Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas, full of delicious holiday food, great friends, and and fun times as a family. The week leading up to Christmas was busy, with a holiday party at the Embassy for its 400+ American and Cameroonian employees and family members. Saturday we hosted a "white elephant" party at our house which doubled as a welcome party for the Hendriksens, an LDS family assigned to the Embassy who just arrived the night before. On Sunday, the church choir Jeff directs sang a nice rendition of "Angels We Have Heard on High" which they had been working on for several weeks.

On Christmas Eve we invited to dinner the six young missionaries, the Hanks (the not-so-young missionaries), the Hendriksens, and Frere Boeglin, a French expat and member of the church. After dinner, we had our traditional nativity play, sang carols, and enjoyed banana slush and holiday cookies.

The cast

Not a creature was stirring - not even Mchanga

Christmas Day came early, as it usually does with little kids! We enjoyed our traditional pastry wreath breakfast with eggnog, and tried (unsuccessfully) to keep the kids from eating all their stocking candy at once. Santa was very good to us (I don't know how Elijah made the nice list!) and we were so grateful to have gifts from many of our extended family even though we are so far away.

Waiting at the top of the stairs . . .

. . . and off to the Christmas tree!

Christmas breakfast - yum!

We stayed in pajamas all day, playing and hanging out together, and generally recuperating from the busy week before. We are grateful to be together as a family for this enjoyable season, and we're especially grateful for the Gift we celebrate - the Savior Jesus Christ. We pray that His spirit will be with all those we love back home!

Safari in Tanzania

Panaroma of Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Jeff and the boys went to Kenya and Tanzania on safari the first week of December, along with Elder and Sister Hanks, the LDS missionary couple in Yaounde. Unfortunately, Stacey was sick and decided to stay home with Ivy to rest and recuperate. The trip was great - good weather, lots of great sightings, and all around fun for Dad to spend time with the boys.

Jeff really enjoyed being back in Tanzania, speaking Swahili again, and soaking up the incredible grandeur of East Africa.

We encountered some of the Maasai tribesmen (and kids) in their nomadic setting near Arusha.

The boys with Maasai children at a baobab tree

A Maasai village under an acacia tree

Maasai tribesmen performing traditional jumping dance

Maasai herder with his cattle

Of course, we saw lots of wild animals, too! Elijah was crazy about zebras. The giraffes and elephants were plentiful and always fun to watch. We had some great lion sightings - some quite close. Most exciting was seeing cheetahs in the wild for the first time. The first (and best) sighting was on Jeff's birthday - three cheetahs resting under a tree about 30 meters from the road. We saw cheetahs two other times in the week. We also got a rare far off glimpse of two rhinos in Ngorongoro Crater - only 30 individuals live in northern Tanzania.

Our first wild cheetah sighting, Serengeti

Mother baboon with babies, Lake Manyara

Giraffe under a lone acacia tree - the only shade for miles

Baby Elephant, Lake Manyara National Park

Elijah's zebra heaven, Serengeti

Waterbuck, Serengeti

Mating pair of lions, Serengeti

Lion cub with mother and pride resting around kill, Serengeti

Ostrich, Serengeti

Hippo pool, Ngorongoro Crater

Bull elephant, Ngorongoro Crater

Rhino (through 300 mm telephoto lens), Ngorongoro Crater

Halloween

The family dressed up for the Embassy Trunk-or-Treat Halloween party in a Wizard of Oz theme, with Ivy leading her heartless, brainless, and courage-less brothers down the yellow-brick road. Mom (of course) was the wicked witch, while Dad hid behind the curtain as the great and powerful OZ. Noah and Stacey had lots of fun putting together the tin-man outfit, and Elijah really liked being a lion. Ivy finally enjoyed long girly hair (though fake) and Caleb was thrilled with his pumpkin-full of candy. It's good to enjoy American holidays with friends.

C'est la vie (camerounaise)!

Life in Cameroon can be rewarding, but is also often frustrating. Here are a couple of stories to illustrate the unique character of life here.


