Let the campaigning begin

Today, Sunday, is the official day for election campaigns to begin.  The presidential elections will be held on March 13 and are a matter of prayer for sure.  All afternoon we have been hearing honking, whistling and cajoling as election activities take place in the market place, carrefour, on the other side of the fence from our house. 

 

In other news, Angela just recovered from a yucky week with the flu, made worse by 37 celsius temperatures.  I have never had such a nasty and prolonged headache, but tests at the hospital said it wasn't malaria and I am just happy to be well once more.  We spent yesterday battling what we like to call tree ants.  They wrap up tree leaves into little clusters and make nests inside of them.  They are large ants, half a centimetre, and they bite and we have thousands, no exageration, living in the two trees on either side of our house.  While Darren tried to prune the trees I deftly cut the nests out of fallen branches and dunked them in a bucket of warm water.  The great thing is they drown in seconds, the bad thing is as you are cutting them out of the tree and into the bucket, ants are falling everywhere, including on you and up your legs etc.  It takes all of my perserverance to do this for just an hour.  We couldn't bear to move all of the mess we made to the burn pile so for today it has been sitting in our yard.  Tomorrow we brave up and drag it, ants and all, to the pile. 

 

Our garden is fairly pathetic right now, although the yard long beans are growing great so that makes me happy as I love green beans.  In other food news, I bought potatoes from a travelling merchant from Cameroon last week.  A bunch had started to get mold on it.  I thought I would make a mashed potato casserole which would also use up some of the huge amount of failed yogurt Leonard made the other day.  Right, so Leonard made yogurt and it didn't work--kind of looks like really runny, lumpy yogurt.  Jan suggested using it like sourcream.  Unfortunately, I made the casserole realizing after the yogurt was mixed in that it had gone really sour and smelled a lot like beer.  Needless to say the casserole tastes really yeasty and while I did have a bunch for lunch I will not be eating any of the left overs. 

 

In other culinary news, I was heating up leftover spaghetti last night and thought I should add a few more cans of tomato paste, ( since I do have a box of 100 tiny tins).  Having not opened one of these tins before, I didn't realize that they explode on opening.  The contents are under serious pressure.  There is an art to opening them that so far my cook hasn't divulged.  So last night the walls had a good spray of tomato paste on it and we prayed extra hard over our meal thinking it may have been subject to botulism.  We woke up this morning, whew, and at church I asked Aleta about exploding tins of tomato and she said, with a laugh, yeah, that is normal.  There is a trick to opening them.  News to me.  I guess that is just one more thing I have to learn about Central Africa. 

 

My word for the day is 'flexibility'.  I don't know the Sango equivalent, but boy is this an essential quality for peaceful living anywhere.  While Darren and I are flexible, I pray to remain so.

 

You will hear more from me soon,

Ange 

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Sunday thoughts

Three weeks, we have been here three weeks.  I have had seven Sango lessons and I suppose I am progressing well enough.  I have a stack of verbs that I know and recognize in sentences but the challenge now is getting them into sentences.  The sentence structure is different from both French and English and requires many little words.  For example the sentence, "What is your daughter's name?" translates to "Name of child of girl of you is what? or Iri ti melengue ti wali to mo ayeke nye?  Lots of little words to use and to hear.  My language helper, Clarice, is a wonderful teacher and is also becoming a good friend. 

 

Our cook, Leonard, continues to surprise us and is such a big help to us.  We recently found out that he has been working at the mission since 1974.  He turns 50 next month so I will attempt a birthday cake, although I am sure he could probably make a better one himself.  I don't have any recipes really, at least none I know in French or English so most days I just put out some ingredients and he transforms them into some really good.  Last week I bought a cabbage and asked him to stir fry cabbage with peanuts and Mrs. Dash.  It turned out great as he added eggs to the mix and it was probably the best thing I have had yet.  Once we communicated that he needed to lay off the salt and oil, our stomachs have been happier too.  The two things I miss baking wise are vanilla and brown sugar.  Hopefully I will be able to get some from Kenya in October.  We are definitely not at a loss for food what so ever.  We could eat avocadoes every day with the number that come to our door in the arms of children each day. 

