Dry Season

People in the States ask me if January is winter or summer here.  The answer has perplexed me for a year now.  It is both and neither.  

I am no climate expert, but I thought because we were above the equator it would be coldest in January here.  But the inside of our house is never below about 70 at night.  It is jacket “cool” outside, but the days are the hottest up to 90 because there is little shade.

So here in Cameroon, we have two seasons:  The “dry” season and the “wet” season.  The dry season runs for about 4 months from Dec-March and the “wet” season is about six months from May through October, with a month or so of transitional weather.

Most Missionaries I know dread the dry season because of the intense dust (and lack of consistent water).  Many local people have no glass on the windows, just curtains and the dust blows in easily into the house and layers of dust accumulate on everything.  Luckily our windows seal well, but I like to keep the windows open for the nice breeze and since we got a screen door, I do feel it is a bit dustier. 

Even the paved roads are dusty and the “green” bushes are orange brown because of the dust.  I was driving behind a truck on Tuesday down a dirt road and couldn’t even see his truck through the thick air so I had to pull over. We are quite blessed to have so many paved roads near us and the compound is quite grassy.

We all feel a bit congested because of the dust, but when I had my cold earlier this month it felt like I had pellets of rice in my nose. I will never again take for granted air moving freely through my nostrils.

Interestingly we just had a bit of rain as I am composing this.  This is most unusual for this time of year.  Some feel this is “Climate Change” but others say it happens every so often that the “season” is a bit different. These rains are “dirty” rains because it pulls all the dirt off roofs and trees etc.

One of the blessings of the dry season is that the kids get to play outside after school.  During the rainy season we rarely go out after 3pm. And since we are on the equator and have no daylight savings the sun doesn’t set until 6 or 6:30 pm. And of course the wood is nice and dry to make our fires!!!!

-Joy

Sky House In Motion

By Joshua (Age 11)

We are building what some might understand as a tree house on poles.  We call it “Sky house”.  It is close to completion, yet I want to tell you a bit about it.  First of all, a missionary named Jessie is here and he is the one who made it possible.  Jessie is the Mastermind of the project and has a bit of experience with this type of thing.  The Sky house has a ladder going up about 8 feet in the air, a tin roof, wall framing, 3 windows, two pieces of bamboo wall, and a very secure floor.  

We have been working on it for about 4 months, and progress is very rapid.  We started by simply marking out where and how big it was going to be.  Then a guy dug holes 4 feet deep into the ground.  After that, we painted motor oil onto the poles and set them to dry in the sun.

The next day, we put and cemented the poles in.  When the cement dried, we made “perimeter joists” all around the structure.  These were the outer boards used to nail “joists” into it.  We then nailed the floorboards to the joists and perimeter joists.

From there we started doing the wall framing.  We did each wall at a time on the ground.  The left wall had a door which the ladder rested against it. The front wall had a window first to spy on the parents and anybody entering the house.  The left wall had another window and the back wall had the biggest window of them all. It was the viewing window for my parents.  My dad saw that the window was too high for viewing, so we had to break down the window board and lower it. Now we will have great sunset views.

From there we gave the structure support by putting diagonal boards from the perimeter joists to the wall framing. We also did slanted boards onto the wall to the other so we could nail on the bamboo raffia.  Just recently, we built on the roof.  It has zinc on it so that rain can’t get inside the sky house.  Today we put two pieces of our bamboo raffia onto the boards nailed onto the wall framing.  We have so much bamboo raffia that we are probably going to make a goat pen, if we get a goat (which I’m hoping for!). 

This sky house will hopefully be a blessing to the Lord. We will try to do Bible studies and prayer times up in the sky.  I always wanted to have a club with a tree house. It will be perfect for my sisters and me to have our meetings.  The making of this structure has been so fun, and I thank my parents and God for giving me the opportunity to do this, what an average Cameroonian wouldn’t even dream of doing. 

Birthday Blessings

51 was not the most exciting birthday.  Pretty much just a regular day. But I did do a lot of reflecting on how blessed a day it was, and thought I would share a few:

·         No breakfast in bed, but  I got hugs from my three healthy, beautiful, faith-filled, and talented children.

·         No day off. But I got to sing and tell the story of the Unforgiving Servant and be reminded of God’s infinite love for me.

