pictures from Easter & Carnival

3709 - Our Easter dinner. On the far left is Moses and his wife on the end with their daughter. He is from the Nwest and drives taxi. he is a very strong Christian and works hard. He has earned a very good reputation around the missionary community so many people hire him to go to markets and wherever. In the middle in front is Vivian, married to Clement (blue shirt in back) and they run a little store behind our house. next to her is Victorine and her son with Vivian who lives down the path a few houses down. She is a lot of fun and stops by often. On the other end is Alfred (blue) and Oliver (red) our guards. We had a good time.

3903 - This is me getting blasted in the face with a wet sponge during carnival. The 11th grade class was in charge of this booth and wanted people who others would want to hit. They couldn't get any so they asked me. The idea was to try from about 10 feet away but this little punk made a charge and hit me point blank. She is the girl I have been writing about from the NWest who lives next-door to us. I was heckling her pretty bad so I probably deserved it. We had a lot of fun and the classes made a lot of money.

3901 - This is also from Carnival Night and I have no idea what they are doing. I was grilling hotdogs at the time.

wu 27 April

Good Day All,

 

I am asked by many of the people here what my favorite American food is. Since the local cuisine here has about as much variety as Roseanne Barr's personality, it is no wonder people are interested. I guess I never really thought about it until the things I am used to are not available. I suppose I take a lot of things for granted. To give you an example, last fall I was pouring myself a glass of almost chilled Coke and I offered some to our day guard. Some people like warm pop but not me. I tossed in a couple ice cubes for him and then myself. We started chatting and it was obvious something was wrong. He kept staring at the glass and didn't know what to do. The culture here does not allow a person to insult their employer and he was certainly in a bind. I asked him what was wrong and he stuttered a little and then with an awkward grin and wide eyes, finally asked what in the world I just put in his glass. After explaining to him that it's just frozen water and we put it in warm drinks to make them cold, he decided to try it. I never gave a thought to the chance that this guy growing up in a village in the NWest with no electricity had never seen ice before. He was ok with it but hasn't asked for ice since.

The perception here is that all Americans have a giant feast anytime they want with all kinds of different foods. Not hard to believe if any of them have seen any American movies or television. We have introduced many of our Cameroonian friends to American dishes. We had Pizza and Coke (already chilled) on Easter Sunday with a group of friends. We (Betsy) made a pan of lasagna for the couple that runs a little store behind our house not long ago. Our strange cuisine raises many eyebrows among our new friends but they have been very receptive.

On the other hand, being the adventurous and daring souls we are, have made a real effort to try many of the local dishes. The two staples here are fufu corn and jama jama. The fufu is a ground up conglomeration of corn, cocoyams and spice of indeterminate origin. It is certainly edible and, contrary to most dishes, does not fill the room with a smell that would gag a starving hyena. The jama jama looks like a spinach cole slaw salad gone bad soaked in kerosene. I suppose my distrust of these alien looking foods is not far from what our friends feel when we invite them over for tacos.

What spurred on this idea of writing about food and our experiences thereof was a brief moment of enlightenment I had the other night. I do not get them often but when I do it seems like I should do something about it. So there I was in the kitchen taking off my shoes after a long day of teaching and working on various afternoon projects. Betsy had gone home right after school since she was fighting off a cold and wasn't feeling well. I had to extract some irons from the fire at RFIS so my arrival was not until a few hours later. Usually, by this time, she has a plan for dinner and it is in full swing. I hoped for the best when I came through the door but knowing how she felt before, I knew my chances of her having something ready were slim. I sought her out to see how she was. The first red flag was the box of Kleenex next to the pillow on the bed. The second was the airborne pillow narrowly missing my head when I turned on the light. It was then that I decided just to take matters into my own hands and perpetuate dinner for myself. My extensive bachelor career sharpened my cooking skills to a fine point so all I had to do is go back in time and retrieve my former flair. I would just open the cupboard and dinner would magically appear before my eyes. I shut the cupboard door, focused my concentration and tried again. Nothing. How does she do it? She takes one look and instantly a dinner appears. She works about cutting and dicing and frying and it seems so effortless. My wife is certainly blessed. Now, my grandmother was the World Champion Cook. She lived in a modest little house about 40 miles or so south of our home place. We would stop in there often on Sundays and visit. After greetings and hugs we would race into the living room to watch Star Trek (Grandma got channel 9 from the Twin Cities) and Grandma would disappear into the kitchen. 30 minutes later she had a 10 course hot meal on the table. She was amazing. One year she put on a thanksgiving dinner for us and all our cousins. There were at least 30 of us there. She had 3 turkeys, 20 pies, 30 pounds of masked potatoes and all the rest. She did it all with only one stove and one refrigerator. There are still a whole set of Star Trek episodes that I have never seen the ending of.

