A Spider and some Painting

The internet is zooming right now, so I’m going to try to write a quick update.

I think I posted about a ginormous cricket last night. Well a few nights ago, as I was pulling down my mosquito net, I saw a huge spider on my bed. I think I gasped really loudly because Sam (the other teacher) asked me what was wrong. I answered, “Um, there’s a huge bug on my bed.” “What kind of bug?” she asks. “I’m not really sure.”

I was very proud of myself that I hadn’t screamed. Everyone else was already in bed so I couldn’t call Eddie to come take care of the spider. (And at this point I had no idea what type of spider it was.) I found a jar and captured the spider (all without screaming). Sam examined it and was convinced it was poisonous. I had a bit of difficulty falling asleep that night. I kept thinking something was crawling up my leg.

The next morning I showed the spider to Carol. She said it was not poisonous. Actually, it’s pretty rare to find a poisonous spider here. I have had no more dreams of creepy spiders.

Yesterday one family headed down to Yaounde to pick up C (the missionary lady Sam and I will be staying with). Carol wanted to send some baskets and trays with them that the prisoners had made. A lady there in Yaounde sells the baskets and sends the revenue back here for the prison. Well, the baskets had this ugly plastic covering the bottom, so Carol asked Sam if she could paint a little design to make them more attractive. Sam asked if I could help her since she didn’t think she would have time to do all of them. I hesitantly agreed to help. In case you didn’t know, my artistic skills are very limited.

For some reason I decided to paint a giraffe on my tray. I’ll never understand that one. Of all things, I choose an animal. I’ve never even painted or drawn a decent horse. Regardless, I set to work on my giraffe. Sam assured me that she would fix whatever I messed up. Well, when I was ready to give her my giraffe, she refused to fix it, but told me to. So amazingly, I painted a decent looking giraffe. The best part is that someone will buy the tray and think that it’s incredible that it was painted by an Africa prisoner!

Life Continues

(written September 20, 2011)

Sorry for the break between posts. Life has continued well since the last posting, well other than my difficulties with electronics. Earlier last week, I accidentally dropped our new power strip. All of a sudden, I heard a loud popping noise. Carolyn looked up at me in shock: “What was that!?” I didn’t really think too much was wrong until I looked down at the power strip and noticed that it was smoking! I confess; I’m pretty sure I screamed. I scared A and Elizabeth who hadn’t been paying attention. They were convinced I had seen a snake or some other creature. Then I started yelling, “Unplug the computers; unplug the computers!” I realized that I should then probably unplug the power strip from the wall. I quickly, carefully unplugged the cord from the wall … and I’m still living to tell the story. No, I did not get shocked. Apparently when I dropped the power strip, the cord came detached from the rest of the power strip.

We have continued to have various power problems at school charging our computers. I finally decided that something must actually be wrong with the plugs; I usually don’t cause that many electrical problems. So yesterday an electrician came by to check on our plugs. Sure enough, there really was a problem. I was very pleased to learn that it wasn’t just me going crazy.

Sunday brought Samantha, our other home school teacher, safely to Foumban. She’ll be teaching 6^th grade this year. They will definitely have a great time together in that class! Up to this point, the 4^th graders have been watching the home school videos at the Barillas’ with Emily. We went ahead and brought the girls up to the school so that they can get used to being with everyone again. In order to give Sam a few days of adjustment before she begins teaching, one of the moms and I have been covering all three classes (4^th grade, 6^th grade, and high school). I was able to teach 4^th grade most of their subjects yesterday and today while just popping in on the high school to check on them at certain times (like when I heard them yelling at each other). I actually really enjoyed the 4^th graders, and I realized that it wouldn’t be all that difficult to teach them. But, I’m thankful for my high school girls. I’m loving them!

