Call it whatever you want to – an adventure, never a dull moment or for me, DeAnna, sometimes it’s just overwhelming. Our house helper, Sophie, came on Monday with a heavy heart. She explained that a 6 week old baby had been abandoned by his young mom. There is a lengthy background story of how this young woman who is a stranger ended up in Sophie’s home, but I won’t go into it. Sophie explained that the baby hadn’t eaten since Friday and she tried giving the baby some water from a spoon. Sophie wanted us to take the baby. I said we would take the baby to give the baby proper care while waiting for an orphanage to take the baby. Sophie was happy to be told about orphanages who could take the baby. I purchased newborn baby formula and some bottles and Sophie quickly went to her home to give the baby a bottle. Sophie was able to arrange with a Christian orphanage here for the baby to be taken to a hospital to have an IV started and the orphanage caretakers would go to the hospital and take the baby once the baby is ready physically. As I asked more questions, it broke my heart to discover that since the mother abandoned the baby and there weren’t any other nursing mom’s around to feed the baby and since this young mom isn’t family, culturally it’s okay to just leave the baby. A colleague shared how there was a similar situation in the village they live in and the baby in their village died. My heart is broken for this baby and his missing young mom who we think has postpartum depression. There are aspects to living in a different culture I can never wrap my mind around and won’t adapt to. This morning in my devotional it was about a struggle a missionary (the author) had in trying to discern when to adapt to the culture she’s living in and when not to adapt.
Lord change my smell
We were driving home and on the back of the bus there was an advertisement that said it all.
Life and Death
We’ve had a very full four months with a steep learning curve. David has a huge job and there is a part of his job he never had to do until we returned – the logistics of what to do when a colleague dies. Ten days after we returned a colleague who has worked on Bible translation since 1968, died tragically. A few weeks later, a guard at the center where David works lost his baby and almost lost his wife during birthing. A few weeks later, I was notified that my cousin Marcy died suddenly. In March, a colleague had an infection that started in her body that became septic and after a medical evacuation, she died. There have also been children dying, a little boy who is American and his family works for a different organization became ill and died. With the electricity cuts more people have been using candles and the candles have started home fires and people have been killed. There was a brush fire and a village used another fire as a crossfire to protect their area and children who had been playing in the field were caught in the middle.
I once read in a book about living cross culturally that when someone dies when you are far, it doesn’t hit you and you don’t really grieve until you return to a situation where that person is missing from the event. Although we are assured from birth that we will die, it doesn’t make it any easier to accept the loss of life. We are comforted when we know the person has accepted Jesus as their Savior. We grieve from near and far.
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thesalonians 4:13-18
That’s not my name
Everyone is given a name at birth. Names mean something to each of us and we appreciate when called by name rather than hey you or something else. We stand out in Cameroon because we look different and we are somewhat used to standing out, however, we’ve never gotten used to the name that we are called when someone doesn’t know our name. We are called les blancs (plural for our whole family), le blanc (male) and la blanche (female). What do these names mean…the white. We are constantly called the white and it’s difficult to be called this. At first it’s something that rolls off, but after three years, it becomes difficult. It’s not complimentary because if someone were to call back le noir ou le brun that would be very degrading and insulting to that person.
Since we moved into a neighborhood where we are the only non-Cameroonians, we hear these names even more. When the boys started playing with the children in our neighborhood, I continually heard le blanc. I decided to do something about it. Armed with our digital camera, I took pictures of all the children and asked them their names. I gave them a print out of pictures of Joshua and Jonah with their name written underneath so all the children will call each other by name. It makes me smile when we drive into our neighborhood now and I hear the children yelling out Joshua and Joshna (Jonah, they call him Joshna because Jonah seems to be difficult to pronounce). I smile even more when the adult calls out le blanc and the children correct them telling them Joshua and Jonah’s name.
Birthday
Today is Jonah’s 8th birthday! It’s hard to believe he’s EIGHT. In January 2007, I (DeAnna) was shocked and dumbfounded when the surgeon came out of the OR after operating on Jonah’s eyes and informed us that he had trouble breathing during surgery (this was before we knew he had asthma). On May 31, 2012, I was crying out to the Lord to allow Jonah to live through the surgery he was facing in Cameroon after his horrific accident. It was an incredibly scary time. Then I was crying out again for Jonah to live in August 2012 when bone infection was detected and we needed to make a decision about amputation. It’s been a tough year and it brings joyful tears to my eyes that Jonah is celebrating his 8th birthday.
We recently watched the movie Cody Banks and Jonah instantly knew spy work as a child is an option and wanted a spy birthday party to test his spy skills. On Saturday, we had a Spy Agent Training party to celebrate his birthday. Nine boys trained on interrogation skills, target practice, laser course, driving skills, observation skills, taking cover and a final mission. I made fake passports for each “trainee” with their new agent name (to protect their identity and safety of course). Every boy here seemed to have a wonderful time and the birthday boy loved it!
