December Post #3

Watching the two girls over the past week made me think a lot about parenting. Not that I ever really thought parenting to be an easy task, but wow—I was exhausted yesterday after giving all of my energies to entertaining a 5^th and 7^th grader for an entire week! I think the girls started the week a little more hesitant of Ellen: she’s usually stricter with her rules. About half way through the week, though, the girls realized that they weren’t going to get away with much from me either. At one point, the girls admitted they were no longer afraid of Aunt Ellen. Then the youngest piped up and said, “But Miss Rachelle is scary now.” (This was said while I was telling her to finish all of her dinner, saying if she didn’t, then she would eat it for breakfast cold.) I told her simply that she was experiencing me in a different setting from school. I don’t actually interact with the youngest at school. Her mom teaches her and takes care of her lesson plans, so she hasn’t experienced me much as an authority.

 

This week, I started giving Emily piano lessons. She’s gifted in music, but she hasn’t been pushed in piano lately like she should be. So, Rachel asked me if I could start teaching Emily, mainly to keep her accountable. Africa is bringing me all kinds of “firsts.” Teaching piano is another one of those firsts. I assigned Emily about 5 pieces (including scales) to practice over the week, but I’m fairly certain she’ll be bored after just a day or two of practicing. She sight read several songs nearly perfectly. But, I figured I’ll give her a break since this is just her first week of lessons. J

 

I’m also moving forward with Kelsey’s violin lessons. We finally have a violin her size!! She’s having a very hard time holding her bow, so I’m not being too picky about her hold. After all, she is only 4. I’m also having trouble knowing how to teach her note values. She can do various rhythms fine (like “Mississippi Hotdog”); I just don’t know how to get her to understand the difference between half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes. Any thoughts or suggestions on that? I also need to build her a contraption to put on her violin to help guide her bow. She’s going all over the place with her bow. But I think I saw some pipe cleaners the other day here at home that I’ll use to make something.

 

It’s 8:30 Saturday morning. I think I’ve procrastinated enough getting out of bed. It’s time to face another busy day!

 

December Post #2

(written Wednesday, December 5, 2012)
One thing I’m really enjoying about this self-blog-challenge is that I don’t have to think up a post title. I really am not a good titler (one who titles things). I often leave email subject lines blank just because I can’t think of what to write in. The most creative I get is usually “Hi” or “Hey.”

 This week continues to be a strange, busy week. It’s strange in several senses; the main way being that Ellen and I are still babysitting the girls. In fact, we’ll probably have them through Friday if not longer than that. We’re plugging away at school, but sometimes I feel like I’m pulling tooth and nail (or whatever that expression is). The puzzle that we’re working on together naturally has a greater appeal than schoolwork or homework or violin practice, so that’s not helping matters.

When C found out that her aunt and uncle were coming, she asked if the pastors would like her uncle (who is a pastor) to speak at special conference for the churches. The men agreed to the idea and set up the details. The conference was scheduled for today from 2-6 p.m. However, C's aunt and uncle still haven’t made it to Cameroon due to visa complications. There just happened to be another pastor and his wife who are visiting Cameroon this week. When the complications with the first conference speaker arose, the men arranged for this other visiting pastor to be the speaker for the conference. I was able to attend all of the conference sessions today. The theme was the family—a very needed topic here since we have so few strong families in our congregations.

The Lord was so gracious in orchestrating events so that the conference could go on. We were even able to split up for one session, and the men and women were able to hear separate challenges. Unexpectedly, I ended up translating for the women’s session. I’m not entirely sure if the French speakers fully understand the message or not. But I am fully confident that God’s Word is not limited by my translating abilities. And the women were very gracious and understanding, helping me when I got stuck on a word or phrase.

And of course, no conference in Africa is complete without a little excitement. I could give examples of excitement from a conference I attended in Kenya, but I’ll limit this post to Cameroon for obvious reasons. Before the first session started, we were singing a few congregationals, and I noticed one of the men went outside rather quickly, looking around for something. He then came back inside and motioned to another man to come out. That second man then came inside, pulled a stick out of a closet, and then walked back outside. By this point, I had figured it out: there was a snake outside. I started laughing out loud; it was a rather amusing situation. Well, the snake slithered away before the men could kill it, and they both came back into the building. One of the men carefully positioned himself by the door, and I noticed that during the first session, he frequently glanced out the door, checking for the snake.

Between sessions, more men were made aware of the situation. The national pastor came inside and asked Ellen for her car keys. When she asked why he wanted them, he replied that it was probably best if she didn’t know. The men searched all around her car for the snake, even popping the hood to see if the snake had squeezed in there. All of their efforts were to no avail, however. The snake (a small green one according to reports) vanished to safety.

