The school project is finished except for the closing ceremony,
hooray! We managed to get all of the
classrooms and much of the rest of the place painted in 2 days. On the 2nd day, Saturday, there
was a large group of kids there for a special class before testing. The class got out about noon so I invited the
kids to help paint. About 20 of them
stayed to help. I think they were about
10 years old. We didn’t have enough
brushes and rollers and scrapers and wire brushes, so they were almost fighting
for each tool. I gave them as many tasks
as I could come up with and they worked so fast that I was amazed. Before they left, Sister Coleman and I taught
them the song “Baby Shark.”
 |
| Elders West & Tucker |
 |
| Frère Martin mixing the color by hand, literally! |
 |
| Elders Mwehu and Tucker cleaning the walls |
 |
| Elder Sperry sanding a door |
 |
| Elders Muamba, Mbuyi, and VanAusdal |
 |
| If the only brush available is on a stick, this is how you paint. |
 |
| Look Mom, I'm turning white! |
 |
| The group of workers at this moment |
 |
| "May I have some paint thinner?" |
 |
| Kids always love Sister Coleman. |
 |
| Missionary and Future Missionary photo |
During the painting I checked the toilets and found a
broken flexible pipe spraying water. As
I was buying a new one in a nearby store, a man named Felix saw my name tag
and hailed me because he is Christian, too.
I showed him our project at the school and gave him a brochure. He sought us out at the school again the
second day, having studied the brochure and having filled in the questions at
the back, wishing for a copy of the Book of Mormon. I called the Elders to set an appointment and
gave him a BoM. Missionary work here is
so easy.
 |
| Instructions Above |
The mission president and his wife came for a zone
conference. Sister Coleman made a crock
pot stew and we asked our helpers to make African food for lunch. They made fufu and eru, which took all
morning. The clean-up then took them all
afternoon. I found that fufu really is
filling. I wasn’t hungry at all until
the next morning.
 |
| Zone Conference |
 |
| Elders Kabasele, Mbuyi, Mwehu, & Muamba clustered around Sis. Monga |
 |
| Purita and Fleur help prepare lunch |
 |
| Eru, Fufu, and Beef stew |
The mission president also trained branch leaders, mostly
on Sabbath observance. That was really
important. I think when I taught it they
didn’t accept it because white people just don’t understand life here. But now they heard it from an African and
will probably make some changes.
Wednesday was National Day, the biggest holiday of the
year in Cameroon with a parade and fireworks.
It celebrates the uniting of the English and French Cameroons in one
country and is a great source of national pride.
It is true that I will never understand life here. When we first came here I wanted to live,
eat, talk, shop, and think like an African.
But I can’t really imagine what it would be like to live my whole life
without knowing where tomorrow’s meal will come from and continually giving away all of
my money to help extended family. And
I’m sure that I will never believe that a fetish came to life and took the form
of a large boa constrictor to threaten a family. A very intelligent, highly respected,
well-traveled church leader told me that that really happened. I was astounded that he would believe such a
thing. Sorcery is just a fact of life
here, more common than indoor plumbing.
Sorcerers wander the streets.
People dig up corpses to remove the head and put it somewhere else so
the spirit won’t bother them. Charms and
amulets are used. Bad luck is blamed on
envious people casting spells. It is all
so far removed from my experience that I have given up trying to think like an
African. But maybe, just maybe, it is
all real, and I am just protected from such evil by the priesthood and my
calling.
 |
| Douala Branch President Mbengue & wife |
 |
| I had to stop for this truck driving the wrong way. It's anarchy! |
No comments:
Post a Comment