Closet
It seems closet’s are a bit of an odd thing in other places. In France we had one closet in our apartment and we were told it was strange to have a closet, that armoires and shelves are the preferred storage. In our first home in Yaoundé, there were some cabinets in the kitchen and two cabinets in the hall for storage, but that was it. We used many free standing shelving units. In our current home we have many cabinets in the kitchen and thanks to the previous tenants a large built in shelving unit in the laundry area. We wanted a way to store clothes for the boys, other than a free standing bamboo shelving unit and a way to hang their clothes. David & Jonah took on the project. David made his measurements and went to purchase wood. It was a bit surprising that the wood is cut, but not cleaned up, meaning some pieces have bark on them and all pieces are rough needing to be planed. David and Jonah worked in the workshop at our organization’s construction department preparing the wood for use. After letting the wood dry a few weeks, David & Jonah got to work building the closet. I think it turned out great!
Attempted Intruder
Since we live in a big city with a significant amount of robberies, it’s important to have things in place to deter a potential intruder. That is why people hire guards, why people have dogs and why the majority of homes have tall concrete walls around them with something on the top of the wall and gates. On one side of our home we have a wall that is completely covered in thick, thorny tall bushes that exceed the height of the wall and on the other three sides we have a wall with poles with barbered wire and jagged pieces of glass set into the top of the concrete to make it harder to climb the wall and enter. We had a branch from an avocado tree fall on one side bending the metal pole that holds the barbered wire. The pole didn’t break off, but was bent and the metal was cracked. This was right before the roof repair started so we decided to deal with it after the roof was repaired.
The day after the roof was completed, someone at 3 a.m. tried to enter. Our dog barked and growled like we’ve never heard before. We kept ourselves locked in the house, but flashed the outside lights and yelled so the potential intruder knew we were awake. When daybreak came we walked around to find that the pole and barbered wire were placed up on our roof to allow someone to slip in under the wire and the back corner of the roof was damaged from someone trying to pry it up. We suspect someone had been watching the three weeks of roof repair and thought it was still going on and we would have a compromised roof to gain easy entry.
While we were preparing to serve with Wycliffe I read in a Women of the Harvest magazine that wherever God leads us to serve Him is the very best and very safest place for our family to be. I have to admit that I know this in my head, but sometimes it’s hard to have it cemented in my heart. It hasn’t felt safe, but I know God is our protection.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.Psalm 46:1-3 NIV
Roof Repair
There’s never a dull moment in our home. I would like some dull moments, but that’s another blog. So when the first rains came and the roof started leaking, we knew repairs were needed. We asked for an estimate thinking it was a whole in the zinc roof, but the repairs were more extensive. The whole front half of the home needed reroofed. There weren’t enough supporting rafters to hold the roof and the supporting rafters that were in place were termite damaged. Side note: termites are like little bugs on steroids here and can take down large trees in a matter of weeks. We spoke with our landlord and started the repair process.
The workers decided to build supporting rafters on the ground and lift them to the roof. They decided to repair it in sections so we wouldn’t have days without a roof. This process took a few weeks and wasn’t without many bumps along the way.
Now the rainy season is upon us and we are thrilled to have a dry house!
Rent
We have rented our fair share of places in the USA. We started out as a young, love struck, married couple with the idea that love can conquer any location we live in and lived in a rough one bedroom, about 50 feet from an active railroad track. A few years after that we moved to a townhome that was very awkward, but we were thrilled it had washer and dryer hook up’s. Then after that we purchased our first home, then our second and then went back to renting. Something that all of the places we have lived in have had in common was the rent or mortgage was due the first of the month. If we didn’t pay we would either be penalized or evicted.
Our last term, we lived in communal housing where the rent is automatically withdrawn from our account with the organization. This time around we are renting a home from a Cameroonian family. The owner lives in France, so we do all our negotiations and dealings with her representatives here in Cameroon. Well, the first five months rent were paid before we left. (It’s customary to pay rent either quarterly, semi-annually or annually). Our next seven months rent was due in February. We made adjustments because of the roof repair and paid the rent to the representative that we paid the first five months to. About ten days later an older gentleman and his wife showed up demanding the rent payment. We explained we already paid it. The person we paid it to came over and explained he was the representative. This couple said that he was the brother of the landlord and he should receive the rent. This went on for at least a half an hour. The other man handed us back the rent we paid and told us to contact the landlord in France. David tried daily for two weeks without any success. Finally she called back and instructed him to pay the brother the rent. David tried calling the brother for another two weeks without any success, also trying to call the landlord in France without success. On Friday, March 22, he got in touch with the sister-in-law and she said they would come on Saturday to collect the rent. They came at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and after about 45 minutes of difficulties the rent was finally paid.
Valentine’s
So I’m a little late on posting something about Valentine’s….
There seem to be many “holidays” that are celebrated in North America, but not anywhere else we’ve lived overseas and vice versa. One of these holidays is Valentine’s Day. Without commercialism it’s easy to forget certain holidays. This year Valentine’s kind of snuck up on me. When Papa Murphy’s came to Lee’s Summit, MO we started ordering pizzas from them. It became a tradition (especially after having kiddos) to buy a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s for our Valentine’s meal. I wanted to keep with that tradition and made heart-shaped homemade pizzas for Valentine’s Day. The boys were so excited to have their very own pizza.
D squared + J squared = Anderson 