December Post 1

Last week, I was looking over the blogs I’ve posted this semester, and I realized I’ve been rather neglectful in the world of blogging. My goal for this month, therefore, was to post 10 blog entries. Then, life happened (like it tends to do), and I fear I may not reach that goal. But, as Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So I will begin my journey of 10 blogs this month with one.

As I mentioned, life just got really busy. Ellen and I are babysitting for two of younger girls while their parents headed down to Yaoundé with C to pick up her pastor and his wife. The girls got dropped off early Saturday morning, and the parents were planning on coming back tonight, but things got a little complicated. So, what was just going to be me juggling homeschool with the kids for one day has turned into an indefinite number of days. Day one of school went pretty well. We didn’t quite get everything done—one of the girls had a test that took a very long time—but overall, school went well.

We’re trying to do some fun things together while the girls are here. We baked Christmas cookies on Sunday—sugar cookies with candy cane kisses to be exact. I may pull out another recipe if we need another time-filler sometime this week. Tonight, the girls and I also started working on a puzzle. It’s a 500-piece puzzle. I’m not sure if I’ve ever done a puzzle over 150 pieces. We’ll have to see how this one goes, and if we all have the endurance to keep going to the end.

Blog post number one—check!

Thanksgiving, Cameroon Style

Tonight was one of those nights when I thought to myself, “Wow, I really am in Africa!” What happened, you might ask, to bring that thought to your mind? Well, I was lying on my bed, in complete darkness due to a power outage, listening to drums beating. Around that time, I was also contemplating taking a cold bucket bath by candle light. Beating drums and candle-lit baths do not happen every night, especially not in conjunction with each other, hence the realization I had.

 

We had  a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Foumban, Cameroon. The Barillas hosted Thanksgiving for all the missionaries around us. We had a great group of about 35 or so, and we were not lacking for food. We did use our imagination to pretend the chicken was turkey, but other than that, we got to enjoy traditional, American Thanksgiving food. I even got to enjoy my personal favorites: sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. One of the missionary ladies even shared with me her recipe for making cranberry salad from craisins. Let me tell you, her concoction tasted pretty authentic! (Of course, anything she makes is incredible.)

 

We are not lacking in fun here in Cameroon, either. Thursday night, we had 11 ladies spending the night at our house. It was definitely a full house, but we made the most of it, playing game after game until about 10:30 or 11 at night. (And that’s considered late here in Cameroon!) Conveniently, the power was off, so we didn’t have much difficulty ending the night with a rousing game of sardines in the dark. It’s incredible how hard it can be to find someone in pitch dark, without any street lights reflecting into the house. I may have been just about the last person to find the hider, but it was still fun!

 

On Friday, we continued our festivities by heading to our “water-park.” For those of you who may not remember from previous mentions last year, our water park is a river sourced by a natural spring with various pools and small waterfalls. I think we ended up having 7 kids and 6 ladies go on the excursion, and we all had a blast! All of the kids braved the rocky waterslide down the miniature waterfall. (Nothing grandiose, mind you, but still scary for some.) The youngest, the 4-year-old, however, had absolutely no fear of the water. She spent all afternoon watching the rest of the kids enjoy the waterfall, before deciding that she couldn’t leave without trying it. She finally told me, “Miss Rachelle, all of the other kids are having fun, and I want to have fun too.” I was nearly completely dry at this point, but I decided to give in to her plea. I eased into the freezing water, set her on my lap, and slowly scooted myself over bumpy rocks. Finally, we sat perched at the top of the big foot drop. (Like I said, this was a small waterfall.) Although that may not sound like much, I was a little nervous—not for me, but for the four-year-old on my lap who couldn’t swim. But, I finally pushed myself over the last rock and slid down. It was fun! I held the little one with one arm, and when we hit the water, she just naturally floated.

 

Of course, her immediate response was, “Let’s do it again, Miss Rachelle!” And so we did, three more times. By the fourth time down, however, my body had sustained enough scrapes and bruises protecting the little one from the rocks. She hadn’t felt any of the rocks, so she was still eager for another ride down. I was able to pass her off, and she took two more trips down the waterfall. Despite the fact that I’m still sore today, I have absolutely no regrets!

Bureaucracy Excitement

I’m so sorry for the long silence. At first, I was waiting for something interesting to happen so that I could write about it. Life was kind of stuck in the routine mode. Then, some excitement happened, and I couldn’t get on the internet. And now, I’m just procrastinating the writing part. So, I’m out of excuses, plain and simple. Allow me to fulfill my duty to you faithful blog readers.

 

Last Saturday night, Ellen and I found ourselves packing for a last minute trip to Yaoundé. I think I had 11 hours notice of the trip, and I was supposed to teach that week. But, we got the basic details squared away and headed down to the capital city to help a fellow missionary get visas for his two adopted children. Let me say from the get-go, this was no vacation! This missionary and his wife are from Canada, and they’re heading back to Canada in order for the wife to deliver. Last month the family was planning on heading back to Canada; however, the two adopted kids’ visas weren’t granted. The wife and three of the children were able to fly out, while the husband and the two other children stayed in Cameroon. Ellen and I headed down to help out with Yaoundé traffic and navigation and language translation.