I knew I had to use my imagination so I came up with a new plan. The fridge! Surely there would be a dinner in there waiting for me. Aha! At this point I became desperate. I would have to break out the heavy artillery. I picked up the pillow and in the darkness I softly asked Betsy what I could make for myself. So much for the heavy artillery. I don't imagine "go pour yourself a nice tall glass of get out of here" qualifies as dinner. I wandered back into the kitchen and decided to try again and hoped that by some miracle I would be spared from the pangs of starvation. I opened the cupboard and then it happened. I had been delivered. There was dinner staring me right in the face. Since Betsy was not eating, I thought best to stay out of range so I was only making enough for myself. I somehow had regained the strength of cooking I had lost upon sharing vows with my beautiful bride almost 2 years ago. I was feeling good and the world seemed to click right back into balance. I scooted my chair up to the table satisfied with what I done. I knew I still had it. I was foolish to think that my skills had diminished to that point. After I finished my tuna sandwiches and can of corn I breezed through the dishes and wiped off the counters. After all, what more can a thoughtful husband do?

 

Take Care and God Bless

 

Brian & Betsy

Mt Cameroon pics-4

Washed out layers of ash - The 2000 eruption was the big one. This picture is downwind of the crater that put 4-5 feet of ash and dirt across the valley floor. Rainwater has since washed out this dry bed so that you can see the layers of material deposited.

Magic Tree - This tree grows right out of the rock and somehow survived the last lava flow here.

Down the backside - Endless fields of volcanic rock. We did 14 km (10 miles) day 2 at high altitude and it was tough.

Mt. Cameroon: craters & flows (pics 3)

1999 crater - There was a very large eruption in 1999 with extensive lava flow. This is the crater from that and you can still smell the sulfur and feel the heat coming out. They cancelled an event in town because this crater was putting out smoke and there were a few light tremors the day before.

1998 craters - Smaller eruptions in 1998 made these two craters. Not a lot of lava flow but they woke up the neighborhood.

1999 lava flow - This flow made it almost to the ocean 15 miles away. It covered the main road into Limbe so they made a detour in the forest.

Mt. Cameroon: stops at the top and overnight accomodations (pics 2)

Hut 3 - The ecotourism office has built 3 huts for shelter along the trail. This one is about 2 hours from the top.








Above hut 3 - It was surprisingly flat near the top. I expected a tougher climb the last few hundred meters.

Summit 2 - We didn't stay long at the top. It was about 20 degrees and windy enough to knock us over. Marc's hands were numb from the cold and he was afraid they would never come back. The guy doesn't even own a coat. He's wearing Betsy's sweatshirt.

Mt Cameroon at lower elevation pics

Below Hut 2 - This is after about 5 hours of climbing. The hike through the rainforest took about 2 hours and here we are in the savannah part of the climb. Still hot and sticky.

Looking up the trail - Every time we seemed to get over a ridge that would give us a look at the summit, there was another ridge.

In the savannah - This is Marc. He is a really great guy. He is working really hard to try to get accepted to go to school and play basketball in the US. He is definately good enough to play division 3 ball but it is really a money issue. His family is not well off.

WU 20 Apr

In the opening credits of the Greatest Movie of All Time just before Butch tries to talk Sundance out of shooting it up with the guy in the saloon up on the screen flashes, "Most of what follows is true". I would suspect that phrase would apply well here.

