In the city

Street life - yellow taxis hooting, elegantly dressed ladies picking their way along the hole-ridden roadside, stalls selling peanuts and phone cards, a photocopier in the middle of a rubble-strewn building site ... with people queuing up to use it. Dusty, dirty, noisy, fascinating.

We've been lucky to have enough water at the hotel. Yaounde is short of water, and some districts have no water for one day a week. People have to fill containers first thing in the morning, then none till next day. But everyone is clean, with clean clothes and polished shoes. They say it's better to be late than not well dressed!

Last night we had our first real power cut, in the middle of dinner out in a small grill place. Two of us had our head torches (good on us Welsh women!) and thank goodness, with no street lights to see our way around the potholes. Don't look down them, you don't want to know! The storm took out the hotel air conditioning, but left the satellite TV intact to see the Cameroon football team's international against Italy. Those bars with their own generators were doing extra well last night!

Then today, our first tropical downpour. We abandoned our hotel terrace when the rain came through holes in the canopy - and watched the canopy take off a few minutes later! Should I bother to buy an umbrella? With the rainy season about to start, this was a good taster session - raindrops is too gentle a word for this stuff. The street quickly emptied as everyone took what shelter they could find. Now, it's cooler. We don't really have dusk here, just the rush hour traffic and then it's dark. I keep missing it, just have a quick shower and - oh, it's night. I'm betting that everyone has their torch tonight!