A Little Fall of Rain

Yesterday was Karen's 51st birthday. We decided to celebrate even though she couldn't join us, so Lum made a delicious strawberry shortcake with the strawberries from Mama Karissa's garden. Katelyn and Lum also made big chicken sandwiches and some sweet tea, and we all piled in the car and drove up to one of Karen's favorite picnic spots. It's on these big hills overlooking Bamenda, a spot of grass that's escaped being turned into a farm. When we got there it was raining, and began to rain harder, but we waited it out and as we started to eat the rain stopped – I'd like to think just for us. Everything was beautiful and green, and we watched clouds come and go and sink into the valleys and then creep up the mountains as we ate and talked. When we came back, we ate cake and spent the evening together talking in the living room, and it was really a special day altogether. I wish Mama Karissa could have been there; she would have loved it! But I'm also pretty sure her day was even better than ours.

On Top of the World

Good morning and happy Wednesday! The past few weeks for us have been packed with school, school, school. For a breather we all went on a long and lovely drive up through Mbingo, around Lake Oku, and back through the Ndop plain, and it was full of lovely views and cool weather and hiking up hills to look down on Africa. :) I'm so very excited to go back home in five weeks and see my people! But I really love it here. I most definitely need to come back someday. 

Happy List Friday

• The Pride & Prejudice soundtrack which makes my heart swoon and sigh in peace
• Eating mangos the messy way
• Rain
• Maimu's laugh
• Dinner, when we all sit together and talk
• Dancing to Nigerian music with Fadi
• Only 10 more lessons of Geometry to go with Lum and Katelyn!
• Reading Sarah's Pidgin Bible out loud
• Thinking about the near future when I will see my beautiful family and Toby and others <3
• Cellos
• Rhyming
• Feeling accomplished after running in the mornings
• Hanging laundry on the line, and then taking it down right before the storm comes
• The majority of my and Sarah's conversations are about the cats
• Being together much more than ever, because we all miss Mama Karissa terribly
• It will be time for bed in about 6 hours

Africa Land

Yaya putting up pictures of Mommy Karissa

Nap time

Carol's house!

I love these flowers

Sabba Njowra, I'm going to miss you <3

Carol, Anna, and Balu

Anna and Catherine!

Fana and Usufu :)

Peponi

Yesterday the Jackson Village went up to Sabba Njowra for the day! It was a wonderful break from being in the house and receiving guests; this time, we were the grateful guests in Yaya and Mowa's home. They are always so hospitable and welcoming, it gives me a glimpse of what other people felt when they came to our compound and were welcomed in by Mama Karissa. There were so many of us, and yet we were all ushered into the house to sit and play with baby Aishatu and eat endless amounts of fufu and njamma njamma. Then came time for our walk out to the point! Rainy season has made everything vivid and green and clear, and the view was absolutely breathtaking! I envy Carolin, who spends so much time in this wondrous place and is building a house beside Mowa's.

Chris brought up his computer to show them all the slideshow that Katelyn made of Mommy Karissa for the memorials, and, as always, we were moved to tears watching it and watching our Fulani friends watch it. When we arrived at the compound, women came from all over the village to greet and cry and talk with Papa Karissa and the girls. We brought them up some big pictures that Chris printed out of Mama Karissa in the village, and right away Yaya taped them up on the wall. It was quite special to see, and made our visit up there all the more meaningful. We took plenty of pictures and I shall put them up as soon as I can!

A Heart Full of Love

Today was the second memorial service for Mama Karissa. What a thing to experience, nearly four whole hours devoted to someone who is gone, but is the reason we were all there together today, people from all over the country and beyond. It was a time filled with prayer, tears and laughter, loud joyful songs and dancing, and pictures and stories of a life we dearly miss, and though it followed the same program as the one in Yaounde, it was unique and I know Mama Karissa would have loved it. True to form, there were mounds of food afterward and people flooding the house, finished off by an evening we all spent together, talking and laughing and "just enjoying."

No matter how many people are visiting, there is always an empty spot where Karen should be sitting, a silence that should be filled with her heartening words or infectious laugh, because she was always there in the thick of it, loving people. And even though she's gone, because of the people around us and even those who aren't, that love is far from being gone. It has overflowed in this house and we've been truly blessed, every day, again and again. Thank you all for the part you have played and are playing.

Kribi

Better Together

Greetings from Yaounde... yes, still. We have gotten back into our school and work, as much as we can do while we're here, anyway. After Chris got here last week, we all drove down to the beach at Kribi for a few days to rest and hide from all the people and stress and endless questions about "the program." It was a wonderful weekend just resting and swimming and spending time together after such a crazy week, and now we have returned, with some semblance of a plan and program. Karissa and Catherine are due to arrive tonight, and the memorial in Yaounde will happen Monday afternoon, followed by another one in Bamenda the Saturday after that. Meanwhile we sit and sweat here in Yaounde! Us Bamendians aren't used to such heat, especially when it's finally starting to get cool and rainy up in the North West. But we'll be back there next week, and I'm pretty sure all of us are looking forward to that.

Right now some big prayer requests are for safe travel – for Karissa and Catherine, us when we drive back to Bamenda, and everyone who is or will be traveling. Thank the Lord that the family can be together again for a little while, but the next few months will be difficult as the Jacksons readjust to life without Mama Karissa. Please pray for all of us here, but thank you all for everything you've done. We are just glad to be together, even though there will always be a Karen-shaped hole in our midst that we all feel.