Happy New Year from Douala Cameroon

For some of you this is the first news you are receiving.  A few lines to catch you up.  

Douala is a modern city by these standards, there are paved roads, plumbing in most places and electricity.  Lots of cars, motos, push carts of all kinds and even wheelbarrows hauling people and goods.  Some new buildings but mostly the run down buildings of the colonial days.  By our standards it's not so progressive.  Along most roads are dozens of stands, carts and little tables selling all kinds of foods and other goods.  Phone cards, clothing, kitchen ware and anything else one can think of.  Men and women with tall piles of bread, sugar cane and trays of whatever they are selling balanced on their heads walk down both sides of the roads and streets.  Absolutely no sanitation concerning the food and not a single public bathroom except the side of the road or a stone wall or one of the many drain ditches along every street.  Eggs are not refrigerated or cleaned.  That is something the buyer takes care of.  The internet is slow and very unreliable.  Most businesses close down from 12:30 to 2:30 for a rest  (and I say a bathroom break).  

We waited two weeks to have the name and signature change from the last couple completed.  We went to the bank to see if the transfer was completed.  The bank couldn’t tell us so suggested we just try to cash a check.  We wrote one and then waited 1 hr. and 40 minutes to finally have it cashed.  With a great big smile we were told everything was now O.K.  Next week back at the bank to get another check cashed.  Sorry we were told, your name and signature is not in our system.  This is Africa.  By the way this bank is the most modern place we have been.

It is very hot and muggy but always overcast so the sun's rays do not beat directly on you.  The rainy season will start in April and continue for two months.

The people are delightful, friendly and kind.  Everyone is always trying to help us, explain things and show us the way.  There is a rather strong branch here and a small group about 45 minutes away that operates under the same Branch Presidency.  On Fast Sunday both groups meet together.  The small group is in a section of Douala called Boniberi.  It is across the Wouri River.  It is huge and empties into the Atlantic Ocean about ten miles away.

The Elders here are fantastic.  At the first District meeting here in our apartment we looked at their dusty worn shoes and street stained lower pant legs and Brent started to cry.  They tramp all day in the heat  and go home to no air conditioning, just fans. They do lots of teaching.  The people here love Jesus.  If you want to talk about the Savior they will listen.

We celebrated Christmas with the eight young Elders.  One of them is the Branch President’s son.  We are one elder short until the middle of February.  (The elder that went home two weeks ago mother is from our home town of Lovell, Wyoming.  And his grandfather is Bill Powell)  The American Elders told Yanick that he could go to his house for Christmas (he lives ten minutes from our apartment)  But he said no, he was a missionary and couldn’t go home.  I had stockings for all of them, mostly put together by the sisters in our Great Falls Ward.  They loved it.  We also had Nerf footballs and Frisbees.  I cooked Mexican food with homemade tortillas and many substitutes.  All but Yanick devoured it. In this Mission the young Elders are allowed to watch a “G” movie occasionally so we watched movies.  

African Christmas traditions  are eating good food and visiting family.  They also dress up on Christmas day and parade the streets in their finest.

New Years was much the same with the Elders.  Fireworks are a tradition  aling with eating and drinking.  The streets were alive when we drove the Elders home.

Every Monday night we attend the singles FHE group at the church.  I bake something and they love it.

So far we love the mission and are still finding our place.  French is a stretch but we start lessons.  American style food (actually from France) is available for a price so we are surviving.  We miss our friends and family but love the work.

Happy New year to all. 

Elder and Sister Willis

Information Please

There are a number of interesting photographs and images of Douala you can see from Google Earth.  There is also a nice collection of information about Douala and Cameroon on Wikipedia.

More Pictures

Lynda buying peanuts.

The Elders at our apartment on Christmas Eve.  They had exchanged white elephant gifts with each other.  

Seated:  Elders Shaw, Anderson.  Yannick, the branch President's son who is on a two week split with the Boniberi Elders since they are a threesome, and Elder Ritchi.  Standing:  Elders Neilson, Hunter, Thompson and Landrus

Elders Shaw, Anderson, Landrus and Ritchi on Christmas Morning.

Elders Playing football Christmas Day in front of our apartment.  Note the little grocery store where I buy a few things.

This is a typical home in Bonaberi near the Elders apartment.

This is a market close to the church in Bonaberi.

This is the church in Boniberi.  We use the upper balcony for sacrament and the hall for classes.

Picture Time

Here are a few random pictures from the Mission: 

 

Little children are selling delicious roasted peanuts in discarded whiskey bottles, well washed we hope.  I was going to buy 8 bottles, one for each Elder but didn't have enough change and almost caused a riot among them.  They cost 700 fcfa which is about $1.25.   