This is the unofficial collective journal of the 4 brave souls who took it upon themselves to climb the highest peak in Central and Western Africa. In your atlas you will find this monstrosity in the west of Cameroon not far from the Nigerian border. For reasons not clearly known, this group braved the elements and completed the quest. This quartet of hearty trekkers consisted of:

The Kid - Chuck. An energetic young man of 17 currently in grade 11 at RFIS. A student of The Coach and on his 3^rd trip up the mountain. Divides his time between shooting baskets and shooting lizards with his trusty slingshot. Originally from Buffalo, NY.

The Jock - Marc. A very kind and respectful 19-year-old Cameroonian who divides his time between running 10k a day and jumping rope. Next-door neighbor and assistant to The Coach on both the boy's and girl's basketball teams.

The Coach - Coach. Experienced in outdoor survival and at age 35 is promoted to unofficial leader of the expedition. Submitted the only reason for the climb. However, "because it's there" was poorly received.

The Guide - Francis. A local man in his early 20's from the village of Bova not far from our jumping off point. Wise and amiable and in his 4^th year of guiding and his village's current wrestling champion.

Day 1.

Yaoundé to Buea (Boy-a) via bus to Douala, (Doo-ah-la) 2 taxis to bushtaxi place, bushtaxi to Tiko, (Tee-ko) and again to Buea. Taxi to Ecotourism Office. ~300km.

Chuck. Dude, this is gonna be awesome. Coach asked me to go and climb the mountain and I am so pumped. My dad said it was ok and I think it will be fun. The bushtaxi drivers totally ripped us off, though. Whoever heard of buying a ticket and then getting charged again for luggage?

Marc. I am so happy that Coach was kind enough to ask me to join him on this journey. I have never been to Buea. We arrived in Buea in time to get taxi to Limbe (Lim-bay) to go to the beach but the taximan would not go until we were full. Finally we paid for the 7^th person's seat in the Toyota Corolla just so we could get there before daylight is gone. We ended up skipping the beach and playing basketball in a park with some guys.

Coach. The bus ride was good except for the in-flight movie playing at maximum volume in French. The bushtaxi in Douala, however, finally got going after an hour of waiting for it to fill up. 19 people in a 15-passenger van where 12 would be crowded. We meet the guide at 7am at the office and go from there. Weather looks good and I can't wait. We have hired a porter to carry our water and heavy food to the camps. I thought about skipping that but we decided to help out the local economy.

Day 2.

Buea to Hut 2 – 6 km. Starting elevation = 915m (2,975 ft) Ending 2,800m (9,100 ft)

Chuck. Today we did the first leg of the climb and it was awesome. Coach had somehow transfigured into a 19 year old. It was cool to see him with hair. I got a little sunburn but other wise finished ok. Walking through the rainforest was so cool. There were little farms with cocoyams and beans on both sides of the trail. It has grown up a bit since I was here in February. Marc was singing the whole time and Francis knows so much cool stuff about the mountain. Dude, this is awesome!

Marc. I find myself wanting to run up the trail but I decided to keep with the group. I can not wait to see the top. I have never been so high up. The first time I looked back down once we got through the forest and into the savannah and saw the whole of Buea I was frightened! Our camp is a tin shack with 3 big rooms and a long, raised platform of wood planks for beds. We were the last ones up here but I am sure that once the Coach gets all the kinks worked out we will be going much faster.

Coach. It was very hot and sticky today. We are joined by 2 other groups each with a guide and a porter going up. One Dutch couple and 2 American college girls from the university in Yaoundé doing a semester abroad. The Dutch couple are very tall and thin and beautiful. They look like they just stepped out of an L.L. Bean catalog. Their packs appear to be made of some nearly weightless space-age material engineered by NASA or something. They have dehydrated apricots, bananas and a pack of instant powder that somehow reconstituted into a 3-course meal. They are tenting it behind the shack out of the wind and the girls are in the middle room next to us. The 3 guides and 3 porters are on the other end. Chuck is holding his own but if Marc doesn't ease up a bit he will wear himself out. I suppose with more experience he will learn to pace himself. The girls turned in early because they are heading out at 4am to summit early and get back down tomorrow. The rest of us gathered around a nice fire for a while and had some laughs but all are turning in shortly. It is starting to get chilly but we should be ok.

