Life is full of disappointments. There are hardships and trials that test our faith and help us to trust more in the Lord. Going through these trials are difficult for us--but if we survive them, we really are made better people. (That's why I have that little saying at the end of all my emails: That which does not kill you will make you stronger. In Spanish, there's another saying that is similar: Lo que no se mata, se engorda! Which translated says: That which does not kill you, makes you fatter! Ha!!)
At the beginning of July, our little church group had a temple trip planned. They had been planning this trip for months and months. Since about November of the previous year! So much planning goes into this sort of thing. You have to reserve the housing around the temple, make sure they're open, reserve all the different means of travel (a bus from here to the coast, a boat from the coast of Cameroon to Nigeria, a bus to meet them at the coast of Nigeria, then a few more connections on the way to the temple...), collect money from all the people who are traveling, get a group visa to Nigeria, pay all the bribes involved with the visas and travel plans (this is Africa, after all), give everyone temple preparation classes, etc., etc., etc! It was a major undertaking!!!
As the time came nearer, everyone became more and more excited, nervous, and tense! My housekeeper and her husband were planning to go for the very first time. They've been members now for a few years. They were going to be sealed! How exciting! I was very involved in all of their preparations. We worked with them through all of their preparations and even gave them their temple prep classes.
First, they were applying for their passports. Wow! Pascaline went to apply, they took one look at her birth certificate, and said it was a forged one! They even tried to throw her in jail! Hello! So, she talked her way out of going to jail (crazy people). They told her she had to get her birth certificate remade with certain modifications on it that they had marked, AND she had to have it made to look old, too, so that it looked more authentic! (isn't that hilarious?!??) Then she could come back and apply for the passport. The same thing happened to Edward (her husband).
Apparently, birth certificates are a pretty new thing in this country. You only get one if you're planning to live/work in the city (Yaounde--pronounced 'Yah-oon-day'-- or Douala--pronounced 'Doo-ah-la'), and even then many people still don't have one. So, when Pascaline had gone to get her passport done originally, they spelled her father's name wrong, AND put that she was born in Yaounde. She asked the person originally making it if that shouldn't be fixed, and the guy said that it was fine. Well, apparently it's only fine if you don't plan to use it (obviously).
So, Pascaline had to go to her village (a 2 day journey) to get things all fixed. She had to go from one office to another for an entire week, paying all kinds of bribes to all kinds of people for all kinds of signatures and dumb things. So, finally, after a whole week of stress, the birth certificates were all ready to be sent to the passport application office. The people of the birth certificate office in her village said they'd send the certificates and the applications over to Yaounde for the passport. They said it would be all done by the beginning of June. They waited...and waited...and waited... Pascaline kept going to the office to see if they were done yet. They needed to have the passports all done and in hand by the 24th of June. And, in true Emily style (yes, this is the story of my life, and it must have rubbed off on Pascaline), they got their passports on the 23rd!! Ha!
So, with 'real' birth certificates, passports, money paid, and plans in place, they were ready to go!
THEN comes another blow. Edward was supposed to be off work on the 28th of June. But then they talked him into working on the 29th. Ok. Then, the 30th. Then the 1st of July. Then they told him he absolutely HAD to work on the 2nd of July, and he could start his leave on the 3rd. Problem was, though, they were all leaving on the 2nd! His supervisors knew this, and were pushing him as much as they could. He fought and fought to have the 2nd off so he could go, and finally, in a huff, the supervisors signed him out.
YES!!!! They were ready to go! The time was set the NEXT DAY to go at 11am. How exciting!
However, we got a call the next morning, early: The temple is closed. The trip is canceled.
What?!?!?
The worst part? Beyond the fact that all the people (not just Edward and Pascaline) had worked SO hard and planned so much and saved for so long; beyond the fact that they gave notice at NINE PM THE NIGHT BEFORE DEPARTURE... They gave no reason. They said "The temple is closed until further notice. For more information, contact your mission president or area authority." The contacts were made, but NO ONE KNEW!!! No one had any idea why the temple was closed. This just doesn't happen! It was sickening to me, that all these people would have to wait now for another year...some of them longer...to be able to enjoy their temple blessings.
We finally found out that they had closed the temple because there was a lot of violence going on in the area. There had been many little (if you can call shootings and kidnappings little) incidents that had added up to the need to close the temple, evacuate all the temple workers, and make plans to build up the temple's rienforcements (probably big cement walls around it and stuff...). You'd think, though, that they'd tell you about that. It's no secret to anyone that Nigeria is a fairly unsafe country. Would it really have been difficult to say something like--"Due to increased violence in the area and concern over the safety of everyone involved, the temple will be closed until sufficient safety standards can be reached." But, then, no one asked me. I suppose maybe they had their reasons. But when you close a TEMPLE, of all places, the day before a group of people come, it's inevitable that the people are going to think that they personally did something wrong and so that's why they closed the temple. Whereas, if they would have said something like I just wrote about safety, then it would have made the people feel a little easier in their minds.
Makes me grateful, however, that I live in Cameroon, and not Nigeria. Cameroon has it's problems, of course, but we've found it to be a wonderful place to live. There is always something to eat, the people are nice, the weather beautiful... Can't ask for more than that. We are just glad, however, that the temple workers in Nigeria were able to get out without being hurt. What an experience.
