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...