Getting back into a groove

It feels good to be back into a routine after our full summer, it is only now that I feel like I am getting back into my school "rhythm."  We aren't behind, the boys are learning lots, and we're still having fun. We are really focusing on spelling this year as I feel that is where the boys are a little weak (you know why if you read my blog). So poor kids, I have really been drilling them, but they are doing great. Jude is still enjoying school and when asked if he had a good day at school last week he enthusiastically replied, "Yeah, no one hit me!" Ah, so glad he's having a good time! No seriously, he really is.  He has become a little chatter box these last few weeks. 

On another note, some friends that come to Cameroon every summer to do missions lent us their motorbike for a year. It had some work that needed to be done on it but it is finally all fixed up. As you can imagine, Jake is very happy to be out and about  on two wheels again (ok, me too!). Jake often runs Jude up to school in the morning. 

This week in pictures

Our good missionary friends, the Conrods, came to stay with us a few days this week. It was a lot fun to hang out with them (stayed up way too late most nights!). They have three kids very close to Josh and Seth in age so the boys had a blast. We went out to Prespot (a pottery place), attempted to have a picnic, and also went horse riding (thanks Laurel for taking all the great photos).

Seth hanging around at Prespot

Taking the tour, seeing how they prepare the clay

Seth trying his hands at the potter's wheel

Josh's turned out awesome

Jude helping me with my bowl

Not bad for my first time (especially since this is a manual wheel, you have to keep spinning it with you foot)

Jake's started out great but slowly turned into the shape of a bedpan :D

Of course Stider had to come along

Stopped for a lovely picnic next to a gorgeous waterfall....

... but we didn't even get to eat before the rains drove us back to the car

The boy's racing up the road on Prince and Macchiato

Nathan and Jake having a race

Me instructing Asher how to ride and pretending I know what I'm doing (with a beautiful shot of the Bamenda valley behind)

I love Jake's face in this one!

The boys swimming in a little stream

My little doll!

Bibles School

Faith Bible College kicked off it's second year this week. We have three new students signed up, but we would like to see at least triple that. Registration lasts for another week so we hoping to see more coming in. I am teaching on Thursday nights an elective class; Children's Ministry. I have the second time slot but this first week the other teacher wasn't able to make it so I had the whole three hours. It was a bit daunting just because I didn't know how much material to have ready for that long. Thankfully I did last the 3 hours and had a great time (I think everyone else did too). The students had some interesting questions that showed they were really paying attention. So I get next week off and then have a normal hour and half class after that. 


Another quick testimony. I was chatting with our pastor's wife, Marthe, who was telling me about her brother who has been coming to church the last few weeks. He is a musician that lives in Nigeria and she hadn't seen him since she was a teenager until he recently showed up. Two weeks ago Jake preached and gave an appeal. A few people raised their hands and Marthe's brother was one of them. Marthe was telling me that he has really taken it seriously and she can see a change in him. He even fasted for three days last week. He just headed back to Nigeria where he is living with his girlfriend. He is going to be sharing with her about his new faith and is praying that she will become a believer too. Please keep Domonique in your prayers that he will stand strong as he heads back home and that his girlfriend will become and Christian and that they can get married. 


Ok, now to watch the US open!

Little Girl Update..

We had Tom and Linda Maher stay with us this weekend. Lots of you know them, they are the TMI co-ordinators here. They led the TMI team that we visited out in the East this summer. So of course I asked them how the little girl was doing that had the badly infected foot. They said they went to the village and continued to soak her foot everyday and finished giving her the antibiotics and by the time they left, three weeks later, she was walking around and going off into the forest! My heart rejoices, poor thing she was in such a lot of pain. I can't wait to see her next time we go out (I have no idea when that will be!). Anyway, just wanted to share my praise with you all.

School days...

