Today was the day Nyla and I have been looking forward to with great anticipation. We arose by 4:30, swung over to pick up Erika and were on the road by 5am with Dennis, the mission station driver at the wheel. After stopping by a bakery for some warm baguette and weathering the horrifically rutted tarmac of the streets of N'gaoundere, we found ourselves sailing by belly button mountain on smooth tar on our way to Garoua Boulai. Some of the stretch of road between N'gaoundere is still under construction, notably new bridges, and there were detours from time to time (along with a couple of bush potty stops). Even so, we cruised in to Meiganga in under 2.5 hours - record time for those of us who are accustomed to the trip taking 6+ hours (especially in the rainy season). The tarmac ended on the road into town and we bounced over the hill to see the town of Meiganga spread below. I looked right away for the house we had lived in (which is on a hill and had always been visible from afar), and could not spot it... we soon drove by the church and onto the mission station - home of our old stomping ground. Dennis drove slowly through and we parked right behind our old house. All of the buildings we remembered were there along with a few new additions. I quickly discovered why I could no longer see our house from afar - the trees had grown up so high that they completely hid it from view. Like much of what we saw today, the house looked rather dilapidated. All of the homes have been turned over to the Cameroon church and our driver noted flatly that when that happened they pretty much headed into wrack and ruin. (his words not mine!). We took pictures and wandered around a bit before loading back up to visit the home of the local pastor and the woman who heads the Sunday school program in Meiganga. The pastor was still in N'gaoundere, and his daughter helped us find the home of the Sunday school teacher. She welcomed us warmly into her home and expressed much disappointment that we were not staying longer so she could prepare us a meal. From there, we headed down to visit the Lamido (the traditional chief of Meiganga who wields much power. He is a personal friend of Tom Christensen). It is typical for visitors to have to cool their heels for quite some time for an audience with the Lamido. But we were ushered back immediately! He welcomed us with open arms, greeting us warmly and inviting us in to his home. We spent a nice half hour with him in his receiving room where - along with a picture of President Biya, a large picture of he and Tom Christensen figured prominently in the wall decor! He spoke eloquently and was a gracious host, expressing over and over how glad he was to have us in his home. He also stated that (despite being a devout muslim), he has met with our local church leaders to urge them to cooperate and work closely together to grow the Lutheran church. We complimented him on the beautiful new mosque he is building, took pictures, and hit the road for Garoua Boulai.
The road to Garoua Boulai was only partially tarred. Though the road seemed smoother than I remembered (which was nice!), it was much slower going. Nevertheless, we pulled in to Garoua Boulai at 10:30 am. We drove by Fokpoyano on the new road to the mission station (re-routed to prevent traffic from flowing directly through the hospital as it used to). We parked near the old "mission supply" building and got out to look. Things were much more dilapidated here than in Meiganga.... We started our tour by walking by the Jacobsen's old house and then visited Nyla's old house where we asked if we could have a look inside. Whew. That was tough. The house is still standing and there is a family living there... but wow. It was pretty grim looking. We took some pictures, had a look at the room Nyla and I shared in 7th grade, and continued on our way. We headed by the home where the nurses had lived to see if our Guava trees were still standing... AND THEY WERE! We both climbed up. The trees were bigger, but somehow seemed smaller! It was fun to share memories. The dorm was next. The missionaries here in N'gaoundere had told us that things had gone down hill and so fortunately we had set our sights pretty low. The building is still standing, yes, but it is in a sad state. We asked permission to walk through and took a few pictures of our old rooms, etc. Things are in a sad sad sad state of disrepair for sure. Likewise, time has taken its toll on the school. It was locked unfortunately, but some windows were open in the back and we were able to take some pictures. The crazy thing is that the "big kid" classroom looked the same!!! It is currently being used as an education center and a library has been added to the front of the building.
We next walked through the hospital grounds which truly are exactly as grim and ewwww as I remember. We showed Erika the chapel where we had been confirmed and it too is in a state of great disrepair. Just outside the hospital, we ran into some of Nyla's brother's old friends as well as a friend of my brother Joel's. We took pictures and then walked back toward the main station to find the family that Nyla had been so close to in her growing up years. They came to greet us bearing beautiful mangos and a lovely pineapple. We thanked them for the kind gifts, took pictures and visited together for a while. They were full of questions about our families, parents, and siblings. Nyla then said a prayer and tearful hugs were exchanged as we said our good byes, promising to return soon.
