Hello Everyone,
We have arrived in Benin. We spent some time in N'Gaoundéré rehearsing, which was somewhat frusterating because we can't all comfortably sing in the same key, so we have to pick keys that only work for some of us. We took the train to Yaoundé; this time it was 19 hours. We were hoping it would be shorter because we had heard that the train drivers wanted to get paid for more hours, but that those who pay them found out so they had been on time--12 hours-- for awhile, but not for us. We took the 3 hour bus ride to Douala. We stayed in the Catholic missionary house for one more night before flying out of Cameroon.
We arrived in Cotonou, Benin, on the evening of 16th. We are still in the same time zone--7 hours ahead of central. The president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Benin met us at the airport. We took taxis to a hotel, where he decided we would stay until we figured out other arrangements. We were annoyed because it meant spending money for our stay and meant we would have to move the next day.
On the 17, some of us waited while others searched for a place for us to stay and got money. Finally, we are able to exchange our traveller's checks. This is nice considering we weren't able to in Cameroon. Eventually, we found where will be staying for most of our time in Benin.
We--Cross Fire-- have our own apartment!! It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living/dining room. It came unfurnished, but the pastor's wife brought us some mattresses, chairs, dishes, and a fridge. It is kinda nice. It costs us 25,000 CFA a night. 480 CFA= 1dollar. So far, we don't have air conditioning and it is really hot and humid. Temps here are between 85 and 95. We get to cook for ourselves. Adrienne has taken on the role of our main chef, which we are all really excited about. It will be really different not staying with host homes; I am sad that we won't be because we won't have as much time with relational ministry and I won't learn as much French. This is the first time that I have lived in an apartment and it is quite the experience.
So far, the food in Benin has been pretty good, but the sauces are a little bit too spicy for me. We have had fried and grilled chicken, lamb, rice, coo coos, beans, potatoes, and lots of fruit including papaya with lemon, pineapple, mango, and orange. Last night, I enjoyed the wonderful treat of mashed potatoes!! Thanks Adrienne!!!
We haven't had any programming in Benin yet. We are staying in Cotonou until Friday, then we will be travelling north. Cross Fire also has a new vehicle and driver. We will be using them for our 10 days of travel in Benin and for 4 our of 7 days a week when we return to Cotonou. When we come back to Cotonou, we will be there for 20 days and will live in our apartment. Unfortunately, we have been spending a lot of our team money here in Benin as we have been paying for our housing, food, and transportation.
Yesterday, we had the chance to cool off. We went swimming!! The current is to rough to swim in the ocean here, so we went to a hotel to go swimming. We really enjoyed it after sweat a lot in our apartment. We also bought some really delicious ice cream. We walked on the beach for awhile. We did some errands around the city. Cotonou has about 800,000 people. Today, we will be doing some team stuff--devos, rehearsal, and planning.
We don't know anything about our schedule or housing in the north. We do know that we are going to Parakou first. Hopefully it will be great! You may not hear from me until we are back in Cotonou.
Happy 60th birthday dad!!!!!!!!
Peace,
Tiffany
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Francophone (French Speaking) Host Homes and Communication Beyond Words
Hi Everyone,
Many people have been wondering how my French is because after all, I am in French-speaking West Africa. In Cameroon there are two officiall languages-- French and English, but everyone speaks French and few speak English. There are over 200 tribal languages also present, but the most prevalent are Fulfulde (spoken by mostly Muslims) and Gbaya.
