Coffee Monks

We got to visit a monastery there in Foumban. It was so interesting! They took us to their new monastery that is in the making, and gave us a tour. That way, we could see into all the rooms and it wouldn't be disturbing to anyone. The kids enjoyed it, because they got to run...a lot!

This is a hallway. Aren't those arches beautiful?!?



This is the monk that gave us the tour. He's standing beside the very first stone that was made for the new monastery. He gave us the translation of the figures on the stone...and not only did I understand everything that he said, I got to translate it for everyone else who hadn't understood!! I was so excited about that!!! :))



The kids played King of the Mountain for an hour...they were all red by the time they were done! :) They certainly enjoyed climbing that gigantic pile of red dirt.



Here is a nice picture of the building with a beautiful sky above. It was a nice cool day--perfect for lots of sight-seeing! And it made it nice for the kids to be able to run and not get completely overheated.



The interesting thing about these monks: They make jams (pineapple, mango, guava, papaya, lemon, and grapefruit!!!!! Interesting, eh? I got some lemon and grapefruit just to see if it was yummy...I'll let you know!), honey, and coffee! We even got a tour of all their coffee making machinery. It was super interesting.

Petpenoun

We visited a resort called Petpenoun. SOOOO pretty!!!

Some 'rooms' in progress, with the mountains and lake in the background...so beautiful!!


This is what their rooms look like! The insides are gorgeous, too!


Andrew is holding a book, and therefore, happy! :)



Here are the boys looking intently at something....what do they see???



A frog! Or, as Josh has corrected me, a toad...



Apparently, included in the price of this resort, you get all your meals, and use of everything on the grounds: bikes, 4 wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, golf, canoes, kayaks, sailboats, etc., etc., etc....



There was a beautiful lake there, and the kids LOVED playing in it! I think they would have been happy to just stay there at the lake the whole time and never leave! Maybe we'll have to make a point to go and stay at Petpenoun sometime while we're here....

Claire and Drew...


Andrew discovered mud... he he he he...


Josh is smiling and happy!


Devin joined in the fun! You can never keep him away from fun things for long!! :)) :)




We are a happy family!!



Is anyone ready to come visit yet???

On the Road (More Foumban)

Here are some long awaited photos of interesting sights on the roads of Africa!!!

These are the vans we took on our trip! They are parked in the hotel parking lot! :)



Here are some happy kids at the beginning of the trip!

Josh and Claire with their friends:



Happy Andrew!



Andrew sleeping with his comfort object: a book!



This was a nice little dirt road on the way to Petpenoun. Devin even got one of the motorcycle taxi dudes! :)



There were tons of these huge horned cows being herded down the roads! :)



Here's a kid carrying a mattress on his head!!



This is where Africa meets Iowa! There are fields and fields and fields of CORN here!!! and in the midst of all that corn...banana trees, palm trees, and even some ponderosa pines! :))



It was market day in the little village of Foumbat (not to be confused with Foumban...) TONS of motorcycles with people on them going to and from church, and LOTS of stuff on the sides of the road! There were piles and piles and piles of plantains here!!! It was amazing!!!




It's a bird! It's a plane!! It's SUPER AMIGO!! HA!!



Anyone need a ride?? There were probably 15 people sitting on the back of this tiny little pick-up truck! and it already had a huge load of wood!



Do you think they have enough stuff on top of that van? Probably not.



Some ladies pushing a load of wood in their little wheelbarrows. That kid is giving us the evil eye maybe?



And the piece de resistance: Isn't this a beautiful view of some mountains?



This is a beautiful country!!

Foumban

We are back!! And here is the first in a series of posts about the beautiful village of Foumban!!

Welcome to Foumban!!!!



A lady washing clothes by her house on a hill...there's a nice view of some of the city from there!



There are Pine Trees here! Maybe Ponderosa pines??



The yellow building that you see off to the right is part of the artisian community. There are probably 20 shops--all filled with pretty much the same thing: Masks, stools, necklaces, interesting memorabilia. We spent much of our time shopping, but it was interesting to see the different craftsmen and to talk with them. Talk about a crash course in French! But I became much more comfortable speaking French and hearing it.