We then spent a bit of time shopping and wandering through the Garoua Boulai market where we found some candy we had enjoyed as kids. It was soon time to load up and head back. As we headed back to N'gaoundere, Nyla and I quietly sat just taking it all in and occasionally giving eachother big hugs. We agreed that all former missionary kids really need to try hard to get back to experience what we did. Both Nyla and I agreed that we hope to bring our husbands and families back to experience this part of our history. After a brief stop to pick up a passenger in Meiganga, we zipped into N'gaoundere before 6pm. I would never ever have thought it possible to make such a quick trip.
The interesting thing is that, without exception, everyone we have met states openly that they feel abandoned by the missionaries. They do not understand why we ended our mission and believe wholeheartedly that things were so much better when we were here working in partnership with them. They have all begged us to return and feel deeply hurt because they believe we have forgotten them. We have reassured people that they are constantly in our thoughts and that we would all come back to visit more if it were not so expensive. We have tried to impress on people the fact that though we may seem very wealthy, it is not easy for us to simply throw out $2,000 for plane fare. Its been tough.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Whew! It has been a busy couple of days. On Friday night, we were informed that there would be no electricity or water from 7am to 7pm Saturday... Apparently work was being done on the power system and it was necessary to shut down the whole city. Such things must not be that unusual because all bathrooms here seem to be equipped with a large barrel-like container of water. One dips a bucket in when water is needed for handwashing or to flush the toilet...
On Saturday, we attended the opening of the "Synode Extraordinaire"(meeting of church delegates from parishes across Cameroon). There was a nice church service (just two hours long), and then we were free to do what we wanted for the day. We met up with the Global Health representative from Duluth (Hans Aase - pronounced "Os" for those of you who do not speak Danish!). Hans took us on a thorough tour of the N'gaoundere hospital. Many generous donors have given money to build various parts of the hospital and we were impressed by the Pediatrics area which has buildings painted with wild animals. (will try to post some pictures of this). In the radiology and laboratory areas, the equipment is functional but truly ancient by American standards. There is a mammography machine that looks somewhat modern, but the xray machine looked like it was from the early 1960s. It was clear from our tour that donations of new/preowned modern equipment is ALWAYS most welcome!!! The hospital serves a vast number of people each day and manages to do amazing things for patients with what little they have to work with! It is truly inspiring to see. Having seen the hospital during our years before, it is also great to see how much the hospital has grown - of course the number of patients has also grown, which brings me to the next topic:
Motorcycle taxis. New since we last visited are thousands of motorcycle taxis that drive with little regard for pedestrians or the safety of themselves and their "passengers". Helmets? no. High speeds on narrow, rutted roads? yes. It is no surprise that the newest epidemic here in Cameroon is traffic accidents. The other odd thing is that the drivers are without exception wearing thick winter coats and hats! At first I thought it was for safety reasons, but then one of the missionary ladies told us that many of them are amped on drugs and need all those layers because they cannot keep up their body temperature. In order to make as much money as possible they sleep little (or not at all) so they can generate fares at all hours of the day and night. In short, you could not pay me to get on the back of one of these taxis... it is dangerous enough here trying to cross the street without getting run over!!
In the afternoon on Saturday, Sodea Timothy took Nyla and I to visit Nyla's former babysitter "Tazam"who lives in a wee little house on the outskirts of N'gaoundere. She quite elderly now and paralyzed on the right side from a stroke, but received us warmly to her home. Nyla showed her pictures of her entire family and Tazam was so pleased to see them. We prayed with her, met some of her children, and then walked back with Sodea Timothy who filled us in on church details as well as some of the developments that have happened in Cameroon in the last few years.
Saturday night, we ate dinner out at the Palace with Jim Noss and Hans Aas. It was a very nice evening and then Nyla, Jim, and I stayed up late into the night reminiscing and looking at dvds of various church projects he has been involved with around Cameroon.