 

This week I have really noticed the poverty that surrounds us.  Darren got back Sunday from his trip to a village north of here.  He said they saw lots of abandoned villages on the way as they were driven south due to the threat of bandits.  Rumor has it that there are 'soldiers' from Chad that are roaming around north of here.  We are in no danger, but they have paticularly attacked Fulani villages in the north and many of the Fulani have come here.  It is a great opportunity to witness but it has also made for a huge host of other people here.  I am learning the significance of communication and am greatly looking forward to even a rudimentary level of Sango in the near future.  Everything I would like to do involves speaking.  I am especially keen on helping Paulien, the lady that was hired to teach women at the nutrition centre how to raise vegetables, actually do some teaching.  She is a good teacher but she needs a bit of a push to start actually teaching.  First I need to be able to really communicate with her.  I will also be getting into doing a lot of grafting.  There is a huge interest in grafted fruit trees and this year the Lord is really blessing the garden.  Many of the trees Roy planted 5 years or more ago are starting to flower for the first time.  Not only does this mean we will have fruit for the first time off of them but it also means we know they will flower here so grafting them makes even more sense.  I think I will wait another 2 weeks or so until the rains start.  I am also battling bugs in the nursery and have plans to do some bug training with the agroforestry guys.  The verbs for making something bad is 'buba'.  Ngasa abuba bagba translates to 'The goats wrecked the fence'.  Fun word!

 

This past week and a half we have been laboring under the Harmattan, a phenomenon of sand clouds covering the sky with an eerie haze blowing in from the Sahara desert north of us.  Daily highs have been consistently 35 celsius and nightly lows at around 22-24.  Last night we had a delicious rain storm and a lot of lightening.  We only recieved 0.4inches but it still counts as rain.  Today the temperature is much more pleasent. 

 

We finally put batteries in our short wave radio (thanks Kirk and Jan) and the first program Darren stumbled on in English was a Radio Canada International broadcast talking about Simon Fraser University.  We haven't figured out the program times but would appreciate someone looking it up for us.  We have also listened to some BBC broadcasts and were dismayed to hear that Iraq is still in the headlines.  I guess there is no escaping it, even out here. 

 

Darren is off fishing with Kim and Roy for the day.  They are hoping to catch an African tiger fish, whatever that is, though it is supposed to be a rather big fish.  There are hippos where they are going so that is pretty exciting for him.  I opted to stay home and catch up on e-mails, decide on meals for the week and just relax.  It is Sunday after all. 

 

My final thought is on poverty.  It is all around us.  We felled a huge dead tree in our neighbours yard yesterday and as it hit the ground a bunch of bats flew out from beneath the bark.  Tons of spectating kids ran in and grabbed for as many bats as they could grab from the trunk.  They snapped the necks and brought them home for lunch.  I didn't grab any for our lunch but many of the kids looked like they had hit the jackpot.  We hired one kid yesterday to help Darren build trellises in our garden.  He said he needed 500CFA for a school exam he had to take.  I also gave him a hardboiled egg and bread for his supper.   Well, this morning he showed up at our door while we were eating breakfast and just sat there.  I pretty much knew he didn't have anything for breakfast which made our breakfast rather unappetizing.  We gave hime some of our breakfast and then he asked me for another 500 saying he made a mistake and the exam actually cost 1000.  It is hard to know when you are being conned, but the truth is, no matter how much the exam cost he needs the money.  We have decided not to give any money out unless we get some kind of work in return, and we are making efforts to buy fruit from little kids whether we really need it or not.  We are trying to reward hard work and ingenuity.  Many of the missionaries give themselves a set amount each month to give away, and when it is gone they say no until next month.  I think this is a wise idea. 

 

Once again, we are thankful for the missionaries we have the priveledge of living with.  We were totally unprepared upon arrival and they have really helped us find our way.  The scripture about giving up everything for the sake of the gospel and gaining it all back 100 fold is so true.  We gained a 100 times as much when we moved to Florida and since leaving our Florida family behind we have gained another wonderful family.  Praise be to our heavenly Father for his continued provision and care of us. 

Our first Sunday

This morning was our first church service here in Gamboula.  There is a french service from 7:00 to 8:30 and the Sango service is from 9:00 to noonish.  We are going to the Sango service, in hopes that it improves our Sango comprehending abilities. 

