life in africa in miniature

an unplanned overnight

2010-07-20T13:40:00.000+01:00

Here are a few pictures (in no particular order) of a trip I got to go on in April. I went along as co-pilot and we ran into some weather that required us to stay the night at the WWF base where our passengers were going. We had to land short and wait a couple hours for the storm to pass. Then we continued on to our destination, but decided to wait to head home until the next day since there were storms between us and home.

flying left seat

watching the clouds

stopped here for a couple hours to let the storm pass

after the storm

view from my porch

the scenery

more scenery from the dining room

the rooms from the outside

where I stayed the night - and froze! (I pulled the towels from the bathroom and used them as blankets)

co-pilot

banana harvest

2010-05-18T07:25:00.000+01:00

Our friends had bananas ready to be harvested and invited us over for the experience. Each banana stalk only produces once, then dies - so we cut off the bananas, then cut down the stalk.

before

the first cut

heavy!

Dez chopped the tree - I pushed it over

victory!

after

final cut

the finished product

a picture post - where I live and work

2010-02-13T19:51:00.000+01:00

the driveway of the compound where I live - looking up toward the main street

the front of my apartment - my door's on the top left

my front "porch"

looking at the kitchen from the living area

living room

living/dining area

bedroom

the bathroom

my home office

"my" desk - with a view of the hangar floor

the hangar

passenger waiting lounge

a settling-in Saturday

2010-01-16T14:07:00.001+01:00

No pictures yet, but I thought I'd just write about my day so far, seeing as how I've been back in Cameroon for just under a week. So here's a little play-by-play:

~ slept until 9:30 since I stayed up past midnight talking to Rachel on Skype

~ put some water on the stove for tea and sifted flour because I really wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast

~ noticed the water wasn't heating very quickly - the flame was out - the gas bottle was empty

~ changed the gas bottle - couldn't get the new one open - went next door for help - Dan finally got it open after banging on the stem with a hammer

~ got rid of a couple little guys who had been hanging out in my house - one beetle and one little millipede/worm thing

~continued with the cinnamon roll making process - had to completely guess about temperature since there are no markings on the dial except high and low

~ finally ate breakfast at 11:30 - cinnamon rolls and caramel tea - delicious

~ washed dishes - all the ones from baking, plus a bunch that I had in storage that need to be washed before I put them in cupboards (only did about 1/4 of those - the rest are still sitting on the sink waiting for me) - had to boil water for rinsing since my kitchen doesn't seem to be getting hot water

~ cleaned another shelf for putting away kitchen stuff

~ boiled some eggs for future use - tried to handle all 6 at once and dropped 3 (already boiled) - turned those 3 into egg salad and put in the fridge for later - did more dishes

~ sprayed all exposed skin with bug spray before venturing into the mosquito-infested laundry "room" - put a load of towels in the washer - put away the clothes that were on the drying rack - made a pile of clothes to be ironed - fixed the drying rack when it fell apart - hung the towels to dry

~ fixed the plastic shower curtain with some clear packing tape and scissors - hung a cloth curtain in front of the plastic one

~ sat down to check e-mail and write a blog post

des invités

2009-10-12T18:04:00.000+01:00

Company has been abundant since I've been back in Switzerland. My parents came to visit for the month of August. In September, two of Rachel's friends came and stayed with us (Andy and Sandy). And in October two of my friends came and stayed with us (Karen and Wes). Following are some pictures of our guests and our travels.

Mom and Dad arrived August 1st. Our first trip was to Zermatt:

playing cards with Dad in Zermatt

name that mountain in the background

hiking in the mountains above Zermatt - alps in the background

Our second trip was to Interlaken:

in the ice palace at the top of Jungfraujoch

picking raspberries on a hike between Murren and Gimmelwald

hiking again - with Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau in the background

Our third trip was to Lucerne:

on the famous Chapelbridge in Lucerne

My parents left August 27th. Rachel and I moved into our new apartment August 29th. We had about three weeks of "normalcy" until Rachel's friends, Sandy and Andy, arrived on September 23rd.