Sunday morning dawned and, after a hasty breakfast of croissants and coffee, we headed off for the ordination service. We had been encouraged to arrive early because it was anticipated that the church would be very very full. Nyla and Erika joined the pastors and bishops to get robed up for the service and I took my seat with other missionaries in the Millennium church. The service was supposed to start at 8:30, but did not get going until 9:30... (Not unusual for Africa!). There were about 100 pastors and bishops present for the service - (including some women) from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Lutheran World Federation, Canada, Norway, Tanzania, USA, etc.. The church was packed to the rafters and the choirs started singing as the pastors and bishops processed in. There was much music and celebration, and the ordination process was incredible as the very first women pastors were ordained (- along with the very first Fulani! for those of you who are familiar with Cameroon you know what a big deal that is!!!). One of the most moving moments was when the women were robed and given their stoles. As the service wore on, the temperature increased... Fortunately a cool breeze wafted through from time to time. Even so, the seats grew hard as the hours passed. A funny thing happened during communion. There were about 2,500 people in the church and the pastors and bishops first communed with wafer and individual cups. At this point, we were at hour 4.5 and I panicked because I knew it would take forever to commune the rest of the church!!! To my relief, the bishop announced that everyone else would commune by intinction. As it turns out, this is NOT a common practice here in Cameroon. Many of the pastors were called forward to form 10 different stations and the process ended up going fairly quickly. I was sitting next to Christian (Erika's son) and we got the giggles watching more than one person pop their wafer into their mouth and then pull it right back out again to dip into the wine...
A central part of the service was all of the music and dancing. At least 6 different choirs performed. As each sang and danced, congregants inspired by the music would ululate and dance forward to place coins or bills on the foreheads of the singers. This seems quite odd to most westerners but is a very Cameroonian thing to do. The harmonies and dancing were beautiful, joyous, and gave a real sense of celebration to the service. It was clear that people were excited to be finally ordaining the first women pastors
In total, the service itself ran for six full hours. I thought I knew what bleacher butt was from the hours I've spent at volleyball tournaments, but have a new sense of numbness that comes from nearly 8 hours of non-stop church pew time... It was well worth it though to experience the full celebration that unfolded during those joyous hours.
After the service, Nyla and I stretched our legs by doing a little shopping in a local market. When we returned, Christian invited us to accompany him to watch the sunset at a little bar/cafe he knew about in a nearby quartier. We found ourselves in this tiny auberge that overlooked bellybutton mountain. The sunset was truly spectacular and we enjoyed some relaxing moments visiting, and watching the sky change around belly button mountain. (I will try to post a picture).
We joined Phil and June Nelson and some other missionaries from CAR at the Palace restaurant for dinner. The food was very tasty and after a while the proprietor came out to greet us. He treated us each to a dessert and then visited for a while. He shared with us that Sarkozy had just been defeated and told us about his concerns regarding Hollande (the new president of France). Before long it was time to head back for bed.
Today, we had planned to drive to Meiganga and Garoua Boulai (spending the night in Garoua Boulai and heading back here tomorrow). After some discussion, we have decided to leave early tomorrow and return in the late afternoon. We all feel rather weary from all the meetings, etc, and Erika is having some stomach troubles. Having a quiet day of rest seems to be the right thing to do. Nyla and I may do some hiking later, but we'll see how the day unfolds.
Once people know you are home in Cameroon, there is a steady stream of people coming to your door - either to greet you or to sell you something. Sometimes one must lock the door and close the shades (or leave) in order to get some rest. I can see now why Phil and June sometimes have to get away just to get caught up on things or finish a project without interruption.
In our next post, we will hopefully be filling you in on all our adventures in Meiganga and Garoua Boulai...
On Saturday, we attended the opening of the "Synode Extraordinaire"(meeting of church delegates from parishes across Cameroon). There was a nice church service (just two hours long), and then we were free to do what we wanted for the day. We met up with the Global Health representative from Duluth (Hans Aase - pronounced "Os" for those of you who do not speak Danish!). Hans took us on a thorough tour of the N'gaoundere hospital. Many generous donors have given money to build various parts of the hospital and we were impressed by the Pediatrics area which has buildings painted with wild animals. (will try to post some pictures of this). In the radiology and laboratory areas, the equipment is functional but truly ancient by American standards. There is a mammography machine that looks somewhat modern, but the xray machine looked like it was from the early 1960s. It was clear from our tour that donations of new/preowned modern equipment is ALWAYS most welcome!!! The hospital serves a vast number of people each day and manages to do amazing things for patients with what little they have to work with! It is truly inspiring to see. Having seen the hospital during our years before, it is also great to see how much the hospital has grown - of course the number of patients has also grown, which brings me to the next topic:
Motorcycle taxis. New since we last visited are thousands of motorcycle taxis that drive with little regard for pedestrians or the safety of themselves and their "passengers". Helmets? no. High speeds on narrow, rutted roads? yes. It is no surprise that the newest epidemic here in Cameroon is traffic accidents. The other odd thing is that the drivers are without exception wearing thick winter coats and hats! At first I thought it was for safety reasons, but then one of the missionary ladies told us that many of them are amped on drugs and need all those layers because they cannot keep up their body temperature. In order to make as much money as possible they sleep little (or not at all) so they can generate fares at all hours of the day and night. In short, you could not pay me to get on the back of one of these taxis... it is dangerous enough here trying to cross the street without getting run over!!
