The Mountain Explosion Along With Some Awkward Moments

Awkward Moments

Our friend Hache introduced us to his brother Joseph over the phone while we were in Koza in case we had troubles with the Gendarm on the way back with the fake ID’s. Luckily we didn’t have to call him, but Thursday morning in the clinic Joseph showed up. I had no idea who he was, but it finally clicked. Joseph came to greet us and invite us all over to his home.

That same evening Joseph came back to the clinic to pick us up and take us to his home. Joseph lives in the Gendarm compound up near the General Hospital. He and his family live in a bunker there. He invited us into his home. He introduced us to his 6 children and his wife. However, there were two women there. We all questioned, well maybe he has two wives (polygamy is legal here), but then we didn’t want to assume anything so we thought maybe it was his wife’s friend. Our first assumption was correct; Joseph has two wives, what a lucky guy.

That’s not the only thing that was awkward about the evening. Joseph speaks very little English making it difficult to communicate with him, and his WIVES and children don’t speak English at all. We told him about our trip to Koza and our translation got mangled into we milked cows while we were in Koza, which we definitely did not do. Mary then went on to tell him that his house looked like a game board. Lets just say it does have some weird painting on it, but I wouldn’t go as far to say it looked like a game board.

We had several good laughs that evening with Joseph and his family, however I must say they were very hospitable. Still to this day Joseph will show up at the clinic and insist that was come to his home, and there is really no way to say no. I think we have been there 4 or 5 times now. They are very nice people; it is just very awkward at times due to the communication barrier between us.

Since they have invited us over several times we decided it was time for us to have them over. So we invited all 8 of them over and enjoyed some "American" food even though it was Mexican food. When they came over they were all dressed in their matching clothes and looked their best. It was the most adorable thing ever! We made them tortillas with veggies, rice, gluten, fruit salad and banana bread or banana cake as one of our little friends calls it. It was an amazing dinner, well as least we all thought so, I'm not sure what they thought of it, but they ate it. I know they really enjoyed the banana bread because they even went back for seconds! It was a good evening and I'm glad we got to have them over. They are a cute family, even if he does have two wives; I guess he's just a lucky guy! haha!

2^nd Attempt at Climbing Mt. Cameroon

Not even 3 days after we got back from traveling up north, Sarah and I were on our way to summit Mt. Cameroon. We all decided to leave Saturday morning rather than Friday morning mainly because we wanted our friend Walters to come along.

We left Saturday morning and soon found out that our friend Walters wasn’t going to make it because his exam got moved. We also soon found out that people were coming off of the mountain due to an explosion that occurred at hut 2. But we continued on.

When we arrived at hut 1, Hilary (our cook) and Vitalise (our guide) conversed and decided we couldn’t go any further today due to the explosion they decided for the best interest and safety for us; that we stay at hut 1. We arrived at hut 1 around 10:00am. Today is going to be a long day. Hilary then took us on a “vegetation watch”; turned out to be a little walk through the jungle to find monkeys, but we didn’t see a thing.

Andrea, Barb, Rosisin, Sarah and I spent all day playing games, teaching each other games, laughing together, laughing at each other and a little complaining here and there while we waited for our guide to come back to hut 1 with drinks he went to get back in Buea. They finally arrived around 5 with our drinks.

You all are probably wondering why we stayed at hut 1 when we could have just gone back down, because summiting is no longer an option. It was a real bummer, especially for those who haven’t summited yet. We spent the evening eating, talking, singing, drinking soda (at least for Sarah and I) and enjoying the warmth of the fire. We then crashed in our tents for the night.

The next day we started the journey to hut 2. We made it. I wrote on the walls where Lizzy and I stayed last time. We then headed back down. I don’t remember the trip down being as long as it was, but it felt like forever. Remind me never to do a two-day trip again; my knees were KILLING me by the time I got down to where we started! Even though the trip was disappointing we all made the best out of it, too bad we didn’t go Friday, that would have been quite the adrenaline rush being up there. However, I think someone was looking out for us, thanks God.

 The mountain, so big and so beautiful!

We made it to Hut 2, but that's as far as they were going to let us go, it was disappointing, but we did it

 The mountain is much greener than when we climbed it the first time! It was BeAuTiFuL!!!

 This is where the explosion occurred at Hut 2 on Friday night and people had to start running down the mountain!

 This is our toilet, in other words we had to "Poop in a hole," its a GREAT experience!

Valentines Day

 

Today the clinic wasn’t super busy seeing that Trixy is gone and it’s only a nurse clinic. Mary and I decided to go out into the lawn and spell out Happy Valentines Day with the hibiscus flowers. When we finished everyone was starring at it, one patient/friend Papita even came over and took a picture of it with us girls, it was a lot of fun! Once we finished it was back to work because the clinic started picking up.

This evening the 4 of us girls and Yanin went down to Bill’s house and made a feast. We had spaghetti with white sauce, veggies and rice, a fruit salad, a real salad and delicious peanut butter chocolate cookies. After stuffing out faces, we all watched a chick flick together, which turned out to be a disappointment to me, but that’s alright, it was a good night, filled with amazing food.

 Our patient from the clinic that comes in all the time to check his BP what a lucky guy, having a picture with 3 white girls...on VALENTINES DAY!

Interesting People

This month we had one gentleman come in who wanted to be cleansed. He told us he had just stopped smoking and that he wasn’t going to smoke anymore. We then told him that he could find nicotine patched in Douala, but we told him in order to cleanse himself he needed to drink lots of water. He kept asking what medicine he needed to take in order to cleanse himself, we kept telling him he didn’t need to take any medications.

We soon found out he wasn’t smoking cigarettes, but he was smoking “big brother Africa” or “wheat” mistaken for weed or marijuana. He then went on to tell us, for everyone to hear, that he was having troubles sexing for a long time. He didn’t have as much energy sexing and he couldn’t sex for as long as he used to when he smoked. We then at that point in time told him he needed to see the doctor.

We started asking him the normal questions “how old are you, where do you live and what do you do”. He told us that he worked at the brigade up by the Seven Days church; this is the same place our friend Joseph works so we asked him if he knew him. He told us he knew Joseph and the first thing out of his mouth was, “you know he has two wives?” We told him that we knew that and that we were friends with Joseph.

He then went and sat down waiting for Trixy to call him in. We were also waiting for Trixy to call him in because Mary and I were trying so hard not to laugh at him; he was a pretty entertaining guy. As he was sitting there he told us he was lonely and wanted one of us to come sit by him to keep him company. Mary and I just laughed and Trixy called him in…finally.

Trixy quickly did the history and physical then sent him on his way and told him to drink plenty of water to cleanse him. The sexing, well she didn’t discuss that. It was an entertaining day with him, some people are extremely interesting people.

 Yes, this girl is trying to take a poop outside of the clinic when we have a toilet inside, why do you need a toilet when you've got the GREAT OUTDOORS!?