Gruyeres castle - Andy, Rachel, Sandy, me

in Gruyeres

on the top of the Gornergrat

at the top of the Gornergrat - glacier in the background

Andy left and Sandy stayed longer. My friend Karen came over from France for a few days. We had gone through orientation and were in Cameroon together for about 7 months last year. She's working at a camp in France for a few weeks before heading off to Mali, so it was great to have a few days to catch up.

in Murren - Elaine, me, Sandy, Karen, Rachel

My friend from A&P (airframe and powerplant) school, Wes, arrived 4 hours before Karen left. We visited the Neuchatel castle and cathedral, walked through the downtown market, and bought some last minute chocolate for Karen to take with her.

at the castle/cathedral of Neuchatel - me, Wes, and Karen

in the church - a tower unlocked so we could go in the balcony

with church caretaker who took us to places not normally open to the public - the balcony in the church and one of the bell towers - awesome

2009-09-06T18:13:00.000+01:00

Rachel and I have moved into our last apartment in Switzerland. It's beautiful and we have room for company. Now's your chance... you have until December 4th...

home number 4 - there's a print shop on the first floor and our apartment is upstairs

some nearby fields - I love this country

my room

view from the living room toward the kitchen

the living room

view out the window toward the southwest

view out the window to the southeast

20 pictures of 8 weeks at home

2009-07-20T18:18:00.000+01:00

The following is a picture commentary of my time at home. There were, of course, more events of which I don't have pictures (a tea party with a ladies Bible Study that supports me, my cousin Shana's wedding, VBS, the Gaslight Theater, and getting together with various friends). Time at home is always packed and flies by. Enjoy my whirlwind tour from Arizona to California to Arizona to Texas to Arizona to California to Arizona. :-)

first trip was to California (Sacramento area) to visit Laura DeYoung and new baby - this is her oldest daughter, Maddy, and me at the zoo

then down to visit Laura McLain in Santa Maria before she left for South Africa - we probably will see each other next somewhere in Africa

climbed some salty white rocks at the beach - barefoot and in a skirt

then back to Arizona - here's the crowd that came to Nicki's GED graduation ceremony

I spoke one Sunday at The Manor at Midvale - a church that meets at a retirement home

went camping in the White Mountains for a long weekend - here a chipmunk is eating right off of my grandpa's shoe

family photo on Grandpa's 80th birthday

me with new cousin Olivia (born May 25th) - I spent a lot of time with her rough-housing in our pool with cousin Brock piggyback swimming with cousin Embry

making homemade kettle corn with cousins Zach and Embry - so delicious!

family photo during Tolson family reunion - on the stairs into our living room

I shared the "People Chain" with the youth group at New Testament Baptist Church

and off to Texas (with Dad) for Brandon and Heather's wedding in Abilene

my first flight student from when I was instructing in college, Jon, drove up to Abilene to hang out and go to Brandon's wedding with me

back to Arizona once more - sisters goofing off and taking self-portraits

a bunch of us girls got together for Mexican food - mothers and daughters

then back to California (with Mom) for Jaclyn's wedding at Point Loma

Mom and I walked on the beach for hours and hours (slight exaggeration) - I love the beach

Mission Beach, San Diego, California, USA

Left San Diego on Friday morning, back to Tucson, packed up, and left Saturday at noon for Switzerland. And now it's back to school and a view of the Alps from my balcony. ;-)

return to Switzerland

2009-07-12T18:38:00.000+01:00

I got back to Switzerland last Sunday evening and started back to class Monday morning. I think I'm just about over the jet lag. Below I'm posting some pictures from yesterday. Rachel and I spent the afternoon and evening with our apartment manager (Paulette) and her husband (Steffan). They took us to a few neat places nearby for the views and some ice cream. I'll post some pictures soon from my time at home.

we drove up to the mountains and went to that restaurant - on the top - can you see it?

the view from the top - the valley of Traverse - doesn't it make you want to live here? the restaurant is called Napoleon's Hat - 3,153 feet

me, Paulette (our apartment manager), and Rachel Rachel was taking my picture and I just couldn't keep my eyes open in the sun anymore - but I kind of like this one anyway

ice cream

then we went to a restaurant on the shore of Lake Neuchatel - I got coffee.

We came back to the apartment building and had dinner at Paulette and Steffan's. They served us Raclette - a traditional Swiss meal that consists of melting your own little tray of cheese and scraping it on top of potatoes and different vegetables. So good (except for the pickles and onions and other things that taste like vinegar)!

