Step over Project Runway; our group are the winners!

Our group loves themed parties and so, more than a month ago when Suzanne announed that her party was going to be a ABC party, everyone put on their thinking caps to decide how to dress in Anything BUT Clothes.
Over the four weeks you started getting clues as to what people had in mind; Randy collected everyone's empty bottles (usually these go to the children alongside the road -- (the BEST gift for children is an emtpty bottle!) and drove everyon dilly with the big bags of empty bottle taking up valuable space), John collected egg cartons, Elisa collected old packs of cards, Emy collected plastic bags, I collected news magazines, Kyle newspapers, Tash empty cigarette boxes and Suzanne everyone's empty plastic water bags. We had a clue, yes, but not one of us expected outfits quite as ingenious as those that pitched up to the party!
Project Runway -- you have NOTHING on this group's creativity and design!

Suzanne blowing her birthday candles. As both French and Englis are used in Camaroun, we decided to have an English as well as a French cake for the occasion.










The birthday card was Elisa's idea: while we were on one of the worst roads ever, we each had to draw a portrait of Suzanne. The end result is rather hilarious









The card game "Arsehole", everyone's favourite game, served as Elisa's beautiful playing card dress -- with the Jack of Diamonds of course enjoying the focus position. Little running deer aka Suzanne was justly proud of everyone's creations.






Andrew has been longing for the day when we open the locker with the breakfast cereals so was somewhat miffed with Ben when he saw his outfit: the Kelloggs Man. It's OK Andrew, the cereals are still safe in the locker!
Andrew had to be content with but cut a dashing pose in a giant gold stallion rice bag.







John collected egg cartons (which means that we have all definitely not been looking after our cholestrol levels!) and Orm braved the elements with nothing more than a hoolahoop draped with plastic shopping bags.





Our leader came in the truck -- side tarps, lockers and passengers artistically included-- Brilliant!

Les Girls




Emy's shopping bag outfit - steps out of Alice's Wonderland: our very own Queen of Hearts!











Tony made sure we will not run out of flour again on this trip
and Birthday Girl and Captain America (dressed in plastic bottles!) pose for the papparazi

Madonna in cigarettes, Canadian-and-proud-to-be-Suzanne, dressed in colourful wash cloths, and Kyle in a newspaper tutu.
Note the details in Tash's outfit : down to the necklace and earrings






Suzanne enjoying her party.

A banquet was prepared -- enough food for a crowd!







Suzanne with one of her gifts: a bird of paradise flower. (David insists that he paid for it and did NOT steal it)











She steps into the open, probably looking slightly different from when she did so for the first time 25 years ago, and the birthday cake.

A classically African experience : by guest contributor Randall Ward

I was standing at a window table in a cafe enjoying some microwaved pizza (which is actually not African at all, given the dirth of such luxuries in this part of the world!) while watching the proud population of Youande wander by.

By walks a man with stacks of toilet paper upon his head. "I need toilet paper," I mumble to myself. I put down my soggy pizza, walk outside, make a harsh 'ssss' noise in his general direction (which serves for an 'excuse me, good sir!' in most of West Africa), and stand patiently as he turns around and heads back toward the cafe. "I'll take four rolls please!" (actually, in half-broken French, "could I .. si vous plais, cat ... rolls, yes those, yes the toilet paper, oui, cat rolls please!").

I take my toilet paper, walk back into the cafe, set it down next to my luxurious lunch, and continue eating with a smile--half the days shopping has just been done, without a store in sight.



Who? The only American on the trip aka Captain A-ME-rica! (pronounced very loud and with a burst of sound, with emphasis on the "ME") Who?

Where? Originally Pennsylvania (but that's OK) and now from somewhere close to Seattle

What? History and philosophy ( he is sitting reading Nietsche in the truck, for goodness sake!)

How? Not sure, but I feel safe in the knowledge that he does!

Tattoos? Not a one

Randall is the one or the right, dressed in mmmmmmm -- bottles?

Travelling/existing/surviving in a group

Mmmmmmm... After four months on the road, in the confined space of a safari truck, in close proximity of everyone else at all times for the sake of security, survival and inter-dependency, the question has to be asked: Is it working? Are we coping?

What happens when you throw together fifteen people from every corner of the world, every walk of life, every level of education, age, life-experience, every level of maturity, independence, confidence, values and morality. Not only throw them together, but put them in a situation where survival is the main daily occupation and where the only common denominator is a desire to travel -- which is actually not even a common denominator as everybody's desire to travel is motivated by a different reason.

One cannot ask this question without having Maslow's pyramid jump to mind!

The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem , friendship and love, security, and physical needs. With the exception of the most fundamental (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.

The top level is where we all strive to be. In that aim civilisations have developed and grown, parents work hard to earn enough to pay for the best education for their children, we read and learn and debate and stimulate our minds. We do what we can to achieve our individual potential, we pursue talent, creativity and fulfilment. “What a man can be, he must be.” This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization and so this level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming

When I look at our group, it is not hard to see that when we started the expedition almost every individual in the group was at least at the second highest level of the pyramid -- or, if not actually there, well on their way to reaching that level; - the level where they had strong self-esteem and had enjoyed their fair share of esteem from others; the level where they were self-confident, gave and received respect from others and had experienced the need to be an unique individual. At worst, everyone, bar one or two, had been well-established in the middle level - the level of belonging, where they had a sense of connectivity with their family; friends and community, where they had experienced love and affection and the sense of belonging to a group.

According to Maslow, the more unstable and unknown our circumstances become, we go right back to the bottom level - the physiological needs - probably to go make sure our foundations -- our very basic physical needs are met first, and as a result we disregard our intellectual needs and our need for indivual achieve,ent and self-actualisation.