Deep thoughts on Foumban:

This trip was definitely an experience! It was a crash course on real life in Africa. There was nothing touristy about Foumban, except for all the artisans. They have a place called Craftsman Street, where all the craftsmen and artisans have their shops set up, and they just sit and wait for foreigners (probably) to come and spend a lot of money on their things! So different! The roads are horrible. Almost the whole place is set up like a market--all kinds of things on the side of the road to buy! There was a whole lane of little tiny 'shops' full of material; lanes with only fruits; lanes with only veggies; it was just so interesting.

As we were driving home from our trip, I watched all the houses pass by. The houses of the people here remind me an awful lot of Guatemala. They live in absolute poverty and filth. Their houses are usually cement-ish (more like adobe brick) with the regular aluminum siding roof. But I was watching them as we flew by, and I would see little children running in and out of the houses that looked as though they were abandoned...or should be... without any shoes or socks, wearing clothes (maybe) that had seen better days... but they were playing so happily! There were mothers walking with their babies tied to their backs. There were old people shuffling along the dirt roads. They are the ones that impressed me the most. I thought of all that they had to go through to get to that stage of life. What kinds of trials they had to endure--living in the same village; seeing so much disease, poverty and death in their lives; the experiences that they went through are probably so much more intense because of where they live. It just made me think. We also passed an accident that had just happened--and in the middle of the road was an old lady all crumpled up. She had just died! It freaked me out to see that, and then I thought about how no one will ever know about it. Millions of these people in this country die every day, in one manner or another, and no one ever knows about it! It was another sad thought that I had. Thankfully, Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us--he knows about it! and I suppose that that is more important than having your death announced in a newspaper or on the 10 o'clock news. But it is just overwhelming to me. I'm glad that I'm not the one in charge!

A Note

We are off on a little weekend getaway, but before we go, I wanted to post a few things that we've been doing! I know that when we get back, we'll have all kinds of pictures and stories, so I don't want to get too behind!


Josh and I made a volcano using an old juice container and some playdough...I'll load the video of it, too! Lots of fun!



I made a job chart (FINALLY) for the kids and here is my final result! :) They seem to like it so far, and it's helping Josh 'earn' his new bike! :)



The laptop has been overheating like crazy lately, so Devin called for new parts. The Dell guys would have just sent a tech over to fix it for him, but we didn't think they offered that to Africa, so Devin just told them to send him the parts and instructions and he could do it. Here he is with the whole thing taken apart!! (Turns out, we don't think we really needed new parts after all...the air vent was completely and totally covered in dust and gunk!!! BUT you have to take the entire thing apart to get to it anyway, so Devin just replaced the parts since he was already there.) As you can see, he did a good job, since I'm able to use the computer and it's not overheating! yea Devin! That's my man! :)




We are going to travel to a village called Foumban for the weekend. Today is a Cameroonian holiday, so we're taking advantage! :) We'll have lots o' pics and stories by Monday, I'm sure! So, until Monday, adieu! :) (This is a French Immersion trip, so we're supposed to speak French...oh boy...)

A Night Together

So, here we are. Devin and I are anxiously awaiting a Netflix 'instant' movie to download, and since our internet connection is SOOOOOO good, it takes a few hours. (And this is a GREAT improvement from before!!!) It has been a while since the last updating of the blog, and I'm sure everyone is anticipating a new entry to the exciting blog... Well, here it is: Nothing! Absolutely Nothing!!!! Stupid!! You're so stupid!!! (Anyone seen UHF???) No, you're not really stupid. But, really, we've been super busy lately, but for the life of me I can't figure out why....

Let's see. Saturday, there was a bazaar at the Embassy. Devin was supposed to go early to help set up some tables and chairs and things. We all ended up going with him, since the kids LOVE to go places other than home (I don't blame them). We helped get all the food ready for the bakesale, and I checked out what the vendors had brought as far as their African Art...and Devin set up tables and tied up a tarp to give some shade to the servers because it was SCORCHING!!! Whew!! I found some super fun things there, and enjoyed speaking French and haggling with the vendors. That took up just the morning, but by the time we came home, we were all completely wasted! So, we watched some movies on the big screen! Woohoo! I love giant white walls and projectors! :) We went back to help take down, but in the middle of the take down, there was a HUGE downpour! What fun!!!!!!!! We all got soaked! I was laughing and enjoying myself, and Claire was crying her poor little heart out! Andrew kept walking right out in it and just standing there, wondering why he kept getting wet! :) Josh was mad because he got wet, and Devin looked like he'd been thrown in the swimming pool! :) LOVE the rain storms here!!!! A good soaking never hurt anyone! :)