Pictures of my time at home to come...

weekends mostly

2009-03-14T10:05:00.000+01:00

pictures from life the last couple of months...

there is a small Christian bookstore in downtown Neuchatel (Le Sycamore) where we go to study sometimes in the afternoon - they have a little "cafe" area in the back where you can sit and read and get coffee or tea

to get from my old house in Cortaillod to the lake shore, I usually took these waterfall stairs through the vineyards - they're stairs with a stream constantly running over them

the view from the top of the water stairs out over Lake Neuchatel

one day I walked from my town of Cortaillod to downtown Neuchatel (I usually take the tram in when going to class) - it took 2h10m with a few stops along the way for photos - this is a view of Neuchatel from around the lake

one Saturday we (Rachel and I) took a trip to Grindelwald and stopped in Thun and Interlaken on the way - this is in front of the castle at the top of Thun which wasn't open because we were there WAY too early in the morning (we went with some friends, Eric and Wendy, who went directly to Grindelwald to ski and wanted to get there early enough to have a full day of skiing)

a view from the train coming into Interlaken in Grindelwald there was an ice sculpture competition - this is me with one side of Russia's scuplture - the other side is happy, but I liked this side better because he has a single tear coming out of the corner of his right eye - can you see it? just a picture of Rachel and me with a cow in Grindelwald another weekend we went to the musee d'horlorgorie (clock museum) with Marianne, my "host mom" another weekend we hopped a cheap Easy Jet flight to London - this is me in front of Windsor Castle with the creative photography skills of Maralee

Maralee's creativity again in front of the Tower of London

Big Ben (the name of the bell inside the clock tower, not the name of the tower itself) and the London Eye

we arrived just in time to go inside for an "evensong" - a daily service that takes place in the evening (or afternoon in this case) - it was spectacular

the trip to school

2009-01-17T15:07:00.000+01:00

this was my walk to school my first couple weeks here - now the snow is almost completely melted

my house (the top floor) - my bedroom is the window hidden behind the tree branch

the town of Boudry where I catch the tram the lights of Boudry and the tram station walk from my house, across this field to those buildings, then down the hill to the right

me walking across that field

up to the left goes home, down to the right goes to the tram station cross the river castle on the riverbank

the tram stop in Boudry

Neuchatel - "my" tram in the foreground

Place Pury, Neuchatel - the public transportation hub where my tram arrives

walking to school from Place Pury - turn right after the reddish brown building on the right (which sells hot chesnuts in the afternoon, if you want any)

walk down here and turn left after passing H&M

walk to the end of this road and turn right at the fountain

cross the street here and turn left up the hill

walk up this hill to the intersection

turn right toward the gare (train station)

up this hill past the museum

and school is on the right

the view from the school balcony

new home

2009-01-11T18:17:00.000+01:00

So I'm in Switzerland for the next year or so. I arrived on Friday. My flight arrived in Zurich and then I took the train for two hours to Neuchâtel. Here's a view out the train window:

Here's my new bedroom with my wonderful down comforter and feather pillow: And the view out my bedroom window:

On Saturday, three of us (there are two other girls in my class who are also headed to Cameroon) took the train to Lausanne for the day, about 40 minutes away. We bought food at the grocery store and had a picnic lunch. It was really cold. Here's Rachel eating with her mittens on:

And Maralee:

A portion of Lausanne:

The rose in the cathedral:

Proof that it's cold. Frost on a chain link fence on Sunday afternoon:

a collection of photos from my family's visit

2008-11-22T09:22:00.000+01:00

My family came to visit for three weeks. Here we are after lunch with a couple of my friends - the Andosehs. Sunrise on safari morning. Tons of giraffes!

Posing with spears.

flight

2008-10-02T22:17:00.000+01:00

I flew through a rainbow on my way home from Equatorial Guinea on Monday. You should have seen it encircle the plane...

my job is very cool

2008-08-08T10:46:00.000+01:00

The first text message (aka SMS) I sent from work this morning, to Dennis who was flying somewhere over the middle of Cameroon:

"Just got in from FROG. As of 0730Z the storm was centered over

the Nigerian border 80 mi or so southwest of Garoua."

And then I thought: "How weird is that. 'The storm is over the Nigerian border...'" And my job is very cool.

my life for the last two weeks

2008-07-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

A few notes: I'm in Banso in the northwest mountains of Cameroon. I'm staying with Susan and kids while her husband is in the States for helicopter training.

Here is it respectful to call adults as Mami or Pa of their first child. So Susan should be Mami Caleb.

The majority of Cameroonians cook over open fires.

The orphanage we visited was not for children without parents, but for children whose parents could not afford to care for them as babies. When they are a few years old, the parents take them back.