When I look at our group -- our little Trans Family, it is easy to point out the indivuals who are clawing to stay at that top level or even the second level of the pyramid. You would also expect us all to be in the middle level where we feel a sense of belonging to a group -- after all, that is the logical assumption when being part of a group is the very essential of a trip like this. But it is not what has happened -- the difference of the individuals has made the group quite a disparate one. And yet, it is unfortunate that in our case and in the environment we find ourselves and the nature of our expedition, the group dynamics dictate that the common denominator is at the foundation level of our pyramid - never at the highest peak. And if you want to survive in a group, you need to go to the common denominator. We are concerned about our food, our water, our sleep, our physical needs, our lives. It is so much easier to stay at that level and not worry about any other.

If the question is 'are we coping?', then the response has to be 'some better than others'. Ironically it is the ones whose natural milieu is the top or second level of the pyramid who manage to cope the best - because they have the confidence and the skills to do so, but at the same time, who are not coping at all -- due to the fact that they are no longer comfortable with being constantly at the lower level and they so long for self-actualisation and that sense of morality and purpose and achieving personal potential.

(Is that why we throw such amazing themed dress-up parties perhaps? Such as the latest one -- Suzanne's birthday party which was an ABC party -- Anything But Clothes and where everyone excelled themselves with innovativeness and creativity.)

Does that make sense? Or have we been spending too much time fighting for survival to even remember how to present a little food for thought or a topic for debate? Let me know what you think!

Cameroun : land of beauty and smiles, giant trees in dense rainforests, red clay and red monkeys, joy and pleasure

I woke up this morning to see the huge fiery orange ball of the sun clawing its way through the dense foliage of the giant tree under which I had pitched my tent last night and realised that it was not the light that had woken me but the cacaphonous sound of a troupe of red colobus monkeys as they shrieked and shouted their loud and exuberant celebration of a new day.

spectacular sunrises and sunsets over the dense African jungle; a koranic school alongside the road -- anywhere is a good place for learning

Red clay roads make for 'interesting driving' : everyone helps everyone else to get through, lots of shouting and laughter and hands thrown in the air when the tow cables snap or the large heavy trucks threaten to fall over.


Orm is the only one of our group in there to help push while a mammoth oil tanker pulls in reverse and a machine-gun-armed 'soldier' stands by; seems every vehicle has an auomatic weapon on board (except ours!)

An exhausted man takes a rest. These truck drivers drive 24 hours a day and when they come to a stretch of road like this one after the tropical storm, they work through the night helping each other fight their way out of the clinging clay - but never a frown or an angry word! How they keep their sense of humour I shall never know. And while they are fighting their way through the deep red clay that seems to want to hold on to them, life goes on: an old man takes his goat to the village to sell to the butcher for our lunch...


In the middle of nowhere, a big cattle market -- Fulani men standing around and discussing the merits and the beauty of these magnificent animals, hoping to strike a good deal before the skies open up. In town Emy and Orm on an expedition to find all those delicious things we dream about while on the road...


in the market place the men sit around and chat and wherever there is a flat piece of ground, the women spread out the 'foul-smelling!) cassava to dry in the sun before pounding and grinding it into flour.




With so much green it is almost a relief to see such a vivid different colour! We drive up mountains and down the other side and every bend, every moment has you gasping for breath as the spectacular scenes reveal themselves one after the other

The mud towns are well planned and well maintained and some of them seem to house several hundred family compounds. Emy and Orm trying to catch another glimpse of the HUGE hippo that swam past our picnic spot on the banks of the fast flowing Benoue river.


A perfect picnic spot on the banks of the Benoue River (that flows from Caneroon into Nigeria and eventually links up with the Niger River). A good quiet moment for Tony to finally beat John in a game of chess


A tiny little field mouse decides it would like Randy to leave his tent behind as it provides excellent cover against the tropical thunder storms. Sometimes crossing a low lying section after a heavy downpour can be a tricky exercise and a long wait


A boy with a slingshot : this could be anywhere in the world! But this particular one in Maroua is aiming on having grilled fruit bat for dinner tonight! Any place is a good place to mark out an area facing east and declare it a mosque


Mealies for lunch anyone? Yum! Suzanne has a knack for finding weird and wonderful sunglasses -- this one giving her a somewhat laconic view of the world.


Waiting in a hospital in Maroua to see a doctor- hoping he will tell me that the flesh-eating bacteria some unfriendly six-legged tent visitor had squirted into my arm will not cause my whole arm to fall off. As I wait; it continues to munch away at me... A gorgeous little daughter of a certain admirer called Don Quichotte


A typical mountain village in North-West Cameroun. Emy teaching the local kids 'Ching Chong Chai'; patience is a virtue, Emy...


A beautiul base of a forest tree. More beautiful African herds...


Everywhere and every day is washing day -- always a gloriously colourful affair. A typical road -- this one not red clay but big flat rocks. A few kilometres in as many hours and yet Mark gets us to our destination every day!


More cattle (have I mentioned that I am passionate about them?! and there are so many herds to feast ones eyes on!) The group taking over the village well to fill up our jerry cans and water tanks, while the somewhat bemused locals looked on. "Stair Master"! they call it but tiring after only a short while and then the local children -- no more than 8-9-10 years of age come and show them how it should be done. Wouldn't it be fabulous if we could dig one of these wells in every flashy gym back home and be pumping water for these people while still getting all that exercise!

two moments of sheer beauty in a field of yams


Some border posts and customs offices are posh and impressive, others are less poshe but more impressive in their simplicity.

The village well is the best place to gather around and catch up on the latest village gossip

I woke up and looked out and thought someone had gotten hold of my bag of red buttons -- they walk around in pairs, these bright, velevety and fluffy little red spiders?/mites?/little creatures. I simply had to add my own red button to the collection!