A Journey to the Unknown
Excerpt from Will Johnston’s Travel Journal
By Will Johnston
I woke up at 3:00 am the day we left for Toube. My mind was coming up with all types of ideas on what to expect to see in Toube. Would this be when culture shock hits me? Will I feel like I’m starving myself to death? Will I be able to handle some of the sights I see? I didn’t go back to sleep. Everyone else woke up around 5:00 am.
The ride to the boat was one of the smoothest rides we had so far. There were actually roads (most of the trip) and they weren’t in terrible condition. Plus, not many cars were out at 6:00 am (understandable). Police/military were patrolling the roads and pulled us over a couple times wondering our reason for traveling. Geh showed his military ID and explained what we were doing as other men shined flashlights into our van. We were cleared to go but it was a little nerve wracking watching men with guns tell us whether or not we could go and wondering what would happen if they told us to exit the vehicle.
We arrive in a small village near a river after an hour long car ride to meet our boat. Once we passed through Tiko, driving was nuts with the road being extremely bumpy and uneven. I wondered multiple times if the van would get stuck when the ground went from dirt to mud. We ended stopped a little short of our destination because of massive mud puddles that would’ve certainly trapped the van. We walked the rest carrying our luggage.
Our boat arrived a half hour or so later driven by the Chief of Toube. When he got out of his boat to greet us, he had an extensive conversation with Geh and the Coast Guard. The traveling capacity for the boat was 3. We had 8 people and luggage. We made it work. The boat was like a massive canoe. We sat in the bottom of the boat instead of the wooden beams that looked like benches. I sat in the middle behind the luggage with my legs crossed and knee jammed into a blank of wood. We had to be spread out evenly weight wise or else the boat would tip. That became a challenge.
I was petrified. The boat was very unbalanced with every movement threatening to tip it over. My mind was fixed on the camera case terrified it would fall in more than my suitcase. If the equipment fell in, our trip could’ve been for nothing. The pelican case was supposedly water proof. I didn’t want to test it now. This thought process proceeded for 2 hours. The boat went towards the Atlantic Ocean taking rivers at the beginning and at the end to get us to Toube. But the thought of us tipping in the Atlantic with the boat constantly rocking along with the discomfort I had from sitting made for one of the most unpleasant experiences I’ve had.
“Made me feel like a celebrity”
We first stopped at a small community that I thought was Little Toube (Toube has two separate villages: Big and Little) but this area was not Little Toube but Big Coco. The area looked mostly like the pictures I had seen with huts on stilts above the water except there was no land, only water. Turns out this stop was only temporary as we got fuel, and a chance to stand and stretch our legs. Wish I had known that during our 5 minute stay and not afterwards.
20 minutes later, we finally docked in Little Toube. We were greeted by children of different ages who helped push our boat to shore. One girl, no older than 8, was stroking my hand. Mark told me later it was because she was curious what my skin felt like having never seen someone like me before. When on land, children and adults carried our luggage to where we were staying: the Chief’s house. They carried our luggage by balancing it on their head and keeping it steady with their hands. What amazed me was watching a little girl ,probably 7 or 8, carry my big heavy green suitcase on her head with ease.
We all (Caring Hands team) sat in the Chief’s living room as he greeted us. His house was not air conditioned and the windows were held up by wooden sticks. Privacy was minimal with kids filling, I mean FILLING, the windows watching us. Made me feel like a celebrity.
Then it was time to go to work…and the heat got to me. Due to being in this wet, bug infested environment, I was smothered in big clothing, sunscreen, and bug lotion. Along with having not slept much and leaving early, I was not at the top of my game. Having felt overheated before, and knowing how it would affect me, I took precautions. I stayed hydrated the best I could given the circumstances: 9 bottles of water each for a day and a half of travel (if split evenly). Geh’s medical setup was in the Chief’s house in a different room, so I could stay put. I’m not the tech oriented one in the group, so Mark and Rodney filmed video and audio of Geh’s work while I rested in the living room, not using the B camera to take video or photos outside (but after the fact, I wish I had). Later, feeling a little better, the chief led Rodney and I on a tour of Little Toube. Rodney filmed as I listened through headphones checking audio levels.