Kelly's dad is a doctor at the hospital here.

Guava juice is really good.

It's hard to get clothes dry during rainy season.

Me with Kelly- Susan's next door neighbors' daughter.

Caleb, Wilma, Luke, Cara, and Caring at Susan's dining room table

material shopping to have dresses made- Susan's on the left, Cara's in the middle, mine on the right

Mami Wilma (Wilma, Luke, and Caring's mom) cooking lunch in the cook house

visit to the Shisong Orphanage

Shisong Orphanage as well

Cara, Kelly, me, Junior, and Caleb

Wilma and Cara in a guava tree

Cara and Luke helping Wilma climb the clothesline pole

Wilma, Cara, Caleb, and Luke in a guava tree

tiny braids

2008-07-03T10:11:00.000+01:00

11 hours, 45 minutes

10 packages of hair

6 movies

and a batch of ginger cookies

This time we did smaller braids, which obviously took more time- and more hair. The first time we used 6 packages of hair. This time, knowing we were doing smaller braids, we bought 8. Around 5:30pm, Emerance had to go buy two more packages in order to finish. The girls left at 10:15pm. We watched all the movies in French with English subtitles, unless that wasn't an option in which case they were in English with French subtitles. I have decided that the whole day was a day devoted to French study.

a good day

2008-07-01T09:16:00.000+01:00

I walked out my front door at 0615 to this:

The first rainbow I’ve seen in Cameroon. It made me happy.

I spent my evening like this:

The electricity went out while Chris and Ann were here for a few minutes (look, you’ve already made it into my blog!) and was off and on (mostly off) the rest of the night. Ann’s parents have appropriately named it a “power on-age.” So… candlelight, chai tea, ginger cookies, a good book, and some Amos Lee (while the laptop battery lasted). It made me happy too.

New Century Bilingual School

2008-06-08T18:05:00.000+01:00

Friday morning I went with my friend Helen to her daughter Nevic's end of the year presentation. She just finished class four. Moses, a taxi driver that we hire on a semi-regular basis, picked me up at home and took me to Helen's. Then he drove Helen, Christel (another daughter) and me to New Century Bilingual School. He left us there and drove around for two hours carrying passengers. I could only go for two hours because I had to get back across town in time for a work lunch. He came back and picked me up (Helen and Christel stayed because the ceremony was long from being over), took me home to pick up dessert for lunch, and then took me to work. I paid him the equivalent of about $15.

The school program was a great experience and I was really glad I was able to go. All the different classes and various school groups gave performances- choir, dance classes, debate teams, etc. The traditional dances were my favorites. It's amazing to see four and five year olds move like that! I have some pretty cute video clips.

New Century Bilingual School

Awards- I had to leave before this portion of the program

cute kids hanging over the rail, waiting to perform

the cutest dancers

cute dancers again

Helen's daughter Nevic during a debate on whether schools are solely responsible for the education of children (rather than the community which would include parents, schools, and society)

Nevic during her choir presentation

unbraiding- the process

2008-06-03T13:22:00.001+01:00

Ok. Here it is with the pictures.

To those of you who have been waiting for this post since Saturday, sorry! Blogger.com didn't like me for a while, but it looks like we might be on better terms now. Even though it's not giving me the option to upload photos. Hmmm... hopefully we can work that out too.

Three weeks ago I posted the process of getting my hair braided- two girls, five hours. Friday night Karen and I unbraided it all- two girls, four hours. It may be due to the fact that we are amateur unbraiders, but I am still surprised that it took almost as long to take out as it did to put in. A plus- unbraiding is much less painful. There was a lot of hair braided onto my head as you'll see from the photos (hopefully, if I can post them). I left it in for three weeks. No washing. It actually wasn't bad at all- not too much itching or anything. It was just growing out pretty far and I was tired of seeing the roots of my own hair.

this is after about 1 1/2 hours (one movie) of unbraiding

no more braids- I left my hair like that until the next morning- the ponytail was pretty cool :-)

that's all the hair that had been added to my head- you would think my neck would be happy for the relief, but I really couldn't tell a difference

animals

2008-05-11T16:40:00.000+01:00

The following is part of the reason I didn't post at all in the month of April! I was informed on a Saturday night that I would be leaving Monday morning for a week. Five of us were going to fly out of Tchollire for WWF- low and slow so they could look for and count animals in various parks and hunting zones. We saw:

