Since it’s been nearly forever since I last blogged, I’ll try not to bore you with all the details, but I’ll try to mention all the high points. Ready? Here we go!
About a week before Thanksgiving a few of us decided to get together for a delicious pizza dinner. Before everyone started arriving, Cherilyn and I were sitting up at the hospital enjoying the first signs of the season: Christmas carols blaring from the DJ across the street. Originally, we were planning for a group of about seven people for our dinner, but by the time everyone arrived we had close to twenty people packed in the living room. Ben made up some delicious crust, while Cherilyn and Heather helped cover them with all sorts of yummy toppings. It had been quite a while since we were all together like that, so we really enjoyed our visit.
The weekend before Thanksgiving a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers were getting together for an early Thanksgiving celebration. There was a big group going from Buea, so I decided to tag along. We arrived at Mile 17 (Buea’s transportation hub) around 7:30 A.M., and purchased our tickets for the next bus headed to Bamenda. Then, we sat. And waited. We boarded the bus about nine, and left about a half an hour later. Ben and I had seats in the very back of the bus, along with three other people. It wasn’t actually as crowded as I had pictured, but with 5 people and all of our backpacks and purses there really wasn’t much wiggle room. It took us about eight hours to reach our destination, and by the time we crawled out of the bus I was sweaty, hot, and tired.
The next day we spent playing tourist in Bamenda. We visited two craft stores, the market, and a fabulous coffee shop. Heather had heard that Bamenda is famous for their grasshoppers, so we scoured the market in search of them. Once we had purchased them we found a shaded patio to sit, and enjoy our grasshoppers. If any of you are thinking about serving grasshoppers for Christmas dinner, I would rethink your menu. However, eating them was an experience I don’t think any of us are soon to forget.
Bali, where the dinner was going to be, was about a thirty-minute car ride from Bamenda. The five of us piled into a car about the size of a Toyota Camry, and we set off. We drove for about 30 seconds before picking up another passenger for the back seat. Then we added one more person in the front seat. With four people packed into the two bucket seats, you can imagine how difficult it was for the driver to shift. And how awkward it was for the two girls sitting in the middle. About half way through the trip, I asked Matt how he was doing. He replied that his left lung had collapsed, so he was having a tough time breathing. You may be wondering what happened to his lung; I was sitting to his left, apparently crushing the life out of him.
I was hoping to be back to Buea before dark on Sunday, so Matt and I left Bali about 7:30 to catch the first bus out. We arrived at the bus station about 8:30; just in time to buy our tickets, grab a spaghetti omelet, and catch the 9 o’clock bus. About 10:30, two of our friends who had also been in Bali, showed up, bought tickets, and got on our bus about fifteen minutes before it headed out. UGH! It never pays to be early in Africa! The ride itself was uneventful, except for one woman sitting three rows ahead of us. She did ALL of her grocery shopping on the ride without ever having to get off the bus. At one point the bus had to stop and back-up, so that she could buy more food.
Sunday, December 5
We broke out the Christmas music today. It made me homesick for snow, cold, a numb, burning nose, Christmas tree hunting, fires, hot chocolate, and family. It did help me feel more at home when Josh, Cherilyn, and I bravely attempted to put up Bill and Trixy’s fake tree. It was an uphill battle from the start. We had the tree almost put together (although it didn’t look quite right), when Bill told us that if you look really close, the branches are color coded. So we took the whole tree apart and started from scratch. Finally we got it all up, so it actually looked like a tree, and wrapped it with Christmas lights. It was a beautiful sight.
Cherilyn and I were very inspired, so that afternoon we borrowed a stack of paper from our gracious neighbors, and made our own tree. Since neither one of us are very artistic, we decided that drawing decorations on our tree would be risky business. Instead, we decided to write on our tree. With blue highlighter we wrote things that we were thankful for; in green highlighter we wrote things we missed; with blue pen we wrote Christmas memories; and with black pen we wrote what we would get each other if we weren’t poor student missionaries. At first, the tree filled up slowly, but once we got started writing, things started coming more easily. For the next few days Cherilyn spent every spare moment cutting out snowflakes to decorate our room with. I made several attempts at it, but after 4 or 5 half snowflakes, I gave up. A few days later Cherilyn found a string of lights that played awful Christmas music, and even occasionally lights up. They now hang happily on our bunk bed, along with 8 red and green snowflakes—a gift from my mom. But by far, my favorite Christmas decoration is Grover the USB Christmas tree. It actually plugs into the USB port on my computer, so it doesn’t take up space in our voltage converter! It’s fabulous!
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