Sunday was a nice day at church. It was a cool morning, due to the rain storms of the night before, so it was so much more bearable! :) Claire and Andrew still have struggles with church. Josh is ok, as long as I'm continually translating everything into English for him...which is good for my French comprehension, but he's not picking too much up. Oh well. After church, we had our home teachers over. We ended up having them for lunch as well, and that was really nice. We got a chance to 'BRT' (build relationships of trust) with them a bit, and get to know them--maybe helping them feel a little more comfortable with us. (Because we're SUPER scary people...) Then, we had all the missionaries over for dinner again. I cooked more food this weekend... No wonder I had lots of stress headaches!! Whew!! But, it was yummy! I made minestrone soup, with the famous Italian breadsticks (thanks for the recipe, Mom!!!) and yummy carrot cake for dessert! I didn't think I would have enough, but everyone seemed to eat their fill. Kind of like the widow and her son feeding the prophet Elijah...the flour just seems to keep coming, and we always have more than enough! :) (Just like every meal we eat...I always give all our leftovers to our guard(s) and/or housekeeper, and we always have enough! it's fun!)

Monday, Devin went to Douala...here, he is going to tell you about it:

Yep, I got to go to the biggest city in Cameroon and still come back home the same day at about the same time I usually do. Douala is the economic center of the country, the highest population center, and also the primary port city (Atlantic Ocean). We have an Embassy Branch Office there, which is primarily concerned with getting shipments through customs for US employees in Yaounde and a few other neighboring embassies. I got to install a regional HF radio there, which is used for communication in the event of emergencies.

The drive was probably the most interesting part. I saw lots of huge logging trucks traveling around 25 mph or slower. The highway from Yaounde to Douala is best compared to a two lane divided canyon road such as the one in Spanish Fork canyon. There wasn't too much traffic as we were traveling on a Monday during the day, but I hear that it gets VERY congested on the weekends. There were three "toll booths" where you had to pay to continue the route. At each of these stops, all kinds of vendors come up to your car and try to sell you things (usually snacks such as fried plantains, cooked fish, bananas, or other fresh fruit). I saw a fuel tanker with a goat tied on top of the truck, among other interesting mixed loads. There were also a lot of broken down trucks. To warn drivers of the trucks on the side of the road, Cameroonians grab clumps of grass with the roots and all in place of cones. It was pretty effective, but might not work during the frequent downpours in the rainy season. Then again, driving in general is in question during those downpours, like right now! Yes, the rain is pounding on our roof as I type this message. Emily is getting giddy! (E: Yes, I'm contemplating going puddle jumping, since the kids are asleep, and with the rain pouring down, I doubt I'll be bitten by a mosquito...)

All in all, Yaounde is a much more pleasant place to live in my humble opinion. Douala is more crowded, more hot, more expensive, and more dangerous. So it was an interesting trip, and I'm glad to be back home in Yaounde. Ok Em, back to you!

Thank you for that interesting look into Douala and the surrounding areas of our beautiful country of Cameroon. :) I just sat at home and tried to recover from all my cooking endeavors! :P

Tonight, while we were eating dinner, we were all just talking about something, and Claire pipes up and says, "When I'm a mom, I can wear necklaces all the time! But only when I'm a mom." Where did that come from?

Le Marche et Le Police

I've mentioned a few times before of Devin's excursions to Mfoundi Market on Saturday mornings... Well, here is a photo of the spoils:





Isn't that fun? 2 hours and $30 later, we have fresh fruits and veggies for at least a week...maybe 2! :) Yum!! And I forgot that I had already put green beans and lettuce into the fridge, so they're not pictured here. But we have plantains, bananas, avocados, potatoes (in the plastic bag), tomatoes, apples, lemons (they look like limes), cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, garlic, green beans, lettuce, pineapples, mangoes (tons and tons...), corn, watermelon, ah, bliss! :)

And here, we have our police officer. Isn't he cute????








And here is a cool butterfly/moth that we found that was as big as my hand! :)