So, how is my French? Well, not great, but it has definitely improved in the last week. I stayed at the same host home for six days and they didn't speak an English!! It was in Méiganga. I often surprized myself at my ability to speak French when I need to. I can get the basics of what time stuff is, where the toilet is, how to get where I need to go, some foods, and numbers. Otherwise, I try to piece together a few words from my phrase book. Thankfully, many English words come from French, so I can often understand some of the conversations even if I can't respond to it. While it was tough at first, it was a blessing to stay with a host home that didn't speak French. I learned so much from them. Also, I discovered how much communication can happen without words. I really enjoyed playing with my host kids. We made faces, sang some songs in French, and played with the toys I gave them. They loved having their pictures taken. They were so happy to receive toys from me; they were just old VBS toys the the YE office gave us. Also, I got to watch E.T. in French. I was glad that I had seen the movie before, but E.T. also demonstrates a lot of communication withouth words. I already miss this host homes. They had two puppies, 17 guinea pigs, and two parakeets. The families here are so generous even though they usually have little. Host homes are a great way to learn more about the culture. Not only to we get to eat the foods that they eat, but we get to see what their homes are like and we get to see how they spend their time. Hopefully, my French will continue to improve after staying in more host homes.
While I was really frustrated with myself for not speaking French and with my host for not speaking English, I eventually moved beyond that. At times, I even caught myself trying to translate stuff that I was saying to my teammates. Talking to the team in English can be a huge relief after staying with hosts that don't speak English, but I will always miss the communication that is beyond words.
Peace,
Tiffany
Many people have been wondering how my French is because after all, I am in French-speaking West Africa. In Cameroon there are two officiall languages-- French and English, but everyone speaks French and few speak English. There are over 200 tribal languages also present, but the most prevalent are Fulfulde (spoken by mostly Muslims) and Gbaya.
So, how is my French? Well, not great, but it has definitely improved in the last week. I stayed at the same host home for six days and they didn't speak an English!! It was in Méiganga. I often surprized myself at my ability to speak French when I need to. I can get the basics of what time stuff is, where the toilet is, how to get where I need to go, some foods, and numbers. Otherwise, I try to piece together a few words from my phrase book. Thankfully, many English words come from French, so I can often understand some of the conversations even if I can't respond to it. While it was tough at first, it was a blessing to stay with a host home that didn't speak French. I learned so much from them. Also, I discovered how much communication can happen without words. I really enjoyed playing with my host kids. We made faces, sang some songs in French, and played with the toys I gave them. They loved having their pictures taken. They were so happy to receive toys from me; they were just old VBS toys the the YE office gave us. Also, I got to watch E.T. in French. I was glad that I had seen the movie before, but E.T. also demonstrates a lot of communication withouth words. I already miss this host homes. They had two puppies, 17 guinea pigs, and two parakeets. The families here are so generous even though they usually have little. Host homes are a great way to learn more about the culture. Not only to we get to eat the foods that they eat, but we get to see what their homes are like and we get to see how they spend their time. Hopefully, my French will continue to improve after staying in more host homes.
While I was really frustrated with myself for not speaking French and with my host for not speaking English, I eventually moved beyond that. At times, I even caught myself trying to translate stuff that I was saying to my teammates. Talking to the team in English can be a huge relief after staying with hosts that don't speak English, but I will always miss the communication that is beyond words.
Peace,
Tiffany
Last 2 Weeks in Cameroon
Hey Everyone,
Sorry I haven't written for so long, but we have been in smaller cities without internet cafés. Since my last post we have been to Yaoundé, Bertoua, Garoua Boulai, Méiganga, and N'Gaoundéré. Our last day in Yaoundé, Sonja, Luke, and Prosper finally bought plane tickets for Benin. While we were waiting for our bus to leave for Bertoua, us girls had some issues with guys touching us all of the time. I felt somewhat violated; I often feel very devalued here because I am a woman.
Our bus ride to Bertoua was about five hours. While on the bus ride I learned from Luke -- who learned from his host-- that "Obama" means "eagle" in Gbaya, a tribal language that about one million people in Cameroon speak. Sonja and I stayed with a wonderful host in Bertoua; our host spoke a little English, but mostly communicated in German, which Sonja can usually understand. While we were in Bertoua, many of us made up stories about being married so that we can say we are married because people always ask. Sometimes it is guys on the street who want to marry us, other times it is our hosts just wondering why we are not married. However, we have been told that it doesn't always matter if we say that we are married because some people have multiple spouses here. We did a two hour program in Bertoua. It was a really awesome program considering we hadn't done a full program for awhile. The audience loved the puppet show. Afterwards we stood around for at least a half hour posing for pictures with most people in the church.