Above is the newest member of the Helping Hands' family, Francis. He is a lovely, 12 year-old boy who just came to us from the village. His 3 siblings have been with us for a couple of years now. Merander, Noel, and Dorcas all came to us malnurished and neglected. You might recall, Dorcas was two but was unable to walk or talk, she had sticks for legs, and had only her 12 year-old sister to look after. Since they came, they have all just blossomed and are doing so well. Dorcas has caught up on all her stages and started school for the first time this week. OK, back to Francis... his elder sister who lives in the city called us and told us the uncle that her two brothers were living with had died and the boys had no one looking after them. So Jake headed back out to the village to go investigate. An uncle had already come and taken the younger of the brothers, but Francis was still there. The family was happy for him to come with us as they could not provide for him. Since coming to the home, Francis has just been doing fantastic, he has probably adapted to his new life quicker than any of the other kids. He is friends with everyone and just fits right in, it is so good to see. The background on this family is that the father had two wives. He had 6  children with his first wife, and then married a much younger lady and had 6 children with her also. We have numbers 6, 5, 3, & 2 out of the last set of children. The Father died of HIV/AIDS and then the mother died of of the same disease when Dorcas was just a few months old (praise the Lord that Dorcas doesn't have the disease even thought she was breast fed). This maybe one of the reasons that the family neglected these precious children as there is such a stigma associated with HIV/AIDS here. We thank the Lord for bringing these precious children into our care and we know that He has a wonderful plan for them.


All the kids started school on Monday. We had two boys heading to secondary school this year (equivalent of middle school & high school). They are attending a government school now which are a lot different from the small private school they have been in the last two years. They now have classes of over 70 students and have very little room to ask questions or discuss something they don't understand. If you want to do well, you really have to study hard and give 110%. And there is of course all the different peer pressures that come along from being in a much larger school. Please keep Blessing and Aruna in your prayers, that they will stay focused, study hard, and be a light for Jesus in their schools.


We switched schools for all our primary (elementry) aged kids. We were not too impressed with the school they have been going to, even though it was a Christian one. We decided to take a step of faith and put them in a much better, but much more expensive school (there is no free education here). It is much more organized and is education focused. They also provide all the school books for the kids which is very rare, you usually have to buy them. It is about a five minute walk so it is a great location too. Jude is going there as well and is enjoying it so much. There are a lot of kids in Nursery 1 but he is having a blast. I'm not quite sure what they have been doing but he did tell me they had bread with hot chocolate and they sang a butterfly song (that's all I've got from him so far). Below are a few photos of the first day:

All schools here require uniforms, Jude sure looked cute in his!

Sandrine in her new uniform too, she has been soooo excited to go to school

Bena and Jude

It was pretty noisy in there!

All the kids lining up for prayers and national anthem before school starts.

(WOHOO, I can finally upload photos again!)

School books

So I had a huge ordeal getting the boys' school books to Cameroon this year, it has never been an issue before. I usually order from 3 different places, Sonlight, A Beka, and CBD.com where I get all my consumables and math. I just get it shipped to my parents and then they send it with a team or intern. I have always gotten it on time before. Well, in January a church blessed us with finances specifically for school curriculum. I went ahead and got a few extra charts, posters, computer programs, and books since I had the money all for it (it was a happy day!). I had it all shipped to my parents. There was a team scheduled for June so I wasn't concerned about getting it here. But then the team was rescheduled for next year so I had to look for another way to get it here. One of our Cameroonian friends just started a business of shipping containers from the States to here. He had already done it a few times with success so we decided to mail our boxes up to his warehouse in Georgia. It got put on the container and then low and behold, the container got stolen! Apparently this happens all the time. Our friend flew back to the States as quickly as he could to sort things out. It took about a month to find it and inventory all the things. My boxes were nowhere insight but I was told they could be inside a vehicle as it wasn't opened. Very frustrating! At this point it was July and our home schooling co-op started early August, I really needed my books by then. I also did not want to start school late as my goal is to finish early before we travel next year. I had a few days where I couldn't even think about it as it made me sick but after some prayer and a look at priorities I got my head on straight. We decided to go ahead and reorder everything and have it shipped directly here, expensive, but that seemed our only option. We have never had any trouble with losing boxes before but there is always that risk. PTL, Sonlight was awesome and did the cheapest possible shipping for a 40lb box. They also said I can return my previously bought curriculum if it does show up and they will give me a full refund, I love Sonlight! After emailing CBD and explaining the circumstances, they actually sent out my whole order for free and didn't even charge me shipping! How incredible is that?! Both of those boxes arrived the week before home schooling started. A Beka was the only one where shipping was way too much so I got it sent to my parents and then they shipped it here for much less. PTL, that box just arrived today so we are all set for school! We will also be getting a refund from our friend as soon as the container arrives and all the paperwork is sorted out. So happy I have a wonderful Father in heaven who is into details and worked the whole mess out. I think in the future I am just going to direct ship again as it is the most hassle free way.