Plus: baboons, black and white monkeys, other varieties of antelope, a leopard, warthogs, wild pigs, and other things that I can’t remember. Someone even saw a python! And once again I think, "Maybe I should fly for National Geographic." Safari from the air is definitely the way to do it!

braiding- the process

2008-05-11T16:34:00.000+01:00

Easter weekend

2008-03-22T17:19:00.000+01:00

I found out on Thursday that I had Good Friday off of work. Friday morning, my friend Helen (who lives on the other side of town) called to ask if I would be home so she could bring her daughter to visit. I was, so they came for a couple hours in the afternoon. Her daughter Elisabeth (16) wants to be a pilot. She got hooked somehow during a two month stay in California and is still planning on it. But there are no flight schools in Cameroon. So maybe I’ll become involved in researching foreign flight training. Elisabeth has two years left of high school.

Helen’s husband is a doctor, currently in South Africa for training that has become complicated and extended. In his absence she’s trying to make ends meet- she has a farm, raises rabbits to sell (as pets or food), and makes yogurt to sell. I get my yogurt from her once a week but I haven’t had a need for rabbit yet. They have four daughters. She brought her second oldest and her youngest (Nevic-7) to visit. She encouraged me so much. She is an amazing Christian woman with huge faith who believes the Bible means what it says- especially about being persistent in prayer, fasting, and God’s timing. And can she pray! It’s so intense you feel like God must have all His attention directed toward her. Don’t you find this often to be the case? That you are ministered to the most in the places where you’ve gone “to minister.” I’m excited to visit her at her house in a couple weeks and continue this relationship the rest of the time I’m here (and hopefully after I leave!).

My morning today looked like this…

Cara and Jena came over for three and a half hours to make and decorate sugar cookies, decorate Easter eggs, put together Easter baskets, and make cards. We had macaroni and cheese, fruit smoothies, and jello jigglers for lunch. We had great fun and made a great mess.

I also had my first mango this week. It’s almost mango season! Our neighbors have a huge mango tree that I can see out my bedroom window…

shoes, umbrellas, internet, and something ordinary

2008-03-14T12:41:00.000+01:00

I wrote this two days ago (Wednesday) and my very predictable internet connection didn’t allow me to post it… And now it won't allow me to post any pictures either. So just ignore all "see picture below"s and I'll try again over the weekend to get the pictures up (I got all the pictures up today!).

I’m sorry to all of you who check here to once again find that I still haven’t posted! I will continue to work towards consistency and shorter time intervals. :-)

I’ve worn through my first pair of shoes since arriving (see picture below). This shouldn’t be a problem since I brought six pair of flip-flops with me. Theoretically I should be able to wear through a pair a month. And since I’ve already been here two months and have only worn through one pair, I should make it until July. I could just go downtown and buy more shoes, which sounds much easier to do than it would be in reality, but it could be done.

I bought an umbrella this morning. It was very exciting. I’ve been needing one for about a week and a half. Since the rains started, there has been more than one day in which I’ve had to walk down the road and catch a taxi to work in the rain, or have arrived home drenched. Arriving home dripping water is not so bad- I was able to towel-dry my hair and change my clothes. But arriving at work dripping water would not be so good. So, for my umbrella I am very thankful. Karen and I had to hop out of the car and run through traffic chasing down the umbrella man. She yelled “parapluie!!” and he finally stopped and I got my choice from quite the variety of colors and styles. I chose a collapsible one that will fit in my bag- I decided I didn’t need a cane and umbrella combo. At least not this week. (ps- singles get one morning off of work each week for errands, shopping, etc.- that was this morning for me)

I’ve moved into my new apartment. Here’s a picture of the outside:

I have two housemates and a puppy. This is our puppy, Kimia, and my friend Rebecca (who cleans our house and does our market shopping). Rebecca has been sick with malaria since Friday!

I have to go across the driveway and sit in our neighbors’ backyard to get internet connection (see picture below). I get a lot of mosquito bites at the same time. Yes, I know I should just wear mosquito repellant, but I really hate the stuff. And don’t worry, the malaria-carrying mosquitoes only bite from sundown to sunrise. So I do sleep with a mosquito net (see other picture below).