·         No gifts.  But by some miracle, Pete got a friend to come over and hook us up to an internet source, which thus far has been reliable and pretty fast.  We can actually watch short video clips without downloading for 30 minutes.

·         Bee had her baby on my birthday.  So now I share a birthday with the most precious little goat. I just wish we could have witnessed the birth.

·         No one sang “Happy Birthday” but thanks to facebook and email I got dozens of birthday greetings and accolades.

·         I didn’t have cake.  But the next day, the kids made me make caramel cake with caramel frosting and REAL M&M’s on top (and then we did sing Happy Birthday).

·         No party.  But on Friday, 25 expats came for praise and worship in our house. We all squeezed into our tiny living room and sang and praised until 9:30.  We talked about increasing “joy” in our lives.

·         No water most of the day.  But I had water long enough to “touch up” my hair. The kids say I now look like Legalos from the Hobbit, but I feel ten years younger.

·         No dinner out at a fancy restaurant.  But we are learning to eat very well and here and are so blessed to be among the richest 1% of the world.

·         No I don’t like the wrinkles that seem to be multiplying.  But I have excellent health and feel like “Sarah”, blessed with children in my old age.

·         I am so grateful that so many in the US are making our Mission trip possible. I am humbled that I am living off the generosity of others.

·         Though not the greatest birthday by earthly standards, thank you for making this a very special birthday.

-Joy

Happy New Year

What a perfect holiday.  What a nice blend of family time, prayer time, time with Missionaries, time with our new Cameroonian friends and time at the beach. But of course it went by too fast.

Highlight pictures:

Emily and Jessica got their toes and nails painted at the Main Market

Girls and I had matching dresses made (and another set that all five of us are alike)

We went to Limbe for five nights where we rode the waves by the hour and also got to “climb” horses on the beach.

We took a trip to a remote area of Limbe where we got to see a small fishing village.

We went to Njimicom to visit with the rest of our LMH/MDA family.  The sunset was UNBELIEVABLE. Great time fellowshipping. It is great to see how the kids are all bonding.

Now it is back to life as “normal”.  Kids are back in school and Pete and I back to ministry. Still there never is a dull moment with life providing lots of enriching moments. 

Thank you all for praying for us and supporting us in 2013.

-Joy

Open Door

One of the blessings we have here is to live in the inner part of the Bishop’s compound.  It helps us have good security, beautiful grounds and the generator when the lights go out.  But I often feel it is a bit of an “ivory tower”.  We do not have the neighborhood feel and the blessing of having kids and adults close by. I am grateful for the privacy, but also feel that we are missing out on being more “with the local people”.

One of the customs here in Cameroon is to go around on Christmas and “visit” people. I asked if everyone is out visiting then who is home to greet.  I never got a clear answer, but we decided to open our door for two days and invite everyone to visit.

We had sisters and priests, and neighborhood kids and, many of our friends and venders at the market came. There were people from the Radio Station and the kids’ school, and students of Pete’s plus a ton more.  We served a light meal and drinks (Nestor was on holiday so I felt proud that Pete and I did all the work ourselves. We counted at least 80 that came. It was a bit hectic, with the water running only part the time and people arriving long after the 5pm ending (silly me to think I had any control over time here).  We sang some and just had fun getting to know people a little better.

One of my “thorn” moments over the holiday was when we were running out to a party on Christmas Eve and a Catechist came to greet us.  He comes periodically and he has a way of bringing out my “unChristlike” qualities.  When he comes he often stays for hours and I am never quite sure what to do with him. He wanted to sit and write some Christmas cards so we left him on the front steps.  I couldn’t help but remember the Scripture about how Christ came in all forms and the people said “if we knew it was you we would have fed you” etc. I wish I had been ten minutes later to the party and given him a small gift or a bite to eat.

One of the “roses” was when the Archbishop came by a day or two after the party. He came in his jogging suit after his daily walk.  After a few minutes of greeting, Pete boldly asked if it were possible for him to hear confessions. He agreed readily. Josh and Jessica came out beaming with the light of Christ shining in their eyes.  What a blessing for them to have such a meaningful and personal experience with our bishop.  After he left we had a time of heartfelt family prayer.

I hope that 2014 will allow us to open the door to Christ and our neighbors more and more.

-Joy