Francis. We Africans coll eet "Fako". De fahst Portuguese saylahs too see eet colled eet de "Chariot of God". De map maykahs jost coll eet Mount Cameroon. De groop seem to bee do-eeng goot. De Coach ahsk menny queshon. Eef I deed not know betta I wood say ee wass jost aving long rest.

Day 3.

Hut 2 to summit and down the backside to the West Camp – 14 km. Starting elevation = 2,800m (9,100 ft), Summit 4,095m (13,435 ft), Ending 2,500m (8,125 ft)

Chuck. Dude, it got really cold last night. Good thing I have this big coat. The first part of the climb today was tough but we had the wind at our backs. Me and Marc threw a bunch of extra stuff in the porters bag to make up for the food and water we had for dinner. It got colder the farther we went up but not bad. The walk down the backside was fun because we could just slide on the loose volcanic gravel with each step. At one point Coach and I were walking together through a big valley and it was like we were Frodo and Sam from Lord of the Rings except without the creepy big-eyed dude following us. I thought I caught a glimpse of him once but it was just Coach. Coach has so many stories about stuff but I don't want to insult him by telling him we have to keep hiking and catch up. Sometime on the way to the summit he transformed back into his old self. I hope he gets all the dirt off his tongue from it scraping the ground. I won't say anything. I still have one more quarter of P.E. and I need an A. The fried spam sandwiches, fried corn and fried something (I didn't want to ask) that Coach made were great. I would like to have tried some of the beef stew and apple fritters the Dutch couple made but Coach said that he would not disgrace the mountain by eating such froo-froo stuff so I better not either. Off to bed. This is so awesome!

Marc. I do not know how people survive in this cold. I can not feel my hands or my feet. I did not sleep one minute last night. Between the freezing temperatures and Coach's stomach groaning it was a long night. The climb was fun and getting to the top was very good. I have never been so cold. It was 0 degrees centigrade with a 50kmh wind at the summit. We did not stay there long. It was very good hiking through the old lava flows. I really liked seeing the layers of ash that fell and now are being washed away. It was a long hike but I am having much fun.

Coach. My pack seems much lighter today. It's almost like someone took stuff out. One thing I wish would have been put in is some Tums. It was very hazy at the summit so we couldn't see very far. Coming down was tougher than I thought because the soil was very loose. The unrelenting, endless fields of volcano flow are beginning to annoy. We walked over 6 km through softball sized sharp volcanic rocks. I wore the tread clean off the bottoms of my shoes. I am afraid for Marc because if he doesn't relax a bit he will be hurting. He is a big boy but he didn't have to keep coming back down the trail to see if Chuck and me were ok. Someday he will get the idea of hiking. The Guide and The Porter must have overheard me telling Chuck about going to pistol matches with my brother Chris. I saw them a few times looking at me, using their fingers for pistols and chuckling. Must be a cultural thing. Soon after lights out last night we were overcome with rats. Apparently they make a home out of our end of the shack and came at us in full force as soon as the flashlights went off. After an exhausting 2 hours of eradication attempts we appealed to our next room neighbors. After a brief explanation they acquiesced to allow us to share their rat-free quarters. I thought of asking one of the ladies if I could use her coat for a pillow but, discretion being the better part of valor, I chose not sensing that she was oddly out of sorts at the time.

Francis. De Coach seems too bee not well. I told de portah dat inn my veelige eef wee had a goat een ees cone-dee-shun wee wood jost shoot eet. Wee had a good laff about dat.

Day 4.

West Camp to Buea - 7km. Starting elevation = 2,500m (8,125 ft) Ending = 915m (2,975 ft)

Chuck. The volcanic craters from the 1999 eruption were cool. One still had tons of heat and sulfur coming out. Our hut last night was made entirely out of straw. It was awesome. I slept like a rock. We had to leave early this morning because there was a big storm coming in. We wanted to get off the ridge before we got wet. We hiked across some really old lava flows and then through the rainforest. It was so thick you couldn't see 20 ft in front of you! I am beginning to worry about The Coach. I looked back once and it appeared that he had turned into a gray-haired gnome. He was moving so slow and hunched over. I figured it was just the altitude messing with my head. We got out to the village about 11am and caught a taxi to the office. I was glad to see that The Coach was just fine when we got to the village. I think I have been watching too many movies. We are just back from Francis' village and are heading out to the bus stop. I am so glad I came. This was SO awesome!

