I arrived in Douala with my one-month old baby in February, 2008. At first, people scared me with security and health issues. I had lived in East Africa before and wondered how Douala could be any different. It turns out that Douala has been a nice place to live for a family. I would not go out of my way to visit Douala, but since we are here for a contract, we are trying to make the best of it.
Cameroonians are very good with kids. They love them, play with them and enjoy seeing kids. Kids mean everything to Cameroonians. Therefore, it is a good place to raise small childeren since you can benefit from local help.
Many expat women are stay-at-home mummies and there are plenty of coffees and playgroups. The expat community is very multicultural. There are Spanish Coffees, English Coffee Morning, German Coffee, French Coffee, etc. It is easy to make friends here. There are nice restaurants also. Bombay Masala and Piccola Venizia are excellent choices. There are also Chineese restaurants, Thai, Lebanese, etc. The night life is very active, too. Nightclubs can be full on Fridays and Saturdays. Beer is very expensive in an expat bar. It is 4,000 CFA, or 10$ CAD (8 USD).Â
The cost of life is high for imported products, but local food is cheap. I usually spend 5,000 CFA per week (10$) on fruits and veg for 3 people. Water is expensive. I buy 6 bottles of 1.5 liters for 1,900 CFA (4-5$). Because you make coffee with bottled water, drink it, etc., we spend about 4$ per day on water. Most companies pays for a container from the employee's home country. It is worth buying canned food, cereals, toys, coffee (the local coffee is cheap but not so good), appliances etc. in your home country and bring them over here. I wished I brought water from Canada.
Hiring staff can be a challenge. Their standards are somewhat different. It took me a while to find a good maid (almost one year). You have to be very specific with what you want. At first we were giving them liberty to do their job as they wished and it was a bad tactic. You have to repeat over and over what you want, otherwise it will not be done. ALthough they are excellent with kids, they are not used to our way of living. For example, I asked one of my former nanny to put my baby a pajama before going to bed. When I came back, I realized that she had put the pajama on top of my baby's dress...Hence the comment about being very specific about what you want. Expats pay their staff between 75,000 CFA to 100,000 CFA per month. My advice is to start at 75K or whatever the lowest you may want to pay, and then raise their salaries. I used to pay a maid 100K per month on the basis that he was making that much money with his former employer. We were impressed at first the the more it went, the less he was working. It is difficult to lower your staff's salary but easy to raise it. Plu, if you tell them what they may potentially make, they will tend to work better (like any of us!)
Accommodation in Douala
Work in Douala
Driving in Cameroon
Opening a bank account in Cameroon
Transports in Cameroon
Accommodation in Yaoundé
Health care in Cameroon
Accommodation in Cameroon
