By the age of nine Djougang had never left the city of her birth. But, leaving her mother behind, she undertook the flight alone and was met by her father in Ireland.
She describes arriving in Rush, with its different language, culture and food, as “terrifying” but 14 years later the prop is settled in her new home and has represented Ireland on the international stage five times.
“I knew from the moment I arrived in Ireland that it was a massive change,” she says.
“It was hard to fit in. I found that very challenging. The moment I found rugby I felt like I belonged somewhere. I felt like this is what I was born to do. I can be myself playing this sport.”
Though rugby means so much to Djougang, her family still does not totally understand the sport, with football the game of choice in Cameroon.
This can leave the 23-year-old, who has not seen her mother since leaving Douala, feeling stuck between two worlds but she says having her parents at a game one day would be “a dream”.
“At home it’s football. There’s nothing else,” she says.
“I tell my mum I’m playing for Leinster and Ireland and she’s like, ‘honey what’s that sport that you play?’
“But she’s so proud of me. I feel like I live two different lives where I’m training with the girls and loving it then I have to park it and go home to this other world where nobody understands what I’m doing.”