Marc. I was greeted this morning to the sound of thunder. I stepped out of the hut and saw lightning flashing. Living in the rainforest all my life, this would not normally be cause for alarm. Except this time I was looking DOWN on it! I have seen so many fascinating things on this trip. Hiking down through the rainforest we saw many kinds of trees including Mango, Avocado, Fichus and the usual Banana and Plantain. We heard some monkeys but did not see them. Many birds were out. When we were close to the village we saw some small farms with cocoyams and beans. I am so glad to be warm again. I hope they have a different movie on the bus home.

Coach. I was chatting with a Navy Veteran last summer before coming to Cameroon and he asked me, "When did the Jungle turn into a Rainforest?" I told him I thought it was in '92 when Billary Clinton became President. The hike down through the forest was interesting. Apparently it is not environmentally possible to be hiking through the RAINforest without being rained on. The muddy downhill trail and my slick-soled shoes went together like the Vikings and the Super Bowl. I did however have a moment of enlightenment when we came around a corner in the forest not far from the village. There sitting on a stump in the distance was a local farmer from the village taking a break from tending his crops out of the rain. I was immediately overcome with a sense of real connectedness to the simpleness and peace to life here. I suddenly had a 2^nd wind and was feeling good. It wasn't until we got closer that I saw him eating a Snickers bar and talking on his cell phone. How depressing. We went over to Francis' village to see the sight(s) and meet his family. His grandparents were home and we had the pleasure of meeting them. Grandpa was a very colorful character. Red shirt, green pants, yellow hair (I can't explain that even if I tried) and spoke English well. I couldn't understand a word of it but he spoke well. He is the local "traditional medicine" man. Francis said that nobody from the village has gone to the hospital in a very long time. I'm not sure if that means he is good at his job or just too slow to get on the scene. We visited the grassy fields where they hold wrestling matches and the sacred bush where they do the Elephant Dance. We saw Francis' father's beehives. Apparently there are 2 ways to raise honey. The modern big wooden boxes like we know and the traditional way of stuffing the whole thing in a hollowed out tree. He is leaning more towards the modern now because they don't use suits or protective gear and the traditional way seems to take longer to extract from the tree than the bees will allow. I hope Gramps has a recipe for bee stings. The most interesting thing I saw was the "Ahl-beeno" graveyard. It seems that this village has a higher than usual rate of albino people and they do stand out. Albinos are viewed as special in the village and are often taken care of very well but still socially unaccepted by the older crowd. They are all buried in the same place under this enormous tree just outside the village. Well, I would say that the trip was successful and I do look forward to my next adventure.

Francis. I can not bee-leeve de "veelige veesit" treek work again. Eet ees soo eesy too get free taxi ride home aftah a climb! I ope De Coach ree-covahs soon. Ee seems like goot man. Bad tipper but goot man.

In all seriousness, I did thoroughly enjoy my time on this trip. My companions were a lot of fun and we all had a good time and saw some really fantastic sites. I thought it would be fun to tell this story this way. It is interesting how one's mind will wander after 10 hours hiking through freezing cold fields of rock. I hope you like it and if you want to know more about Mt. Cameroon go to:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mountains/cam.htm.

I will say that it was exhilarating and exhausting and probably the toughest thing I have ever done. I do thank the Good Lord for 2 things: we all made it back safe and injury-free and despite the ceaseless wind at all times, it seemed that no matter what direction we were going it was always at our backs. I know that He was looking out for us and used the wind to keep us pressing on. Despite walking like Frankenstein for 2 days, we had a lovely Easter Day celebration. We, and some other missionaries, were invited to an early dinner by another couple from TX. Betsy made a nice bunny cake and we had a lot of fun. That night, we invited a group of our Cameroonian friends over for dinner. Ham prices being what they are, we decided to give them an American meal. Hawaiian Pizza and Coke. Just in case, one guest brought a dish of fufu corn and some jama jama. Both traditional Cameroonian favorites. I tried the jama jama and a little fufu corn but I sighted in on the pizza. It was a great time. I took the men out on the patio and showed them the windmill we built in Geo 9 class. They were impressed that young kids would make something like that. We are truly blessed with some good friends we have met here and hope we can raise the funds to be able to come back and build more relationships through His work.