So here is the what we are doing this year if your interested:


Josh:
Sonlight Core 5 (history, geography, readers and read-a-louds all focus on the Eastern Hemisphere)
Sequential spelling 3
Saxon Math 5/6
Abeka Language arts work book B
Abeka Science, Investingating God Worlds workbook
Map Skills for today 5
Wordly Wise 5
Typing instructor CD


Seth:
Sonlight Core 3 (history, geography, readers and read-a-louds all focus on early American history)
Sequential spelling 2
Saxon Math 3
Abeka language art workbook 3
Abeka science; Exploring God's World and  Health Safety, and Manners 3
Wordly Wise 3
Explode the Code 7 & 8


We do the four day schedule and Friday is our "fun" day. We always have piano lessons, art, watch a Mythbusters, and try to get some sport in there too. One week down, 35 more to go!

I'm back!

I know, I have severely been neglecting my blog but just so much has been going on I honestly haven't had time to sit down and write. But life is back to somewhat of a schedule since school has started up so I should be able to blog a couple times a week again (famous last words!). 


So since my last post our family has grown a little larger, we now have three horses and a snake; an african burrowing python to be exact. We were also given a monkey but I had to put my foot down somewhere (much to the dismay of my boys!). But we did find the little primate a home and he is doing well (current animal count at the Ski house: 2 dogs (one is pregnant), 2 cats, 1 turtle, 1 chameleon, 11 chickens, 3 horses, and 1 snake).  We are only looking after the horses for a year for some missionary friends that have gone back to the States. Since coming to Bamenda we have been contemplating getting horses but it is a big investment and lots of work so we wanted to make sure the boys were old enough to handle the responsibility. This way we don't have to buy the horses and we get to experience what it is like and at the end of the year the boys can decided if they want to carry on with all the work. So here is how school days are looking for us right now.


5:15 rise and shine for Jake and I
5:30 I go for a run
5:45 Jake wakes up the boys so they can take the horses down to the pasture (a mile away)
6:30 I get back and the boys are just about getting back too and they finish their chores
6:45 Wake up Jude and Jordan if their not already up
7:00 Breakfast 
7:25 Take Jude to school (only a five minute walk)
7:45 Take shower
8:00 Do devos (Josh and Seth too)
8:30 Start school
12:30 Pick up Jude
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Josh finishes up school
3:00 Head to our afternoon program (kid's club, tutoring, staff meeting, prayer meeting, teaching at Bible school or music practice at church)
6:00 Boys go get horses from pasture and feed them
6:30 supper
7:00 Family devos
7:30 Showers for kids
8:00 Bed time for Jude and Jordan
8:30 Bed time for Josh and Seth
10:00 Bed for Jake and I


Phew! So this is the plan anyway, so far this week it has been working like a charm but of course it is the first week! And Jude hasn't started school yet, it starts on Monday. The horses are pushing school back half an hour but I think it is going to work. The boys haven't complained about the horses yet even thought it is a lot for them. They have a lot of horse poop to pick up (which my compost is loving!) but they do get to ride all Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I have been so proud of them, they are doing so well, they are like pros already! They pretty much ride bare back most of the time too.