 

We had to sit in the front of the church this morning, since we were special guests.  There are all kinds of rotating choirs in an African church.  This mornings choir happened to have electric guitars and amplifiers, which were just behind our heads.  This made for a deafening worship time but the words were nice and clear!

 

The service didn't really feel like 3 hours, probably because we were straining to hear what was going on, listening for familliar sounding words.  Sentences containing french words I can get the gist of.  Leanne also sat beside me and helped translate the basic idea of things.  I think we heard at least 6 choirs sing.  Men and women sit on seperate sides of the church and for the offering the men and women take turns walking up to the front of the church and depositing their money.  Each week they announce the men's and women's offering totals from the week before, almost like a competition.  Was pretty new to me.  They also dedicated 3 newborns this morning.

 

This week the church is starting a 'True Love Waits' campaign among the 'young people'.  The youth group consists of people age 5-30 something.  It is nice to know that I still qualify for the youth group. 

 

We were introduced to the church so we are no longer anonymous and mayhave many more people at our door with requests now.  This brings me to an interesting quandry.  Everyday we have someone come by asking for help.  Most of the time we don't understand what they need, unless they speak frnech.  But more often than not it is help in paying for a hospital bill, since the hospital is in our front yard practically. People here speak of those who are scamming you, saying they have a sick kid when they really don't.  What is difficult is that everyone here is poor, whether they are scamming you or not, they are all legitimate needs.  We have been talking to the other missionaries and are trying to formulate a plan of how we can help those who come to our door, without helping every single person.  Just something to think about.

 

The missionaries also have an English church service at 7:00 in the evening.  Roy and Aleta host this in thrit house when they are here I think.  I am learning more and more about what it takes to be a missionary.  They are extremely flexible, very helpful and compassionate, are willing to reform their agendas hour by hour as things come up and they are very generous.  I have so much maturing to do in these areas. 

 

God is so good to us here, giving everyone, including me, patience.  If you can, please pray for a man in the church.  He came to Christ only 2 weeks ago and came out of his life as a sorcerer.  He and his wife came to the station and burned all their fetishes and started attending church.  Well yesterday their house burned down to the ground due to a fire that went wild froma neighbours field.  Pray that this man will find strength in Jesus to stay by his comittment and not turn back to sorcery.  Thank-you.

 

We went to Kentzou, Cameroon for our monthly shopping trip yesterday.  Was quite hot and dusty and a very long morning of shopping.  It takes a long time in each shop to procure what you need but you eventually get it.  I bought a lot of bulk things like TP, 100 tins of tomato paste (half the size of Canadian tins), 5 large tins of powdered milk, sugar, 20 kgs of rice and lots of fake orange Tang.  Darren got us a rake, bucket and watering can for our new garden.  He also tried Fulani cow on a kind of shish-kebob.  He liked it but I wasn't a fan of how much chewing was involved.  Managing a house in Africa and planning food purchases 1 month in advance will take some practice.  In the meantime, we eat what I bought and take it from there. 

 

Blessings on you, Ange

A note about bugs

I thought I would give a brief description of the insects I have encountered so far.  Some aren't that bad while others would probably thrive in hell.

 

I have spotted lacewing eggs on our balcony which is wonderful, especially since I have seen a lot of scale, which makes a good lacewing food.

 

Praying Mantis abound in all sizes, shapes and colours.  Grasshoppers do their own bit of work on plants and the millipedes are the size of small snakes.

 

There are driver ants, which are mostly on the ground and are like the Florida version of fire ants.  I am not sure if they are meant to drive you crazy or just drive up your legs and bite all at once.

 

There are your common kitchen ants that get into everything, the flour moths which, by the way, can survive in a sealed can of hot chili peppers and then there are the Central African fire ants.

 

These nasty buggers are very large and red and make nests in rolled up leaves in the trees.  When you prune or touch or do anything to these trees they come whipping up your arms, legs etc. and make pruning just about the worst task imagineable.  This kind of stinks as pruning used to be one of my favorite things to do to a fruit tree. 

 

The last bug of the week is a masses of hundreds of a very nasty, poisonous-looking caterpillar that was all over a Safu tree today.  I made up a concoction of tephrosia overnight last night to test on the fire ant and also used it on this caterpillar.  I will look for caterpillar death tomorrow...for today, the ants live on, like no poison was ever sprayed all over them.  The quest for fire ant death goes on.