Employee discipline


Several weeks ago, I was called early in the morning to be informed that one of the Embassy drivers, who was traveling with Embassy staff on official business outside of Yaounde, had been attacked at night and the Embassy vehicle had been stolen. The driver had woken up his passenger at the hotel where they were staying and explained that he had heard noises in the parking lot, saw thieves trying to break into the car, and went down to confront them. He was shot in the rear end and beaten up, and the thieves took off with the car. The driver was taken to the hospital and in the morning, after getting the call, I made arrangements to send an investigator and another vehicle to get our staff back to Yaounde.


Over the course of the next two days, further details made it clear that the driver's story wasn't accurate. In fact, the driver had gone out with the official vehicle late at night to meet his sister-in-law who lived in the area. They alledgedly had an illicit affair, and he was dropping her off around 2 a.m. in a "less secure" part of town when bandits made the attack. After the attack, he managed to get a ride back to the hotel on a taxi motorcycle. His story was "adapted" to hide the facts that he was out late in an unsafe area with an official vehicle on personal business, and that he was having an affair with his wife's sister, and that he was probably drunk at the time.


The vehicle was eventually found intact hundreds of kilometers away, where the bandits must have run out of fuel. Evidence of sexual assault was found in the vehicle. The driver, who still had a bullet in his backside, was brought home to Yaounde, where he is recovering. Once he came back to work, I had to meet with him to inform him that he has lost his job. He accepted it fairly readily. It was good while it lasted, I guess.


Health "care" ?


A few months ago our gardener Solomon got married and adopted his new wife's one-year-old child. She is a day younger than our Ivy, but has had a rough time. At half of Ivy's weight, she is very small and underdeveloped. When she became very sick (again), Solomon called us for help. The baby had been taken to the hospital, and Stacey went out to see her and see how we could help. The doctor had prescribed a half dozen medicines, including anti-malarials, antibiotics, even sleeping pills (valium). No tests had been performed. When Stacey approached the doctor to ask about the prescriptions, he would barely lift his head from the Solitaire game on his computer (not kidding) to look at her. Stacey was asked if she was a trained medical professional, and if not why was she doubting the authority of the doctor.

Stacey got her out of that hospital and took her to another hospital. (In Cameroon, doctors rarely maintain private practices but work out of hospitals, even for most out-patient visits.) The new doctor prescribed another handful of antibiotics (without reference to what the baby had already started to take). Stacey realized after a while that her "help" was actually a liability, because the presence of a white American just made it that more likely that high-priced medications would be prescribed (with certain kick-backs to the refering physician).

After a few days, she began to recover - despite all the over-medication. She's doing well now, but her future is still uncertain as tuberculosis, malaria, or a variety of ailments are common and she's unlikely to get correct treatment if needed. Millions live in Cameroon this way, trusting ignorantly doctors who are undereducated, underpaid, and sometimes totally corrupt.

Elections

Parliamentary elections were held in July, and Embassy staff spread out across the country to observe the process. By all unofficial accounts, the elections were a huge farse. Less than half of eligible voters are registered, and less than half of registered voters voted. Most didn't bother to vote, and those who did felt like it was an excercise in futility. At polling stations "irregularities" were the norm and systems (like "indelible" ink that easily washed off) failed to safeguard against fraud. Cameroon's president (25-year long dictator) had the roads in town blocked for over an hour (as he does every time he dares to leave the security of his residence, which is thankfully not too often) to cast his vote at a local school that had been fixed up and repainted just for the occasion.

Elijah turns three

Elijah with his horsey cake, made by our friend Paula and decorated by Stacey. Horses are Elijah's "favorite." He's no longer two, but he's still terrible (and terribly cute)!

Ivy Turns One!

We celebrated Ivy's first birthday on August 3. Having been born in water, Ivy loves all things wet - baths, showers, and swimming! So we had a swim party at the (now vacant) Ambassador's residence, complete with balloons, streamers, good food and, of course, cake!


Ivy is so big - she tries to run around to keep up with her brothers, and is getting faster every day. She says a few words (that only family members can decipher), waves and blows kisses, chews on anything she can get her 5 teeth on, and loves to laugh and smile. She likes to carry and hug her new doll, and is really into shoes. It's great having another girl in the family!



Here are some photos:

Turkish Holiday

Hello Everybody!!

We spent the first three weeks of June traveling in Turkey! It was an amazing trip! We saw and did so much, but we will try to give just a nutshell account of it all.