In the afternoon on Saturday, Sodea Timothy took Nyla and I to visit Nyla's former babysitter "Tazam"who lives in a wee little house on the outskirts of N'gaoundere. She quite elderly now and paralyzed on the right side from a stroke, but received us warmly to her home. Nyla showed her pictures of her entire family and Tazam was so pleased to see them. We prayed with her, met some of her children, and then walked back with Sodea Timothy who filled us in on church details as well as some of the developments that have happened in Cameroon in the last few years.
Saturday night, we ate dinner out at the Palace with Jim Noss and Hans Aas. It was a very nice evening and then Nyla, Jim, and I stayed up late into the night reminiscing and looking at dvds of various church projects he has been involved with around Cameroon.
Sunday morning dawned and, after a hasty breakfast of croissants and coffee, we headed off for the ordination service. We had been encouraged to arrive early because it was anticipated that the church would be very very full. Nyla and Erika joined the pastors and bishops to get robed up for the service and I took my seat with other missionaries in the Millennium church. The service was supposed to start at 8:30, but did not get going until 9:30... (Not unusual for Africa!). There were about 100 pastors and bishops present for the service - (including some women) from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Lutheran World Federation, Canada, Norway, Tanzania, USA, etc.. The church was packed to the rafters and the choirs started singing as the pastors and bishops processed in. There was much music and celebration, and the ordination process was incredible as the very first women pastors were ordained (- along with the very first Fulani! for those of you who are familiar with Cameroon you know what a big deal that is!!!). One of the most moving moments was when the women were robed and given their stoles. As the service wore on, the temperature increased... Fortunately a cool breeze wafted through from time to time. Even so, the seats grew hard as the hours passed. A funny thing happened during communion. There were about 2,500 people in the church and the pastors and bishops first communed with wafer and individual cups. At this point, we were at hour 4.5 and I panicked because I knew it would take forever to commune the rest of the church!!! To my relief, the bishop announced that everyone else would commune by intinction. As it turns out, this is NOT a common practice here in Cameroon. Many of the pastors were called forward to form 10 different stations and the process ended up going fairly quickly. I was sitting next to Christian (Erika's son) and we got the giggles watching more than one person pop their wafer into their mouth and then pull it right back out again to dip into the wine...
A central part of the service was all of the music and dancing. At least 6 different choirs performed. As each sang and danced, congregants inspired by the music would ululate and dance forward to place coins or bills on the foreheads of the singers. This seems quite odd to most westerners but is a very Cameroonian thing to do. The harmonies and dancing were beautiful, joyous, and gave a real sense of celebration to the service. It was clear that people were excited to be finally ordaining the first women pastors
In total, the service itself ran for six full hours. I thought I knew what bleacher butt was from the hours I've spent at volleyball tournaments, but have a new sense of numbness that comes from nearly 8 hours of non-stop church pew time... It was well worth it though to experience the full celebration that unfolded during those joyous hours.
After the service, Nyla and I stretched our legs by doing a little shopping in a local market. When we returned, Christian invited us to accompany him to watch the sunset at a little bar/cafe he knew about in a nearby quartier. We found ourselves in this tiny auberge that overlooked bellybutton mountain. The sunset was truly spectacular and we enjoyed some relaxing moments visiting, and watching the sky change around belly button mountain. (I will try to post a picture).
We joined Phil and June Nelson and some other missionaries from CAR at the Palace restaurant for dinner. The food was very tasty and after a while the proprietor came out to greet us. He treated us each to a dessert and then visited for a while. He shared with us that Sarkozy had just been defeated and told us about his concerns regarding Hollande (the new president of France). Before long it was time to head back for bed.
