Peppe

Above: One of the main roads, RUDEC office, habaneros on the grinding stone, another main road, and then Karine and I at her church

Sunday morning I woke and traveled to Full Gospel Mission in Fiango ( a "suburb" of Kumba) with Mark to meet Karine for church. I was in for quite a surprise. Church in Cameroon is far from any church service I have attended in the States. It was nearly 3 hours long and was full of much singing, dancing, crowd participation, individual praying out loud (like speaking in tongues), and lots of passionate people. It was a very neat experience. The verse Mark 10:24 hit me with full meaning. People here are so comfortable and passionate about their faith. For most, it is all they have to focus on. In the states we are so stiff about our faith and distracted with many other things.

Sunday in Cameroon is a very quiet and peaceful day. We spent the day at the house working on laundry (by hand with 2 buckets. As Geoff said it very well as he was rinsing marks underwear "this is true community"). This took us about 2 hours and resulted with the laundry in the house because it started to rain! I am sure our neighbors got a good laugh at this.

Monday morning I woke for the first time all trip wishing I had a blanket as it was quite cold. It had rained hard all night and continued for most of the morning. In cameroon during the rainy season, a rainy morning is similar to a snowy morning back at Liberty-Benton: a 2 to 3 hour delay or perhaps even cancellation. We worked at the house until noon and then traveled to work. Most of the roads in Kumba are dirt and become very muddy when it rains. It becomes very unsafe.

After work we went to the market before it closed and purchased a rag to clean the floors, a broom, flip-flops for mark and I, beans, green beans and carrots. When we got home we began to cook our first meal completely on our own. We prepared a sauce with tomatoes, carrots, green beans, onions, and I prepared spices on the grinding stone which included habanero peppers, ginger root, garlic, and celery leaves. We added this to spaghetti noodles and some bread. The dish was very very good. About a 7 on the spicy scale. We were all sweating very much.

At the evening, we went to a shop in the neighborhood for snacks and on the way home, at about 9:30 PM there were 4 men in front of the compound where our house is. The men had a rope pulled across the street and were stopping every bike taxi and car that passed. We stopped and talked to them and learned that they were the neighborhood police force. Between the hours of 9pm until 4am they moved all throughout the neighborhood to monitor if there were any bandits in the area. It was very surprising to Mark and consequently to Geoff and I. Mark said he had never seen something like this in any of the neighborhoods. We got their numbers and saved them as the Alaska Street Police. They were very nice.

More interesting things to note:

Chickens run around Kumba like squirrels do in the states. The chickens run wild during the day but then come back to the coops at night for food. The roosters crow right outside our window starting at 6AM and continue throughout the whole day. It is quite amusing. Geoff has become very frustrated with them.

In the market, there are many many small shops that sell one specific theme of things. For instance, there is small district of maybe 6 shops that sell baby clothes. Then another that sells luggage and another that sells towels. There are very random locations tho, like the fresh veggies right beside the car mechanics and the bread bakery amongst the lumber yard. It is amazing. I love the market so much. It is how my ideal on how to shop. I will work at getting pictures.

Everyone we meet asks us if we go to church and invites us to their church. It is amazing how open and forward they are with their faith.

Small children look at us as if we are from Mars. Most of them have not seen white men before and are surprised by us.