Easter is a big deal in Cameroon which is a nation of Christ followers. They have morning devotions daily here at the training center with music and Bible study. It's full every day! All of the finest cloth and "dress" (word is used universally as clothes) comes out. I don't know how they wear so much white here because the streets are awful and dirty and when it rains it's a mud-fest, but nevertheless, they are pressed and white all the time. Every article of clothing is ironed here to prevent nasty parasites. Apparently there is a type of fly that lays its eggs in the fabric of clothing hung out to dry- which is everything. If you don't iron them the eggs end up on your skin and the larvae hatch and burrow into your flesh. The remedy is to put Vaseline on the site and they begin to suffocate so they surface just long enough to grab them and pull them out. Not messing with that- I'll iron my socks, that's cool.
We dressed up and prepared to drive the 10 minutes to Quarter 6 (neighborhood 6) to attend Life Baptist Church as invitees of our head cook, Gladys. Her husband is a church leader. They don't have children of their own but they took in four distant relative children that needed homes. This type of charity is why adoption is rare from Cameroon. The storm that hit that morning was as close to a hurricane as I'll ever see. Everyone else said no big deal, it's like this all the time during rainy season. We couldn't go outside. We missed the 0900 start of services and considered not going at all when we were more than 1/2 hour late. We persisted though and tried to pick our way through the "roads" into the neighborhood. We have far better ATV trails than these neighborhoods have roads. We did our best to not get the truck stuck and nearly took the oil pan off a couple of times. We arrived in the quarter to find Gladys in a beautiful, traditional and hand sewn, golden African outfit, standing on the side of the road in pumps waiting for our arrival. She told us "Ees good you came because my Pastor would have said I was a liar! I told heem you would come." She hopped in and we parked at church to find everyone else had waited out the storm as well so, in true, practical Cameroonian fashion we were on time. White people do not visit these neighborhoods let alone attend church services-ever. Paul and I were instantly bombarded with children who pulled our elbow skin, touched our hair, climbed in our laps, hugged us and took selfies with our phones then were surprised to see their own face. I wondered if they'd ever seen themselves before. We tried not to be a distraction. No one noticed for the dancing, singing and praising that was going on. Gladys instructed us to dance. So we did and she laughed at us. Paul is such an amazing sport about things and is always open to experience. He has no rhythm though so we were the white guys not clapping with everyone else. I'm sure they were all confused. Service was long, especially on the crudely fashioned plank benches bunched too close together. They had a choir festival and competition that day for five groups. Each did five songs each. Do the math. We had to dance to avoid blood clots from sitting for that long. It was one of my fondest experiences. The instruments, the voices, the dancing and the true, true worship of God from people with so much less than we all have in the states was humbling. The party spilled into the muddy streets as service ended. They played drums and shakers and bells and sang and danced their way around quarter 6 with huge smiling faces. They also made us talk in church:)
After church we drove to Tiko, a market town, to have lunch. Fish, rice, ndole (green spinachee dish) and pampelmouse, or grapefruit juice, to drink. That morning I woke up to very itchy eyelids and the beginnings of swelling. Enough to see my eyelids from the corners of my eyes. It got worse as the day went on. I started feeling flush, feverish, dizzy and my vision was getting a little altered. Edie said, "Oh, I hope you don't have malaria! You shouldn't stay up so late with your light on working on your computer." Point taken. She gave me some cortisone which made it bearable. I took Benadryl and passed out for the night after eating some bread from a local French boulangerie with Denis. My AC went on the fritz and poured water on my computer so I jumped up to a disaster at about 1am. I went back to sleep with a swollen face, itchy eyes, sweating and praying that the mosquito net was enough to keep me malaria free for the last couple of hours of sleep. Please God, don't let me have malaria. Happy Easter!
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