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