The Sultan's Palace

When we got to Foumban, the first thing we did--before finding a hotel, before even eating-- we visited the home of a Royal Princess. She had invited us over. I thought it was really funny as we were all sitting in this room...she had her television on and there were all these skanky music videos on, and all of us were sitting half dead! We'd just traveled for 6 hours straight, none of us had eaten since about 6am and it was around 4pm, and we knew that it took at least 2 hours for food to be prepared... so most of us sat in the room with glazed over eyes. :) But, Joshua sat next to the Princess, and they struck up a conversation:

P: So, are you out of school for this trip?

J: No, I don't go to school yet.

P: Oh, do you do school at home?

J: Yes, but I'm not old enough to go to real school. I will start in the fall (these people have no concept of what fall is, so I thought that was funny...)

P: Oh, the fall. You will like school?

J: Yah, I'm excited. I'm going to be gone all day every day.

P: Will it be fun?

J: Yah. I will be gone and I'll have fun. My mom will miss me, though.


What a conversation to have! Ha!!

We also got to see the palace of the Sultan of Foumban. Here we are standing in front of it!



There were some interesting murals on the walls and statues on the grounds...
These 2 are parts of one long mural:




This is the dynasty of the Sultans all written out. Sort of like a 'Who's Who' of Sultanry in Foumban:



And here was a wall with portraits of the sultans. This is the current sultan! Nice glasses, eh??



Devin bought some bread, and, as is the usual culture in Cameroon, if they see a white person, the start coming over to sell. If the white person buys, they swarm! So, Devin took some pictures with the street vendors. All street vendors here carry everything on their heads.



There were some 'royal riders' as I called them. Guys all dressed up and riding around their ponies. The kids thought it was pretty cool. They even got to pet one!



The Royal Musiciens played for us, too! It was pretty fun!



They even had me dance with them!