road trip

We took a road trip this week; to the town of Kaele about three hours away by bus.  We went for a church leadership seminar with over 500 registered attendees, and I was one of the speakers.  Here's how that came to be:
3-1/2 weeks ago, Jonas:  "There is a church leaders seminar in a town north of here, they would like one of the students to speak, can you do it?"
Me: "Yeah, or maybe one of the others..."
Jonas:  "They would like someone from outside of Africa"
Two days later:  Jonas:  "Okay, you are speaking,  your topic; 'hope for leaders', 20 to 25 minutes, it's time for class."
A few days later:  Jonas:  "You are on the schedule for all three days, let's eat."
Some things get lost in translation.
I guess it went okay, I wasn't one of the featured speakers, but I started each day with a short message, and they let me come back the second and third days.  The audience was almost entirely French and native speakers, so I'm not sure how it was received after translation...
The perks:  A hotel room for Beth and I, with A/C, and meals with the other speakers.  We also got to ride in a car for the first time since the US, about a half mile from the hotel to the venue (3 times), and to a private home for dinner one evening.  Unfortunately the A/C wasn't working the first night, and at about 2am the unit blew up.  Fortunately someone was there to throw the breaker, because they had heard and smelled that it was having problems, and had already been messing with it.  We were put in another room the next day and that A/C worked.  The rooms themselves were not like American hotel rooms.  I'll leave it at that.
Having been in this one place the entire time, I'd formed a picture of how Cameroonians live.  Wrong picture.  Nearly as soon as we left Garoua it became rural and we saw how most of North Cameroonians are living;  in small villages or compounds of mud brick huts with thatched roofs, and no electricity or running water.  With the exception of three towns we passed through where there was a mixture of those homes and those of more 'solid' construction.  In or near some of the villages we saw bore holes (wells with hand pumps), in others I didn't see a source of water.  But we crossed over four dry, sandy river beds where holes had been dug to the water which were surrounded by people doing their laundry, bathing, and carrying it away.  The terrain was interesting, generally flat, but lots of small rocky hills or mountains.  Vegetation was scrubby small trees with occasional larger as well.
The bus ride was typical for Africa I think.  Crowded with lots of stuff tied on top.  Not too bad going up.  Early in the day with a window that opened.  Coming back was mid afternoon and the window we were next to wouldn't open.  As soon as the bus moves everyone closes their windows.  Go figure?  When I first saw the buses, I could see 19 seat backs and thought 'this should be okay'.  Then I saw '30 places' painted on the side.  Not sure the total going up, probably 30ish, but I counted 34 adults, two children, and one chicken.  We also stopped for a half hour so the muslim driver could pray, and another time to replace a blown tire.  There was also a police check point where we waited while ours and Oliver and Abel's (Congolese) passports were checked.  The bus ride(s) to outreach next weekend total about 24 hours....
It's still the dry season, but there was a thunderstorm with rain while in Kaele, and it actually rained a good amount here this morning.  Thunderstorm last night and this morning with heavy rain and comfortable cool temperatures.  Hot again now, though, and more humid with the wet ground.  Jonas said in the seven years he's been here, he's never seen rain.  Beth has been praying for rain, and so have many of you.  Thank you.

If it's broke, don't fix it

More about the water situation:  It’s on overnight and a few hours in the afternoon.  The pressure isn’t very good most of the time.  There is an outdoor spigot where we fill buckets and bottles, there is the kitchen sink, and there are the bathrooms.  If any one is running, there’s usually not enough pressure to get anything from the others.  The whole community is putting demand on the system, so there’s not enough to go around.  However we’ve found that if you get up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning you can get more than the drip that is usual for the shower at other times.  So we’ve started trying to do that, or catch it in the middle of the day while the others are napping and before it gets cut off.  Twice Beth has been in the middle of washing her hair when that’s happened.  There have been other frustrations as well.  Related is the toilet situation which until now I’ve hesitated to talk about because, well, it’s a toilet situation…