Take Care and God Bless.

Brian & Betsy

Weekly update 13 April

Good Day All,

 

Not too much to report on this week. The mountain climb went well. I have all the details coming as soon as we get the pictures sorted out.

I am sad to say that Betsy went home early today with a nasty sore throat and cold. I drove her back around 1pm today. The last words she said were, "you're on your own for dinner". I came back to school to teach a science class for a teacher who is at a conference in Kenya. She's gone for 2 weeks so I am doing the whole unit. I hope I don't have to make a test. We are studying sound waves and the workings of the inner ear. It is painfully apparent to me that I should have done more reading on this topic other than the 5 minutes before class. I stumbled through it but I got a lot of blank stares. I used a slinky to demonstrate how longitudinal waves work with compression and rarefraction. That perked them up.

I mentor a student on Fridays. He is a senior looking to go to a technical university in Texas next year. His folks are translators up in Chad. We usually sit and talk about his future and problems he is dealing with and we have built a good relationship. Today, we were invited to join the middle school PE class. Frank Sanchez teaches it and he is a Covenanter from California. He likes to keep things interesting so this week he has been fabricating the necessary equipment to hold a junior version of the Scottish Highland Games. He uses palm nuts for the stone toss, and banana stalks for the caber toss. The kids think it's great. They will practice up for the final competition next Friday. He wants to hold an adult version on a Saturday and I thought it would be a good class fundraiser. Pay a few bucks to compete, get a glass of lemonade and the winners get a plate of cookies or something. The big SIL yearly garage sale is next Saturday and I thought since everybody will be poking around killing an afternoon, why not make a little cash for a class trip. We'll see, I guess.

I have arranged for our school to sponsor some repairing and cleaning up of a local handicap children's center. There are 12 or 13 kids there, mostly orphans, who are all either physically or mentally handicapped. I went out yesterday with the nurse from AOC who volunteers for Hope Services that does a lot of work to support many orphanages around the city. The facilities are dismal but a few Saturdays of making and installing screen windows and making some new furniture will do wonders for their kids. I had a family coming from the states bring a whole bunch of chewable vitamins for the kids. They eat yams and rice and occasionally bread. The government supports this place a little but they rely on many volunteers for stability. We raised some funds last fall and the kids got a few special meals during Christmas time. Many of the kids don't get any schooling so they just do nothing all day. Any new activities are cause for celebration. The kids are so friendly and inquisitive. It's tough to see the way they live. I hope to bring a bunch of student workers out next week to get a few things going.

 

Well, that's about it from here. It was threatening rain a while ago but looks like it gave up. Usually we get about 15 minutes notice when gray skies come rolling in and it lets loose. We had a real roof-rattler the other day. At least an inch in 15 minutes. A lightning strike at school knocked out a bunch of stuff in the library and put us out of internet for most of Monday. Crazy. We look forward to seeing everybody soon.

 

Take Care and God Bless

 

Brian & Betsy

weekly pictures

3649 - Vance with the chief in the Pygmy village.

3681 - Part of the big falls south of Kribi. One of only 2 falls that pour directly into the ocean in Africa.

Hope you like them.

B&B

Weekly Update 31 March

Greetings

 

This week has been great so far. We are on the first of our 2 week spring break from school. Our plans to go to EG were red x'd so we found alternative travel plans. Vance and Kathy Ficek from WPB Florida came to RFIS new this year. Kathy teaches English and Bible and Vance is the maintenance supervisor. They have done many short term mission projects through the years and did about 9 years in the Philippines in the 80's. They were itching to go somewhere so we all decided to head west and revisit the small resort town of Kribi. We are staying in the same hotel on the beach as we did last October and it is as relaxing as ever.