Our Co-workers, the Borns just got in today after being gone to the States for five month. It's nice to have them back especially to help out with the workload, since Bible School starts next week. 


Like I said above, Jude starts school on Monday, he is going to the same school that the kids from the Children's home are going to. He will be in the same class as his best buddies, Bena and Dorcas. It is Nursery 1. We'll see how he does being the only white kid in school, but he can stand up for himself pretty well and of course he has 19 friends there already so I'm sure he will be fine. He is soooo excited, every time we go past the school he shouts, "That's my school." We got his uniform this week, I'll post pictures soon.


Well, I have TONS to blog about, hopefully I can catch up in the next week or two. 

East trip

We just returned from spending a week out in the East of Cameroon. When we worked with Bread For Life we were out there a lot, assisting teams build a school and clinic, doing outreaches, etc. It has been four years since I was there and the last time Jake was out there was the night Jude was born, so almost as long. One of the most amazing things of the trip was the roads, the majority of it is paved now and from Yaounde to Mbang is took us less than 5 hours (once a 8-12 hour trip). Cameroon without a doubt is moving forward. 


So we started out trip with a 5 hour drive to Yaounde so spend the night with our good missionary friends, the Youngs (Daryl is a pilot). When we lived there we hung out all the time so it was great to spend a bit of time catching up. The next day we drove another 3 hours to see some more good missionary friends in Dimako, Nathan and Laurel Conrod with their 3 kids.  They are missionary to the Baka "Pygmy" tribe and live in the rainforest with another family and a couple of single girls. They are what I call real missionaries as they have no electricity except what they get from their solar panels, they pump their water from a well. and live a good six miles from the closest shop. They really have given up so much for the sake of the Gospel, makes me feel bad for complaining about electricity cuts all the time. Anyway, it was great to see the work that they are doing amoungs this mostly unreached people group. We also showed them how to slaughter a pig... they ask the man to bring it live but just as we got there we heard a shot and the man came up with a dead pig (he'd been shot with bird shot so there was a lot of pellets in him). So we had to kinda rush to show them how it was done as it was hot, the flies were out, and it was already dead. It was a pretty small pig but that was a good thing as there wasn't much fridge or freezer space (which is kerosene run). We made some yummy italian sausage and put some ribs and chops in the freezer as well. The boys had fun running around getting dirty, holding their pet snakes, and exploring the rain forest. It was a great time. 


Then we headed out to Mbang to visit the TMI team. The team is doing awesome and completing the clinic that another TMI team built 4 years ago. It is being led by Tom and Linda Maher who Jake led a team with to Scotland in '98. Linda was also one of teachers in Bible School. 


Right before the Clinic site there is  small Baka village, these are the people that we know pretty well, the chief has always been so friendly to us. As we pulled up, everyone came out running to meet us and the they all gave us great big hugs, it felt soooo good! You never know if someone is going to remember you but it was so great these people did. Everyone seemed to be doing well. Sadly one of the chief's children had died since out last trip, but he did have another baby too, and I think his wife was pregnant again. 


We had a lot of fun with the team, helping with the work, walking the half mile to the spring to fetch water, cleaning vegetables, translating, filtering water, going to the village to do a presentation, enjoying the evenings around the camp fire as they did devos (I got to lead worship one night). When we were out there 4 years ago a lady brought her young son to us who had fallen in the fire and his legs and private parts were covered in third degree burns. I blogged about it on July 24th, 2007 if you want to read about it in the archives on the side. Anyway, at the time the mother didn't seem very grateful or show much emotion about it. I know she was concerned for her child but she also didn't seem over zealous to seem him get better either. Anyway the first night we got there, she came running up to us, saying, "Jacque, mon sauveur", or Jake, my saviour. She was so happy to see us and said that as soon as she heard "Jacque" was around she had to come and say thank you. Carlos is doing well and getting big she said. So it made me realize that you never know what seeds you are planting in these people's lives even when they don't seem to show too much emotion at the time. We praise the Lord that Carlos is doing so well.


