Prayer Requests

• Safe travels! Tomorrow we go to Yaounde and Saturday night fly out of the country
• Chris and Katelyn - that they won't be too overwhelmed by all those who haven't really grieved yet, and that their time in the States won't be too exhausting, but instead filled with good things
• Me and all the emotions that come with leaving people who are and a place that is dearly loved
• More safe travels for Chris and Katelyn when they return home
• And the summer! That these wonderful people won't be too exhausted by all the teams and projects and things going on; that they'll find time to just be together and rest and enjoy
• Lum and Carol as they hold down the fort here for a few weeks alone
• Fadi and Maimu, that they'll enjoy their holidays up in the village
• And whatever else you want to pray for us! It is welcomed and appreciated! There are always more things to pray for, but thankfully there's also always Someone to answer them all. 

It Was a Very Good Year

Laughter. Antics. Eating. Discoveries. Cleaning out. Contemplating. Beauty. Baking. Fun. Journaling. Hiking. Memories. Trying new things. Mangos. Finishing tasks. Pictures. Shenanigans. Cats. Family. I've been trying squish everything I possibly can into my last few golden days here in crazy Cameroon. I've never been so torn between two places and two lives, unless of course you count the day I left America to come here. I wish I could go to the States with the Jacksons for three weeks, then come right back with them to spend the summer here! (Haha but I'm afraid if I did that, my dear family would kill me.) I know for sure that I will come back – this place has left too deep a mark in my heart to forget – but I wish I knew when. And I wish it was soon. Of course my emotions have fluctuated drastically, as they always do; just a month ago I couldn't wait to leave. But now I know I'll be saying goodbye to people and places I've come to love, and it is just dreadful. Goodbyes are the worst, no matter where you are and where you're going.

This year has changed me, that's for sure. I'm nervous about going back a different person and having to readjust to the life I led when I was someone else. I'm comfortable here, and, strange as it may sound, it's going to be a-whole-nother (how do you even write that?) round of culture shock moving back home. I don't know what I'm going to say when people ask me how Africa was... how on earth do you sum up the most intense, different, adventuresome and life-altering ten months of your life in a few sentences? I'd love to answer any very specific questions you have, though. Just saying.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for allowing, enabling, and encouraging me to have this awesome adventure. Your prayers, gifts, letters, packages, and thoughts have all meant so much, and I really owe it to you guys. I never could have had any of this otherwise. You thought you were shipping me off to Africa, but really you were sending me on the escapade of the century, haha! Which really was just living life, but it was living it in a totally different and glorious way that has left me intangibly richer. I've almost run out of words with which to describe my experience, except to quote Frank Sinatra in that It Was A Very Good Year. So thank youuuuuuuuuu!

(Oh, and I'm apparently supposed to talk about this in front of some people at church, which will be my least favorite thing ever to do ever in the world ever ever, but to help me out, do any of you have things you'd like me to talk about? Questions about jujus, Sabba Njowra, food, Lum and Katelyn's schoolwork, Pidgin, monkeys, thunderstorms, the Luke Lessons, fitting 20+ people in the truck, anything? Pleeeeease let me know!! Otherwise I'll probably just be standing there showing pictures and mumbling inaudibly about how great it all was)

Eh mi yiddima, Cameroon! Small small catch monkey...

Happy List Wednesday

• One-sided conversations with Jane, Fiver, Sherlock, Macchiato, and Prince
• The anticipation of wonderful things in the near future!
• Katelyn and I are going to riding today!
• Dinner time (not simply for the food)
• Maimu calling an iPod case a "house"
• Someday I shall return to Cameroon
• Reading other people's blogs
• People I love being blessed
• Coffee on the veranda
• Cooking dinner myself! 
• Harry Potter glasses
• World literature
• Fried plantains
• Yellow flowers
• Lovely fabric
• Organization
• Rainbows
• Variety
• Writing
• Blues
• Jokes
• God

