We have been battling some kind of ailment in our house since the last week of March. From colds, asthma flare up’s, rashes, back pain, abscess and flu. This week took the prize for the worst since March. It started Monday night with Joshua & DeAnna coming down with a stomach bug. This thing is a super bug! Wednesday night David & Jonah joined in. The night they joined the action, we were without power. It’s hard to help your little one get to the bathroom in time when you are searching for a flashlight and then when he doesn’t make it, trying to clean up by flashlight. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Normally, we never think about our body’s digestive system, but we should and be so thankful when it works properly. The bug is still lingering in our house, but we are praying for it to leave and LEAVE for good along with all the other ailments too!
Labor Day Parade
My new job started this week, May 1st; I began my new role as Director of Administration and Finance. Sunday was Labor Day in Cameroon and this is an important time for all employees to march in the annual Labor Day parade past the Minister of Labor. The directors received their special invitation that gave us special seating to hear the speeches before the parade began and front row viewing for the parade. The parade started a few hours behind schedule because the 8 labor union representative’s speeches went a little long, but it was an interesting time to watch how they tried to engage the Cameroonians into their concerns. But after 6+ hours of sitting waiting for the SIL employees to march by they finally did and we were able to show our support.
Later that night we recognized employees at a special diner. Several received awards from the President of Cameroon for their years of working service.
Even the banks understand the importance of Speaking your language!
We don't have Starbucks in Yaoundé but these carts are all over
There were no floats, but we did have 2 horses.
SIL marching in the Labor Day Parade!
Male or Female
Our cat Fluffy has been running outside more and more, so we thought it was time to have him neutered. Our neighbor had a cat get injured and I gave her a ride to the vet and he told her she needed to continue coming with her cat for treatments. I thought if I’m driving there anyway, I should get Fluffy fixed. I called the vet in advance and he told me what day would work best. This morning was the day! My neighbor hopped in with her cat and I had Fluffy ready to go and off we went. First my neighbor’s cat was taken care of, then time for Fluffy. The vet examined Fluffy very closely and looked puzzled. He looked up and told me Fluffy is a female not a male. He said he couldn’t spay Fluffy today and we will need to return. I have a little health record book for Fluffy that this same vet gave me after he gave Fluffy all his/her shots and he wrote for gender MALE. I showed him the book and where he wrote MALE. He took the book and wrote an FE in front of MALE and handed it back. So, I’m confused if we have a boy cat or a girl cat.
Rain Gauge
I know you have read and heard me go on and on about the rain here. I’m still amazed by the sheer power of the rain. You can hear the rain pouring down afar several minutes before it reaches you. We are getting better at being able to predict how much time we have to run and grab clothes off the line or grab something outside before the rain hits. The rain comes down powerfully and by the tons. We also wash and reuse our storage bags so they are a familiar sight on our clothes line. Last night we had a very brief down pour and this morning I saw our bags hanging on the line and thought of how our rain gauge is our storage bags on the line. So here’s how we measure “gauge” the rain fall.
Doctor DeAnna!?!
There have been times as a mom that I think I know how to diagnose and treat our children. There have also been times where I felt qualified to diagnose and treat myself. In the States, although I “knew” the health problem, it was necessary to see a doctor in order to get antibiotics. In France, it’s necessary and also a game of convincing the doctor to help you when you need antibiotics. Having these life experiences, I was a little excited about moving here where there is an open pharmacy to get whatever medication you want. I’m not a doctor or have any training in health services, but I thought, how hard could it be to get and take medicine when one of us is sick? Jonah started a high fever that wouldn’t break with Tylenol and Advil in his system. I took him to get a malaria test because the first thought I have is worse case, so I was thinking malaria. He doesn’t have malaria, but has some kind of bacterial infection. He needed an antibiotic. Well there is a lot of knowledge I don’t have when it comes to medicine. It’s necessary to have his weight to know how many mg he needs in each dose, it’s necessary to know how many mg you need in every 5ml, it’s necessary to know how many times a day the medicine needs to be taken, how to mix the medicine and store it, how long does he need to take the medicine, how many doses will be in one bottle – is it necessary to buy two bottles for his duration of treatment and most importantly to know what type of antibiotic is needed to treat his illness. Once all the information was compiled, calculated, all questions answered and discussed with the person at the pharmacy; I still got to play doctor coming home, mixing the medicine and dosing it to Jonah.
Video update
The following video was shared last Sunday at our home church in Missouri.
Francophone Africa
The shaded countries makeup Francophone Africa. We are working close to the middle of this cluster of 20 countries in Cameroon.
Today Wycliffe Prayer Blog shared about the importance of French speaking workers. The following is taken from their blog post today:
More French speakers live in Africa than on any other continent in the world. Even though French is largely a second language for most of the general population in Francophone (French-speaking) Africa, its designation as an official language in more than 20 countries makes it important to the work of Bible translation.
It is here, in this Francophone region, where hundreds of minority language communities are still waiting for God’s Word. French serves Bible translation personnel as the key gateway language through which training resources and workshops can be developed and presented throughout this area of incredible cultural and linguistic diversity.
