Meeting Cameroonians in Nashville (of all places!)

Mid-August we visited some close friends in Nashville, Tennessee. We first met Rachel in Cameroon many years ago and she still has real passion for the country. When she moved back to the states, she reached out to the Cameroonians in her area of Nashville. Interestingly enough there is around 60 Cameroonian families living in that region. Rachel set up a Helping Hands Children's Home fund raiser one night while we were there. Many Cameroonians came (even some from our home town of Bamenda), it was so awesome to hang out with them. It's amazing how the African culture has such a hold on me, I felt right a home with them, speaking French and pidgin English, talking about places that we have all been too, complaining about how much we all miss good roasted fish (with the head on off course), and just feeling so at ease. I must admit I was a little nervous to start off with, I didn't want any Cameroonians to feel like we were "exposing" their county with some of the pictures of extreme poverty in their country that we showed. But on the contrary, everyone was so encouraging and thanking us for the work that we do in their country (I had a few tears in my eyes that night!). 

One of the coolest testimonies of the night is that there was a Cameroonian man there, a professor of mathematics. He is from a tiny little village in our province where we have quite a few children in our orphanage from. In fact he is related to the pastor that helps us a lot in that area and Jake has stayed in his house while in that village! Of course this opened the door for a great conversation and friendship. We are hoping to see him when he comes to Cameroon next time (as well as many others). 

Professor Samuel and his beautiful wife

Jake also got to meet a friend he hadn't see since high school. I posted about the fundraiser event on Facebook, and come to found out, she and her family lived close by Tennessee (and who said Facebook was useless!). It was neat to meet her and her family.

We praise the Lord that the fundraiser night was a great success and over $3000 was raised. This is all going towards a much needed 30-seater bus for the orphanage ($12,000 total needed). Also many new contacts were made, we always get excited when we see Cameroonians helping Cameroonians! We appreciate all the hard work that Rachel and her family put into the event, to get the word out about the orphanage and the needs it has. 

One Cameroonian family invited us for dinner one night. They made cassava and ndole (a traditional meal), which we have really been missing, it was soooo good! It was cool to see that they still decorate in typical Cameroonian style and had the TV blaring away while eating (you have to live in Africa to understand). It was just the Cameroonian fix that we needed! 

Some of our new Cameroonian friends

Presentation table

Jake sharing