When we lived in Independence, Lee’s Summit and Pleasant Hill, we had a drawer full of take out menus. We also had magnets from various restaurants on our refrigerator. We thought it was wonderful when restaurants started curb side to go service. When we were living in Massy, France we were spoiled with having a take-out gyro restaurant around the corner and McDonald’s & Pizza Hut within walking distance. Here we have a few options for take out: (1) chicken cooked on the side of the road (2) sliced beef cooked on the side of the road (3) grilled plantains (4) beignet – fried bread balls (5) smoked fish. We splurged and had the chicken and beef. This food was prepped and prepared roadside, wrapped in torn sack paper and placed in a plastic bag. We always reheat the food at home before eating it.
Take Out
What we love about Cameroon….
Fresh tropical fruit (super sweet bananas, mangoes, pineapples, papaya, avocado)
- Free coconuts on the tree in the front yard.
- It’s always summer weather with consistent temperatures and daylight hours.
- Smiles and excitement of children running up to us to shake our hands on the roads.
- Slower pace without getting upset or in a rush.
- Seeing the children on the road creations (cars made of trash complete with bamboo steering wheels or kites made of bamboo and plastic bags)
- The many smiling greetings complete with conversations about families.
- Parents vs. Kids soccer matches.
- Sophie and her amazing faith in the Lord.
- The boys playing outside, climbing trees and making mud clay creations.
- The many hospitality opportunities.
- Our cat, Fluffy who follows us around like a puppy.
- Open pharmacy.
- Awesome rain storms.
- Lush rainforest.
- The faith of the Cameroonians constantly challenging us.
- Cameroonian worship time with the drums.
- Nothing is wasted.
- Watching God provide for all our needs and allowing us to help Cameroonians with their needs.
- Continual reminder that life functions just fine without constant electricity.
- Foam shoes are sold off a cart on the road (these are some of the only shoes the boys will wear).
- Free coconuts from the front yard, free guava from the back yard and free mangoes from the neighbors yard.
- CAM car races (pinewood derby that happens annually within the mission community).
Stores
We have slowly been increasing the amount of patience that we have. France was part of our training in patience before coming to Cameroon. Waiting in long, slow moving lines no longer frustrates us. Sitting in traffic and when you arrive somewhere late and say traffic, no one thinks anything of it. We wait 6+ months for things we’ve ordered to arrive. It almost never fails that when you go to a restaurant that serves 4 different items, at least 2 are finished for the day (meaning not available). The same thing happens at stores. We had purchased a locally made water filter and we need to replace the sediment filter at least every 3 months. David first went to the water filtration store on Monday because we desperately needed to replace our sediment filter. The store worker said the water filters were finished. On Friday afternoon we needed to do a little grocery shopping, so we stopped at the water filtration store and the filters were in a box that hadn’t been unpacked yet, so David was told to come back another time. Finally on Saturday the store had the water filters, so we stocked up. We are thankful to have new filters for clean drinking water.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
Sifting
I recently had someone share a terrific recipe for Wheat Thin crackers. It’s an awesome recipe and taste like what I remember Wheat Thins to taste like, since they are not available in Cameroon. I have to admit that I would still rather buy a box than spend hours making the crackers, but when you are craving snack foods, it’s amazing the time you’ll put into replicating those comforting foods.
Step 1: Find wheat, not an easy task, but I was fortunate to find someone selling wheat.
Step 2: Remove all debris and non-wheat chunks from the wheat bran. (Jonah helped with removing the debris)
Step 3: Take the wheat to the person down the road with a grinding machine, to have the wheat ground into flour.
Step 4: Allow the new wheat flour to cool; it gets hot being ground into flour.
Step 5: Sift the wheat flour for any debris missed and/or bugs.
Step 6: Now the wheat flour is ready to be used in any recipe of choice.
Many steps and much time later…voilà…we have wheat thins to enjoy for about 2 days.
Airplane is coming
After many years of planing and praying an airplane left JAARS today on it’s way to Yaoundé Cameroon! This Cessna 207, or “Soloy” as we often refer to it, has been at JAARS for the last two years being overhauled and modified for service here in Cameroon. Please join us in praying for safe arrival of this aircraft as they make the 5 to 7 day journey over 11,000 km flight to get here. 
The Planned Route – Follow their progress
Read about how aviation in Cameroon is helping Bible Translation and their families.
