Here's a pic of me on my bday with the dress that Pete had made for me. The green circles on the scarf and skirt says "50 and Still the Best". It has been fun to wear it around town and it is super comfortable. The material came from the girls prep school on the grounds (Lourdes) who are celebrating their Jubilee year. I have the greatest hubby. He saw it and instantly thought of me.
It is hard to believe that I have been out of college for nearly 30 years. The years have just flown by. I feel so blessed to be living out my vocation here in Cameroon. I have such a variety of activities and yet I am always home by the time the kids get out of school. Pete has invited me to help give a workshop on basic counseling skills to the Seminarians.
The boy pictured above is Eme. We fell in love my first time at Treasure (school for the mentally disabled). He has the most beautiful smile and though he can't talk much he will repeat my name if I say it to him. Yesterday when I went to leave he reached his arms up to give me a hug (a first) and my heart just melted. He favorite song is "If you are happy and you know it". He loves to stomp around while I sing"stamp your feet". I hope to use music to help them learn.
We had 20 Missionary adults plus kids for Bible Study last night and had such a wonderful evening of singing, praising, praying and sharing. I got a Missionary cookbook for my bday so I made a chocolate chip banana cake my the dutch oven. They had a birthday cake for me and I had some for breakfast it was so good.
I drove Josh the Baptist Hospital in Nbingo for a small intestinal problem (almost an hour by car, but very quick with the available helicopter in an emergency). I was so pleased by what we found. A very clean, well organized hospital with four American pediatricians. We were seen immediately and our whole trip including getting all the meds from the pharmacy was one and a half hours which is quicker than my usual trip to the Dr in CA. We had a very nice Dr who spent a lot of time getting to know Josh and diagnosing his very common and easily treated intestinal bug (giardia). He also suggested the whole family get preventative treatments for worms every six months (3 days of pills). I am learning not to be scared of the medical issues-even Malaria is considered "no big deal"as long as you get treatment. I hope there will be day here in Africa and World wide when everyone has adequate and affordable health care.
Kids have a play date with two Indian children whose parents run a Presbyterian Book store and cafe in town (Bamenda Starbucks). I am going to use my new cook book and make tortillas and pita bread today. I am also going to be working on a project to get everyone here on the Bishop's Compound to start composting to fertilize the various farms we have on the grounds (YUK). I hope to start my own garden this month too-another first for me.
Being 50 looks like it is going to be a wonderful (and adventurous) year.
-Joy
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