Clean Water
in
Cameroon
Day 14: Leaving Djottin, back to Kumbo
Today has been a day of Cameroonian organisation! Some of the members of the village development association are very keen to have electricity in the village; there is an abundance of streams around, so hydropower seems like the best option. First thing this morning, we met up with one of the commitee who showed us where they were thinking they could take water from and install the generators. Afterwards, we sat around waiting for the water committee to turn up - we'd arranged a meeting at an indeterminate time in the morning - and also for our ride back to Kumbo to arrive - with a similar degree of precision in the timing. Eventually, both arrived together (fortunately, one of the two people driving us back to Kumbo was the president of the village development association, who had plenty of business himself with the water committee, so we had time to discuss everything we needed to).
Mid-afternoon brought one of the heaviest rainstorms of our trip so far, with thunder and lightning a few times a minute for an hour or so. We left Djottin along the rain-soaked road, and the powerful 4x4 only needed a push once; as we left and climbed out of the valley, we could see the Western Highlands forming a spectacular backdrop to the valley, shining a lush green in the setting sun and wreathed in a rising mist from the earlier rain. By the time we returned to Kumbo, the sun had long set, and we just had time for a meal, shower and bed.