In the Baka village Josh pointed out that one of the girls had a swollen foot. At first I thought it was just mal-nutrition as a lot of them have swollen feet from that. But this was different, she had a cut under her foot and she could hardly bare for me to even touch the top of her foot. It was badly infected and the mother said it had been that way for about a month. She couldn't walk and you could tell she was in a lot of pain, poor thing. Jake ran to town and got some antibiotics (no prescription laws here) and pain reliever. I soaked her foot in warm water for the days I was there and a lot of gunk came out. We prayed over her and it was looking a lot better by the time we left. Josiah, a team leader, is going to continue to give her her medicine everyday and change her bandage. We were also brought a little baby that was having stomach problems and had a fever. There is such a huge need out there for basic teaching on nutrition, hygiene, health, etc and the Gospel of course. The Baka tribe is 50,000 strong yet there is so few that are reaching out to them. Matthew 9:38 has been my prayer for them these last weeks. 


On our way out we stopped at the Baka village one last time to say good bye. The Chief told us next time we come we need to build our house there and learn his language (the chief speaks a little bit of French). It was hard to say goodbye to them all. These people certainly have a very special place in our hearts!


On the way home part of our exhaust fell off, the car was full of fumes. For some reason the floor got really hot and the back seat actually melted on the bottom! Thankfully it was only an hour from home and we made it back safe and sound. Thank you Lord for your traveling mercies!


I haven't been able to upload photos on my blog. Hopefully I will figure it out soon. Till then check out the photos I posted on FB of our trip:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2068429425274.114876.1080983117&l=a2c5de027c&type=1

Back from vacation

SO, I wrote this blog over a week ago but couldn't post it as internet was down. We just got back from the East but I thought I would get this one up first and then blog about our trip out to the rain forest:


We got back from vacation over a week ago and I feel like I have been playing catch up ever since... I still have piles of laundry (the constant rain isn't helping!). But it was totally worth it, we had a blast. Vacationing with four kids is definitely a lot of work but we did have a relaxing time and it was nice just all to be together without any pressure of having to do something. We all came home with a nice tan. I have uploaded a bunch of photos to Face Book and you can look at them here (even if you're not a member).


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2027423600154.112896.1080983117&l=471dae09bc


A few memories from the beach:


Going to bed to the sound of crashing waves


Digging my feet in the sand while doing devotions.


Body surfing with the boys and laughing so hard I could hardly breath


Walking on the beach collecting shells with Jude


Singing songs around the campfire at night


Watching Jordan chase leaves in the shallow river


Playing Carcassonne till I couldn't see straight.


Kayaking up the river


Making a raft (Bear Grylls style)


Jumping into the cool ocean after going for a run with Jenna


Eating the most delicious shrimp ever

Family vacation

This last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur... just so much going on while trying to get ready for our vacation (finals at bible school, church programs, kids getting ready for Teen Missions, traveling out to the village). Jake's cousin Jenna came in after a day's delay in Paris. She is such a trooper and is fitting right into our family, it is a real joy to have her here for a couple of months. There have been some major storms here the last couple of weeks and the electric and water have been off a lot. Our internet router blew up as well as our laptop cable (praise the Lord is wasn't the computer!). It took over a week to get back up online and we were able to borrow a cable from friends until we can get one here, but it is so good to be connected to the world again. Tomorrow we head to the beach for just over a week, we are all so ready for a bit of a break. In a strange sense of irony, we just heard that the electrical transformer blew up there and that there has not been electricity there for over a week... hmmm looks like we might be vacationing with candles :-D. Anyway, at least we will all be together having fun.

So I will be posting lots of photos when we get back. Be back soon!