Trip to Cameroon

We are back from another trip to Cameroon and even though this is our 4th trip there i am always soo surprised at how much nicer it is then Nigeria. The people are super friendly and the country is soo beautiful. Soo many tree's and flowers and the most gorgeous beaches i have ever seen in my life. I love going to visit. The only down side is it is a french country so most everyone speaks french. Jeff and I promise each other every time we return from Cameroon that we will learn french.......its a lot easier said then done though! I guess we haven't tried that hard yet but the little bit we have tried i have decided its such a confusing language to pick up. I guess if we end up opening a branch there we will have no choice but to just bite the bullet and learn. Anyways just a few high lights of the week.....

These two are most definitely my FAVORITE part of visiting Cameroon. We met this senior missionary couple completely by divine intervention. The first time we visited Cameroon we tried looking for the church but no one we asked had ever heard of it. The next time we visited we just ran into this couple at the airport. We went and introduced ourselves and they were soo happy to see us. They were starving for an english conversation and we were more then happy to visit with them. They insisted we stay at their house instead of a hotel. It really is freaky how many connections we have with the Willis'. They are from great falls mt., they are in Jeff's cousins ward and their daughter lives in the same town as Jeff's brother. Also Brother Willis' career was equipment work and pretty much everything Jeff wants to do in Cameroon. So weird. Anyways we have had soo much fun with them and are soo sad their mission is over in a month. I think Jeff and i both agree when we say we have never played a funner game of uno or skip-bo then we have with these two. The most freaky part about running into the Willis' is i think they are EXACTLY me and Jeff in 40 years. I can totally see ourselves being exactly like them when we are their age. Unfortunately this is the only picture we have of them. We went to a little town called Kribi that is right on the ocean and had a delicious dinner on the beach. Fresh seafood right out of the ocean, it was sooo good! But Cameroon will not be the same without the Willis'.



This was also taken in Kribi. A group of boys took us to see this place. I asked them their names and they told me to call them the Beach boys. They really thought they were hilarious. ha! Anyways this doesn't look like much but supposedly its one of the few places in the world were a big waterfall falls straight into the ocean. Kind of cool!!



Some weird looking tree.....



So one thing that drives me absolutely insane about this country is the locals concept of time. Other words known as "Africa time." It literally drives me crazy!! People have NO respect of time here. Let me give you an example. On friday we planned to meet with a local man in Kribi at 1pm. We drove 2 hours to get to kribi and when we got there the man called and told us he would be a little late and wanted to meet at 3. So we just had lunch and hung out on the beach....not a big deal at all. So 4 o'clock comes rolling around...no one there yet.....we sat on the beach till literally 10pm. I was soo frustrated. Every time we called the man he said he "was coming." Such a common phrase people use here which pretty much means......eventually i will be there, it may be in 1 hour or 1 day or 1 week but i will get there. So anyways this left Jeff and I forced to stay in a hotel with nothing but the clothes on our back - we thought it was only going to be a daytrip. We also had to change our flight back to Lagos till monday which was kind of annoying and cost a hundred bucks. The next morning we woke up ready for the meeting with the man at 8am. We sat around till noon when he finally decided to show. As soon as i saw him i really felt like punching him in the face but now that i look back there could have been so many more worse places to wait all day at. Jeff sat on this wall for a bit while i walked on the beach then we laid on beach chairs for seriously 5 hours at least just talking while we killed time waiting.






After the meeting with this man, he took us out to see some sites. It was only 40km out of Kribi but it took 2 hours to get there because of the roads. We seriously were driving through complete african bush on tiny dirt roads. But it was soo worth it. Here is a pygmy village we drove through. These people live completely in the bush and want absolutely nothing to do with life in a normal african town. When people talk of pygmy people i literally thought they were the tiniest people, maybe like a meter or so tall. But we found out that they really aren't that small at all. On average they are shorter people but not ridiculously tiny like i thought. Just like the chinese people. On average they are usually shorter but not that short. I felt stupid taking a picture of this pygmy but the man we were with really wanted me to for some reason.





This is what a common house looks like in the village. Made out of sticks and mud. Imagine all the rats, snakes and bugs that would very easily get into this house. Imagine sleeping on dirt floors in this house in the crazy hot humidity. Definitely made me soo grateful for the house i am living in.



After the long drive and a hike through the bush we made it to this spot. Sooo worth the drive. It was probably one of the prettiest places i have ever seen in my life. Beautiful beaches and no one to be found for miles. The pictures dont do it justices but it was seriously heaven.






We seriously loved every minute of being in Cameroon this last week!!