Rebekah's story

This happened last Friday at the market here in Bambalang. it's one of my favorite stories.

 The 'white mans' overtake the Bambalang market

Friday was market day here in Bambalang, so after meeting for a devotion and a short language lesson on useful market phrases we were packed off two by two on motorcycle taxis down to market to test our skills. We were given shopping lists and 5000 CFA to spend.

Serena and I (Rebekah) were paired together. We bought our first few items no problem and then we came to buying an avocado (they call it a pear here). We approached one lady who had a bucket full of 'pears' and, after greeting her (an important first step) we asked her, “How much?” She gave us a price of 1500 CFA (about $3 CAN). We were shocked at such a high price and decided to look around some more. A short while later we greeted another lady with a bucket full of pears and asked how much she was selling them for. She said 1000 CFA. It still seemed high to us since we were told nothing should be over 500 CFA except one item. We managed to barter it down to 500 CFA. Handing over our money I reached and took one 'pear' from the bucket, said, “Awufa” (thank you), and began to walk away.

As soon as we began to move away were were swarmed by a crowd of ladies all suddenly talking at us and to each other. We were worried at first that we had done something rude or wrong. One lady spoke a bit more English than the rest and started asking us if we wanted more and insisting that we take more 'pears'. Slowly it became clear that when we had asked the price of the 'pear' the lady had assumed we wanted the whole bucket (as all normal people would)! When we just took one 'pear' they were all suddenly concerned because we had paid way too much. When they were certain that we really only wanted just one 'pear' they began to move away. We realized that we had paid way too much but were unsure if when we went back, we would be returned some money or if we would have had to take the whole bucket. We really didn't want a whole bucket so we decided just to let it go. In the grand scheme of things it was no big loss.

Later we discovered that the story of the 'white man' buying a single pear for 500 CFA had traveled through the whole market and even back to our host families. We all had a good laugh and learned our lesson to be very specific when we are buying something from a bucket!

A Brief Recounting of Our Time So Far

Hello all!

I hope no one was worried because I haven't written in so long. We have a bit of down time right now, so Dan Grove, the missionary who lives here, let me on his computer.

We could really use your prayers right now. A few people on the team are sick, and also a few of our "families". We've split into pairs to live with different families, so we're spread across Bamblang. But we're all living with Christian families, so don't worry about that. Serena and I are living with Pa David and Ma Joy, Kyle and Sheldon are living with Pa Tom, Rebekah and Adriana are living with Pastor Pius and Ma Daphnine, and Melanie and Ann are living with Pastor Novetan and his wife. A few team members seem to have caught a bug from their family, and some people are feeling the effects of a new culture and village living. Prayers for health and the ability to merge into Cameroonian culture would be greatly appreciated.

We arrived safely in Yaounde last Monday night, at midnight, so Melanie got to celebrate her birthday by arriving in Cameroon! The next day we went to the market with Jessica's sister, Joanna, who has been living her for almost a year, I think. We celebrated Melanie's birthday some more, and because it was Cameroon Day, there were fireworks and it was kind of like all of Cameroon was celebrating Melanie.

We left Yaounde last Wednesday, drove the 8 hours to Bamenda, were picked up by Dan and Greg, who both live here with their families, and they brought us to Bambalang and our families! We've been here ever since. We won't be moving again until June 9th, I think (two Sundays from now) when we are going to debrief in Mbingo, and then go back to Yaounde after a few days in Mbingo. If you look up Mbingo, you'll find that there is a very good hospital there, where people can come and be trained in medicine. It's also good for hiking and it's a bit of a resort, so that's what we'll be doing there. Hopefully everyone will be well by then, so we won't have to take advantage of the hospital.

The best way to get around Bambalang is benskin, or motor bike (I'm working on my Pidgin), but don't worry. We've all got helmets. They are a pretty interesting way to travel. Serena has been saying she wants to buy one and bring it back home, but she's still trying to figure out the logistics of that.