On Feb 4, we travelled on to Garoua Boulai, which is close to the eastern border. We were relieved when we got there because we found out that we wouldn't be staying with host homes. Host homes are wonderful, but it can be difficult when they don't speak English or when we don't know enough things about the culture to know how we are expected to interact with them. We stayed in the white camp for missionaries. It was right by my friend Etienne's house. Etienne and I worked together at Outlaw Ranch for a summer. It was good to see him again. Feb 5, we had three programs!!!! That was insane, but fun. We didn't have voices when we started, but we got through it fine by having people sit out some songs. Two of the programs were one hour and the other was two hours. They seemed especially long because everything that we said was translated into French and then translated again in to Gbaya.
On the 6th, we got up at 5 to take a bus to Méiganga. It was a five hour bus ride and it was really bumpy and dusty. We were very tired when we arrived. They wanted us to do a preview program and a program, but decided that a preview program would be fine. They asked us to do four songs as a preview program as a part of their evangelistic program near a school. There were 5 choirs who also sang. We were suprized to learn that they wanted 4 songs before the program started and 5 songs during. Our voices were dry, dusty, and tired; but we did it. Flexibility is becoming our middle name. The program was outside in the hot sun and there was lots of talking in Gbaya and Fulfulde, which made us more exhausted. It was long and overwhelming. On the 7th, we did four songs for another evangelizing program outside of a mosque. We were supposed to have a program that night, but didn't because the power was out and the generator didn't work. We did three songs for worship on Sunday. The first service was in Gbaya and there we 30 baptisms!! It was a two and a half hour service. The second service was in French. We went to someone's house to pray for her health and family. Then we did our program with a generator that worked!! The light went off during one of our songs, but we kept playing. Before the program, we enjoyed singing songs about how Christ is our light; we communicated that idea throughout our program. On the 9th, we went to the EELC seminary in Méiganga. We talked to some of the pastors and professors there about their programs. We had a day off of programming, but did some team work. There is a Peace Corp volunteer named Allison in Méiganga, so she met us and had us over for dinner. We were spoiled by her. We had mac and cheese, popcorn, and lettuce salad. At another time she gave us some yogurt. It was nice to talk to another American for awhile. I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about Cameroon since she has been here longer. The girls all got their hair braided by one of Luke's host sisters. Feb 10, we had a fun relaxing day. We did a program at the seminary in the evening. After the program, a Muslim came and talked to us about how he wanted to be a Christian. We had a good talk with him. It is awesome to see how our message of unity in Christ touches people. Feb 11, we went to Lindsay's host where we prayed for the family, which consisted of a mother who just lost her husband and kids that are mostly orphans because of aids. It was very humbling to see how happy they were that white people would come pray for them. Prosper and I went to the Day of Youth Parade, which was school clubs marching. It is a national holiday. Then, we took a bus to N'Gaoundéré.
Now we are back in N'Gaoundéré, which is nice because it is our 3rd time here. We did 45 minutes of music here at Prosper's church. Otherwise we have been doing errands--internet, phone calls, getting our matching clothes, and getting our train tickets.
We will be flying out of Cameroon on the 16th. We will be in Benin for three and a half weeks. I don't know when I'll be online again.
I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day!!! I miss you all!!!
Peace,
Tiffany
Sorry I haven't written for so long, but we have been in smaller cities without internet cafés. Since my last post we have been to Yaoundé, Bertoua, Garoua Boulai, Méiganga, and N'Gaoundéré. Our last day in Yaoundé, Sonja, Luke, and Prosper finally bought plane tickets for Benin. While we were waiting for our bus to leave for Bertoua, us girls had some issues with guys touching us all of the time. I felt somewhat violated; I often feel very devalued here because I am a woman.
