close to Germany, so there are still plenty he can easily add. They were only in town for a few days, and then one of them was heading off to India to do something similar. He seems to be traveling the world almost entirely through soccer.
Watching the Crowd as Much as the Game
Soccer is hugely popular across Africa, especially with Morocco having done well recently. I often come across games playing on screens, even if it’s not always clear who’s actually playing. Still, sometimes it’s more entertaining to watch the crowd than the match itself.
That’s how the day unfolded. Thanks for coming along, and we’ll see more tomorrow.