Today, we had planned to drive to Meiganga and Garoua Boulai (spending the night in Garoua Boulai and heading back here tomorrow). After some discussion, we have decided to leave early tomorrow and return in the late afternoon. We all feel rather weary from all the meetings, etc, and Erika is having some stomach troubles. Having a quiet day of rest seems to be the right thing to do. Nyla and I may do some hiking later, but we'll see how the day unfolds.
Once people know you are home in Cameroon, there is a steady stream of people coming to your door - either to greet you or to sell you something. Sometimes one must lock the door and close the shades (or leave) in order to get some rest. I can see now why Phil and June sometimes have to get away just to get caught up on things or finish a project without interruption.
In our next post, we will hopefully be filling you in on all our adventures in Meiganga and Garoua Boulai...
Friday, May 4, 2012
This morning at 4:30, the Imam started singing right in my ear, calling all good Muslims to prayer. Nyla and I both woke up and I told her that if I were Muslim, I would have to make sure my bed was pointed toward Mecca so I could just pray right from my bed... I would not make a very good Muslim.
Last night, we were served Nyla's favorite "kam geda" which is a thick doughy paste of manioc flour and water. The sauce with it was beef with lentils and okra, so it was nice and stretchy (slimy!). Nyla was in heaven as you can see. The church has been feeding us our meals this week and the food has truly been outstanding!
Not sure if I mentioned, but Nyla and I joined Jim Noss and Hans Os (Global Health representative) for dinner at "Le Meilleur" restaurant. The owners are friends of Nyla's parents and they welcomed us warmly. The food was outstanding and we had a wonderful night re-telling some of the funny stories from our early years in Cameroon.
It is mango season here and the mangos are delicious! As is always the case in mango season, there are mangos all over the ground under the mango trees and the slightly sour smell of fermenting mangos is all around. It is strange for both Nyla and me to smell these familiar smells! In fact, there is so much that feels familiar to us. We both feel like it is the most natural thing in the world to be here. Odd since it has been over 20 years since either of us were last here. I guess it is in our blood.
We continue to attend church meetings through Sunday and then hope to get over to Meiganga and Garoua Boulai on Monday/Tuesday before we must return home. Still no sign of our luggage (the bags we sent on the train from Yaounde due to weight restrictions on the SIL plane), so hopefully it too arrives before we have to head back.
Last night when Nyla and I were returning from the meetings, we had no flashlight and found ourselves walking under mango trees. As kids, we learned that one should never ever walk beneath a mango tree at night because snakes like mango trees and sometimes fall out of them - potentially landing on you if you happen to be strolling underneath the tree. As kids, we would always shine our lights up into the tree to make sure there were no snakes before proceeding to walk underneath. Nyla was feeling nervous last night about the possibility of snakes and I said that we were on the mission station and it was only 8pm so I'm sure there are no snakes out yet... Later on that evening, we ran into Jim Noss who told us that, indeed, he had spotted a snake just minutes after we passed under that particular tree! Now I'm never going to get Nyla to calm down :)
I should also mention that Erika spent two hours singing with some friends of Christian's yesterday evening. She felt "Swing Low" was there best number and it sounded like a lot of fun was had.
Here are some additional pictures:
The trees are heavy with mangos!
A closer look at the kam geda...
Not sure if I mentioned, but Nyla and I joined Jim Noss and Hans Os (Global Health representative) for dinner at "Le Meilleur" restaurant. The owners are friends of Nyla's parents and they welcomed us warmly. The food was outstanding and we had a wonderful night re-telling some of the funny stories from our early years in Cameroon.
It is mango season here and the mangos are delicious! As is always the case in mango season, there are mangos all over the ground under the mango trees and the slightly sour smell of fermenting mangos is all around. It is strange for both Nyla and me to smell these familiar smells! In fact, there is so much that feels familiar to us. We both feel like it is the most natural thing in the world to be here. Odd since it has been over 20 years since either of us were last here. I guess it is in our blood.
We continue to attend church meetings through Sunday and then hope to get over to Meiganga and Garoua Boulai on Monday/Tuesday before we must return home. Still no sign of our luggage (the bags we sent on the train from Yaounde due to weight restrictions on the SIL plane), so hopefully it too arrives before we have to head back.
