Some Photos for Friday

Pictures 1 & 2: Last night, the three of us had some friends over. One family—Roger and Vivian Mbotto, with their daughter Jonetta Grace—our tried and true friend Ally, and Joke (again, pronounced joke-kay). Roger is a student at CBTS, and his wife Vivian teaches French. Joke is a teacher and the school registrar. Vivian prepared a chicken-plantain dish that was delicious. Wes thought it tasted a bit like Indian cuisine. It was a great evening. We were able to learn more about “making ‘nayg-gah,’” an expressing that means walking and acting with an air of cool confidence. Our friends described it as the air that comes with wearing new clothes, and were able to cite several students as good examples. Despite this being our eighth month here, we displayed a bit of cultural clumsiness. Our friends had brought the food, so we waited for them to initiate the night’s dining. A couple hours after they arrived, when Ally and I were putting forks out, I discovered that they were hungrily waiting for us to make the first move. We’re still learning.

In the second picture, I think Wes is holding Jonetta like a trophy (no offense, Wes). Jonetta had been stubbornly resisting his requests to let him hold her all year until last night. After I gave her some cookies and sweet drink (Topamplemouse), she became uncharacteristically amiable, dancing to her mom’s singing of “I’m a Radical Girl for Jesus.”



Picture 3: Here’s a shot of the school chapel, taken from the back corner. This week is missions week; consequently, chapel has been in Pidgin (an English-French dialect, I think) in order to help students become more familiar with it. I think Pidgin is spoken more widely in Cameroon than English, thus being more useful for missions. Whatever the reason, the three of us can’t make out a lick of it.

Thank you for your comments, encouraging emails, and prayers. It’s strange to think how soon our time here will come to an end. If there’s anything you’d like to see pictures of, let me know—I’m going to try to “snap” more before we leave.

--tg