Contest: My Best Holiday

I still remember the day clear as day; my mother came to school on a Tuesday morning to inform the principal and I that she got a call from Yaounde, saying I was one of the scholarship receipients from the Northwest Region based on my performance in the national First School Leaving Certificate. The scholarship was sponsored by Brasseries du Cameroun, it produced soft drinks and beer. I was excited to go to Yaounde again. I had gone to Yaounde twice before and since it was school related, I was with teacher's and students so I didn't get to look at the scenery much. This time around, it'll be with my mother.

On Friday morning, we almost missed the trip due to misinformation on the time of takeoff but miraculously met the bus on the way and got on. I met an ex-classmate on the bus and I felt relief seeing a familiar face. We waved and that was about it. We weren't close because we were in different sections in our bilingual primary school; he in the French and I in the English section.

(Street in Mbouda :Facebook.com)

The journey was an exciting one. We travelled through Mbouda, then Baffoussam, passed through Makenene - a stop for travelling passengers to get out and buy food stuffs -, crossed the River Sanaga and finally arrived in Yaounde. I recall our bus having a busted tire along the way. We had to sit in the bus for about an hour before help finally arrived. There were a lot of rest stops due to the amount of drinks they kept giving us.

(River Sanaga : en.wikipedia.org)

(Makenene : shutterstock.com

(Roundabout in Yaounde : awalemag.com)

When we arrived in Yaounde, the time was about 4:00 pm GMT +1. The coordinator took us on a short bus tour. I listened mostly to my mother who showed and explained what the different structures were. She had spent some part of her teenage life growing up in Yaounde after all. By 5:30 pm, we were taken to the Yaounde branch site of Les Brasseries du Cameroon.

(Brasseries du Cameroun : lesbrasseriesducameroun.com)

We were given some instructions on how the program was going to look like the next day. Then our t-shirts and badges were handed over to us.
After that, and some more drinks, we were split into groups and driven to our respective hotels. I made a friend called Anthony during that time. We were lodged in Hotel Jouvence 2000. It was a beautiful and grand hotel, one I'd seen only in the advertisements.

(Hotel Jouvence 2000 : loger.cm)

We took the stairs cuz I was scared of the elevator. There were few buildings with elevators back in Bamenda and I had watched too many movies where people get stuck in elevators.

More drinks were waiting for us in our room and I was honestly tired of it. Our dinner was not sponsored but it was really late at night and we were not used to the environment. There were some tangerines that we bought in Makenene and that was what we ate that night. We took our bath and went to sleep, the bed felt like it was made up of fluffy clouds.

The next morning on Saturday, we dressed and went to the lobby where we got our breakfast. We then drove back to the Brasseries site and got seated for the ceremony. I was with the other receipients and was luckily placed beside Anthony. The ceremony went on well and the scholarships were given. My best part though, was the huge all you can eat buffet table laid out before us. It turned out that my mother had made a friend of Anthony's mother.
If there's anything I regret, it's that the photographer didn't have any film put in when we took memorable photos that day. Lol indeed. That was the best two day holiday of my life.
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