Tuesday and Wednesday April 7&8

(Tuesday night unedited) Still suffering a little jet lag so I am going to start with the latest and work back. I just returned from a missionary’s home. All of us were invited to different homes for pot luck. Rhonda and I were invited to Steve and Mary’s. Mary is the principal of the parent run school that has been started recently by parents who were formerly home schooled. We enjoyed creating our own fajitas with large tortias, re-fried beans, chopped meat etc. We had chocolate mint brownies for desert and the played a card game called “Dirty Rotten Thief”. Rhonda and I were both falling asleep. During the instructions I was nodding off but once the card started flying and I started to get the hang of the game I started to wake up.
Before dinner I was working to get my room ready and helping to type out a revised version of the schedule. We are not trying to schedule the whole week but are taking it one day at a time. Before that we went over to the CABTAL building. It houses a Cameroonian organization for translating indigenous languages. They are one of the many partner organizations that work with Wycliffe and Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). We ate a Cameroonian lunch there of chicken or fish with fried plantain and savory sauce.
The morning started out early with a men’s breakfast where the speaker talked about temptation and how to avoid it. My room mate Chris, Bob from our team and I started to walk the quarter mile over but found Mickey our host waiting in the van outside the locked gate. The guard buzzed us out and we drove over. There were 75 to 100 men and the mood was cordial with many friends who not seen each other laughing hugging and catching up on family and work related issues. We were served scrambled eggs, croissants, baguettes, and fruit juice but my favorite item was a delicious fruit salad piled high in large bowls in the center of each table. The papaya, mangoes, bananas, pineapples and other fruit blended into a tasty healthy potpourri of healthy stuff that tasted unbelievably good. There was plenty left on every table and I had about five helpings.
Back to present time it is 10:30 PM and we have kids tomorrow. Here is tentative sample which we going to do our best to complete.
Wednesday (maybe will get the chance to edit). Slept really well last night and awoke in a thick stupor when the alarm sounded. Got showered and was shaving when a knock came on the door. I went quickly because my roommate Chris was still sleeping I thought some emergency had occurred. About the time I starting opening the door I heard a young woman’s voice through the open window and Chris responding. I quickly shut the door again and as I retreated to the bathroom heard her say in surprise, “Did he just shut the door in my face?” They left and I finished getting ready for breakfast. When I arrived at the Commons Chris and Christie were sitting at a table together. As I walked across the room she asked, “Is this the one who shut the door in my face?” I said, “Trust me of the two choices, meeting me here and meeting me there this is by far the better of the two.” She wondered out loud if it were a payback for her phone call at 1:30 AM the night before. I assured her it was not in fact I been awake for a few minutes before she called. I told her later that she had been spared the sight of a half shaven old man in his underwear and Glenda assured her that it was actually an act of mercy on my part.I was so grogged at breakfast I almost had a cup of coffee. Now that is really groggy for me. But today was the first day to meet the kids and also many of the parents. I got to my classroom with only nine of the twelve in attendance. While they all made and decorated their name tags I tried to learn all of their names. We did the usual get acquainted things and then went to opening exercises in the room next door. A few multimedia glitches were overcome and the kids came back to the room for their Bible lesson. We finished the morning with crafts, snacks and recess and then they went home for lunch. We were taken by van to the dining hall about a quarter mile away for lunch/dinner.
The middle of the table was secured by a massive mountain of mashed potatoes and a huge bowl of gravy. A large platter of fried chicken was on one end and a bowl of green beans and carrots balanced the other. Everything was delicious dimming my goal of returning state side a few pounds lighter. Generous chunks of delicious chocolate cake were served for dessert making reaching my goal even more unlikely.
A tropical rainstorm prompted a decision to switch outdoor and indoor activity sessions, much to the disappointment of many of the kids who wanted to play in the rain. Closing exercises were smoothed by the use of this computer but were not totally without errors. Tomorrow we will make a few more changes and I sure we will work out the kinks. Speaking of tropical rainstorms, I just now blew out the candle and plugged my computer in. We had a huge thunder storm pass through after supper. We were cautioned to get flash lights and light candles and no sooner had I arrived back at the Commons with a flash light than the lights did go out. They were off and on several times over the next hour or so and now the storm seems to have proceeded elsewhere.
I pondered before leaving home as to whether I should chosen to travel with so much electronic gear. I am glad that I brought everything I did. The electricity here is 220 volts but I was surprised to learn that my computer is built to run on 110 – 220. I just need an adapter to go from our familiar flat prongs to round ones. The ground prong sits uselessly outside the adapter apparently totally unneeded. My phone which I use as a calendar and an alarm clock is set up the same way but the battery charger for my camera can only take 110. I need to use a transformer which is located under the kitchen sink in the commons for it. As I sit here typing in the Commons where I have been using a lan line connection to the internet my camera battery is charging behind me.
After lunch we have a siesta. I prepared a power point presentation for my class of some pictures taken at home the day I left and since my journey began. I also downloaded some A. J. Meerwald pictures to show them. I spent some time online and noticed I had some friends logged on face book so I took the opportunity to chat with a friend for a few minutes and then chatted with my brother Phil. I told him I had yet to see the African version of an air conditioner (the ones in the vehicles don’t count). He suggested I search for a banyan tree. Not a bad suggestion because once out of the sun a cooling breeze is almost always available. With almost everyone I know in New York and New Jersey wishing for summer I cannot bring myself to complain about the heat. I have however positioned myself to take advantage of an electric fan on more than one occasion since arriving.
It is 10:00 PM here and although it is raining again there had been no lightning so I will try to go online and post.