Winter has come and gone in Yaounde and now we are entering into Spring time here. That is so wild for me. Our “winter” is nothing like you may experience in Virginia or Maryland, but we sure did appreciate it. The months of June-August brought cooler temperatures (we wore long pants and the kids even came down in their fleece in the morning) and occasional showers. I remember when Gilles came to visit the Diederichs two years ago to explore Cameroon (in August), he said they slept under their comforters and he was sweating profusely under his mosquito net. I know it is hard to imagine “cool” temps in Cameroon Africa, but I think our bodies have really adjusted and our blood has thinned out. We aren’t complaining. So, what does “spring” look like for us? September 15th (our tenth wedding anniversary, actually J) is hailed as the date marking the beginning of “rainy season.” For us that means rain daily, not all day long, but a good downpour everyday. We have recognized a pattern…we usually wake up to overcast skies and misty conditions. Usually by mid morning the mist has burned off and we get about 5 hours of hot sun. Then towards the end of the afternoon we get a good thunder boomer and a hard downpour and the skies usually stay gray and a bit windy for the rest of the day. To us who live in the culture this means do laundry early and get it hung for those 5 hot hours to dry. If not, we have to use the dryer and that is too expensive to do daily. The rainy season is supposed to last from mid-September through November and then we enter the hottest period of the year in December. Should be weird to experience Christmas sweating…we will let you know all about it!
For two weeks (8/25-9/8) we had the incredible joy to have Sue Sue and Paw Paw (my parents and the kids’ grandparents) here to visit. What a great visit!!! It was refreshing to see Cameroon and more specifically Yaounde through rookie eyes. We admit that we have grown numb to the trash, poor living conditions, filth and dust, and pot-hole-y roads. Not that we have numbed so much as not to feel for the Cameroonians living like that, be we don’t get shocked anymore. It was fun and refreshing to hear Mom and Dad’s reactions. We were amazingly proud of them for taking the risks to come to a Third World country and they did great. The pictures that follow are of our time together. We picked them up Thursday night at the airport and they were welcomed with their first blackout in the airport. We greeted them with lots of tears of joy! God moved through the whole two weeks to give us great weather and to allow that Gilles was permitted to go through to baggage claim to help them through customs. And then the customs official just waved them through and didn’t even ask a question…amazing. Lots of prayers went up for that customs person and He answered. He kept us safe as we traveled to Kribi beach (about 3 hours from Yaounde). We had fabulous weather for 5 days…blue skies, gentle ocean, good food (check out the barracuda we ate in the photos) and fun game times. As Dad said time and again, we would have wished time to stop during those moments at the beach. Then we came back to Yaounde and visited around Yaounde for the rest of our time. With built in babysitters, Gilles and I got away for a night at the Hilton Hotel here in Yaounde to celebrate our anniversary. We found some great restaurants that we hope to go back to as a family, too. They have now blasted off and had another blackout as we saw them off at the airport. Ah, life in Cameroon!
We are into school full fledged now…and really are loving it. Gilles is jumping into his “job” too and has held the first meeting with about 10 potential youth team workers. The picture of that “team” is to come. The meeting went great and Gilles is now trying to meet with each of them individually to evaluate their interest and commitment to this ministry in its infancy. A very exciting time for us and the ministry of The Navigators here in Cameroon. Stay tuned!