Yaounde Notebook- Day 1
Malkia Strikers’ Mercy Moim (left) and Rose Magoi in action during their training session at at the Palais polyvalent des sports (Paposy) Arena in Yaounde, Cameroon on August 14, 2023.
What you need to know:
- It just struck me that someone who left work on Friday last week will only return to the office on Wednesday.
- Kenyans’ rich appetite for Sherehe would really thrive in Cameroon. What a country!
Visa troubles at Nsimalen Airport, and mystery of an expired passport
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On Sunday, Team Kenya landed at Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport at 1:45pm local time and endured long delays at the visa section. Cameroon’s e-visa platform has been unavailable for almost a week so visas are processed manually on arrival.
Armed with letters from the Kenyan and Cameroonian volleyball federations, and a letter from the Kenyan Ministry of Sports, we were confident we would get visas on arrival at Yaounde. But every letter we presented to the visa officials was quickly rejected.
The language barrier only served to make the situation worse. A Cameroonian with an expired passport also on the queue, hoping to be cleared! Immigration officials kept us waiting and just when we were about to lose hope, one local sports official arrived with a letter bearing our names and ensured we were quickly cleared.
When my Team Kenya jacket betrayed me at Cameroon’s team training camp
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Wearing a Team Kenya track suit to tournaments comes with a fair share of benefits, but it also has its cons as I realized on Sunday night.
Sometime last year while returning home from a trip, I realised that I didn’t have my Yellow Fever certificate which Ministry of Health officials needed me to show on arrival at JKIA.
Because I was wearing a red Team Kenya jacket, the MoH official at the airport quickly ushered me back saying: “Ndugu, naona ndio kurudi, mbio ilikuwa aje? (My brother, I can see you’re back, how was your race)?”
But on Sunday night at Paposy Arena in Yaounde, I was a victim of my favourite Kenyan jacket. As Cameroon players were warming up to play a friendly match against Morocco, a team official spotted me at the entrance and ordered me out. Perhaps he suspected that I was spying for Team Kenya.
Kenyans would surely die for Cameroon’s back-to-back ‘holidays’
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Tuesday is a public holiday here in Cameroon as Catholics celebrate Assumption Day when Mary, the mother of Jesus, passed on and went to be with the Lord.
According to Law No. 73/5 which governs Public Holidays in Cameroon, any day that lies between two public holidays becomes a holiday. Sundays are considered public holidays in Cameroon therefore Monday becomes a public holiday automatically since it lies between Sunday and Tuesday.
It just struck me that someone who left work on Friday last week will only return to the office on Wednesday.
Kenyans’ rich appetite for Sherehe would really thrive in Cameroon. What a country!
