Celebration March

As we were driving to the Bus Station this morning to pick up some passports sent on the bus from Douala, we came across several crowds of people.  They were holding "I Love Jesus" signs.  They were dressed in the colors of Cameroon and dancing as they went.  It must have been some kind of a religious march.  I took a few pictures from the car.  Sorry, a couple of them are blurry.  It's a quick, undetected snap of the camera, so no time to focus.

As a side note, look at all of our stickers on the windshield.  We are current in everything, insurance, inspection, taxes and registration.  We pass by (or swerve around) the police with a smile and hope they don't find anything else we are missing.  Oh, the fire extinguisher is under the seat and our visas are up-to-date.

Piano Day

We went to Ekounou to do piano yesterday.  We are now doing Choir the last hour of piano.  I asked all my piano students if they want to keep practicing, but they all wanted to come to Choir.  Here is a picture of a few of them taking my things to the car.  The minute we pull up, they run out to help and then they help load everything afterwards.  The 2 in the sunglasses are twins.  I watched them as they were singing.  They both had their eyes closed and were singing at the top of their voices.  It is fun to see how much they love singing.  

This is the traffic jam we were stuck in on the way home.   Nobody will wait.  The rule is, if your car will fit in the space, take advantage of it.  The truck is in our lane, trying to turn left.  It was quite comical.

Douala Zone Conference

President Jameson asked us to travel to Douala for a combined Zone Conference.  We decided it would be easiest to take the 4 hour bus ride with all 10 Elders.  We bought our round trip tickets and set out for Douala.  We had a nice ride, which started out with the police pulling the bus over and checking our ID's.  Thankfully, Elder Whitesides keeps everyone's visas and carte de sejours up to date.  Everyone had their ID's with them, so we were all fine.  We did have an extra lunch and $10 ready, just in case.  Enjoy the pictures!

I packed lunches for all of us.  These containers came in handy.

The Bus Station.  We parked our car down that hill in the parking lot.  $2 a day.

We passed through several little towns.  They are always selling things along the way.   It's mango season - yummy!

We arrived safely and our Elders split and went to the 2 Douala Elders apartments.  The Gaileys picked us up and we stayed at their apartment.  President and Sister Jameson stayed at a hotel when they arrived.  Once we went home on Saturday, they moved into the Gailey's apartment.  Sister Gailey fed all 24 of us a delicious lunch for Zone Conference in her apartment.  President Jameson did interviews with the Elders and then we had Zone Conference on Saturday morning.

We "crammed" 7 Elders in the back of Elder Gailey's truck on the way to the bus station.  Thank goodness it wasn't very far.  We had to wait at the bus station for 1 1/2 hours until the next bus.  We arrived home on Saturday night.  It was a great adventure.  The next day was Mother's Day, so the Elders came back to make their Mother's Day calls.  I cooked them "roast", potatoes and gravy.  

Happy Mother's Day!  (Elder Johnston and Elder Hatch were in the other rooms Skyping)

Zone Conference - May 2013

We had Zone Conference yesterday.  It's always fun to get together with our Elders.  We are always impressed with their testimonies and dedication to the work.  Here are a few pictures.

They are always eager to help in the kitchen.  Elder Davis is making Koolaid - thanks to  my sister Shellee for sending it to us.

Elder Rambeloson and Elder Hoiland are filling the water bottles.  We use a filter on our tap to purify out water.  Elder Hoiland is noticing that our tap doesn't have much pressure.  Oh for the conveniences of home.

Elder Whitesides showing them some pictures on his computer.

Our Zone Leaders, Elder McGrath and Elder Addington

Elder Johnston and Elder Davis - "pondering"

Happy "Cinco De Mayo".  We served pulled pork sandwiches, lime rice, mango salsa, guacamole and fried ice cream for dessert.  Thanks to our daughter-in-law, Jamie for the yummy "Fried Ice Cream" recipe.  It was a hit.

It seems funny to tell you our menu, but if you could follow me in the process, you would see that it isn't easy.  We have to go to the street market and buy 22 tomatoes, 14 avocados, 5 onions, 10 mangoes, 5 limes and 4 hot peppers (pima).  Then try to order 3 pork roast in French at Mahima, the Lebanese store we like to shop at, because they only have 1 roast in the display case.  It takes about 45 minutes for them to cut them up.  Take everything home and cook the pork roasts for 4 hours one day, then shred and add the sauces and cook another 3 hours on simmer - if you can get the stove adjusted that low.  Don't forget to wash all the veggies in Clorox water before they go in the fridge.  Then visit the Boulangerie (Bakery) to buy the baguettes.     

It is worth it all when we see all the food disappear and the happy faces on all the Elders as we send them out the door with full stomachs.  

Car Repairs

The van has been scuffing off the inside of our right front tire so we went to get our tires aligned.  The mechanic stares through the tube by his right knee to see if the wheels are aligned. We are now in the market for a new tire.

This is where we get gas.

I snapped this picture while we were waiting for the car.

We've been watching them build this building.  They have just added the tile.   We call it the "Copper" building.  It will be a beautiful building when it is finished.

Dinner Anyone?

As we make the 4-hour drive to Douala, we often see animals hanging by the side of the road for sale.  Elder and Sister Gailey stopped and asked them if they could take pictures.  Here are a couple they took. 

The one on the right is a porcupine.  We aren't sure what the one  on the left is.

Turtle.

This picture is not for the faint-hearted.  I borrowed this from Sister Jameson's blog.  "Bush Meat".    This is why the Primate Park is so important in rescuing monkeys and apes.  Poor little monkey.