weekend

Yesterday, while in town, we showed up at Rebecca’s sister’s unannounced.   Everyone loves it when that happens.  Beth got to hold their four month old son (same as Lucy) for two hours while one of the  daughters prepared lunch.  Cous-cous and fish, whole fish.  I thought I was doing well, picking out the bones, and leaving part of the tail and most of the head.  But after the others had finished I realized that what we’d heard about fish heads is true, eat them.  They all did.  It was delicious, so I easily could, and should have.

Today they pumped the septic tank here.  Pump truck is a guy standing in the tank handing buckets to two others who carry them around the house and pour them in the garden area.  Thankful again for all I too often take for granted. 

Congolese finally arrived last night.  They are just two; Oliver and Abel and they are from Congo (Brazilville), not the Democratic Republic of Congo (the bad one).  We went to a small church of their denomination today.  Not as energized as last week, more traditional, but still more lively than most in the US.  It was bilingual as well, French and Fulfulde (the local language).

Internet is still a challenge.  We are paying for byte usage, and we don’t get much, so we are going to closely watch how we use it.  Skype and facetime are important, but will probably use the most of our allowance.  These posts will be less frequent and uploaded from word, and we won’t be checking email and facebook as much. 

A pretty quiet weekend, and training really gets underway tomorrow, so not much else for now.

Happy Valentine's Day

Took another long walk this morning.  Mostly on some roads and established paths, but didn't see much.  Yesterday I went a different direction ending up in a much poorer village.  No electricity or running water, except for the broken pipe at the intersection of two paths from which people were filling their jugs.  The bright side of it is they have access 24/7 while our running water is available from around 8:30 pm to 5:30 am.  I thought most of the people in the area were living like us, but there are a significant number who aren't.

Today I did laundry using the three bucket method.  One wash, and two rinse cycles.  Dryer works well too, first load was nearly dry before the next had completed it's first rinse.  We've decided we will probably do our part to reduce local unemployment.  We'll be hiring someone to do most of our laundry.

For those wondering if it is safe here, please continue to pray.  I am in constant fear:  there are no smoke or CO alarms in the house,  we ride on motorcycle w/o helmets, there are no seat belt laws, there is no FDA to check our food, (the produce is purchased off of mats in the market place!), the margarine is unrefrigerated, and some of the goats have really long horns...

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Paolo's Tricycle

One of the first things I saw on the night of our arrival was a broken tricycle in the yard.  I didn't give it much thought, figuring it was one of those things who's usefulness was over, and had reached it's final resting place.  Wrong.  Several times a day I've seen Paolo 'take it for a spin'.  No, he can't ride it, it's missing one wheel, and the other two are broken.  They're those hollow plastic ones which are just floating on the axles.  But he does laps around the house with it, or makes patterns in the dirt.  It's still valued, and it's his.  We are valued, and we are His...
Yesterday we went into town, Garoua proper.  It's more orderly here than in Uganda.  Infrastructure seems better, working traffic lights, etc.  No one speaks english, though, so that will be a constant challenge.  We took two of the other students as our interpreters/helpers.  They don't speak english, either, but they got us there and back.  Still no Congolese, two are expected this evening.

Tonight we’ll start class; one hour orientation, syllabus, responsibilities, communication.  This morning we went to the local market with Rebecca.  Seems this is where she does most of her food shopping for the week.  Typical African open air market, I think.  Hundreds of vendors with their wares spread before them.  Nearly everything one needs:  staples, produce, clothes, shoes, cookware, shoes, you name it.  Very crowded, noisy, and colorful.   We walked there, but rode moto taxis back.  Good thing, too, I was losing circulation in my hands, cut off by the ‘handles’ of the bags I was carrying.  Time to learn how to carry things on my head.   Hard to get a feel from the pictures (we try not to offend with the camera), but a very interesting morning.

Embarrassed

First, I had a lengthy descriptive post all typed, but when I changed positions it was all lost.  Frustration of this internet, but hopefully to be resolved soon...But that's not why I'm embarrassed, I'm embarrassed for what we brought:  Four overstuffed large bags (the last two arrived today, bet those around me are glad) filled with clothes and items we definitely won't use.  We could have easily got by w/carry on's and possibly one suitcase, I think.  The other students haven't arrived yet.  Four are coming from DR Congo, and must travel by road thru Central African Republic, which is extremely dangerous right now.  The two boys are in Younde, the capital of Cameroon, but must wait til Wed to obtain their visas as this is Cameroon Youth Week, a national holiday.  The Congolese girls haven't left home yet due to the danger, and it's yet to be seen if they will.  I'll update on the team and the living arrangements once they are established.  Meanwhile we will start DTS tomorrow w/whomever is here.

Gouwa, the way to say Garoua

Language barriers are one of the challenges we'll face.  Native language is Fulfilada (?), official language is French, and English translates to you have more money.  We'll hopefully learn some of the workarounds.  We're at the YWAM base,a large shared house, and our home for the next few months.  Ours and the other 7 DTS students arriving today or tomorrow, as well as our hosts, Jonas, Rebecca, and their children.  They are very nice and have made us feel at home.  We took a walk around the area yesterday,  mostly residences in varying degrees of completion.  It's not very picturesque, kind of what we expected, but there will be time to get out and see other areas.  We are a long way from town, so will have to figure out navigation and transport.  It will be by motorbike (bodas in Uganda) and we'll have to make sure to find drivers who can get us back.  Internet will be a challenge, very slow, so skype and the ipad aren't working.  We experienced 100 degree temperature difference from Denver to here.  Rebecca says she hates the upcoming hot months...

So far, so God

We're in Douala, which is most of the way to our destination, Garoua.  The trip has gone well so far.  We arrived at DIA 2 hours early for the international flt.  Our flt was delayed for an hour, but we were assured there would be enough time to make the connection at ORD.  But this allowed for extra time to visit w/D,G&L, C&E, and K.  When they posted another delay I checked back w/AAL who now said we wouldn't make the ORD connection.  The agent spent a long time working the computer and was able to get us on the on time UAL flt to ORD.  It was the same flt Kailey was on, and we got seated together.  Thanks for the blessing of more time w/her.  Our flts here went well, w/boarding nearly complete at DEN and ORD, and the normal comfortable connection in Istanbul.  Two of our bags didn't make it, probably lost in the AAL-UAL exchange.  Now our flt to Garoua is delayed until the evening, but we're enjoying the sights and sounds where we're at, so it's okay.  In fact there's a wedding outside, so I'm going to wrap this up and go watch.  A big thanks to all who've made our departure special, and apologies that we weren't able to spend more time w/each of you.  More later...