There was another baptism in the New Bell Branch this
week. That makes 9 weeks in a row!
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| Elder Mbikayi, Frere Njampou, Marte, & Elder Mpongo |
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| Marte's family and friends |
We invited the chief, Majesty Tchatchoua, his family, and
Princess Stephanie to dinner Monday to say goodbye. He brought one of his 5 wives, 2 children,
and his brother. Good thing Sister
Coleman made a lot of food, because she fed 10 after another relative dropped
in and the wife took a tray out to the chauffeur. The chief is so nice and we had a wonderful
visit. Here are the chief’s entourage:
Queen: Gertrude Ychatchoua Tchande 691 20 51 01
Daughter: Silizienne Tchatchoua Tchatchoua 690 94 08 28
Daughter: Pieny Tchatchoua Ekongo
Chief’s Brother: Nana
Princess Stephanie: 675 13 04 98
Nephew of Princess Stephanie: Stephen
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| Majeste Tchatchoua with wife, daughters, and brother |
It started off slowly, with small talk and photos. Then I said that it was going to be hard to
leave because this is now our home; we are Cameroonais; and I launched into the
Cameroon national anthem. Suddenly
everyone was trying to out-sing everyone.
I passed out flags and we had a good time with anthems, flags and
photos. The chief said that we can be
part of his tribe and village, so, we are hereby Bamilike from the Banwa
Village! With pomp, drumming, and a
speech he gave us some symbolic, artistic dolls, that are much nicer than what
the shops typically sell to tourists. Or
maybe they just seem nicer to me because they were given with love. They often give these dolls to couples at
their weddings for good fortune. They
promised to try to visit us in California, so we are looking forward to that.
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| Gift of Dolls |
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| Gift of Flowers |
The next day Valery gave us both African outfits, a dress
for Sister Coleman and shirt and pants for me.
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| Our New Clothes! |
The rest of the week we rushed through a lot of last
minute tasks, including:
We applied for a Carte de Sejour for Elder Sperry in
record time.
We painted the Douala Elders’ apartment walls where the
paint had peeled.
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| The paint was really bad! |
We audited the Bonaberi Branch.
We spent an inordinate amount of time getting medical
tests and passports and doing other missionary application tasks.
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| Futile attempt to apply for an ID card. But they were out of forms. |
We
gave our girls some cash to buy some mission items. They had a great time and got great deals.
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| Mission suitcases and clothes! |
The Dimonds arrived to take over our apartment, truck,
and all of our duties. We are so glad to
have them here.
Petrus made it back safely from Central African Republic
with a passport! On our last day we will
try to help him get ready with medical tests, vaccinations, photos, etc.
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| Davy, Purita, Fleur, Petrus, Jacques, & Valery |
It was sad to say goodbye to our piano class in
Bonaberi. We made a speech and
officially turned it over to Vinick. He
and Wilfrem (who was gone to his village) and Brenda will be able to continue
the class.
Another internet failure started midday Thursday and lasted
until we left on Monday. I had to
quickly write an official letter on Saturday but didn’t know the gender of an
obscure word. I couldn’t look it up on
the internet. An hour later I overheard
some members use that word and my problem was solved. It seemed like a tiny miracle to me. For my final reports and this blog I am using
the wifi at the church.
We picked up Elder Batoum at the airport. He finished his mission in Lubumbashi and was
heading home to Yaoundé. We thought he
arrived too late to take a bus home but a friend of his showed up to travel
with him and helped him find an 8pm bus.
Blessing!
We spoke in three branches and said a lot of
good-byes. After church the Elders came
over for ice cream and farewells. We
were also joined by Noah, Purita, Laurencia, Jean Marie and Sidonie Su for a
nice visit, lots of photos, and sad farewells.
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| The District at our place to say farewell |
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| Sisters Laurencia and Purita |
Now we are about to head home and have mixed feelings. We would like to stay and continue the things we started, but miss our family.
Here are a random few of the many things we going to miss:
Our wonderful friends
The swarms of thousands of bats returning to nest in
trees in the early morning,
The warm weather year-round
The days being always the same length with no need for
daylight savings time
Being treated like nobility everywhere
The ease of sharing the gospel,
Certain foods, like ratatouille in a can, French breads,
ndolé, mangos, papayas, fresh bananas,
The constant outpouring of love from the church members,
The many opportunities to make a difference in peoples’
lives,
The examples of sharing and service we see in the church
among the poorest people
The other couples
The piano students (“Seesta Coleman, Seesta Coleman”)
The constant string of adventures
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| At the hospital (Dr. Frankenstein's lab?) |
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| Yep, Superman works here. |
The will be the last blog entry. Thanks for reading!