Little Toube is very similar to Big Coco with its structures but spans over a much, much greater distance with the community sitting on a beach looking out over the Atlantic. Little Toube is about half on sand and half on mud that floods when the tide rushes in from the rivers behind the village. Little Toube is also extremely littered. There are no trash cans, and no place for dirty/empty things to go, so they end up on the ground. This is extremely noticeable on the beach where the water is a brown sludge like color, like watching gasoline come in and out with the tide. We did not let the water touch us but watched kids play in it anyways. Speed boats (more like speed canoes), used for catching fish, set at the end of the beach, at least a dozen or so not to mention the 2 or 3 dozen scattered elsewhere on the island. Their school only teaches general education. They must go into the city, Douala, to take the final test and if they pass, they can stay. If they fail, they come home, and go back to school. The school building is small but apparently new as classes used to be taught while sitting on the beach. There are 3 churches scattered throughout Little Toube all with services throughout Saturday night and Sundays. My guess is that the village is about 1.25 miles in width and 3-5 huts worth in depth depending on where you are on the island.
“…what will stick with me is the hospitality we received from Toube’s people.”
By the time Rodney and I got back from walking, we were wiped. Mark had been doing some work when we were gone and said the heat was getting to him too. In Douala, we had the luxury of places to escape for A.C., but not Toube. I took naps on and off for the rest of the afternoon. I tried to wake up when the fútbol (soccer) game was on TV. Like earlier, the children swarmed the windows watching the game like this was a village event. I was able to stay awake through that and dinner but it was difficult. Once dinner was over, Mark was struggling just as much as I was to stay awake. We were camped in the Chief’s bedroom which had curtains surrounding the bed that made me think of Scrooge’s room from A Christmas Carol. We were passed out in no time. It was probably 7:30 pm.
I woke up this time at 3:50 am the next day. Instead of getting up though, I thought about the things I saw the day before like a man with a tumor so big in his foot that it looked like the size of a small boulder and the condition of the community. I also listened to Little Toube’s night life. It was mostly peaceful. Listening to waves are always nice but these waves occasionally sounded like they were about to burst through the house. Little Toube is filled with wild animals and some can be heard at night. The goats and birds, not so much. But the roosters crow as sun approaches, and the dogs bark together pretty often. Occasionally, a dog may whimper in pain where you think it may have just been killed, but there was one point when one dog howled and others joined making an eerie sound like they were summoning something. By 5:30 am, music starts playing from some houses and we were all up and somewhat functioning by 6:45 am.
By mid-morning, we headed over to Big Toube. Geh was not going to do extensive medical work but had things to hand out to people and wanted to speak to David’s parents, a boy Geh helped in his last trip to Toube because he received word that they were not being as efficient in getting David’s medicine.
When we entered Big Toube, after a 20 minute hike, it looked almost exactly like Little Toube except the width of the village was a lot longer. Huts just kept going on and on and we never reached the end. Little Toube was formed in 1951 and now has 700 people. Big Toube is older with the population being at least 1,000 people. We met the Chief of Big Toube, which was nice, it was the “trip” that was the highlight of the day.
We did a trapeze act to visit a friend of Geh’s brother, Kizeto. To get to the building, we walked over a muddy swamp on plank boards rising four feet into the air. The boards start out two per section but that quickly changes to one. To make things worse, some of the boards were really wobbly so only one could walk on it at a time. It was kind of scary. I didn’t really think I would hurt myself if I fell but I didn’t have the most faith in my balance. Thankfully I made it across. Everyone else did too. But Rodney kind of fell. He took a step too far at the end to help his dad and fell off into the mud. Thankfully the camera was only muddy, not broken. So was Rodney. We care about him too. It’s a shame though that no one caught it on camera. Afterwards, I wanted to name this project “The Trip” because of the incident. That title became more relevant later when I nearly fell too.
Fast forward, we were about to leave Little Toube for Douala so I go to the bathroom. To get there, you walk out of the Chief’s back door across some flimsy planks to a boxed in area. There’s a hole in the wood floor for going to the bathroom but the boards in the boxed in area are mostly wet and rotting. There’s a way to walk around the wet boards but you got to walk the precise way. I tried to follow the route but stepped on a flimsy board and it caved in. Somehow, I didn’t fall in. I catch myself with a clothes line and the wall. Thankfully I didn’t fall or else this would be a really crappy story.
We are resting now back in Douala until Wednesday or Thursday when we head to Bangoua. The trip so far has been very overwhelming and I’m glad I have these next few days to process everything. There was so much about Toube that was terrifying yet amazing but what will stick with me is the hospitality we received from Toube’s people. Will we ever meet them again? Who knows. Our mission, as a team, was to impact their lives in a positive way and I know, personally, they did that to me. I only wish we were there longer to do more.