Last night, I saw the largest insect I’ve ever seen in Africa (and I mean ever). I was sitting in a chair in my room, helping Eddie with his English paper. Samantha was sitting across the room on her bed. All of a sudden, Carolyn (who was in the hall outside my room) yelled for Eddie to come kill a cockroach. What we thought was a cockroach scurried into my room and headed straight for the chair I was sitting in. I added my screams to Carolyn’s and quickly pulled my feet up onto my chair. The creature was two inches long, about one inch wide, and ¾ of an inch high. It was huge!! Eddie told me to get on my bed so that he could find the bug. I didn’t listen at first, so then he started yelling at me: “Get on your bed!” I basically jumped from the chair to my bed, screaming all the while at Eddie to kill the bug. Elizabeth, hearing all the commotion, wandered into the room. When she saw the bug, she started screaming and jumped up beside me on my bed. Finally, Eddie located the cockroach and realized that it was actually a cricket. In retrospect, it’s a very, very good thing that Eddie did not squash the cricket. That creature would have splat in about a foot wide radius. Instead, he captured the cricket in a jar and then we proceeded to take pictures of it. Later that night, we actually ended up seeing another one of those crickets. And no, it was not the same one!

Mottos We Live by In Africa

During my time so far in Africa, I’ve noticed two mottos that are embraced by those who live in Africa. Here’s motto number one: “Change of plans! Never mind.” This first motto (and the exact quote is compliments of Carolyn, my 12^th grader) is important to embrace early on as power outages and other events can daily throw a hinge in plans. In the span of five minutes, one can go from plan A to plan D and back to plan A again. As I have mentioned before, flexibility is key.

Today, for example, we started the school day off with no power. Now, power is quite essential for school when three out of four classes are taught via DVD. So one of the moms called her husband and asked him to bring the generator down to school. I was able to start off without power, beginning the day with Bible class, and then moving to English with both grades. 10^th grade had a literature test today, so they worked on that while Carolyn and I read some Chaucer. While the girls were taking their test, one of the dads came and set up the generator. Almost as soon as the girls finished their test (and we were ready to turn on the generator), the power came back on. Back to plan A!

Carolyn came up with this motto this afternoon when A wanted to practice piano on the Loescher’s keyboard. A asked if she could practice. Then we realized the power was out, so obviously practicing an electric keyboard wouldn’t work. This realization resulted in the quote, “Change of plans.” Within seconds the power flicked back on: “Never mind!”

Motto number two: “There’s always room for one more.” This motto applies in nearly any situation, from inviting people over for dinner to loading people into a car. Sundays bring anywhere from ten to twenty people over to the Loescher’s for lunch. We always have more than enough food for everyone! Applying this motto to today, after school, we loaded twelve people and a generator into a Pajero in order to bring everyone home. That may not sound like a lot of people (and admittedly, most of those people were only half-grown), but we were quite crammed. The front passenger seat alone had three people!

Despite what you may think, living by these mottos makes life all the more fun. No two days are really ever the same, so I’m thankful for the variety! And God is always good and gives us the grace we need to help us be flexible on days we go from plan A to plan Q.

Market Day (again)

September 10, 2011

Today was market day. (Despite what it may seem like, my life does not revolve around market days. However, interesting, blog-worthy things always happen at the market. Hence the myriad of posts regarding the market.) For the first time, I actually bought all of the food myself. I’m not saying I got the best deals or the best quality fruits and vegetables, but I actually did it all myself!

The vendors definitely recognize me now. One lady, in fact, got mad at me today because I didn’t buy my pineapples from her. “Mrs. Carol always buys from me!” she said. “What didn’t you buy from me? I called your name!” The vendors are very skilled in making you feel badly if you brush them off. Truthfully, I didn’t mean to skip her produce; I just can’t remember all of the ladies’ faces. I told her that it was only my third time at the market and that it’s still very overwhelming for me. But, I will definitely try to remember her face next week.

