Now in Douala, Cameroon

8/29/09
Douala, Cameroon-- We have been very healthy. No sickness at all. No malaria, not even a cold.
Our hosts have been so helpful. They have put us up (and put up with us!), fed us delicious food, taken us into town almost every day either to look for “The Box” at the airport or to shop for household, automobile, or food items.
We spent two rewarding days working at the little Adventist school in Yato. Last year was its first year; they offered grades one and two. We helped with the construction of another room in the school. This room will be for grades three and four. They are moving ahead with building and registration, yet they are still looking for teachers. Is there anyone out there who would enjoy helping this little English-speaking community by teaching for one school year? If you want an adventurous, rewarding experience, call Charles at 011-237-7791-8797. Of course, we will be looking for teachers beginning the following year for the Lassin school. ;)
Now with all this help it looks like we will be able to leave for Lassin Sunday. We are looking forward to meeting the people there and getting the school ready to open.
I read in the newspaper that the road to Bamenda (a big city on the way to Lassin) was closed due to landslides about three weeks ago. The government promised that the road would be repaired by this weekend. I sure hope so. We had torrential rain on Friday; hope it didn’t cause more landslides!
We had a very happy Sabbath day today. We went again to the church at the little school in Yato. The people there are so friendly. The kids are so friendly and fun. After church, I held a lady’s very young baby, and then another lady invited me to her house to watch a music DVD. After that another lady invited a whole bunch of us to her house for lunch. These people are so generous.
Right now Charles’ niece, Tatiana, is sitting beside me. She and a girl friend came to Charles’ house to help with the baby and take care of us. Wow! They are so nice! Tatiana will travel with us to Bamenda back to her family. She will continue her schooling there.
It seems like it has taken a long time getting everything together for our trip to Lassin. Since it is about a day and a half to get there, we don’t want to have to come back to the big city any time soon. We found out, though, that there is quite a big town about 40 km from Lassin, Kumbo. Evidently in this town, there are many stores and two good hospitals. We’re very happy about that. Also, the town of Bamenda is very large and has a big market. Bamenda is probably about half a day’s journey from Lassin. It might take about two hours to Kumbo.
Don’t send anything to the Buea address. I will post on the blog an address for us, probably in Kumbo. Here in Douala we purchased French textbooks and a English/French dictionary. We have to teach French to the kids! It will be good for us because most of the people in Douala speak French.
Well, I had better go. I will try to send this before we leave Douala.