One month in….

We have been in Cameroon a whole month now.  Wow! What does this look like?

 

Walking home from the elementary school

Well, yesterday we had the pleasure of celebrating our daughter’s 11^th birthday with 3 of her friends for pizza and cake and a movie. What a blessing she is! 

So how is this possible? 

There is a Cameroonian man who lives just down the road and has one of the little shack ‘boutiques’.  He is a Christian man who, with his wife and kids, does neighborhood kid’s club/evangelism, and disciples young men.  He caters to the nearby missionary (mostly) American community by making pizza.  I had thought about making it myself, but this seemed like a great opportunity to support local business, try the pizza, and have less stress today.  Silas’ sons brought the pizza by last night at 6, half-baked, and I put them in our fridge until noon today.  He only makes pizzas Friday and Saturday nights so we kept his pans and will return them on Monday. 

I made a cake on Friday, put it in the fridge (no ants in the fridge) and iced it this morning.  Thankfully, I brought my Wiltons kit along to France and here so I could do it well and SO thankful for my mom who taught me how.  My first electronic purchase was a hand mixer (okay I did buy a fan first, but only because the store was out of hand mixers!)  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy 2 cans of powdered sugar so we ran a bid short on icing.  But I have discovered that although there is no buttermilk in France or Cameroon, milk with a bit of plain yogurt works well in my chocolate cake.  

The movie came via our personnel director who has been collecting movies for decades from other missionaries and has a lending library! Another friend has a projector (good since we don’t own a TV here) and I borrowed some small usb powered speakers.  My computer played the DVD and voila, The Incredibles!  Monday I get to return everything.  J

 

Kristin with 3 friends for her party

We have had training on life here.  We learned about what to do in in emergencies, basic health concerns of the tropics, who to call when you need something, and how to cook some traditional food.  

Getting Rabies vaccinations

Rebecca and her helper in the Kitchen.

We’ve met with the director of personnel, and discussed what our future here might look like (many more meetings to come on that one!)  We have learned how to get money, and paid to get drivers licenses.  We’ve volunteered at the kids’ schools.  We’ve gone to parent meetings and game night. We  went to the closing ceremony at Ben and Kristin’s school for the ‘joint learning session’ – a three week session for MKs who live in villages and those who will go to school at the Greenhouse school all year.  

Kristin and Ben's classes together for an art class

Learning about explorers 

Our filter

Our reserve

We have been with out tap water for 9 days since we have been here.  Our house doesn’t have a giant reserve tank, but the neighborhood across the street, Newland, where many missionaries live, does, so we always had access to water, just not in the tap.  We also have a big blue barrel in the kitchen as a reserve.   I don’t like the water issues, but I’m dealing with them better!  

We changed out our propane tank and got one filled for a reserve.  We played volleyball after work.  We’ve been to a birthday party for a good friend’s child.  

Hannah's 8th birthday

Our first restaurant experience in Cameroon!

And today, we were blessed to go eat hamburgers and shakes and fries after church- first time in over a year.  Who knew we’d find that in Cameroon!

We’ve spent hours here in town between our house and a grocery store with meat.  We’ve learned to buy for at least 2 weeks so you don’t have to go again so soon.  Meat is expensive, but we still eat it.  I know we could go to beans and survive, but I’m not there yet.  I love good food!  We found chocolate that is okay and not bad and expensive, so we have our daily square after dinner every other day here. We found school supplies- and we miss things like scotch tape, duct tape (thank you Govers), Elmer’s glue, nice markers and colored pencils, colored paper, nice binders that don’t cost a fortune (but you need 4 hole ones like in Europe NOT 3 hole ones like in the US), and lunch boxes (I’m looking for insulated lunch bags or boxes!  Not to be found here.)  

Street market as seen from the car

Outdoor furniture market we drive by

Buying pillow while in the car

We’ve had friends over for dinner and lunch.  We went to a yard sale at Newland.  Thank goodness it was just before Kristin’s birthday.  It is hard to find little things for gifts here.  We received our first order form for Scholastic Book Clubs, International schools (Prices are high, but include shipping!).  Seen cool sunsets, birds and lizards.  

Local colorful lizard

Small lizard 

Friday's sunset at RFIS- Rainforest International School

In the month we’ve been here there were 2 days I cried and felt I couldn’t pray. But that means there were 30 days that I smiled and prayed and gave thanks for my/our many blessings!  Our kids all have friends.  Friends that I like- we have prayed for this for so long.  And talking to the parents here, they have prayed for friends as well.  Double blessing and answer to prayers on both sides.

Noah and Gabe at game night

Dinner with friends- lots of veggies and guacamole made with avocados from our yard

I got house help- she calls herself a domestique.  She comes 3 mornings, and sweeps and mops and washes windows, takes out the trash and compost, cleans the bathrooms, does dishes, and on her Wednesdays she goes to the market for produce for me, and bakes a sweet bread or banana bread for me.  She is Francophone and helps me with my French.  Her name is Hortance.  Someday I will take her picture.  She is a nice lady with 4 kids.  I am so thankful for her help!  We are thankful for all the people who answer our questions, help us with groceries and driving (we are hoping to buy a car soon.  They are expensive here.), show us how to find things.  There is a library here, not 4 libraries: one at Greenhouse, one at RFIS, a scholarly library at SIL, and a reading room.  I can read.  I can take time to rest and sit still and just be. I have time for quiet times with God and no pressure to get going quickly.  It has been a long time.

 

Greenhouse (elementary) library

RFIS library

Please continue to pray for our adjustment, our work as we figure it out, our testimony, our love/Christ’s love to shine in us, our kids and school, to find a good vehicle at a good price, and to figure out how our budget really works – not just how it was suggested 2 years ago on paper.  Pray that our house in Virginia rents quickly to good renters who stay a long time.  Thank you!  Thank you for reading.  This was long!

Laundry

For the second day another line on the porch

The prayer chapel at RFIS

Inside the prayer chapel at RFIS

P.S. We switched internet providers and have the first month of 'unlimited' use- so lots of pictures this time!  Praying it works well for a long time because sometimes the outages are just random.