Bamenda Update

So it’s been more than a month since my last post so I will try and fill in life in Bamenda.

We said goodbye to our friends Mona and Flo who head back to Germany with their children. In a goodbye speech by a friend he put it well. “You have been blessed.  You came here as three and you leave as five”.  Mona had two children in country in their two and a half years. The party was full of love, laughter and foo foo njamma njamma.

Jessica exhibited in a horse race here in Bamenda. She rode bare bareback with poise and confidence and was a great role model for Cameroonian girls. 

We did an early Mardi gras with our friends in Kumbo and celebrated Valentine’s Day the next Day.

Youth Alive came to the Treasure Center. They are a group of young adults that are committed to Christ and making Bamenda a better place by spreading their love. I have taught many of them in my counseling classes and feel it is youth like these that can make changes in Cameroon.

Pete has had several phone interviews in the US as we prepare to return; though all of us have a heart tug to stay one more year.

It seems impossible that we have actually been here over two and a half years.

-Joy

Culture Shock

So I have been pondering if I had more culture shock being in the US for 3 weeks or more culture shock coming back. My answer was I had a little of both, but nothing like 2013 visiting the US and then returning to Cameroon.

US Culture Shock:

·       There are so many white people

·       There are two full aisles of soda

·       I could feed my whole family for 4 days on what I spent for lunch out for two.

·       The roads are so smooth and you can see the road even at night.

·       Warm water feels so nice when you are at the sink

·       Many people have no idea what Cameroon is really like

·       It is soooooo cold in the US

·       There is so much trash to throw out or recycle.

·       Avocados are $3 each not $0.30

Cameroon Culture Shock:

·       It is so dark at night here

·       There are so many bugs

·       There was a man walking down the street swinging bush meat (dead large rats) and I feared he would hit me with one.

·       How do I cook here without Trader Joes and Costco?

·       People keep saying how fat I am.

·       Why is it still light at 6pm?

·       People blowing their taxi horns at me

·       POT HOLES

·       My daughter galloping full speed on a horse around a track.

But really, both feel like home. I do feel I can now go back and forth and be at home in both worlds. We shall see, though, as we discern our plans for next year. I have a feeling God is going to surprise me this coming year.

-Joy