Diarrhea
When you live in a place where parasites, worms and bugs surround you and use you as a host, almost every conversation will come around to diarrhea. We don’t even blink anymore to share with someone quite openly about our intestinal condition because everyone talks about it. When you live in an environment of open pharmacy you tend to self diagnose and self treat using the aids of nurses that work in our organization, the book Where There are No Doctors, the internet and the Health Manual made by the nurses within our organization. So lately I (DeAnna) have been having problems with my digestive tract. First I pulled out the handy dandy Health Manual and looked at the diarrhea flow chart…mmm…then at the somewhat common intestinal ailments. I know it’s not travelers diarrhea because our environment isn’t new (water, food, etc…) plus it’s more harsh than that. Could it be ameba? Could it be giardia? There is a lab that we can go to with a stool sample for testing. What’s the treatment for these conditions? Oh, the same meds. Now what? How does one get these things? Oh, from contaminated water, unclean food handling, cockroaches and flies. This is a one small example of how we live here. We live where only contaminated water comes out of our faucets and showers (so we must use a water filter for drinking and cooking). We live where cockroaches are anywhere from tiny to 4” long and they crawl around our house. We live where there isn’t a USDA regulation so food isn’t handled safely meaning that whatever knife or machete is around is the tool of choice when something needs cut from bushes and trees to meat and fruit. How are your intestines treating you today?
Jonah Turns 7
I think it’s natural that birthday’s make one think of the past. This little guy has seen so much and experienced multitudes in a very short amount of time.
He has:
- Lived on 3 continents (North America, Europe & Africa)
- He speaks 2 languages
- He has attended 3 schools; each one on a different continent
- He endured and persevered public school in France
He’s an amazing little guy who we love dearly.
For his birthday he had a choice between having a large party at home and taking one friend on a fun-filled day. He chose the day with his friend Marissa and we celebrated by eating beans & beignet (for lunch) at a local restaurant, playing at the new Mahima amusement park (it’s one of two playgrounds in our city) and getting ice cream at the old Mahima (it has about 10 flavors to choose from).
Working with others
David and I both try to post things that are learning experiences or things we struggle with packaged in humor because we would rather laugh than cry. Lately, I have been crying rather than laughing. I’ve heard many times that the number one reason missionaries struggle on the mission field is due to interpersonal issues with other missionaries. I couldn’t understand or fully comprehend how this could be such a problem when I first heard it.
I’ve been reading the book Serving as Senders. I highly recommend the book. In the chapter entitled Prayer Support it says
that one may become discontented with other workers. Discontent is putting it mildly! Radical interpersonal relationship problems might be more accurate. This is the number one cause of missionary failure. Why? Because Jesus said, “They will know we are His disciples by our love for one another.” John 13:35 So here is a major area of attack by the enemy. If he can destroy our unity he will destroy our testimony.
I would like to ask for your prayers in this specific area. Lately we have taken many punches from the enemy in this area.
This morning as I was steeping in hurt, anger, frustration – I was called outside by Jonah to come see the toad he caught. Well more than the toad caught my eye. Although we live in a rainforest region and have so many beautiful plants and flowers surrounding us, sometimes we get used to our surroundings and don’t see the beauty. What I saw this morning was a single, beautiful flower that has sprouted up out of our concrete gutter. It reminded me to keep trying to bloom wherever I’m planted, even in tough spots.
Bug’s Life
The boys, especially Jonah, have been very interested in BUGS. We recently built bug homes to house their prized pets. Jonah placed a snail in his bug home. At dinner he said he bought the snail. We questioned his “buying” of the snail. He said, “Yeah, I had to pay five grasshoppers to Melia before she would give me the snail.”
Jonah now has a praying mantis in his deluxe bug home and the record where we live for keeping a praying mantis living in captivity is over a year. So the contest has begun, if he is still living when we need to return to the United States this summer I guess we will need to find a praying mantis sitter.
Required materials for building a state of the art bug home includes:
- Scrap plywood
- Used mosquito net
- Screws
- Hinge (for the door)
- L brackets
- Duct tape (most important)
warning: some assembly required
Update on BGAN
Last year I posted on the first installation of BGAN satellites for internet connectivity.
CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) was recently in Cameroon and did a story on Wycliffe Bible Translators, the story also shows the BGAN being used.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2012/January/Cameroon-Natives-Involved-in-Bible-Translation-/
D squared + J squared = Anderson 