So I find myself sitting here writing away with the cool ocean breeze in my face and the sound of waves crashing into the shore. There are about a dozen or so guys in dug-out canoes fishing with nets. I don't know how they can keep from going in the drink with the waves and the wind throwing them around. They usually go out for a couple of hours at a time but I haven't seen any come back with much of a catch. The second oil tanker of the day is filling up from the big offshore platform. The government of Chad pays Cameroon to run their oil through a pipeline all the way across the country and it goes under the beach and all the way about a kilometer out and tankers just pull up and fill up. I have heard that they bring in a lot of $ but it all goes to a small group of guys.

There is a lagoon next to our bunkhouse that fills up from a fresh water stream. The water is clean enough that people who live around here come down the hill and fill up their pans and buckets to take back. During the day, a group of young boys splash around and make sand castles. Either the local schools are not in session or these boys simply don't go. Cameroon Public Education is not free. Families have to buy the uniforms, backpacks, books and other essentials on top of paying tuition. Many just can't afford it so their kids work instead. They sell fruit or firewood or just beg on the corners. Many of the girls never finish school because they are too busy getting married and having babies. Our neighbor in the city from the NW gets harassed by her friends in the village because she isn't married and pregnant by 17.

One thing this place is not short of is street vendors. Guys selling all kinds of junk work their way up and down the beach selling everything from shell necklaces to "original" tribal masks to ivory pieces. Every one of them wants to "give you a small price". One just came with a bunch of ebony wood statues. Their prices are about 4x what the stuff is worth and this time of year they will sell for just about anything.

It looks like the lagoon boys are back. They are pulling the fishing nets out so they can play. They have a little soccer ball with them and are setting up something that looks like water polo. They are very active and pretty organized for 10 years old.

Vance and I went down to the river yesterday. We were looking to get a boat ride up the river to see the sights. Our pale skin immediately aroused the attention of everyone at the dock. We picked out the least obnoxious one of the guys and in my best French asked what it would cost to go. He wanted 10k each. ($20). We said no way and started to walk away of course waiting for his counter offer. He said he could do 7k each and a case of beer. We told him 5k each and we got to pick the boat. (The buoyancy of most of them was highly questionable) He said 5 each and beer. We did our walk away trick again and 2 seconds later he agreed to 5 each and the boat. The ride started well until the pain of sitting on a 2x6 3 inches above the bottom with no backrest started in 2 minutes into the ride. It was borderline unbearable but the scenery and quiet of the rainforest took my mind off it. We coasted along through giant palms and other vine covered trees. We could see many different kinds of birds and all sorts of little monkeys jumping around. They never got out in the open for a picture though. Just about the time my spine was getting ready to go on strike, our guide steered us over to shore and we got out. He said we were going on a "small march" into the forest. After a quarter mile or so we came upon a little settlement. It was a pygmy village. These people still live in the jungle and live off the land. We were introduced to the chief who was about 4'6" and very serious. There were about 6 or 8 people hanging around and a few kids. We didn't want to take pictures so as not to offend but the guide said it was ok for a "small price". I started taking pictures of everything and even got one of Vance with the chief. We apparently were interrupting lunch so we slipped the chief a 1k and split. The guide walked us around in the rainforest a while looking at monkeys and giant bugs I never imagined existed. We headed back to the boat and he took us down river back to the van. I wish we could have had more time at the village but these folks spoke a tribal language even the guide struggled with so I don't know what we would have really done. It was really cool, though.

Betsy is waiting for me in the water. The waves are big enough now to get out the boogyboard. I just hope the jellyfish are gone. There is a group of missionaries from Chad here too and 3 kids got stung yesterday. I got away unscathed but Betsy got a real bad one on her ankle. She was sidelined most of the afternoon. We have been a little water-resistant so far today but the waterpolo game got moved to the ocean a while ago and the kids are still going so it is probably ok. I guess we'll find out.

I am planning to go with a group of guys to climb Mt. Cameroon next week. 2 days of hiking in the jungle to get to the top of Western Africa's highest peak. Hooahhh.

Take care, and God Bless

Brian & Betsy