Home from the Southwest

Ten days, 1,300 kilometers, seventeen baptisms, nine worship services and approximately one and a half tons of red dust later, Pastor Billong and I have returned to Yaounde, weary but encouraged.

All the way home, I have been trying to figure out how I will share my adventures on the blog. I don’t want to recap my trip, kilometer by kilometer. That would be tedious and uninteresting. So instead, I’m going to write a series of topical journal entries that will touch on certain recurring themes and impressions of the trip. Plus, I’ll be posting plenty to pictures.

Suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time. It was great to see another part of the country, and to get a feel for the Anglophone area. The landscape is just a little more wild, a deeper green, and the temperatures are a tad cooler. But the roads are horrendous. Between Buea and Kumba, the road is inconsistently paved. That means you can be sailing along at a decent speed on black-top road and all of a sudden hit a 50-yard patch of dirt. Between Kumba and Mamfe, there’s mostly nothing but dirt roads with deep ruts and ditches. All of the palm trees and greenery on the side of the road are covered with a deep layer of red dust.

Thank goodness for the Toyota Land Rover, which kept us moving at a consistent clip. And thank the Lord for Pastor Billong, my companion and friend, who translated my English into French and Pidgin!