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.