Sunday, August 24, 2014

What Does "An Occasion" Look Like?

In the village, "an occasion" can happen for a variety of reasons - to celebrate a birth, a specific group's get-together, etc.  But often it is for the purpose of raising funds.  Here are some pictures from an occasion earlier this year....

The occasion was to raise funds to finish the roof on the new community hall.  We arrived more than 2 hours after the invitation starting time, and we were among the first there.



Right next to us, a large truck had become stuck the night before (bad roads even in June, before "serious rains" had started).  Before the occasion got well under way, young men had come and dug/pushed the truck out.

We took a seat in the first area we came to, just to wait; this area had a "natural" cover of posts and palm fronds - left over from a "die" (funeral) in previous days.  We soon learned that this area was designated seating for the village council, so we moved to the other side, where the "invited guests" were supposed to sit.





Meanwhile, the village "caller" walked by, ringing his bell and reminding people that the occasion was starting and that everyone should now come.



The sound man / D.J. had the music cranked up high, and soon someone came to test the microphone.



We knew things were REALLY starting when a parade of chiefs from neighboring villages came down the road and were seated in the VIP section.


By this time, K and L's friends had arrived, so our kids happily joined them across the street in a tree :).


 And the program started - a prayer by a local pastor, immediately followed by the throwing of kola nuts by the village elders to determine if the ancestors were in favor of the occasion - good old syncretism, blatantly displayed.  We excused ourselves early from the occasion as M had to travel, but we were sure to leave our donation :).

Other Family Fun...

Besides time at the beach, there were other memory-making times for our family.  More "necessary" than fun most of the time, traveling can be enjoyable in the right company, especially if we stop for ice cream at LGM...!





And there are always interesting sights to see along the road - including motorbikes sticking out of small taxis....




The school room holds both good and bad memories, but seeing so many of the good books K and L are reading brought smiles to C and J's faces :).

Working on jigsaw puzzles together is a good memory, especially linked to listening to sermons on Sunday evenings.





C and J didn't stay locked in their memories though - they used their time to expand their knowledge of sewing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





 We're thankful for many pictures and mental images of our time together.  And we look forward to making many more memories during times together in years to come!!

Beach Family Fun!

A few months ago, all 6 of us had a great time at the beach - remembering old times together at the beach, and making new memories :).





Limbe...






Kribi...

Black (volcanic) sand... 
or brown sand?






















Saturday, August 16, 2014

Animals, and more animals :)

2 chameleons release earlier this year
K examining an insect
The one male (as far as we could tell)
- released earlier this year
Most of our family members really enjoy animals.  You've seen some posts about K's interest in animals, and some pictures of his pets - mostly chameleons.













For the past couple months he was down to 1 chameleon,






1 tortoise (about 4" long), and the 3 chickens (more an egg-project than pets).  Recently he released the chameleon and the tortoise back into the wild - while we're grateful for being able to enjoy the animals, we like to see them enjoying their natural habitat :).












When our family of 6 was complete for a few weeks, one of our excursions included a visit to the Limbe Wildlife Centre (see http://limbewildlifecentre.wildlifedirect.org/).  We saw lots of primates - even had one who had escaped from the enclosure follow us around for a while :).













The centre is NOT a zoo, but rather a safe place for animals, including injured animals or those being rehabilitated so they can be released back into the wild.  They also try to do some educating about the wild animals in Cameroon.



And of course, we have our own "wild animals" in our house - our kids were able to watch kittens being born.




We were also able to help a neighbor by taking care of his 2 orphan kittens - L made a good kitten "mom" :) .  Lots of kitten fun at our house!