Sign Up for Project Updates
Our first big screening of the film was with the senior showcase in May 2020. The next step for the film was to submit to a variety of film festivals. We got some great news from the 15 minutes of Fame Festival. 15 Minutes of Fame is a Film Festival based out of Florida, and is a collection of films produced anywhere in the United States or Canada that are under 15 minutes in length. Submitted films were viewed by a panel of five judges and the highest scores became official selections. We got our Official Selection notification at the end of October. It is with great anticipation that we look forward to the digital screening of the festival that runs for the month of December. We are one of two documentaries being screened.
Before being brought on to this project, I had already edited numerous short documentaries and short films both at Stevenson and my various internships. I knew how to organize and prepare footage, but I was only doing it at a semi-moderate level. Most of the time, the footage was on the same hard drive as the project and I was only dealing with-on average-maybe two hours of footage in any given project. I knew that this would be a totally different animal so I had to make sure I was ready.
I like to play with hypotheticals in my down time. It could be what would happen in a class, or writing a project, or a later conversation I’m going to have with a person. They’re easy to come up with and I can think of some crazy hypotheticals when I want to. Going to Africa was no exception. I was going to a place I was unfamiliar with having no experience in Africa with Alang having made the mission trip once before. Since he grew up in Cameroon, I felt better, but that didn’t mean that butterflies went away.
I woke up at 3:00 am the day we left for Toube. My mind was coming up with all types of ideas on what to expect to see in Toube. Would this be when culture shock hits me? Will I feel like I’m starving myself to death? Will I be able to handle some of the sights I see? I didn’t go back to sleep. Everyone else woke up around 5:00 am. The ride to the boat was one of the smoothest rides we had so far. There were actually roads (most of the trip) and they weren’t in terrible condition. Plus, not many cars were out at 6:00 am (understandable). Police/military were patrolling the roads and pulled us over a couple times wondering our reason for traveling. Geh showed his military ID and explained what we were doing as other men shined flashlights into our van. We were cleared to go but it was a little nerve wracking watching men with guns tell us whether or not we could go and wondering what would happen if they told us to exit the vehicle.
Our first big screening of the film was with the senior showcase in May 2020. The next step for the film was to submit to a variety of film festivals. We got some great news from the 15 minutes of Fame Festival. 15 Minutes of Fame is a Film Festival based out of Florida, and is a collection of films produced anywhere in the United States or Canada that are under 15 minutes in length. Submitted films were viewed by a panel of five judges and the highest scores became official selections. We got our Official Selection notification at the end of October. It is with great anticipation that we look forward to the digital screening of the festival that runs for the month of December. We are one of two documentaries being screened.
Before being brought on to this project, I had already edited numerous short documentaries and short films both at Stevenson and my various internships. I knew how to organize and prepare footage, but I was only doing it at a semi-moderate level. Most of the time, the footage was on the same hard drive as the project and I was only dealing with-on average-maybe two hours of footage in any given project. I knew that this would be a totally different animal so I had to make sure I was ready.
I like to play with hypotheticals in my down time. It could be what would happen in a class, or writing a project, or a later conversation I’m going to have with a person. They’re easy to come up with and I can think of some crazy hypotheticals when I want to. Going to Africa was no exception. I was going to a place I was unfamiliar with having no experience in Africa with Alang having made the mission trip once before. Since he grew up in Cameroon, I felt better, but that didn’t mean that butterflies went away.
I woke up at 3:00 am the day we left for Toube. My mind was coming up with all types of ideas on what to expect to see in Toube. Would this be when culture shock hits me? Will I feel like I’m starving myself to death? Will I be able to handle some of the sights I see? I didn’t go back to sleep. Everyone else woke up around 5:00 am. The ride to the boat was one of the smoothest rides we had so far. There were actually roads (most of the trip) and they weren’t in terrible condition. Plus, not many cars were out at 6:00 am (understandable). Police/military were patrolling the roads and pulled us over a couple times wondering our reason for traveling. Geh showed his military ID and explained what we were doing as other men shined flashlights into our van. We were cleared to go but it was a little nerve wracking watching men with guns tell us whether or not we could go and wondering what would happen if they told us to exit the vehicle.