We've got some really great stories, especially from the market, so I'll try to send y'all some of those. I asked everyone to type the up, so I'll be copying and pasting them over.

This is us with our driver, Sidu. He drove us from Yaounde to Bamenda. We actually had that whole bus to ourselves when we should have been crowded in 4 to a bench. We were blessed. Photo credit goes to Larry Seguin, who taught at Tyndale last semester and beat us to Cameroon by two days.

Team Spotlight: Kyle Chatzis-Fox

My name is Kyle Chatzis-Fox and I just graduated from Tyndale University with a major in Psychology and a minor in English. I love meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. I really love working with people and talking to them, learning all about them. For the future I am planning on going to a master's program with a focus in Counseling (hopefully at Tyndale!), and eventually be a counsellor. My main reason for going to Cameroon other than experiencing a different culture is to grow and learn personally. My girlfriend wants to be a full-time missionary and so we want to test our compatibility on the field.

When I am not learning about the brain or reading science-y/space/biology books, I like to sculpt things with Plasticine (clay). It has been a hobby of mine for the past 22-23 years. (I'm bringing some for the plane ride. 10+ hours on a plane? Definitely time to do some plastecine sculpting.) :)

~ Kyle

Team Spotlight: Melanie Crumb

I'm Melanie Crumb (bring on the last name jokes :)). I am currently in the third out of four years studying applied Linguistics at Brock University in St. Catherine's, Ontario. I have always had a natural love of other languages and cultures and am SO excited for this trip to Cameroon. Wycliffe is a definite possibility of an organization I would love to work with in the future, so i am praying that this trip will help me discern that calling a little more. :) Oh, and I love cats.

~ Melanie

Team Spotlight: Serena Lazaroff

My name is Serena Lazaroff. I grew up on a farm outside of small town Canora, Saskatchewan. the farm is a grain farm as well as a cattle farm. I am very blessed to have been raised by amazing Christian parents. I have two older sisters and a "little" brother. I went to school in Canora and graduated there. Now I am attending the University of Saskatchewan in pursuit of a career in nursing. Ever since I was little I had thought about doing missions. This is one of the reasons why I am wanting to be a nurse, because I think it opens up a lot of mission opportunities.
The path that lead me to participate in the trip to Cameroon, I believe is truly God inspired. Last, last February (2013), a few days before the February break, a friend texted me asking if I would come to Alberta with him and two other guys that I didn't know and participate in the Race to 2025. This is a race put on by Wycliffe Bible Translators to raise money to start Bible translation in a specific present number of languages by the year 2025. The race is done in teams of four with the necessity of at least one member being a different gender than the rest. The girl my friend originally had on his tam had recently injured her back playing volleyball and was not able to make it. She had done all the fundraising, though, and was willing to give all the money to whoever would replace her. Within a few days, I was stuffed in a car with a bunch of luggage and three guys, two of which I barely knew. The guys arranged everything so I would get to Alberta and back home. When I arrived at the camp where the race was, I soon realized that I was the only high school student there. The race was hard, but a lot of fun! At the end of the two day race, the team was supposed to choose one of the team members that we thought deserved to have their name put in a draw for a scholarship for a short term missions trip with Wycliffe. At the supper when we were supposed to do this, the team was all spread out eating with different people we had made friends with. The guy who got the form for the scholarship just scribbled down my name and submitted it. Then my name was drawn. I was actually not too happy at the time. I was the youngest person there. There were so many more Bible college students that were more mature and could use the scholarship in a better way than I could. I wasn't even supposed to be there! I didn't do any fundraising or anything! After awhile I learnt to accept it. The scholarship expires within 18 months of receiving it and I couldn't go last year because I was in school until June high school departmental exams. So this summer is the only summer I have left to use the scholarship. The trip to Cameroon is the only trip that Wycliffe is putting on so this is where I am going. Looking at how all these things happened, I am amazed at how God lead me to be part of this team going to Cameroon. I know that this is where He wants me to be and He has great plans to use me and the rest of the team there. God really does work in amazing ways.

~ Serena