 

Until next time,

Ange

Our arrival in Gamboula

We woke up to the sounds of children singing and the smell of cooking fires burning in the surrounding village.  I had to remind myself where I was momentarily although it all seemed so familiar at the same time. 

 

We arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon on Friday night after a very long and noisy flight from Belgium.  From the window of the plane we could see the Sahara desert.  You would never make it on your own here without meeting or travelling with a veteran expat.  The airport was a maze of official things you had to do and thankfully we were met by a couple of Covenant missionaries who brought vans for all of our stuff.  We spent 3 nights in Yaounde at the SIL guest house which had all the comforts of home, including warm showers.  On Saturday Aleta and I went shopping downtown.  There are many things you can only get inYaounde, so it was some quick thinking of what I might need or want for many months as trips to Yaounde are few and far between.  I don't expect, or want, to be there until October when we go to Kenya with NMSI.  After a crazy day of shopping and straining to understand African french we had a lovely dinner with some local missionaries and watched a movie that Roy had brought with him.  Yaounde missionaries are quite set up, tv's, vcr's etc.  Darren and Roy played soccer in the afternoon with local missionaries and their kids.  

 

Sunday we all slept late and headed back downtown for lunch.  That afternoon we joined some SIL people for a game of Ultimate frisbee.  We are definitely out of shape as we ran panting down the field.  Our game was cut short by a wonderful rain storm that came barreling our way.  We got soaking wet as we ran back to our guest house.  

 

We left early Monday morning at 5:20 for Gamboula, CAR; our new home.  I was able to sleep for good chunks of the ride amazingly enough.  The road was pretty decent, like the logging roads around Cowichan Bay, all washboard with a few potholes.  The way to drive is just to gun it, we travelled around 60km over the dirt roads.  It is hard on the vehicles but better on the travellers.  Every once in a while you come to check points in the road for various things, usually to check vehicle papers or collect bribes.  Many times we just drove through, other times we had to pay road taxes (500 cfa) and at others they let us pass when we gave them French tracts.  Check points are very boring places so they are greatful for reading materials.  Check our blog at http:// thebosses.blogspot.com for more details on Yaounde and the drive!

 

We arrived in Gamboula around 4:00pm after visiting multiple check points.  Fortunately they all know Roy and Aleta so it wasn't difficult.  Relationships here are key!  You would not believe where we are staying.  We have an enormous house all to our selves.  It is split level with seperate entrances to both.  The bottome floor is the kitchen, a big one, a dining room and a large locked storage room.  We have an electric stove and fridge which is a very big luxury we thank God for.  Upstairs is our bedroom, a second room which is our office, the bathroom with hot water in the shower if we choose, and a huge living room.  Every room has doors that open up onto our wrap around porch.  If it were easy for visitors to come I am sure you would all want to come and visit us.  It is a pleasent 26 celsius today with a slight breeze blowing.  Although we are in the middle of the dry season it feels moderatley humid.  Rain isn't supposed to come until March.

 

We had our first visitor this morning who we spoke with in broken French.  He was willing to come right in and teach us Sango on the spot.  I think we shall try out our new words with him.  We will have a houseman starting to work for us soon and he will do our laundry, bake bread (all the cooks here were taught how to make delicous pastries by the Swedes who used to live here), sweep and cook some lunches.  We don't have any food as yet but will be going across the border this Saturday to shop in a little place called Kenzou.  It looks kind of like a hodge podge of dingy huts, surrounded by dirty streets and garbage everywhere, but that is where the main shopping is done!

 

I think what i am most surprised by is how unlike Zimbabwe it is here, how noisy the surrounding country side is, how friendly the people are and how expensive the food is.  I would say that food is on par with Canada.  I haven't found anything to be inexpensive and some things are expensive.  Like they say in culture shock school--don't fight the system, just accept it.  

 

There are 3 other missionary famillies here in Gamboula besides the Danforths and they are all taking one day this week to feed us.  What a welcome!  I could write so much more but rather than keep going I will post other thoughts weekly on our blog and save this long e-mail for once a month.  

Love the Bosses