Cosmopolitan Cameroon

Cameroon may be a developing country that has many of the usual problems with establishing a good transportation infrastructure, power grid, and reliable water and sanitation system.

However the people are already amazingly sophisticated and elegant.  Case in point, these two sisters in Garoua.

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Next Top Model

Right now, she is a cashier in Yaounde, but next month she might be on the pages of Vogue or on the runways of Paris or Milan.

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My dentist

She's a calm and composed woman who managed to make the same old lecture about flossing sound elegant and erudite.

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The Prestige bakery in downtown Yaounde.

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My favorite breakfast:  cafe au lait and beignets.  Tastes even better in Yaounde than in New Orleans.

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Shiny supermarket run by Indians/Pakistanis

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Hip internet cafe

It serves the best Greek salad that I have ever had.

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Cafe de Yaounde.  The grounds smell like jasmine, and the dining area has an eclectic collection of masks & modern African art. 

The art displays a surreal twist on the usual tourist souvenir cliches.  Paintings of safari animals and village life have Daliesque distortions and the standard statues of half naked women are in ebony and brass, posing demurely under lampshades. 
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Beautifully carved doors in the Mont Febe Hotel. 

This would be part of the spread for a Gourmet magazine article, should they ever be inspired to describe travel in the real Africa.