Cole's Brownie Recipe

This is the brownie recipe from the Coles.  These are the brownies they used to make before they returned home.

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

Instructions

Beat butter, sugar, then add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and salt. In separate bowl combine flour and cocoa( I didn't do this), add to butter misture. beat until well blended. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Grease pan.

Letter from 12/14/2008

It is 5:30am. We are still having trouble with jet lag. 

Yes the gospel is growing here. We hear that the branch in Youande is about to be split, and that will make 3 branches there. There are two groups here in Douala but they operate under the same Branch Presidency.  One group (called the branch) is here in Bonapreiso.  The other (called the group) is out in Boniberi.  They are too far away to afford taxi fare. It is about 45 min away.

The branch Presidency takes turns going to Boniberi for church.  Four Elders are in Boniberi and four here in Bonapreiso. They are very close to us,  about 10 minutes or less.  For certain occasions the Boniberi Elders take a taxi in. 

District meetings (in our apt) and zone conference (our apt) and yesterday they all came in to bring the Elder that is going home today.  We went to the bus depot, which is very close,  to pick up the two who are going home from Youande.  It was fun to see the excitement!  Talk about great missionaries. They can teach all day so many want to hear about the gospel, however commitment is another story.  Now the Boniberi Elders are a threesome until we get new ones in Feb. 

We will be doing splits with them so they can keep up with all the appointments.  Although you see a lot of poverty, shacks, and beggers, the people are at least fed. They eat a type of tapioca (a grain I think) and a cooked ground root.  This is nothing like the "Haves" eat.  1000 FCFA is 2 American dollars. The guards for our complex are paid 1300 FCFA a day, about $2.50 for housing and food for a family. It makes you sad and grateful.  Two of our toilet seats were broken, and it cost 15000 FCFA each to replace them.  We had to get a new ink cartridge for the printer at 25000 FCFA or $50 American dollars. 

There is a big difference between the Haves and the Have Nots. There is an American lady who was a friend of Sis. Coles, and she is taking me shopping today.  She will be showing me the best places to get American type foods,  and we will try to find a rubber bathmat for inside the tub.  It is so slick with the rounded bottom.  We would like someone to please save a copy of all our e-mails for a good record of events.  We were going to do that ourselves but it is too expensive for ink.

Our project for now is to set up a contract to have the wheelchairs manufactured.  We are working with church legal in South Africa. Money has been put in our account for 50 chairs but we can't start without a contract.  We were told to come up with one so we are waiting for advice. The wheels turn slow here. The day after our arrival we went to the bank to sign for signature change on the account. One week latter still not done.

The heat is not as bad as we expected. In the 80's but very muggy.  One does not buy a lot of food because it molds too fast. We refrigerate most everything. We bought what we thought was chicken breast.  We didn't like it at all and wonder if that’s what it really was.  Hamburger is good here, but it is very expensive at $8 a pound.  A can of green beans is $3.  However, the fruits and veggies on the street are very cheap.  They also have wonderful pineapples and mango.

We miss all of you.  Right now 18 mo. seem like a long time. Love to all of you.  Sorry that the skype phone is such a bummer to work.   We hope to work it out.  E-mail all the family doings. Also any good national news and the Griz game.

Love

Dad and Mom

We have arrived

We arrived finally, but after a bit of an adventure.

In Salt Lake we had a long delay because our tickets hadn't been paid for. In New York, Air France wouldn't give us a bording pass because my name had been spelled different than on my passport.  It took one hour for us to get boarding passes.  After boarding the plane they took my carry-on saying it was too big.  This is the same one I have always used.  I had to fight to not pay another $150 for the extra checked bag.   We then arrived without yellow fever cards because they were in the very carry-on that I was forced to check, so then I had to talk our way through customs.  

When we arrived in Douala, the baggage from the two planes were thrown all over the floor in baggage area, and we couldn't get a cart.  The baggage carriers won't let you have them because they force you to pay them to carry your bags.  The young missionaries were watching what was happening and were trying to get into immagration to help us.  Finally Elder Shaw talked a guard into letting him in.  It was so good to see him.  Unfortunately he was a little too late to keep us from having to pay $40 U.S. to get our bags.  

The apartment here is very nice. The Bakers are staying until Saturday morning.  President Livingstone will be here tomorrow night for zone conference.   After that we will then be on our own.  At this point I don't think we can even find anything.  We are going shopping tomorrow to look around and learn to find our way around.  We also met the Branch President.  He took us to the bank and helped us set up our account.  I am quite nervous.  I tried to call several of the you kids using Skype.  We could hear you but you couldn't hear us so you hung up.  We have since been able to get it working.

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