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.