Revisiting Kenneth's Birthplace

In January, we headed to Bamenda for a conference.  It was good to get out of the village for a while, and spend some time getting spiritually challenged as well as interacting with same-culture friends.



The kids especially enjoyed time spent with other N. American friends; the local traders are very friendly towards the kids, sometimes allowing them to try out various artifacts :).

One hotel on the way to Mbingo; some have wealth!

After the conference was finished, we headed to Mbingo, where K. was born many years ago.  We stayed at a rest house on the hill above the hospital, enjoying a few precious days with some friends.

 A bit of rest...









 A view of the hospital complex & housing, as well as the airstrip.

Big leaves - both on and off the plants :).














Mbingo market

Celebrating, Village Style

Thinking back a few months, the Christmas season in the village can be characterized by:

--a new set of clothing for the children (and if you have one or more children named after you, as I do, you "get" to buy them that new dress!)




--a decorated church




-- lots of children saying memory verses or poems



Our interaction with people brought about these seasonal celebrations:

--K bought his friends each a pair of flip-flops for Christmas :)







 --Of course, we had a feast on Christmas day, thanks to food items brought in (via cocoa truck) by the Friesens and their guests.




 --And guests of ours (after Christmas) made some delicious treats!

Dusty Season Roads :)

Some Good Roads In Kumba

Traveling on paved roads after dealing with our muddy roads has been great!

However, with dry season comes the dust.  Our more humid climate means that it isn't nearly as bad as in some other places in Cameroon, but it is still dusty on those dirt roads!!











You feel sorry for the motorcycle drivers (and their passengers!!).








Even in the middle of large towns/cities, you can find places where the road has deteriorated, pavement is no longer visible, and the dust is just as bad.






Regardless of the road conditions, it is always entertaining to see exactly how much can fit in any given vehicle...!






 And don't forget to watch out for herds of cattle on the road while you're at it (check out those long horns) :).

Dry Season Road

The rains have started again - and while it's really nice for planting gardens, it also brings my attention back to the roads.

The road into our village was basically impassable (unless you wanted to seriously damage your 4-wheel drive) for 4 months - the last part of August through the last part of December.  We finally got our vehicle back into the village after Christmas - yay!!

Since you have already seen muddy road pictures, I though it only appropriate that you see dry road pictures :).

The good news is that a lot of this road has now been graded, so it is significantly better.  The bad news is that this grading, unless followed by more serious road work, means that the road will probably again become impassable in August and we need to plan accordingly!

Take a hike!

During the Christmas/New Year's "holidays", a Cameroonian friend of ours served as a guide for a hike to a crater lake a few hours' (yes HOURS, not miles :) ) hike away.  Mike went, as well as one of our guests (who works in the East Region), K, and some of K's friends.  I've walked this path before - when we attended a conference at a village near the lake; but it's been years, so I'll post the pictures with minimal commentary :).



The "path" leads THROUGH a wide river.  In rainy season, this can be fast-flowing, so a group of people holding hands as they wade across is the best way.  When this group went through, the water wasn't very high.

Using a hand-pump water filter to refill water bottles

The Three Amigos... um... Amigas?

These mini dinosaurs (ok, not really!) have started appearing at our house.  K and his friends found the first one in the stand of bamboo at the stream (about a block from our house) when they were cutting down some bamboo for a project.

Thanks to the (limited) internet, we found out it is probably a female Sailfin (or Cameroon Mountain) chameleon.



The second chameleon was a smaller, faster version, but still a female.  Some of K's friends brought it - double wrapped in heavy plastic market bags, as most Cameroonians (at least in our area) do not like chameleons, associating them with bad luck or magic.  A few days later, a third female chameleon was brought to our porch.  Ok, enough!  But the kids are really enjoying the chameleons (who are quite content to be handled most of the time) - catching grasshoppers to feed them, misting the greenery in the cage(s) twice daily, etc.


K let the first chameleon (named Emerald, or "Emmy" for short) wander around his room at times; but sometimes she was VERY difficult to find.




All the way up to the top of the mosquito net on the top bunk!




 Or up on top of a clothes hanger, which was hanging in his (open) closet.






We probably won't keep all three chameleons (let the newest one go back to the wild?), but for now it means that each of our "kids" here at the home-school group sessions in Bamenda could hold a chameleon while talking to their older sister via Skype :).