Movie Night

Tonight, Nathan and the kids crowded around our portable (7in screen) DVD player with 20 of our next door neighbors. We showed an episode of BBC's Planet Earth, borrowed from some missionary friends here in Cameroon, the episode called "Jungle". They loved it, even though it was in English.

If anyone feels sorry for us...as they sit comfortably alone in front of their 4ft flat screen...we are in the market for an LED projector (small/portable). That wasn't even subtle, was it?

Anyway, despite the tiny screen, we really enjoy times of fun and entertainment with our neighbors.

School’s Not Quite Out Yet

We have 5 more curriculum weeks to go…but I’m trying to pack into the next 3 weeks. I think we can do it, but the kids are seriously suffering from school overload. We started the school year about a month late because of our visa delays last year, and having to wait longer than we expected to get back to Cameroon.

Nathan is finishing up Science and History with the kids (he’s been doing these subjects for at least half of the school year, lightening my load a good bit). When I passed by the kid’s room while Nathan was reading the history book, this is the sight I saw…too precious!

Here’s Nandry in the “classroom” corner of our bedroom. I have to do all three kids in turn, and then send them out to the kitchen table to finish their seat work on their own. Oh to have more space…but we make do just the same.

Au Jardin

I got to do some gardening with the neighborhood kids. They helped me pull weeds and had fun using the hoe to try to make rows for me to plant on. I had on work gloves so that I wouldn’t get poked by the thorny weeds and I kept hearing the Baka kids say something about a monkey. It turns out that their term for those types of gloves is “monkey hands”! I love talking with the little kids because they don’t care how bad I butcher their language; they always giggle and smile. They got rewarded with cookies and I gave the two girls that actually worked about 20 cents each and they were very satisfied. Cheap labor!

Thank You Ikea!

We bought these gymnastic “rings” from the States at Ikea and our kids have become quite the gymnasts since we put them up. I though this picture was too funny, because it looks like Asher parachuted in, and got stuck from the rafters of our house. I wish we had enough bandwidth to post video, because Boaz and Asher figured out a way to each swing on a ring and wrap themselves around each other, like two tether balls. It’s too funny.

Beach Part 2

I'm not feeling very wordy today. Enjoy a few more photos of our vacation at the beach.

Gotta love Nathan's waterproof camera! These fish liked to examine our toes when we were in the freshwater stream.

Limbe Beach, Part 1

There are so many reasons we love the beach...and the fresh fish, chips and fried plantains are just some of the many. This is our family's favorite vacation spot; we've made the best memories here over the years and it just keeps calling us back. If you come and visit, we'll take you there!

The black sand, from volcanic rock, is pretty great for making castles, especially drip castles.




We saw many people at the beach rubbing the black sand all over their bodies and then washing it off in the ocean. Supposedly, it's good for the skin. I tried it on my feet and it rubbed off all the callouses and made them soft and smooth.






Nandry collected our individual Jelly serving containers from breakfast and used them as forms to make bricks for sandcastles and a sand pyramid. I think we could have done something larger scale without the jelly containers, but it was still fun.





One of the highlights of the beach (as if the food, ocean, freshwater stream, playground, room with TV & A/C aren't enough) is horseback riding. When the horses aren't saddled up, they sometimes run and frolic along the water edge, it's a cool sight. The caretaker of the horses (in the yellow shirt) has been trying to convince Nathan that we need to buy one of his horses and take it back East with us to Bakaland. I'd love to do that, if not only for the shock factor of introducing an animal that the Baka have never seen before.

Finding Friends

On the way from our place to Yaounde, we stopped by the ever elusive village of Bonando to see if we could find some of our long lost friends. It was actually a large village, but you have to be paying careful attention to see the sign. We even had to make three stops along the road (it was a long, spread out village) to get to the "Baka ghetto" part. But we were so glad we did. Last year, while we were in the States, our Baka neighbor and friend Koeseni died. She was the mother of Ambili and his big brother Angu, two kids that became very dear to us during our last term.
The Mama with the baby (Baby Desma, even) hugging her legs is the sister-in-law of Koeseni, who's family is now responsible for raising Angu (on the right) & Ambili (middle). Angu had a little smile for us, but Ambili wasn't really phased when he saw us. It broke my heart to see their physical condition...Angu only walking on his heals because he has so many sores on his toes; and Ambili with an open, infected sore on his foot about the size of a quarter, complete with flies swarming around it. Keep these kids in prayer. They live too far away for us to have much input in their lives...but they are so precious to us.

The Perils of the Post

We LOVE getting mail! And our family (and some churches) have been especially wonderful/generous lately to send us some big packages....though we know it probably costs more to ship it than the worth of what is actually in the package. Well, this last package from family in PA came with a fairly large hole in the side (see in the picture), where apparently a rat got in while it was sitting in the post office and had a feast. FYI, rats really like blueberry muffin mix as well as chocolate chip muffin mix. Fortunately, the dry roasted edemame was hardly touched and the gluten free bread mixes my mom sent were left alone (guess rats have a thing for gluten?). The kids got some activities books that went along with us on our trip and helped keep them busy in the car, and they also got a "bug vacuum" that we haven't yet tried. It's probably hard to tell in the picture below, but everything was covered in powdered batter mix...but it smelled really good. :)


I should add a PS, that even though there are many things not readily available to us like muffin mixes and often missionaries are known to...um...be frugal/not picky/not throwing away what others consider trash...well we DIDN'T make and eat the muffins. I just draw the line at getting leftovers from rats, know what I mean?