 

During this trip, I got to experience the joys of African government efficiency. Monday, we had a doctor’s appointment at 8:00 a.m. for the two children. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, the lady who was helping us said we needed some more paperwork and passport pictures. Of course, she couldn’t provide us with the paperwork, so we had to find somewhere to print them out. Now, in the States, you would most likely drive to the nearest pharmacy to print some passport pictures. In Cameroon, it’s even easier to find someone to print out passport pictures. There are “booths” set up all along the side of the road, designed to help with picture and printing needs. Anyhow, we got what we needed and headed back to the doctor’s a few hours later.

 

This time, the lady said we needed to pay for the children’s physicals and then head across town to get an x-ray on the oldest. We could then come back at 4:00 to try to see the doctor. (Later, we found out that the doctor didn’t even come in until 2:00 p.m. I won’t even try to figure out why our appointment to see her was scheduled for 8:00 a.m., before she even came in to the office.) We managed to find the medical center for the x-ray. We waited around for a while, but we did manage to get the x-ray. Finally, at 4:00, we headed back to the doctor’s office. We sat in the outside waiting room for a while, and then finally an assistant came out to see us. Unfortunately, he did not bring good news. He told us the doctor was too busy to see us, so we’d have to come back the next day.

 

Up to this point, I had let Ellen do most of the translating, but I realized I needed to speak up. Ellen had told the man that we needed to see the doctor today because they would be “traveling” on Wednesday. He just didn’t understand the extent of this travel. I essentially said, “No. We need to see the doctor TODAY. We need to send the visa paperwork off TOMORROW so that they can FLY on Wednesday.” The man just stared at me, realizing that we did indeed need to see the doctor that day. (Oh, and a little detail I forgot: There is no Canadian immigration in Cameroon. Any visa applications need to be processed in Senegal. And, the Senegal immigration office phones do not work. Their offices cannot be contacted.) The man finally responded saying he would talk to the doctor and see what she could do.

 

Finally, a little after 6:00 p.m. (8 hours after our “scheduled” appointment), we got to see the doctor. When she learned a little more about what was needed, she took a look at the paperwork we had filled out and started laughing. She told us that with that paperwork, the children wouldn’t leave Cameroon for another 6 months. This was the paperwork for adopting children and never bringing them back to the country. But, because the missionary was just bringing his kids to Canada for a visit, the process suddenly became much simpler. After all the money and gas and time that was spent running around Yaoundé for various requirements, all that was needed was a handwritten statement from the doctor that the children were in good health. That was all.

 

While the situation was rather frustrating, I’m still thankful for how God worked. There could have been so many more complications than there were. As it is, that family is now happily reunited in Canada, after over a month’s separation. I also learned some important things about paperwork in Africa: Don’t expect it to be resolved in one meeting or one day. And, visiting Yaoundé always has its perks. Like chicken, and pizza, and Chinese. And the artisan market. I LOVE the artisan market! I bought a few presents, including my own Christmas present.

 

I have another praise of God’s working. On the way home, we had to stop in Bafoussam, a city an hour away from us, to get my temporary residency card extended. It expired on Wednesday, so on Wednesday, Ellen and I booked it back from Yaoundé to Bafoussam (a trip that takes about 4 hours). We weren’t sure what time the office closed, but we really had to get the card dated that day. We pulled into Bafoussam at about 3:45, and I ran up the stairs, into the chef’s office. I probably looked like a crazy woman after traveling all day, but I didn’t care. I just wanted him to extend my card. And 10 minutes later, I walked out of the office, stamped card in hand. Apparently, the office normally closes at 3:30, but for some reason, they were still open, and the chef was still there at 3:45. What a blessing from God!

The Many Hats of a Missionary

Missionaries (particularly in Africa, I believe) tend to wear several different hats when the need arises. I’ve heard stories of missionaries acting as surgeons and hearse drivers, just to name a few. Obviously, that’s just a small sampling of what may happen in Africa. Yesterday was one of those days when all kinds of things happen.

I started out the day in the kitchen acting as cook and dishwasher, well, and janitor, too, I guess. I had to make kettle corn for a ladies’ Bible study we had in the afternoon. Typically, when I make kettle corn, I ending up creating a disaster zone out of the kitchen with popcorn and sugar all over the floor, counter, and stove. Yesterday morning, after my first batch of popcorn, I was ready to extol the virtues of kettle corn—there were only two pieces of popcorn lying on the floor at this point. And then I made a second batch. Never mind my previous pleasant thoughts towards kettle corn. During this batch, I dumped popcorn on the floor, flung sugar around the kitchen, and burnt my arm (not badly, mind you, but burnt it none the less). I decided that laughing was probably the best option at this point.  