The afternoon today was spent out at the international airport. We met controllers, police, landing fee collectors, flight plan filers, weather obtainers, and many others. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my pilot’s uniform, epaulets, and ponytail. It’s a big deal for me to be a female pilot, but I’m kind of tired of it being a big deal. I’m kind of tired of shock and surprise and disbelief. I kind of want to be something normal, something ordinary.

pictures only

2008-02-22T20:44:00.001+01:00

me with Brisley and Brien

starting from the left, going clockwise- Louisa, Karen, Brien, and me

Karen and me with our hostess, Margaret

a short spin in Robert's fishing boat

heading to the bus station to go home

village visit

2008-02-22T20:26:00.000+01:00

I feel like I need to write tonight, since I leave again in the morning for a week and won’t be able to post again until I get back. But I also feel like I need to go finish packing and get ready because I leave at 6am tomorrow. So this will be short, but at least you’ll get an idea of my village visit and a few pictures. The details- a 6 ½ hour bus ride up, 8 hours to take the same bus route home. Nine days in the village- it was supposed to be ten but the bus was sold out when we arrived at the station on Saturday, so we couldn’t leave until Sunday. Watched the process of a chicken running around in a pen to being served for dinner. Spent two nights in the home of a Cameroonian family. Met many queens [wives of the fon (king)] who would alter anyone’s stereotype of royalty. And much more. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and write again when I return in a week.

packed and ready to head to the bus station

Karen and me eating breakfast (bread and roasted peanuts) on the window sill of our bedroom at our Cameroonian family's home

my bus ride home

more of my bus ride home

a week in the village

2008-02-08T20:43:00.000+01:00

We leave in the morning for a week in the village. Our group of 13 will be split up between three villages, actually. And one week in these villages is eight days long- this means market takes place every eight days. In the morning we will load up our bags in taxis which will take us to the bus station. At the bus station we'll buy our tickets, load our bags, and head off on a 6-7 hour bus ride from Yaounde to the north. There are no restrooms on board the bus and there is one stop about halfway through the trip to buy lunch and go to the bathroom. The stop is supposedly ten minutes long, but usually ends up being about half an hour. When we arrive in the town of Bamenda, we will be met by the missionaries who are hosting us. They will drive us to our respective villages that night. We will stay part of the time with the missionaries in their homes and part of the time (two nights) in a Cameroonian home. The weather is much cooler in the northwest than here in Younde, so I'm packing a sweatshirt and a blanket. I'll post again when I return from the village! Have you been hearing any news about Chad? If not, you should research it a little bit. All SIL missionaries have evacuated from the country and the majority of them have come here to Yaounde. A lot of those are staying on the same compound where we've been for the past month. Many Chadians are also fleeing across the Chad/Cameroon border seeking refuge in the northern part of Cameroon. No pictures in this post, but hopefully I'll have some good ones when I return from the village. We would appreciate prayers for safe travel and health while we're away. Thanks!

a frog and a French sermon

2008-01-28T18:38:00.001+01:00

It’s amusing to find a frog in the toilet. And then to find it gone within the hour. And to hear comments like, “I’ll never go to the bathroom in the dark again.”

Yesterday was a lovely, lazy Sunday. We went to church in the morning- the sermon is preached in French and translated to English. I spent the afternoon sleeping because I stay up too late at night reading books I can’t put down.

This is a view of part of the city from the top of the Hilton. You're all welcome to come visit. :-)

first post

2008-01-23T04:01:00.000+01:00

I suppose it’s about time to write since sent out my blog address and then haven’t made any entries. But what to write? I’m still in orientation. Today we learned about malaria and made our own blood smears so we’ll be able to take them to the lab in the future if needed. Learning the details of tropical diseases has been quite exciting. Tonight the conversation over dishes was how to get rid of tapeworms. The suggestion was to not eat dinner, put some food on your nightstand, and the worm will crawl out while you’re sleeping. The Africa Cup (soccer) started two nights ago, so EVERYONE in the country is watching the game tonight- Cameroon and Egypt. The current score has Egypt winning- 3-0.

The fruit selection is wonderful. The other foods are different. The bugs haven’t been too bad- only mosquitoes and moot-moots and flies and spiders and cockroaches. I do have a roommate who lives on my walls and he’s very helpful in keeping the bug population down- by eating them. Electricity and water have random moments when they opt not to function as one would expect them to- sometimes quitting for hours on end. I guess that’s it for now.

The pictures:

1) the view over the wall
2) lovely bananas
3) cassava (manioc), sweet potatoes, yam, coco yam, garden eggs
4) my friend Fatu and me