WU 15Sep07

Good Day All,

 

I had planned to write about a trip some of our colleagues took to eastern Cameroon where they visited some Fulbe refugee camps. But, I am still gathering some stories and pictures. I hope to have it ready for next week. What I can tell you is that the situation is very difficult and there are a lot of missionaries taking time off to help out at the camps and malnutrition centers. There are about 25,000 Fulbe people who have fled Central African Republic due to the lawlessness and persecution going on there. Most of them have found peace in Cameroon but still have no way to support themselves. They are living in camps and many are crippled or starving. Betsy and I have been asked to possibly accompany a Fulfulde bible translator and his family to the camps over thanksgiving to help out. I am not sure we will be able to go but we sure would like to.

 

This week has been pretty busy. Exams in both Geo classes and trips to the French Club for tennis and swimming in PE. The French Club is a "resort" sort-of on east edge of the city that the French Embassy supports and they have a big pool and nice tennis courts. It is tradition here that the 12^th grade class gets to go there to do a unit on tennis and swimming for a few weeks. Since there are only 12 seniors, the PE is combined with grade 11 in 2 sections. I teach both of them so every Wed and Fri morning for 3 weeks I take them over there. It has gone good so far. Most of them have been there before with their families. I took on the task of teaching swimming and another RFIS parent volunteered to teach the tennis. He played in college and is quite good. My only headache is getting some of the girls through the changing room in time to make it back for morning assembly. I may have to resort to bribery.

 

Betsy is having a cooking class today. A few of our Cameroonian friends wanted to learn more about American cooking and Betsy invited them over this morning. I thought there was going to be 2 maybe 3 so when I got back from a Community Service project I was surprised to see 6 women cooking away in the kitchen. They were making bread and bagels and a few cakes. Some of them have never cooked with the use of an oven or range top. There is always a demand for cooks and househelp around the missionary community and women who know how to do American style cooking and baking are usually not unemployed long. 2 women work at the school and I don't know the rest. I took a group of kids over to the quartier behind the Newland compound to clean up behind the soccer field. We cut down a bunch of overgrown brush and cleaned out the rain gutters. The rain here erodes roads so fast that if somebody doesn't keep on top of it it becomes so bad you can't drive on it. We worked for 3 hours and we had fun. I brought Alfred and Oliver with to earn some extra cash.

 

We have our first bball game today at ASOY. I think we're ready but they always play tough. It started raining about 20 minutes ago so we might have to postpone. ASOY has a covered court but the rain still blows in.

 

That's it from here.

 

Take Care and God Bless

 

Brian & Betsy