Peace Corps 1966 – White Helmets for Peace Corps Volunteers!

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

As you look at the scrolling page of my blog you will note the young guy wearing the white helmet (that’s the good guy!>)) me.) In 65 – 66 the mandatory rule for Peace Corps volunteers came out from HQ that if the director saw you riding your motorbike without your helmet, it was an automatic ticket home. This was due to the large number of PC head injuries all over the world while riding in the back country on their bikes.

Note the Yamaha 80 I’m riding. One of the best 2 stroke cycles which got me all over Cameroon fortunately with very few injuries over the two year period I was there. I got it about December 66 after saving enough of my living allowance to be able to afford it. My to be wife, Jill, an IVS volunteer got one a month later, having borrowed money from Paul
Diamond another PC since the IVS volunteers got a living allowance that was less than PC. Peace Corps gave us the helmets once we bought the bikes. They took away all the jeeps of the 1963 group because most were run over cliffs and wrecked before the end of 1964. Motor bikes were a better bet especially for the five miles of hell to get down from Buea to Sasse or the 6 miles of path and bush road through Sachsenhof oil plantation through the bush below us to get out to mile seven of the main paved road.leading to Victoria (now Bimbia) I believe they call it after the original Bakosi name for that coastal town.

Here’s that pic. again!

Note the bag over my shoulder! We lives in the south of the country and This is a hand sewn leather bag with a smiling face on it that I picked up in Fulani country up near Ngoundere about half way up the country 500 miles north of Buea where we lived. That’s where I rode my bike over the long July holiday that covered the rainy season in the south.

Here’s another picture I took on that trip north up in the Ndu area of a couple of juju men and their followers. A bunch of fascinating cultures n the country. Check out Cameroon Info Net on Facebook and Wiki’s info on Cameroonian History a great country to visit!