Our bus ride to Bertoua was about five hours. While on the bus ride I learned from Luke -- who learned from his host-- that "Obama" means "eagle" in Gbaya, a tribal language that about one million people in Cameroon speak. Sonja and I stayed with a wonderful host in Bertoua; our host spoke a little English, but mostly communicated in German, which Sonja can usually understand. While we were in Bertoua, many of us made up stories about being married so that we can say we are married because people always ask. Sometimes it is guys on the street who want to marry us, other times it is our hosts just wondering why we are not married. However, we have been told that it doesn't always matter if we say that we are married because some people have multiple spouses here. We did a two hour program in Bertoua. It was a really awesome program considering we hadn't done a full program for awhile. The audience loved the puppet show. Afterwards we stood around for at least a half hour posing for pictures with most people in the church.
On Feb 4, we travelled on to Garoua Boulai, which is close to the eastern border. We were relieved when we got there because we found out that we wouldn't be staying with host homes. Host homes are wonderful, but it can be difficult when they don't speak English or when we don't know enough things about the culture to know how we are expected to interact with them. We stayed in the white camp for missionaries. It was right by my friend Etienne's house. Etienne and I worked together at Outlaw Ranch for a summer. It was good to see him again. Feb 5, we had three programs!!!! That was insane, but fun. We didn't have voices when we started, but we got through it fine by having people sit out some songs. Two of the programs were one hour and the other was two hours. They seemed especially long because everything that we said was translated into French and then translated again in to Gbaya.
On the 6th, we got up at 5 to take a bus to Méiganga. It was a five hour bus ride and it was really bumpy and dusty. We were very tired when we arrived. They wanted us to do a preview program and a program, but decided that a preview program would be fine. They asked us to do four songs as a preview program as a part of their evangelistic program near a school. There were 5 choirs who also sang. We were suprized to learn that they wanted 4 songs before the program started and 5 songs during. Our voices were dry, dusty, and tired; but we did it. Flexibility is becoming our middle name. The program was outside in the hot sun and there was lots of talking in Gbaya and Fulfulde, which made us more exhausted. It was long and overwhelming. On the 7th, we did four songs for another evangelizing program outside of a mosque. We were supposed to have a program that night, but didn't because the power was out and the generator didn't work. We did three songs for worship on Sunday. The first service was in Gbaya and there we 30 baptisms!! It was a two and a half hour service. The second service was in French. We went to someone's house to pray for her health and family. Then we did our program with a generator that worked!! The light went off during one of our songs, but we kept playing. Before the program, we enjoyed singing songs about how Christ is our light; we communicated that idea throughout our program. On the 9th, we went to the EELC seminary in Méiganga. We talked to some of the pastors and professors there about their programs. We had a day off of programming, but did some team work. There is a Peace Corp volunteer named Allison in Méiganga, so she met us and had us over for dinner. We were spoiled by her. We had mac and cheese, popcorn, and lettuce salad. At another time she gave us some yogurt. It was nice to talk to another American for awhile. I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about Cameroon since she has been here longer. The girls all got their hair braided by one of Luke's host sisters. Feb 10, we had a fun relaxing day. We did a program at the seminary in the evening. After the program, a Muslim came and talked to us about how he wanted to be a Christian. We had a good talk with him. It is awesome to see how our message of unity in Christ touches people. Feb 11, we went to Lindsay's host where we prayed for the family, which consisted of a mother who just lost her husband and kids that are mostly orphans because of aids. It was very humbling to see how happy they were that white people would come pray for them. Prosper and I went to the Day of Youth Parade, which was school clubs marching. It is a national holiday. Then, we took a bus to N'Gaoundéré.
Now we are back in N'Gaoundéré, which is nice because it is our 3rd time here. We did 45 minutes of music here at Prosper's church. Otherwise we have been doing errands--internet, phone calls, getting our matching clothes, and getting our train tickets.
