This is one tired girl. It’s been a long day. We are now on “African time”, where time is relative depending on the situation. We were supposed to have met Cyrille about 9 a.m. or after breakfast. We were supposed to have taught how to set up the JF equipment to a few people this morning. The three of us were up early. Johnny’s room is on the back of the hotel where the rooster must live, where the security guard walks around noisily and where the secured steel parking gates clang open and shut. Our hotel room is midway between front and back but the windows are toward the front and right above an alley that is an active walkway between streets. The city seems to shut down for a few hours between midnight and maybe 5 a.m.
We ate breakfast of omelets, watermelon and bread about 8:30. Cryille and Humphrey showed up separately sometime between 10 & 11. And, we waited for others to show up. While waiting we showed the two guys all the JF supplies they had sent in the two duffle bags --- soccer balls, Bible story cloths, Evangecubes. They were nearly in tears, expressing their thanks because of all the ministries that can now be started. And, we waited. Cyrille and Humphrey were frequently on the phone and occasionally left to go check on “someone coming”. Finally, a young man named Samuel came. And, we waited. While waiting we put together the 50 pair of “shoes that grow” that Johnnie brought with her. Cryille was so excited about the shoes also as he knew of some children in some of the villages that could definitely use them. He said it embarrasses the children to not have shoes when their families couldn’t afford them. These shoes would help a lot. Then we waited. Finally, about 3 p.m. he said no one else would be making it there so we would go eat lunch (which ended up being lunper or lunch/supper as it was the last meal of the day).
We are traveling in Cyrille’s car. It holds 5 people and there were 6 of us so Humphry took a local taxi. The city of Buea is situated on the side of Mount Cameroon, the 2nd largest mountain on the continent of Africa. We haven’t seen it yet as it was cloudy down over the mountaintop. But the main road goes up and down the mountain. So, we headed up the mountain passing miles of shops and kiosks with all their goods displayed outside on tables and on the ground. Looked like a giant garage sale. Our restaurant was a small place named Quality Restaurant. Cryille ordered for us and we had a seasoned rice with fried chicken in a spicy, tomato sauce. He also ordered a small dish of a local vegetable. It was greens of some type but very tasty. Our two African friends, Samuel and Humphrey, had a local dish of a different type of cooked greens that looked like Kenyan sukumu-wiki with casava (I know I didn’t spell this right). The whole meal for all six of us cost Cameroon 9000 or $18.
We then got back into the car with Cyrille following in the taxi and Samuel driving and headed north out of town. As we reached the edge of town I had a sudden flashback 20 years to when we were in Nairobi. It was so similar to the drive we took as we were headed to the Nazarene church in the middle of the Mathare slum on a Sunday morning. We soon reached fields of green tea leaves, acres and acres of them and then turned down a little road to a village called Tole. Pictures will have to describe it as words can’t. We stopped in front of a little gazebo style building and got out of the car. This is apparently where they hold a little church service on Sundays. Several men and a couple of women eventually joined us. These will be the people responsible for the JF equipment, I believe. But, first we sang a few songs and prayed. We were then asked to look behind us to the house with a flag on it. That was the house of the village chief. We were told he was already aware that we were there and we would need to go visit him. So, the entire group made their way across the street, waited for approval to enter his house, took our shoes off before entering and went in. It was a little surprising. The house was not impressive. Probably as old and in as much disrepair as most of the others but inside was an oriental rug on the floor and two big overstuffed chairs and two big matching sofas with a nice coffee table in the middle. In the corner of the room was a small entertainment center with a TV, which stayed on the whole time we were there. The chief was probably about 30 years old, maybe. A couple of people explained why we were all there in his village and what we would be doing over the next couple of days. They asked for his permission to be there. Cryille then told why he wanted to have a church in that village and asked for the chief’s permission. The chief stood up, got a piece of paper and pen, and started writing something down. He asked for Cryille’s and Humphrey’s names and wrote them down. Then he asked for Sam’s name. Instead of writing it he handed him the pen, then passed it to me and then to Johnnie. Then we were done and left the “palace” with his ok to be there and show the film.
Then Sam started setting up the equipment and teaching the team how to do it. As soon as the equipment was set up they decided where to put the screen. It was set up just on the edge of the chief’s yard. As soon as it got dark we took our chairs and set in his yard, he came out and set in one of the overstuffed chairs that was on his porch and turned off the yard light so it would be dark enough for the video. A good number of people came and stayed for the entire thing. Many came and went. We were done about 9:15, put it all back into the back pack and got back to the hotel just after 10 p.m. It’s time for bed.
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