Last night when Nyla and I were returning from the meetings, we had no flashlight and found ourselves walking under mango trees. As kids, we learned that one should never ever walk beneath a mango tree at night because snakes like mango trees and sometimes fall out of them - potentially landing on you if you happen to be strolling underneath the tree. As kids, we would always shine our lights up into the tree to make sure there were no snakes before proceeding to walk underneath. Nyla was feeling nervous last night about the possibility of snakes and I said that we were on the mission station and it was only 8pm so I'm sure there are no snakes out yet... Later on that evening, we ran into Jim Noss who told us that, indeed, he had spotted a snake just minutes after we passed under that particular tree! Now I'm never going to get Nyla to calm down :)
I should also mention that Erika spent two hours singing with some friends of Christian's yesterday evening. She felt "Swing Low" was there best number and it sounded like a lot of fun was had.
Here are some additional pictures:
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Greetings from N'gaoundere Cameroon! To catch you up on what has transpired so far...
We left Sioux Falls on Sunday, flew to Chicago, and boarded a plane bound for Brussels. It was during the final boarding process that Karis discovered she had forgotten to pack her health card! This is a required document for entry into Cameroon (of course, lets face it, much can be resolved in the presence of a 100 euro note...still, it was scary to take a chance that that would work!). She had just enough time before the cabin doors closed to phone Tim who scanned and emailed her 8 page document to her sister Cynthia in Cologne. Cynthia faithfully printed the documents out in the wee hours of the morning and brought them to Brussels where we spent the day with her and her 1yr old son Nicolas! Cynthia's goal was to keep us awake in order to better deal with jet lag... and she did a good job. We covered in total 9 plus miles of Brussels neighborhoods viewing everything from spectacular cathedrals to (accidentally!!) a portion of the red light district as we attempted to find the train station in order to return to our hotel for the night. On our uncensored tour of Brussels, we also viewed the famous statue of the "Manekin Pis"(boy who put out a potentially catastrophic fire by peeing on it!), government square, botanical garden, and (again inadvertently) the Turkish zone of town. We also dined on delicious Greek pita in the Greek district, visited the Tintin store, and drank some very nice Belgian beer...
Tuesday morning, we boarded our flight for Yaounde. Upon our arrival, the first thing we were asked to present was our health card.... With trepidation, Karis showed her copy and explained that her health card is so tattered and worn that it was necessary to make a copy. She was waved through without any fanfare and we all gave a collective sigh of relief. Our bags miraculously arrived intact and we located our driver Vincent who greeted us and loaded us up for our trip to Ann and Willy's home for the night. As always, traffic was "African style" with people motorcycles, cars, trucks, dogs, etc. dodging eachother willy nilly through town. We negotiated all manner of deep potholes, as well as some extremely deep ruts - as well as people out partying for the 1st of May festivities, and arrived in one piece at the Langdji residence. Willy welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, and fed us a nice dinner of rice with a lovely pork sauce.
Wednesday morning, we arose to the sound of roosters crowing.We had been told to be at breakfast at 6am, and when we arrived all was dark. We went back a bit later, saw some movement and were welcomed in for coffee, bread, and scrambled eggs. We later discovered that our clock was off by an hour and we had actually arisen at 4am and gone up for breakfast at 5 am instead of 6. No wonder everyone was still asleep!
After breakfast, Vincent came and took us up to the SIL airstrip for our trip up country. Once there, the pilots made us all get on the scale and proceeded to weigh every ounce of luggage. We were told that in order to fly safely to N'gaoundere, we had to get rid of 48 kilos of weight!! That is about 90 pounds. We put the bare essentials into a couple of bags, said a prayer, and sent the rest of our luggage to be shipped to N'gaoundere by train! We hope to see our things today sometime.... stay tuned!
Our flight from Yaounde was beautiful and quite smooth. The Cessna we flew on was quite diminutive... but powered by a strong quiet engine and our pilots were extremely capable. Despite some haze and clouds, we enjoyed a nice view of the rainforest and eventually got to the savannah where we landed gently at the Airport in N'gaoundere. Phil Nelson was there to greet us and we sped off to the mission station.
After settling in to our guest house, we headed up to the EELC meetings which were already in progress. The rest of the day was spent catching up on the issues and concerns of the church. Meetings ended at 8pm and we were all ready to get some rest.
Erika had joyfully greeted Christian earlier in the day and went off to spend the evening with him at "Le Chateau". Nyla and Karis joined Jim Noss and others for dinner at Le Meilleur restaurant downtown N'gaoundere. Much laughter and some delicious food ensued...
In store for us today are more church meetings!