In the early afternoon, I acted as a teacher’s assistant for our Bible club. We had a large group of about nine kids show up at our house around 1:00. These kids had stopped by a few Saturdays ago after Bible club was over. I told them the Creation story, although they seemed more interested in financial aid than spiritual aid. This week, they stopped by for some water on their way home from gathering fire wood. Ellen was able to detain them long enough to hear another Bible story. Although some of the kids appeared to be listening well, they once again wanted food and taxi money more than anything else. We had to tell the kids that they were welcome to come to Bible club, but it’s not a time for us to provide for their physical needs. We want them to come to Bible club so that they can learn about Christ and how he can fill our spiritual needs. It’s a hard thing to know how to help in such situations.

Later that afternoon, I went to the ladies’ Bible study. Our pastor’s wife began a study through the book of Revelation. This is quite a book to take on, but the ladies seem very interested in the challenge. During the Bible study, I unexpectedly had to take on the role of translator. I love the French language, but I definitely feel poorly equipped to be a translator. But, God can work in spite of my inadequacies: I think the ladies understood the main concepts Julianna was presented to them.

And my evening ended rather eventfully when I took on the role of plumber. Ellen’s sink has been backed up, so I scoured the internet looking for home remedies for unclogging a stopped up sink. I stumbled upon a recipe involving baking soda, vinegar, and salt. I poured the combination down the sink and waited. And then I waited some more. The sink was still stopped up. C suggested that I unscrew the pipes to clean out the junk, but Ellen’s sink has a pedestal, and I didn’t think I could get to the necessary pipes. So I tried shoving a metal wire down the sink to see if I could loosen anything up. I then realized that the baking soda and salt had not dissolved as I thought it would. Extreme measures were now necessary. I tried to find a small bucket that would fit into the space behind the pedestal so that I could try to avoid making a mess when I unscrewed the pipes. Then, to my great relief, I realized that the pedestal could actually be removed. So, I unscrewed the necessary pipes, and out plopped a large clump of baking soda and salt. I’m not sure if my home remedy cleared anything out of the pipes, but the sink now drains properly. In a few days, however, I fear I may have to take up that hat once again.

Like I’ve said before, every day brings new adventures. I’m rather dreading the day in which I will have to don my nursing assistant hat! That day will probably come sooner than I wish it to.

Bible Club

(Note: I wrote this post on Sunday, October 21 but just realized I never posted it. So sorry!) On Saturdays, Ellen and I have a Bible club with the children that live around us. Yesterday was our fourth meeting. We started at creation, and the plan is to just keep going. To this point, Ellen has been the one teaching the children. I’ve been doing a little crowd control and helping with the songs. Ellen was helping someone move yesterday morning. Since she wasn’t sure how long that would take, she asked me to prepare the lesson. We typically only have French speaking children attend the Bible club, so I prepared the lesson in French. Ellen actually came home in time for Bible club. We ended up having two English speaking kids come, so I taught in French and Ellen translated for me. We had a very small group of kids: just two English speakers, one French speaker, and one little girl that I don’t think understands French or English. But I had a great time teaching. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to teach a little more in the future. Our Bible study usually goes from about 2:00-3:00. Yesterday, around 4:30, Ellen was getting ready to head out the door, when a knock came at the door. I went to the door, and there stood five children of varying ages. I didn’t recognize them, and I couldn’t understand what they wanted, so I went to get Ellen. Well, Ellen didn’t really understand what they wanted either. They said that they had met her, and she had told them to come by her house. She didn’t remember any of this. Finally, though, she was able to figure out that she had invited them to Bible club. They were only a few hours late.  Since Ellen was heading out, she asked me if I would be interested in giving them a Bible lesson. I decided to start from the very beginning with them, figuring they hadn’t had much Bible exposure. So, I taught them about creation. Honestly, I don’t believe any of them had ever heard the biblical account of creation, let alone any story from the Bible. It was such a privilege to share this account from Scripture with them! I’m not sure if they’ll come back next week or not. They had to gather wood in the morning, and I’m assuming that’s something they do every Saturday. But I’m so thankful that I was able to share at least one account from Scripture with them. Today in church, one of the boys that came to Bible club yesterday asked me if he could invite his friends. I would love it if we could get a larger group of kids out this coming Saturday! His little sister asked, “Can I come again this Saturday?” When I told her it was every Saturday, she was very excited. Please pray for the children that we come into contact through Bible club. Pray that God would give clear understanding of His Word, and that He would change hearts, even through these Bible stories. I know that God cares about even the smallest of the children. In Mark 10:14, Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”