comfort zone

12/31/10 11:40 PM
Comfort zone is totally gone. Today has been a roller coaster of emotions.

After breakfast we went to the home patience grew up in. We met her letter brothers and was shown how they harvest coffee. Cindy, Shelby and I decided to walk back to Joseph's compound. It did not take very long but we really liked it. When we got back we wanted to find mishpah to give her a gift. We were brought into the kitchen. The kitchen is a house by itself. There is a fire to cook on and a place to prepare foods. The whole Inside is black. Mishpah loved the necklace.

From there we got into the truck and Jerry drove us to Melong. Another crazy ride on the bumpy roads. Shelby and I fell asleep and got tossed around a bit. Cindy recorded it. How is it that I cannot fall asleep on the airplane but the bumpy horrible near-impassible roads are nothing?? In melong we got into a new car and jerry drove patience and the kids back to Nkikoh. The new driver drove us to Bamenda. The ride was painful. For some reason my ribs on my right side were in serious pain as was my left shoulder. But we made it to Bamenda alive. Bamenda is sort of frightening. So many people, scary driving, noise,chaos Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We pulled off to the side and Grace came to save us. The pastor of the church arrived and took us to the manse. They fed us (surprise) and introduced us. We were expecting there to be a service tonight but that is not the case. The pastor then told us where we would be staying. They put us in four different houses which scared me initially. I thought Shelby and I were staying together but nope so I was kinda worried.

The village I am in is called Malong. I am staying with Emelia and her family. She used to work for the treasury but now she is retired. Almost immediately upon arriving at Amelia's house I made a friend. Faith is 4 years old. Her mother is no longer alive so Emelia takes care of her and her five year old brother Desmond. She is a lot of fun and so adorable. She sang me a rhyme.

Emelia has three children. The oldest is a girl I have not met. The middle child is a boy. I don't remember his name at the moment but he is studying in amsterdam to be a physical therapist. The youngest is Erica. We spent s lot of time talking tonight. She is twenty. She really wants to leave Cameroon. She wanted to go to Boston University to study but her mother wouldn't allow it. She study medical technology at the local college. I told her she should come visit. We talked a lot about the differences between America and Cameroon. She showed me pictures of her family and I showed her the few pictures I had on my iPod. When she was younger she thought White people didn't die. She also thought she would marry a White guy. When I first got to the house it was super awkward and I want sure this was going to work out. It is really out of my comfort zone but hey it needed to be expanded. In twenty minutes it will be 2011. But I am going to sleep because I an tired. I didn't realise traveling was so exhausting.

Cameroon #1

Day 1 (December 27th-28th)

Well yay the "blizzard" hit Boston but was pretty much cleared by the time we got to the airport. After fretting about whether or not our flight would be cancelled it ended up being 4 minutes delayed. Ultimately it was over an hour after we were meant to take off but oh well. The plane in front of us was a British airways flight. The pilot decided to go 90 degrees against the wind. Apparently that wasn't a good idea because he had to turn around and land and try again. Our take off was a little rough. I thought the wing might fall off but it didn't. I didn't sleep much from Boston to Zurich. I love my new headphones but they are too big to try to sleep with. Cindy got attacked by a tray of food. It just fell off the cart and all over her. Eight hours later we landed in Zurich. We were worried about making our connection because we landed late but the flight from Zurich to Douala was delayed as well. Zurich is beautiful. It looked like a Christmas card. I even saw a horse pulling a sleigh as we got closer to the ground. Looking out the windows as the airport it seemed so serene and peaceful. We are currently aboard the flight to douala. Its 5:53 Douala time. We just flew over Tamanrasset...I have no clue what country that is even in. On this leg of the trip the four of us are sitting together which I like. I'm pretty sure we are the only people on this plane that do not speak French. All of the questions are asked in french. We say "English?" to the flight attendant and they try again. Shelby and Cindy both got pat downs at security in zurich. The questions by the security officers were in German and I actually understand what she said. I was proud of myself. :)there is still 1916 kilometres until we reach Douala. I'm not sure how many miles that is. Oh the screen says 2 hours and 29 minutes. I seriously need to learn the metric system. I'm sick of sitting down now. The 8 hours to Zurich and the 6 hours to Cameroon...my butt hurts. Airplane bathrooms scare me (I'm claustrophobic). So I can't even go walk there. Whoa just looked out the window and the sun is setting. It's a pretty epic shade of peach. I love it. I am flying over Africa and in a few hours I will be on the ground in Africa. One of my dreams is coming true. They just handed out the Carte D'embarquement/ debarquement. Uhhhh??? Oh I like when it has English translations. Apparently we hand it over at customs, with our passport, visa and yellow fever card. It's negative 77 degrees outs of the plane (-77°F) it's funny because we are above Africa which is known for being HOT! When we land it will be around 90°, so that's a change of approximately 160° crazy!