The Adamawa 7/10

I just got back from a trip to the Adamawa, a northern region of Cameroon. A group of us took a very luxurious train to get up there. It was easily the nicest transport I've taken while in Cameroon.

The landscape was beautiful. It was very green (at this time of year) and all the grasses and trees were contrasted by the rust-colored dirt. Everything was also very flat, at least compared to the South West. Fields of grass stretched forever across the plateau, interrupted only by huts and cattle. And the cattle were everywhere! On the drive out to one particular village, we had to stop the car on three separate occasions to let the herds of cattle pass. One time, we even had to swerve to avoid hitting a cow that jumped out of the main cluster and came towards our car. 

It was really interesting to see some of the differences between the Adamawa and the South West. The people in the Adamawa are predominately muslim, and I was there during Ramadan. Each morning we were all woken up by the call to prayer and throughout the day we would see crowd of people stopping to pray along the streets and at the mosques. People dressed more conservatively, and Western clothing was rare. Nearly all men were dressed in traditional bubus and women wore elaborate pagne gowns. However, seeing women in general was less common. They were out less, and even at the market, were rare to see. In the South West, it is the women who run all the stalls and sell the goods, but in the Adamawa, it was practically all run by men. This is because many of the women stay in their compounds with their families and do not go out.

P.S. Happy Fourth of July!