We flew into Istanbul to meet Jeff's parents and a former student of Jeff's Dad from Turkey who had offered to be our guide. His name is Recai (in America he goes by Ricky). He and his wife, Gulsum, hosted us in Istanbul and traveled around with us. They were so nice! They quickly became not just tour guides and translators (which was wonderful) but also good friends. Elijah especially liked Gulsum (she loved to spoil him, buying him ice cream and carrying him around everywhere) and after a few days he was calling her his "girlfriend."

We were greeted with a lot of hospitality all over Turkey. Wherever we went, the kids were greeted warmly. Elijah made instant friends with immigration officers, shop keepers, and just about everyone that saw him. Ivy was also a big hit. Gulsum's parents vacated their apartment in Istanbul so we could stay there, as did some of Ricky's friends on another night. We were treated better than family and we only wished we could express in Turkish our appreciation.

Probably our favorite part of the trip was traveling to a small village where a family that Ricky knows put us up in their house, cooked a delicious feast of a dinner for us, and showered us with gifts like homemade olives and soap. They showed us their some of their land where they have orchards. They mostly grow olives, but they also have fruit trees - oranges, pomogranates, apricots, cherries and more. It was a beautiful, idylic place and the cherries where ripe. We picked and ate to our hearts' content! The next morning after another wonderful meal, we sat with the men in the village center and talked with some of the men in the village, including the "mayor." They were so gracious and invited us to come again.

We had a fast-paced schedule for touring and so we got to see a lot of western Turkey in just over a week. We saw the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia (an early cathedral coverted to a mosque). We also found some treasures in the Grand Bazaar and at a local carpet dealer. Istanbul is an amazing city rich in history and diversity and we could have spent much longer there.

We rented a van and Ricky borrowed a car so we could travel to other sites. We went to famous ruins in Troy and Ephesus. Ephesus was amazing - such ancient stones, some still standing and beautiful mosaic floors and marbled walls still in place! Stacey - the family ham - enjoyed taking her bows in the ancient theater.

Noah celebrated his 9th birthday in Selcuk, the town near Ephesus. We had a nice dinner in town, complete with a birthday cake from a nearby bakery. Recai and Gulsum gave him a travel chess game and a Turkish game similar to "Sorry!" which we played a lot through the rest of the trip. Noah, Caleb, Elijah and Gulsum also took a camel ride!






We visited Pamukkale, which means Cotton Castle in Turkish. It's a place that looks like hills covered in ice, but it's really a mineral springs with white deposits flowing over the hills. We hiked up and swam at the salty hot spring pool at the top.








Our trip took us down to the southern coastal city of Antalya - a bustling modern city in a beautiful setting between dramatic mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Jeff especially enjoyed hiking through the high-mountain ruins at nearby Termessos. We drove along the coast all the way to Gocek where we boarded Desire, our 39 foot sailboat for the week. We sailed around to different coves and islands enjoying the sight of the green hills rising straight out of the water. We enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in the very clear water of the Mediterranean Sea and the boys liked getting sailing lessons from Grandpa and Dad. Ivy had a great time toddling around on the boat, too.

Stacey said goodbye to her twenties and celebrated her 30th birthday on the boat - a great way to start a new decade! Jeff and the boys disembarked in Marmaris early in the morning to search for a bakery with cakes, which we all enjoyed after lunch.

We haven't yet said much about food, but it was a wonderful part of every day of our stay in Turkey. There were always fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and plenty of olives. We loved the delicious cheeses and yogurts. Lamb and beef kebabs, meatballs, stuffed eggplant and plenty of bread at every meal. Jeff enjoyed eating Doner Kebabs again - a quick Turkish sandwich he discovered on his mission in Germany 14 years ago. And, as Stacey puts it, what could possibly be wrong with a place that has two pages of dessert items on the menu?? Baklava and Turkish delight were only the beginning of the yummy treats enjoyed after meals.

There's much more to tell - flight back to Istanbul, boat tour on the Bosphorus, day at the amusement park, visit to the American Consulate, and the day trip in Nairobi on the way back (giraffes, elephants - and our first wild rhino!). It was a fabulous trip all around, thanks especially to Recai and Gulsum. For those with Google Earth, I've made a file with our track around Turkey and will email it to you upon request.

Well - it's back to life as usual in Yaounde. We'll try to post more often in the next months!