I think I mentioned earlier the students all share one shower, Jonas and his family have their own bathroom and the other toilet is for students.  Jonas has a policy that if there are women present only they get to use the toilet, or in our case, so can the husband.  We don’t necessarily agree, but our protests were only half hearted, since we benefit.  There are probably very few Africans who haven’t squatted over a hole, but if a toilet is available that’s where they want to go.  When it was announced that this was the policy it certainly didn’t raise our popularity amongst some already suspicious students.  It doesn’t help that the toilet is at the end of the hall next to their rooms, and the door makes a lot of noise (and sometimes we do too).  Nor would anyone choose to squat over a hole in the concrete in a corner formed by two cinder block walls without any cover.  It’s in the sun the entire day, so I’m sure the temperature easily exceeds 120 on most days, and I don’t think the rainy season offers much relief either.  (Is that a pun?)

The toilet supply line has leaked when the water is on since we’ve been here, but over the last several days it had gotten significantly worse, so I decided to attempt repairs.  Using scraps of inner tube rubber I’d picked up for just such a situation I fashioned gaskets for either side of the supply valve which is attached directly to the tank.  The first time there seemed to be some improvement, but I wanted to try again.  That was worse, so I decided to give it one more try.  Of course I’m making these attempts while the water is off, then waiting for sufficient pressure to see if it’s made a difference.  Sometimes when we know the water is on there and all the other valves are closed there’s still not enough pressure to get to the shower head or fill the toilet tank.  Such was the case last night when we went to bed at 10:30.  And for the second time we decided to sleep on the porch where it’s a little cooler, as Jonas’ family has been doing for several nights.  Jonas left yesterday for the weekend, but Rebecca and the kids were set up on the porch as well.

You’ve probably figured where this is going by now, and you were right.  I got up around 1: 45, and as I entered the house I could hear it:  spraying water. The threads of the valve had actually been corroded and cracked, and with the increased pressure they let go.  The toilet room and half the hallway were under water to the door of Rebecca and Jonas’ room.  Surprise, the floor isn’t level, so the water hadn’t flowed into the boy’s rooms which would have been closer.  So I cut off the water and got to work with a squeegee, pushing, pulling, and splashing it over the tile lip into the shower area.  After about an hour it appeared I had it all, and nobody got woke up; including Jean-Mark who was sleeping on the floor where the hallway begins.

In the morning, when Rebecca woke up, I told her what had happened and warned her that some water may have gone under her door.  Welcome to Lake Tjouie (their last name).  Their entire room had standing water, some nearly two inches.  Did I mention the floors aren’t level?  All of their belongings are in that room, so you can imagine what a mess.  We pulled everything outside and had the water squeegeed and toweled pretty quickly.  The soggy boxes of belonging were emptied and spread out to dry, and I think most things survived.  Lots of personal papers and books and stuff, so hopefully what needs to be saved was.

I’ve learned some lessons: 

1.       1 If it’s broke, don’t fix it.  You’ll be suspected of breaking it to begin with, or making it worse.  Okay maybe not, but if I hadn’t messed with it, the valve may have held for several more days or weeks.

2.     2  Young African men sleep well.  Nobody stirred during the entire episode.  I could hear them snoring on the doors and on the floor behind me.

3.    3   The replacement parts and tools that are available are worthless.  (I already knew that, a factor in our call to being here.)  I bought a complete toilet repair kit, a new flexible line, and cutoff valve ($11.25 for all), and the new valve is leaking worse than the old broken one.  It’s  more than a day since I started this, we kept the water shutoff overnight, and I’ve just put the old flexible line back on,  bypassing a valve.  We’ll see tonight if it works.

Our room is the first on the left, the boys are the next two, Jonas' is on the right, and the forbidden fruit is behind the door.

the boys bathroom, behind the grey wall
the clothes dryer stretches from the wall on the left to the tree

the outdoor water supply

amongst all the other trash scattered on the ground are these flip flop gasket remains

Another common sight; exposed water pipe.  Light weight poly crossing roads and footpaths.
When they rupture or are cut they become community water supplies until fixed.
Do you think this has anything to do with the water pressure?
At least they're below the frost line.

Rebecca's day

Rebecca considers herself blessed to have an indoor kitchen.  A kitchen with a sink, a stove and a refrigerator.  She spends much of her day there, and she works magic.