We will be flying out of Cameroon on the 16th. We will be in Benin for three and a half weeks. I don't know when I'll be online again.
I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day!!! I miss you all!!!
Peace,
Tiffany
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Travelling in Cameroon
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all doing well in the US. Travelling in Africa has been very interesting. After being in Maroua, we travelled back to N'Gaoundéré for one night. Prosper, Adrienne, and I stayed with Prosper's parents and the rest of the team stayed with his sister. Then, we travelled East to Touboro for an overnight stay. We did a program there for over 1000 people!! It was awesome--even though we couldn't project very well. We heard 6 choirs sing and the last one invited us to dance with them. It has been strange to hear from African choirs. They sing very different from me and their style is very different. In Touboro, we all stayed in host homes close to the church. It was nice to be able to walk place instead of taking motos or taxis. From Touboro, we went back to Prosper's house for a few days. We were supposed to go to Tibati, but 3 of the 6 of us were sick; so we decided to wait a day. Unfortunately, we didn't go to Tibati at all because the pastor didn't have a phone and didn't hear from our main contact in Cameroon soon enough; so, they were waiting most of the day for us to arrive. Our main contact decided we would not go to Tibati because of hard feelings of us not being there when they expected us. We felt bad, but also really needed rest. Thankfully, I have not gotten sick, but I sometimes have difficulty breathing because of all of the dust, exhaust, and smoke.
After doing resting and having a day of doing team jobs in N'Gaoundéré, we took a long, terrible bus ride Southwest to Banyo. The roads were the worst we have had so far. They were really bumpy and there were no windows on the bus. It was about a 10 bus ride. We were covered in dust when we arrived. Thankfully, we found out that we didn't have a program that night. Usually when we arrive somewhere people ask us if we want to wash before doing anything. We had a day of rehearsal and devos followed by an evening program. From Banyo, we took a bumpy bus ride South to Bafoussam, the main business city in Cameroon. We did a program in Bafoussam that was supposed to start at 5 and started at almost 8. We enjoyed "sleeping in" (loud noises always wake us up) the next morning. Then the pastor showed us a beautiful waterfall near the city. He also took us to the kings palace, but we barely got to see it because it was closing; however, the architecture was old and beautiful.
From Bafoussam, we took a large bus to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. We waited on the bus for about three hours before it left. We are starting to get used to waiting. Now that we are in Southern Cameroon, it is quite humid again. I have actually grown to appreciate the humidity because it makes it easier for us to sing, but it definitely gets is hot when we are trying to sleep. Yesterday and today, we enjoyed wonderful thunderstorms with rain. Rain is hard to come by during the dry season--which we are in, but is happening some now because of global climate change. The rainy season is from April to October. While driving into Yaoundé, we saw the president's house on a hill in the distance. I was surprized to hear that President Biya has been president of Cameroon for 28 years because he change the constitution. We do not have a program in Yaoundé, but we sang a few songs for church this morning.
It has been challenging for our team treasurer, Sonja, to deal with money because we can't cash our traveller's checks because of the poor US economy. We go to the bank at least every other day when we are in big cities. Sonja has done a wonderful job at being frugal. Thankfully, I haven't been spending much money. Actually, most of it has gone to paying for internet, calling home, or buying a cool drink. It is an interesting feeling to be totally content with what you have and not need to buy more. However, I am anxious to receive our team outfits that are being sewn. The choirs here all have matching outfits, so we decided that we would buy some fabric and have outfits sewn for us.
I am starting to get used to the dust, the smells, and the sounds of Cameroon. They can often be very overwhelming: ranging from smoke to garbage smells or from screaming children to loud roosters (also known as alarm clocks at 4 or 5 am). The scenery has been great. I really enjoy the humid place because of the beautiful flowers and plants.
Tomorrow, we will travel East to Bertoua and Garoua Boulai (where I will get to see my friend Etienne that I work at camp with). It is hard to believe that we have been here for three weeks. In two weeks, we should be to Benin--if we are able to get flight tickets.
