African outfits

African outfits
Our crazy family

Saturday, February 18, 2012

An Encouraging Day

We're down to the last month of our journey and are trying to be very purposeful in documenting everything and experiencing as much as possible. I asked the kids what they miss most about Minnesota: They ALL answered "The People". I then asked them what they think they will miss most about Cameroon when we go home: They ALL answered "The People". I really liked those answers. Today we headed north of Ndu, walking for about 2 hours just to see what was around each new bend in the road. It seemed like we hiked UP the whole way but once we turned around we found ourselves walking UP some more. The day was very cloudy so I'm hoping we can go back on a clear day, what we could make out was quite beautiful. It's interesting to see how the people react to us. People here are so friendly - all afternoon we were greeted with "Good Afternoon". Many people would stop and come to shake all of our hands and thank us for taking time to say "Hello" to them. We had our friend Matthew Lee with us - he is teaching a computer class on how to use translation software. Matthew is working with SIL/Wycliffe and is originally from Virginia. We have forced him into our "group home" and have enjoyed having his company. It ends up he likes exploring as much as we do so it was quite a day. I was so humbled when we stopped to rest for a bit and a man with one leg and maybe 2 teeth hoped up the bank to greet us. He wanted to invite us into his home but we were already pushing it on time. Who does that in America? This man really had VERY LITTLE but wanted to share with 6 total strangers. Later we met a woman who went out of her way to greet us each with a hearty handshake. She was on her way home from choir practice at First Baptist Church in Ndu (Wow - she walks along way). She knew Ancela, who had been our cook when our team was here. This woman gave us some kind of nuts just because she wanted to bless us. Another man had a fruit stand and I asked for bananas. He only had 3 left (which costs about 10 cents) and he wanted to just give them to me so that he could bless me. I accepted and then "dashed" him a bit to bless him back. It's really crazy how generous people are. I'm completely inspired to change and be the generous stranger to people I meet back in Minnesota.

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