We have three meals each day.  Most days breakfast is simple, a piece of bread per person from the store nearby, and a cup of tea.  Not a lot to it, and it’s usually Jonas and Rebecca or someone else (even I’ve done it), but Rebecca is also usually in there getting something for the kids as well as getting started on lunch, before she has to go to work, or town, or whatever.  Lunch and dinner are usually basic as well, typically a starch and a ‘sauce’, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy.  Her sauces are all made from scratch and include many ingredients; tomatoes, carrots, okra, greens, ginger, onions, garlic, to name a few, and sometimes a few pieces of meat, or fish.  The meat and fish are cooked separately, and require much preparation of their own.  The starch usually consists of rice, sweet potatoes (not like ours, but large and peeled and cut into chunks), spaghetti, plantains, or cous-cous.  Cous-cous is a local staple and can be made a variety of ways, but involves a lot of mixing, cooking, stirring, and shaping.  She will usually make enough ‘sauce’ for lunch and dinner, but it has to be reheated, and she will usually make another starch, or more of what was left from lunch.  She often makes a salad as well, but she insists on making them pretty with grated carrots and cucumbers, sliced tomatoes and onions, and if we’re fortunate avocado or boiled eggs.

Anything that needs to be ground or crushed is done on a flat piece of granite (not cut or polished, naturally broken that way) with another roundish piece of granite.  With the exception of spaghetti, a few packets of tomato paste, and something resembling bullion cubes, nothing comes in packages.  It all must be prepared by hand.  So on market day, when we buy produce, it first must be washed, then picked over, leaves and stems separated, and whatever else.  Most will be further prepped prior to cooking.  Hours will be spent picking over rice and beans to get out the bad ones, sometimes on the day of cooking, or when there’s some spare time.

(As I type this, she’s just got home from work, changed her clothes, and is in the kitchen getting something for her kids.  I think she might take a nap, though.  Lazy.)

A lot of the prep is done while sitting on a bucket with trays or tubs spread around on the floor.  She does have a blender which she will occasionally use to liquefy the vegetables she’s chopped for certain of her recipes.  (She doesn’t use a cook book or recipe cards, everything is in her head.)  The water is all from buckets, because there is no running water during meal prep or cleanup. 

The temperature in the kitchen is always much higher than the rest of the house or outside, and is nearly unbearable for Beth and I.  Even Rebecca complains, and says that on the worst days it’s unbearable for her as well. 

Except those that she does while preparing meals, Rebecca doesn’t do dishes.  It’s one of the work duties assigned to students.  (It’s one of ours…)  Beth and I have helped quite a bit with meals since we’ve been here, but as the heat as affected Beth, it’s happening less. 

Assuming the power stays on, and there is water, and propane, and the refrigerator works (constant battle…), pretty easy life.  This week we’ve run out of propane, and there is none available at any of the stations locally, so it’s back to the outdoor ‘kitchen’ to cook with wood.

In addition to her time spent in the kitchen, there is her children, her job, grading schoolwork, shopping, participating in some our activities, amongst other things. A liberated Cameroonian woman.

crusher/rolling pin

water supply

the backup...

From the rising of the sun...

Don't know what happened w/this post, but apparently copy and paste moved some things around. Good luck...
It’s noisy here in the morning.  Not what we hear at home and tune out (though I am getting used to it here, as well), but the sounds of suburban Africa waking up.  I’m up every morning well before sunrise, and most mornings I go outside for my ‘quiet time’.  It starts with the roosters, no the dogs really, they go all night, but really pick up with the roosters, then the goats.  Somewhere nearby there is a donkey, too, because I hear it every morning, though I’ve yet to see it.  The birds, including ducks do their part also, then the noises of humans begin.  The prayers of the mosques, gates opening and closing, motos in the distance, footsteps, singing…  It brings to mind verses in the Bible about all creation singing his praises.  Even at our home in Berthoud where the sounds are different, the noises of our activity become the praises of His creation.