Vendors definitely try to take advantage of me. Last week only one lady in the entire market had green peppers. She doubled the normal price for them last week. This week I saw her again—and she had once again doubled the price (making one green pepper cost what four should). Unfortunately, I gave in and bought a few peppers from her. Then as I kept walking, I found an abundance of green peppers. Oh well, you live and learn. In the long run, cheating a customer doesn’t work because once she figures it out, you’ll lose her business permanently.

Today I ventured into the fabric sections of the market. We went by at least ten different fabric shops. I ended up buying a fabric I saw in the very first shop. I love the design of it: a mixture of orange, brown, and light blue shapes interspersed with teal butterflies. I know; it sounds weird. I’ll see if I can post a picture of it so you can make the judgment call. I’ll probably end up taking the fabric to the tailor’s and having a skirt made. There’s mounds of material—6 yards total!

When we got into the car to head home, my friend told me she had an interesting conversation with her butcher. Right away I asked her how many cows she had sold me for. She could have gotten a great deal and been set with meat for the rest of her life! Thankfully, she didn’t sell me off. I’m glad she values me more than her food!

For lunch today, I tried the local couscous for the first time. I wish I could say I loved it. Unfortunately, it was a little too thick for me. I have a lot of trouble eating thick foods (think yogurt and pudding). The couscous had a similar consistency. I refuse to let my preferences stand in my way. I will definitely try couscous again when it’s offered. I’m sure I can learn to actually enjoy it!

One last comment for this post: I had my second driving lesson today. It went so much more smoothly! I’m finally grasping the concept of the clutch, and I had many, many smooth starts today. Next time, we’ll keep working on starting the car and hopefully we can get to shifting gears as well. I’m so thankful for a patient and understanding teacher!

Until next time! (Which hopefully will be sooner than this last post was.)

Market Day and More

(written September 4, 2011)

This afternoon we’re experiencing quite the rain storm. The kids brought me up to the balcony and we just stood and watched the storm. What a beautiful sight to watch! And to think that God controls those storms. What a great and powerful God we serve!

Yesterday I was able to go to the market once again. I definitely felt more comfortable this time. Carol had given me a list of the food she needed with the prices that she wanted to pay. It was nice to know what to expect to pay for each item. Some of the vendors remembered me from last week. Both ladies use many of the same vendors, so I can usually trust their prices to be fair. This week I had to get some items from a boutique. One of them pointed me to the “big indoor market” and said she would meet me there after she got her meat. I went toward the “big store” but stopped before I got inside. The inside was really no bigger than our kitchen at home. There was a counter directly in front of the door and then shelves filled with goods. I turned around, thinking that surely this wasn’t the “big store” she was referring to.

Well, come to find out, that was the right store. We were able to get nearly all of the canned items and dry goods that we needed. Generally any fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish are bought at the outdoor market. Everything else (flour, sugar, rice, oil, mayonnaise and such) would be purchased from the “big store” (or boutique).

The only downfall to my market experience this week was the mud that was everywhere. It has been rainy so much lately that there were puddles all over the street. My skirt and flip flops were both covered by the time I got back. I thought about taking a picture of my flip flops, but they didn’t look as incredibly dirty by the time they were dry.

On the way home from the market, I saw quite the sight. One lady stopped off at an MTN kiosk to add minutes to her phone. (MTN is one of the main cell phone suppliers in the area.) The kiosk was by the bus station, so I sat and enjoyed the commotion. All of a sudden I heard a bleating noise. Finally, I located the source of the sound … on top of a van. Apparently, someone wanted to bring his goats on a trip with him. Several goats were tied to the roof of a van. One by one they were tossed up to the roof where an attendant then tied them down. I can only imagine the ride they would then experience! It was one of those times that I just wished I had my camera with me.

Yesterday, I also began learning how to drive a stick shift. I can honestly say that I never imagine driving lessons on African dirt roads. Thankfully, my teacher is a very patient, understanding teacher. I stalled the vehicle more times than I can count. She had to keep reminding me to feather the pedals. I think I fell asleep thinking of the proper footwork to engage the clutch and the gas. Hopefully future lessons go much more smoothly!