- What is the chief prayer request of translation personnel working in Francophone Africa? They need more people—more French-speaking people. French speakers can immediately impact the work by helping to engage, train, and mentor the growing African workforce. There is huge potential for more Francophone Africans to join the translation team, so pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send forth more French-speaking workers to this region.
“…Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1, NLT).
This week I have a new intern that has started in the Computer Services department and while he understands some English our primary way of communicating is in French, a second language for both of us.
CAM Car Races
Last Saturday were the local CAM Car Races, think pinewood derby invades Cameroon. I volunteered to run the event because the man who ran it in the past was not going to be in town for the week of the race, so I tried picking his brain as much as I could before he had to leave town, plus we had already told the boys about the race and they were looking forward to building and racing their cars.
Being the below average carpenter I was a little intimated about the prospect of helping everyone use the band saw, jig saw and all the other cutting tools that were in the Maintenance Shop every day after work for a week, but no one lost any fingers. Our boys had fun sanding, and when they started the detailing with the second coat of paint they just wanted to put the wheels on so they could race them. We will have to work on our painting skills for next year race. The official maximum weight of the cars is 142 grams, so the other dads were looking to me to get the cars up to the correct weight. So, we found some old lead bolts and melted them down and poured the melted lead into drilled out holes. I had to use the auto shops oxygen torch to get the lead to melt. We even took apart an old car battery to try and get more lead, but there isn’t much lead in a lead battery.
So the day before the race I set the track up with another dad and we worked for an hour or so to try and get the sensors working that would measure the exact time it took each car to go down the track. I was able to get the lights to work manually but the computer would only recognize one of the 3 sensors. Realizing I wasn’t going to be able to hop over to Radio Shack and buy some new ones we decided we would just have 3 judges decide who won each heat.
The day of the race we had 39 cars that entered to race! Thankfully I had a software package that automatically setup the various heats and after 2 hours of racing we had a room full of parents and kids cheering for the tie breaker for 1st place. I’ve already started thinking about how we can get the track ready for next year.
Jonah won most Oily Car (I guess I sprayed too much WD-40 on the axels) and Joshua won Most Likely to Win.
Lessons we have learned since living in Cameroon
1. We think eggs are only sold by the dozen in North America. (In France they were sold by 10, here they are sold by 15)
2. Rice & pasta will have bugs, but the bugs float to the top while boiling and you can skim them off.
3. Two lane roads really can support 4-6 lanes of traffic.
4. The whole world does not use 8 ½ by 11 inch paper.
5. The whole world does not use Fahrenheit to measure temperature, inches, miles, cups, teaspoon or tablespoon for measurements.
6. Unwashed eggs don’t need to be refrigerated.
7. Phone numbers don’t have to have seven digits plus an area code.
8. That everyone does not have a first, middle and last name.
9. To survey our food for motion before eating.
10. Always drive and pray without ceasing.
11. Powdered milk really can taste good.
12. Rotten eggs really stink and the smell lingers.
13. Not everyone has a refrigerator, stove or phone.
14. The fewer the resources, the more creative and resourceful one becomes.
15. It’s possible to live with a denser mix of uncertainty and danger in life.
16. How to crack a coconut and scrape out the flesh.
17. Ants really can attack and destroy a laptop computer by eating the adhesive on the inside.
18. The Lord does provide all our needs.
19. The gas bottle in our kitchen will empty while baking for an event or company coming over.
20. Most food items past their expiration dates are still edible.
21. Zip loc storage bags can be washed and reused about 20 times before they need to be replaced.
22. When you place flour or popcorn kernels in the freezer it kills the bugs, then you just sift to remove them.
23. Having a power outage of 24 hours doesn’t really spoil all the food in your refrigerator.
24. It really helps preserve the food in the freezer during a power outage when you have 3 inches of frost all around the sides.
25. The small tomato paste can (about a 1/8 cup container) will explode all over you and the kitchen when opening with a can opener.
Bambalang
Recently we had sent out an email asking for prayer for a village that had been attacked by a neighboring village just days before the dedication of the first book of the Bible, Luke, in their language. Over 300 houses were destroyed and people lost all they had.
A few days after the fighting had ended a man from this village, Eric, who has been very supportive of Bible Translation and the work that they are doing, returned to his home to see the damage that had happened, since he actually works several hours away from the village he had not been there during the fighting.
Our friend, Dan, who lives and works in the village heard he had come back to assess the damage to his home, when he went over to speak with him he found him sitting under a tree over looking what was left of his home.
Eric was crying and told Dan that he was embarrassed to be crying because he knows that none of this stuff matters. But the loss of it still was affecting him and he asked our friend to pray for him.
His house was burned, the tin roof completely melted and the contents were either stolen before the fire or destroyed in the fire. The cement block walls were still standing and the only piece of paper or anything left in the house was a small memory verse that was taped to the wall several years earlier when a volunteer came for a few months to help with some linguistic work and Eric had let them borrow his house. The verse was Psalm 4:8
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 NIV
Please pray for the Bambalang people that they will have peace and that God’s Word will have a mighty impact on their lives.
D squared + J squared = Anderson 