This Time for Africa

Well, heeeeerrree we are, not at Sunset and Camden, but at the last two weeks of my adventure in Cameroon. Weh! Sarah left Tuesday night and for the first time in my life I have my own room. I always wanted one, but I'm finding they aren't all they're cracked up to be. We now set the dinner table with just six plates. The house is positively empty. (At least tonight is pizza and movie night so it shall be full to the brim again for a bit!) I feel like the entire year reached its peak at Christmastime, when everyone, even Karissa, was here, but we've lost people along the way and the year has come to a close on a sadder and lonelier note than I anticipated. While a self-professed introvert, I have learned to love crowds and the joyful, sharing, togetherness that comes with them; crowds are no longer crowds but instead are just extended family, and what's better than a big, happy family reunion? (That's Africa in a nutshell, if you never make it here to discover for yourselves.)

I'm definitely going to miss the crazy lightning and thunderstorms, and the mangos, and bargaining in the market, but I can do without all that. It's the people here who have really made my time in Cameroon an unforgettable experience, and it's the people who are the reason I want to come back someday – hopefully sooner rather than later. Papa Karissa, Katelyn, Lum, Fadi, Maimu, Carol, Auntie Delphine, Nicoline, Pa, Simon, Nelly, Yunu, Mowa, Yaya, Usufu, Aishatu, Rashi, Aunt Julie, Anna, Paula, Anneka, Darcie, Georgia, Derick... the list goes on and on! I hope that my last two weeks will be filled with these people and filled with lovely memories before I jump back into the fray that is America! (And don't get me wrong, I'm desperately excited to go back to my people there too.)

But I'm not leaving yet, and there are still things to do! Bananas to devour! Messes to make (and then clean up)! Schoolwork to vanquish! And pizzas to create, so I'll be off. Tschuss ~

River Deep, Mountain High

After our weekly pizza and movie night (Sarah's last one! Sniff), for our Saturday adventure we all piled in the truck and drove the two-ish hours to the Ndawara Tea Plantation! An Indian family we know in Bamenda has relatives working and living up there, so they welcomed us into their home and took us on a tour of the entire place. First of all, the drive up there was absolutely beautiful, since we went through the Ndop plain and then climbed up into the mountains – also, it's just gorgeous wherever we go. Then we walked through the buildings, seeing how the tea was dried, ground up, dried some more, stirred, sifted, and packaged. Tea was everywhere, so we were all covered in the sweet-smelling dust by the time we walked out the other side of the building. But after that we all drove out to the fields where it's grown, and that was one of my favorite parts. Miles and miles of bright green tea stretched out in all directions; we took numerous pictures indeed. 

Then we go to see the animals! The big man, the owner of the plantation and I think every tea plantation in Cameroon, has a huge white mansion surrounded by fields and fields of horses, as well as his own little private zoo. He wasn't there, but we still got to see his three anacondas, the herd/flock/collection of ostriches, a bunch of peacocks, and his four chimpanzees! They took two of them out of their enclosure and one ran around while the other one, a baby chimp named Billy, was handed from one to another as we all took turns holding him. It was very exciting and fantastic! He was very heavy for his size, and interested in my sunglasses. Maimu, Fadi, and Lum stayed home, but I wish they could have all come and seen everything with us. Maimu especially would have gotten a kick out of the chimpanzee! She pored through my pictures when we got home, laughing, and then shrieking when she got to the one of the anacondas. I also wish Karen could have been there – she would have thought it was the greatest thing. 

It was a wonderful day and a grand adventure with which to wrap up Sarah's time here! She's leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) night, so please pray for safe travels for her! I am going to miss living with her terribly, but I'll see her again in just three weeks. :) Thank you all for your prayers for all of us!

Happy List Thursday

• These wonderful people I get to live with
• Getting all the classes I wanted for next semester... first try and everything! 
• Lum is cooking dinner this week :)
• Jambalaya
• Writing in my journal
• Highlighters
• Poetry
• Sunsets that cameras can't quite capture
• Um, mangos. Always. 
• Reading
• Sleeeeeeeeep
• Fiver being silly
• Homemade granola and tortillas 
• Getting things done
• Talking to Toby!