A 12 Hours Journey By Night for My Late Brother’s Funeral

Steem greetings @everyone from the motherland Cameroon and welcome to my blog as I share the hurdles of my 12-hour journey by night with an 11-month-old baby.

The mortal remains of my late brother who died in the USA due to heart failure will be received at the Douala International Airport tonight. Wake-keep service will be held today at the family resistance at Campaign Street- Buea. We could not take him to the village to pay him our last respects because he insisted on being burried in his plot of land in Buea to secure it for his kids before outsiders start fighting it because he is no more.

That said, I had to run around to buy some foodstuffs for my kids to make sure everything is available for feeding at home.

I went to the bus station early in the morning to reserve a seat but was to travel by night. The decision was made to travel by night because temperatures at night are calm and better for my child as he is not friendly with heat.

Came back home and cooked eru for my kids before arranging my luggage for the journey. Guys, it was heavily raining and I was confused if to cancel the journey by night and travel the next morning but had no choice because the guest house I reserved was waiting for me to check-in by morning. Travelling the next morning will mean that I lost 1 day already from the 3 days I reserved at the guest house and my money will be lost as per their T&Cs.

I left the house under due rest 😪 with heavy rains to the roadside to take a cab to the bus station. We arrived the bus station at about 5:00 PM and it was still raining heavily. The loaders were still doing their job despite the rains.

^{**Raining heavily and loaders were there loading luggage of passengers.}

I had only my suitcase with my dresses and my kid’s dresses and food. It was easy to drop into the cabinet of the bus and went inside to seat down and relax before we kicked off at 6:00 PM

^{Seated in the bus waiting kickoff at 6:00 PM.}

We kicked off at exactly 6:00 PM which was delayed due to the heavy rains. Normally we were supposed to kickoff by 5:00 PM. It took us 6 hours to arrive at a resting point where we were given 10 minutes to go outside of the bus, relax, and for late-night eaters to eat something.

^{This was at midnight at the bus stop where all vehicles stop for passengers to relax before continuing with the journey.}

^{Late night eaters can enjoy some roasted fish, soya, roasted goat meat, etc. Some also drink and also time for smokers to smoke.}

We took off from midnight and arrived our destination at 5:40 AM. I was exhausted given that for the past days, I haven't had enough rest. I booked a cab that took us straight to the guest house I reserved. I did not want to go to the family house because there will be no sleeping space and also stressful for the baby. We arrived the guest house and I had to take breakfast. I heated water for tea and ate it with scorched egg.

The guest house is closer to the family residence. Its 100frs taxi fair and also closer to the mount Fako. I quickly went out at the balcony to take some pictures of the mountain.

^{A clear view of the mount Fako I zoomed from my balcony.}

I took my shower, bath the baby, fed him and we tried to watch a movie on Netflix but the tiredness was something else. I took some time off to bed.

It is 4:10 from Mount Fako in the South West region of Cameroon and until my next diary session, I am zooming out for the wake service at the family residence.