Peace,
Tiffany
I hope you are all doing well in the US. Travelling in Africa has been very interesting. After being in Maroua, we travelled back to N'Gaoundéré for one night. Prosper, Adrienne, and I stayed with Prosper's parents and the rest of the team stayed with his sister. Then, we travelled East to Touboro for an overnight stay. We did a program there for over 1000 people!! It was awesome--even though we couldn't project very well. We heard 6 choirs sing and the last one invited us to dance with them. It has been strange to hear from African choirs. They sing very different from me and their style is very different. In Touboro, we all stayed in host homes close to the church. It was nice to be able to walk place instead of taking motos or taxis. From Touboro, we went back to Prosper's house for a few days. We were supposed to go to Tibati, but 3 of the 6 of us were sick; so we decided to wait a day. Unfortunately, we didn't go to Tibati at all because the pastor didn't have a phone and didn't hear from our main contact in Cameroon soon enough; so, they were waiting most of the day for us to arrive. Our main contact decided we would not go to Tibati because of hard feelings of us not being there when they expected us. We felt bad, but also really needed rest. Thankfully, I have not gotten sick, but I sometimes have difficulty breathing because of all of the dust, exhaust, and smoke.
After doing resting and having a day of doing team jobs in N'Gaoundéré, we took a long, terrible bus ride Southwest to Banyo. The roads were the worst we have had so far. They were really bumpy and there were no windows on the bus. It was about a 10 bus ride. We were covered in dust when we arrived. Thankfully, we found out that we didn't have a program that night. Usually when we arrive somewhere people ask us if we want to wash before doing anything. We had a day of rehearsal and devos followed by an evening program. From Banyo, we took a bumpy bus ride South to Bafoussam, the main business city in Cameroon. We did a program in Bafoussam that was supposed to start at 5 and started at almost 8. We enjoyed "sleeping in" (loud noises always wake us up) the next morning. Then the pastor showed us a beautiful waterfall near the city. He also took us to the kings palace, but we barely got to see it because it was closing; however, the architecture was old and beautiful.
From Bafoussam, we took a large bus to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. We waited on the bus for about three hours before it left. We are starting to get used to waiting. Now that we are in Southern Cameroon, it is quite humid again. I have actually grown to appreciate the humidity because it makes it easier for us to sing, but it definitely gets is hot when we are trying to sleep. Yesterday and today, we enjoyed wonderful thunderstorms with rain. Rain is hard to come by during the dry season--which we are in, but is happening some now because of global climate change. The rainy season is from April to October. While driving into Yaoundé, we saw the president's house on a hill in the distance. I was surprized to hear that President Biya has been president of Cameroon for 28 years because he change the constitution. We do not have a program in Yaoundé, but we sang a few songs for church this morning.
It has been challenging for our team treasurer, Sonja, to deal with money because we can't cash our traveller's checks because of the poor US economy. We go to the bank at least every other day when we are in big cities. Sonja has done a wonderful job at being frugal. Thankfully, I haven't been spending much money. Actually, most of it has gone to paying for internet, calling home, or buying a cool drink. It is an interesting feeling to be totally content with what you have and not need to buy more. However, I am anxious to receive our team outfits that are being sewn. The choirs here all have matching outfits, so we decided that we would buy some fabric and have outfits sewn for us.
I am starting to get used to the dust, the smells, and the sounds of Cameroon. They can often be very overwhelming: ranging from smoke to garbage smells or from screaming children to loud roosters (also known as alarm clocks at 4 or 5 am). The scenery has been great. I really enjoy the humid place because of the beautiful flowers and plants.
Tomorrow, we will travel East to Bertoua and Garoua Boulai (where I will get to see my friend Etienne that I work at camp with). It is hard to believe that we have been here for three weeks. In two weeks, we should be to Benin--if we are able to get flight tickets.
Peace,
Tiffany
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