The sunrises aren’t much to talk about though.  There is a constant haze in the air, dust actually.  Visibility is very limited, and instead of seeing the sun rise the sky just grows lighter until the sun can be many other places,
 Cameroonian women are much more liberated, but because of the cultural roles they still adhere to it doesn’t always feel like it. Because here the ‘traditional’ role of a woman requires so much more time and work. There are none of the ‘modern conveniences’ we are used to, everything is done by hand.  For example, Rebecca feels blessed to have her kitchen with a two burner propane stove and a sink, because it is the exception, but she still spends hours there every day just preparing meals.  The thing that really stands out today though is the clothes.  Every year there is special fabric printed to commemorate the day, and people buy it to make outfits of their own, or by them ready made.  They are everywhere, and yet rarely do two look alike.  I did end up in town, and again was without the camera.

The reason I was in town was to go to the home of the interpreter we’ve had in class the last two weeks, where we’d been invited to dinner.  He lives in a poorer section of the city, which makes where we’re staying and life at home more appreciated.  It’s always a treat to go to people’s homes and see new areas.

The reason Beth didn’t go was that she’s still very sick.  We thought it was heat sickness from yesterday, but it’s just as bad today, and some are thinking malaria.   I went to a pharmacy for malaria medicine as well as something they use here for aches and fever, we’ll see if it helps.  Please pray for her quick recovery.  There is no escaping the heat, so no relief there, but she was able to eat a boiled egg and a little fruit this evening.  There’s no doubt the change in diet and eating patterns have probably contributed, but the important thing now is she regain her strength and feel better.

Update:  We lost internet over the weekend before this got posted.  Beth is doing much better.  Still needs to gain more strength, but way better than the weekend.

made out once it’s well above the horizon.  That dust covers everything, and instead of blowing it out, the wind tends to stir it up and make it worse.  Yesterday when we went to the YWAM property I realized that the area isn’t all flat like I’d supposed.  There are actually some small mountains and other geological features very close (think Colorado front range cities to the foothills close) which we hadn’t seen before.

Today is International Day of the Woman, and it is celebrated in a big way in Cameroon.  Parades, parties, and women asserting themselves more than most men like apparently.  I think that compared to

Around sunrise.  The trees are alive but apparently save their leaves until rainy season.

what they're like up close

Week 4

We’ve had another interesting week.  It seems we’re trying to stick to the schedule a little more, although from a western perspective there is still a long way to go with that.  We’re still on ‘Africa time’. Jonas is aware of it, but it is a challenge for him to stick to our schedule.  It has created some uncomfortable moments…

It appears that we have created the expectation that we will go to market with Rebecca every Tuesday.  We don’t mind, and she definitely needs help carrying everything which she prepares throughout the week.  No one else has stepped up, even when asked, so I guess it will continue.  Some of the boys never leave, except to maybe go to a little store about a block away, or on to go on the weekly trip to church.  I would think they would want a change of scenery.

Speaking of church:  Four Sundays, four churches, each a little different, but like at home, many similarities.  (Though we all like to think not.)  I actually like visiting different churches, here and there, to see how people are responding to God.  Last weekend was the biggest one we’ve been to so far, and the people seemed to be a little more ‘prosperous’ than at the others.  Again, regardless of the denomination, church is livelier here, and if you think you’re going home after one, or even two hours, think again. 

In the 1990’s YWAM acquired a piece of property on the north side of town, but it was never developed.  In fact, until Jonas and Rebecca came in 2008 (they were called crazy for doing so) there hadn’t been a YWAM presence here since shortly after they got the property.  Today we made a SWAT call to the property.  It is in a predominantly Muslim area, and some are trying to claim it for themselves.  Jonas and Rebecca have a vision for, and are waiting on God to go to Kribe, a city on the coast, but I believe there is someone with similar vision for this area who God will bring here to develop a new YWAM base.

It continues to heat up and the walk to the property caught up with Beth, and now she is recovering from dehydration.  I had an incident last week, so together we will take these as warnings and be more careful.  Please continue to hold us up in prayer as this will be an ongoing challenge.

Three meters this time, please.

meal time

at the YWAM property, under the only tree (which is on the edge of the parcel and 'belongs to the government'

in church