12 years ago today, Jake and I were loading our bags on a Gray Hound bus in Iowa, on our way to New York City (we were both 20). From there we took a flight with Air Afrique (which has since gone bankrupt) and heading on the adventure of our lives to Cameroon. We had been married just five months and were traveling to Africa to do a year's internship with Bread For Life Ministries (a requirement with our bible school). Just flying with Air Afrique was a great way to get initiated in to African culture. It was a bit like the Grey Hound bus of the air, we stopped in no less than 6 african counties before finally arriving in Cameroon, tired yet excited. It was my first time to Africa, but Jake had spent a couple of months in Zimbawe before.
I must admit it was a big shock to come into the capital city, Douala. I knew that we would be in a city but wasn't quite expecting Douala; a huge, hot, muggy, dirty, pot holed, dare I say depressing, city. This was not what I had expected Africa to be like. No one seemed friendly (besides those in the church) and the pollution and insane traffic were stifling (we had been living in Iowa before this!). After spending the first week crying myself to sleep, I started to get used to it. We spent a month in the capital, dripping with sweat and helping out with a youth group there. We lived with the main pastor of the Bethel Church, Charles Wesley, a radical man of God, also a missionary (from Liberia). We were thankful that he and his household took us under their wings. This was possibly the longest month of my entire life!
Then we headed off to Limbe, which is on the beach and in the English zone. This was like night and day to Douala; it was small, everyone was friendly, it was cleaner, it just had a whole different atmosphere altogether. This is where we really started to fall in love with Cameroon and with her people. We assisted the Bethel Church, mostly with the Youth and Children's ministry, but in a lot of other ways too. We did door-to-door evangelism with the church almost daily, and got to meet Cameroonians from all walks of life. It was a good eye opener, seeing the poverty that some people lived in. We never had an orientation when we came into country, but living with the pastor and his family certainly plunged us into the Cameroonian life style. We ate (nothing was off limit!), drank (we had no water filter), traveled (we became experts at squeezing onto public transport, and taxiing everywhere), and washed clothes in a bucket just like everyone else. It wasn't always easy, but an amazing experience. We spent eight months in Limbe and then headed to Buea (the home of Mount Cameroon) for two months. Buea is also in the English zone and people are friendly and open. It is a university town so lots of youth live there. Once again we lived with the pastor and his family, this time in a house with no running water. The first thing we did every morning was go to the local well (a good 10 minute walk) and carry water back for the day (we became experts at conserving water!). We loved Buea and made some great friendships there that are still strong today.
When we left to come back to America, I was two months pregnant. And as they say, the rest is history. We knew that the Lord had more for us in Cameroon, and were excited to get back. At that point I was too chicken to have a baby here so we waited until we had had Josh and Seth. We came back to Cameroon in 2004.
It really was an incredible year. It definitely had it's challenges, but they certainly made us stronger and more prepared for life on the mission field. We had very little money, I think we had raised like $600 a month back then. Of course we didn't have kids, or a house, or a vehicle (our biggest expenses) but it was still tough. I remember that we had 400 francs (80 cents) budgeted for taxis everyday to go to bible studies. Often we would walk the 3 miles just so we could buy some small meat kebabs on the side of the road. It was a great chance to really live by faith! And of course, we never lacked, God always provided for our every need. And traveling by public transport for a whole year makes us really appreciate having a personal vehicle here (even today, I still thank the Lord for that).
That first year we got seriously sick with malaria, both at the same time! If there is anything worse than getting sick, it is your spouse getting sick at the same time. It took us a week to finally get to the doctor's office to get tested and get meds. By that time we were both seriously ill (we were home alone as the pastor was at a retreat). I vividly remember crawling to the bathroom because I was so weak. Thankfully we got over it and now know when we have malaria to get the medicine quickly!
It is amazing how much Cameroon has changed just in the last 12 years. Now when we want money, we just go to one of the 5 ATMs in the city to draw out funds from our bank in the States. In 2000 the only way to get money from the US was to wire it or use an agency like Western Union. This was extremely expensive ($80 if I remember correctly) and there was hardly any Western Union offices (nowadays they are everywhere). We would line up for literally hours waiting to get our money. When we were in Buea, there was no office, so we'd have to travel to Limbe.
There was also no cell phones back then, they were just coming into the country the last few months that we were leaving. They were $200 a piece and very expensive to use (you can get one for $20 now). When we wanted to call home we would have to go to these small phone booths that were all over and wait inline to get charged a small fortune for a two minute call that was unclear and echoey. This is also how we had to do internet, it seriously took a whole morning each week to check emails as we'd have to plug in our laptop (with it's 6GB hard drive!) into the phone line and wait hours for 20 emails to download, it was soooo slow. Now it is fairly simple to get internet in your house, and fast internet cafes are everywhere.
Also there was nowhere to put rubbish back then, everything was just thrown on the ground and then heaped into piles and burned. Now they have rubbish trucks and skips all over. It still isn't spotless but a lot better.
Police check points have also improved immensely over the years. I remember our first year sitting for two hours at a check point with our little motor bike (90CC) because they said we didn't have the right paperwork. They were waiting for a bribe but finally let us go when they realized that we weren't going to give them one. We have spent countless hours in similar situations but now they pretty much ignore personal vehicles, a huge blessing. It makes life a lot less stressful.
Oh, and you remember what I said about Douala, that awful city we flew into. It has charged dramatically. The roads are now amazing, it is clean and has some remarkable supermarkets and restaurants. If we have to pick someone up at the airport, we will often spend an extra day there just to have a bit of a break, I would never have imagined that in 2000!
Sorry the photos are a little hazy, this was pre the digital camera era (wow, how did we survive?!)
The youth group we helped with in Douala. The guy on the bottom left and girl in the flowery dress are now married and are the youth leaders of the church. They are still great friends and are doing a fantastic job of reaching the youth of Douala.
Wherever we went, we started kids clubs. This one was getting pretty large by the time we left. My old Yamaha guitar on the side.
Pastor Isidore who took such good care of us (me with my braids). He is now pastoring a church in Yaounde.
Another kids club meeting (we visit Joel, the boy standing, whenever we go to Limbe, he is still following the Lord).
The church and pastor we worked with in Buea, it was very new. They have had a lot of troubles over the years but are still moving forward. We'll get to visit them next month.
This is a motor bike we used to rent sometimes when we were in Buea
A member in the church had this little putty-nose monkey, Jackie. We used to love to take her bananas, she was such a sweetie!
Pupina, our absolutely favorite little girl in Buea, she was our little shadow (she lived next door). Wow, I still have this rain jacket.
Jake with Michael and friend, we used to do bible study with them (and Jake still has that rain jacket!)
The neighbors cooked up some antelope leg, it was good!
Another kids club up in Buea. Seeing Jake's shirts hanging up reminds me that he had a bunch of his clothes stolen off of the line. Poor guy, it was hard to find clothes that would fit him here.
This is at the university of Buea with our good friends Armelle and Yannick (they were both students then). Armelle is helping with the church in Douala now and Yannick is living in Canada, pastoring a church. They were (and still are) great friends to us while we are there and we had a lot of fun with them.
Pupina taking her morning bath :D
And for our first wedding anniversary we went to "Semi New Beach" in Limbe. It was such a nice time to relax and I remember they were showing the olympics on TV. We hadn't seen a tv in forever, and it must have been replays as it was in October, but it was really entertaining (and I still wear these shorts!).