We left Sioux Falls on Sunday, flew to Chicago, and boarded a plane bound for Brussels. It was during the final boarding process that Karis discovered she had forgotten to pack her health card! This is a required document for entry into Cameroon (of course, lets face it, much can be resolved in the presence of a 100 euro note...still, it was scary to take a chance that that would work!). She had just enough time before the cabin doors closed to phone Tim who scanned and emailed her 8 page document to her sister Cynthia in Cologne. Cynthia faithfully printed the documents out in the wee hours of the morning and brought them to Brussels where we spent the day with her and her 1yr old son Nicolas! Cynthia's goal was to keep us awake in order to better deal with jet lag... and she did a good job. We covered in total 9 plus miles of Brussels neighborhoods viewing everything from spectacular cathedrals to (accidentally!!) a portion of the red light district as we attempted to find the train station in order to return to our hotel for the night. On our uncensored tour of Brussels, we also viewed the famous statue of the "Manekin Pis"(boy who put out a potentially catastrophic fire by peeing on it!), government square, botanical garden, and (again inadvertently) the Turkish zone of town. We also dined on delicious Greek pita in the Greek district, visited the Tintin store, and drank some very nice Belgian beer...
Tuesday morning, we boarded our flight for Yaounde. Upon our arrival, the first thing we were asked to present was our health card.... With trepidation, Karis showed her copy and explained that her health card is so tattered and worn that it was necessary to make a copy. She was waved through without any fanfare and we all gave a collective sigh of relief. Our bags miraculously arrived intact and we located our driver Vincent who greeted us and loaded us up for our trip to Ann and Willy's home for the night. As always, traffic was "African style" with people motorcycles, cars, trucks, dogs, etc. dodging eachother willy nilly through town. We negotiated all manner of deep potholes, as well as some extremely deep ruts - as well as people out partying for the 1st of May festivities, and arrived in one piece at the Langdji residence. Willy welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, and fed us a nice dinner of rice with a lovely pork sauce.
Wednesday morning, we arose to the sound of roosters crowing.We had been told to be at breakfast at 6am, and when we arrived all was dark. We went back a bit later, saw some movement and were welcomed in for coffee, bread, and scrambled eggs. We later discovered that our clock was off by an hour and we had actually arisen at 4am and gone up for breakfast at 5 am instead of 6. No wonder everyone was still asleep!
After breakfast, Vincent came and took us up to the SIL airstrip for our trip up country. Once there, the pilots made us all get on the scale and proceeded to weigh every ounce of luggage. We were told that in order to fly safely to N'gaoundere, we had to get rid of 48 kilos of weight!! That is about 90 pounds. We put the bare essentials into a couple of bags, said a prayer, and sent the rest of our luggage to be shipped to N'gaoundere by train! We hope to see our things today sometime.... stay tuned!
Our flight from Yaounde was beautiful and quite smooth. The Cessna we flew on was quite diminutive... but powered by a strong quiet engine and our pilots were extremely capable. Despite some haze and clouds, we enjoyed a nice view of the rainforest and eventually got to the savannah where we landed gently at the Airport in N'gaoundere. Phil Nelson was there to greet us and we sped off to the mission station.
After settling in to our guest house, we headed up to the EELC meetings which were already in progress. The rest of the day was spent catching up on the issues and concerns of the church. Meetings ended at 8pm and we were all ready to get some rest.
Erika had joyfully greeted Christian earlier in the day and went off to spend the evening with him at "Le Chateau". Nyla and Karis joined Jim Noss and others for dinner at Le Meilleur restaurant downtown N'gaoundere. Much laughter and some delicious food ensued...
In store for us today are more church meetings!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Cameroon trip begins now with packing, confirming flights, getting immunizations and malaria meds, and prayer! My 7 year old daughter and I were praying last night and in her prayers my daughter added: "...and please don't let my mom get attacked by any animals." I had to smile! As soon as we were done praying she had to ask if I would see any lions. To which I responded, that I didn't think so, as I never saw one growing up in Cameroon. She felt much better, but was still a bit unsure. Anyway, I'm thankful to know that my daughter will be praying for me and I for her while we are apart. Peace - Nyla
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
In just a few days, we will be heading to Cameroun! It has been 26 years since I was last in Cameroun and I imagine much has changed. I am thrilled to be going for such an auspicious occasion, and look forward to all the memories we will create during the course of our trip and all too short stay. We'll keep you updated with what we're seeing, learning, and experiencing - right here on this blog - so do check in from time to time if you are interested!
Karis
Karis
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