Cameroon
Capital: Yaoundé (founded by German ivory traders in 1888)
Pop.: 18,060,382 (2007 CIA est.)
Area: 183,568 sq. mi. (slightly larger than California)
Languages: English (official), French (official), Cameroonian Pidgin English (or Kamtok), Camfranglais (which combines all of those first three), Bamum (which has its own phonetic writing system invented by King Njoya in 1895), Bulu, Ewondo, Fula (or Pulaar), Kanuri, Mbum, semi-Bantu
Points of interest:
Mount Cameroon, the highest peak in Western sub-Saharan Africa, is an active volcano
About 1 out of every 100 persons have a fixed-line telephone; 14 out of every 100 have a cellular phone
The name is derived from "Rio dos Camarões", which Portuguese explorers named the Wouri river; the phrase means "River of Prawns"
In 1999, and again in 2006, a section of the country about the size of the Netherlands declared independence as the nation of Ambazonia; this secession has not been recognized by Cameroon or the UN
Knowns as "Africa in miniature" because it contains all of the major climates found on the continent (coast, desert, mountains, rainforest, and savanna)
Spotlight: A story from a Peace Corps volunteer
Ok, so I could find a LOT to write about about this country. It seems really nifty. For one thing, it's much more stable than many of its neighbors. It is the current front-runner for my favorite out of the countries I've researched...though that doesn't mean too much since it's only the third that I've researched. Ask me again after I've written a few more of these. Anyway, while I could write about many different things, as it happens, Cameroon is the country my recruiter served in. While she was interviewing me, I mentioned to her that I'd heard that in some countries, volunteers were issued motorcycles because they might have to travel distances too far to be easily traversed by bicycle. And I wanted her to know that I'm a licensed motorcycle operator (HINT HINT). She said that they weren't really doing that anymore, because the volunteers were having too many accidents. However, in Cameroon the vast majority of taxi services are actually motorcycles. And Peace Corps volunteers are ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. If a volunteer is caught riding a motorcycle without a helmet, he or she is immediately flown back to the U.S. and their service is terminated. They take it VERY seriously. And so it was that everyone in Cameroon could tell who the Peace Corps volunteers were. They were the ones walking around carrying a motorcycle helmet, even though they had no motorcycle, just in case they had to catch a cab at some point.