Woah, Cameroon

It’s been almost two weeks since I arrived and what an adventure it’s been. Some first impressions: way more green than Benin (oh how I missed that!); not a single person calling me yovo/blanche/foreigner/white person; more security incidents so not feeling quite as safe as Benin; far more people in Douala (about 3 million), of which I have only seen a small portion; great roads, there is a highway connecting us to most of our sites and hardly any traffic on it; Mercy Ships is way less well known here (understandably) but we are working on that; people are very friendly and eager to help when they learn who we are; the majority of the people we’ve met so far are very prompt, well-dressed and speak good English. For all the things I heard before arriving, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by almost everything! I think everyone on the ship is going to love Cameroon and its people.

Thankfully KJ takes lots of pictures otherwise
I would have nothing to show you! This
is right after we got the cars.

I had quite an adventure on my travel over here, with the plane taking off several hours later, being a totally different company, and landing on a small island off Cameroon that is actually part of Equatorial Guinea so they were speaking Portuguese and everyone was like where are we?! But eventually I made it! The first few days were spent getting used to a new country and a new community, and trying to make myself useful in small ways. Living on land is AMAZING, and I am so grateful to be able to walk out the door, cook meals, even washing dishes is nice! I’m sure that will wash off at some point…The day after I arrived, we actually got the cars (they’ve been waiting for them to be released from customs for a while) so 4 of us headed over there to drive our babies home. Brand new Toyota land cruisers. Well apparently brand new from Gibraltar (fun fact, most of the NGOs that work in Africa get their land cruisers from the Toyota there), means the cars are basically naked. The gear stick had no handle (good thing I’ve driven these many times and know where the gears are!), no windshield wipers, no buttons or anything. We spent the next day unloading the cars of all the tires and stuff that came with it and putting them together, which was a cool experience. I like driving in Cameroon, just as crazy, if not crazier, than Benin. 

We went out for brunch on Mother's Day here in Cameroon
and apparently that meant we all got some lovely flowers.

I was also able to spend some time helping Nate, our screening supervisor, transfer some patient data from one phone to another, because they were having some problems. The screening team has 12,000 patient entries to go through, so I’m sure it becomes a blur (kind of like the applications for me), but it was neat to go through the mobile app and see how it works and also get to ‘know’ some of our potential patients based on the information they put in. I also got a tour of the sites from Liz, our Hospital Liaison, who showed us the site for our HOPE Center/Ponseti Clinic and our Dental/Eye Clinic (which is where we will be holding our interviews). Both sites are part of hospitals and are under renovation, undergoing huge transformations from when I first saw them, to now. The first weekend was spent enjoying a team brunch, going for a long walk to explore the area and go visit the port, which will be our home for 10 months, and just hanging out. 

Sorting applications - lots of yeses

Then it was time to get to work! I started the long task of going through each application, deciding if they were a yes, no or maybe, for an interview. There was some pretty hilarious stuff in there. Some of the references said things such as: endowed with the milk of charity; standard Christian in the church; hire him because he is jobless and my son; She also likes God; Available and proclaims to be very honest. One person wrote his own reference, many included their marriage certificates (how does that help you get hired?!), their communion documents that gets a stamp each time they’ve had communion, one told us he had been driving since age 12, one was teaching the Queens language English, one had ‘no experience in particular’, one who was ‘black, with good structure’, and so many more things that had me laughing and confused. Now I have to wonder how often people look at my resume and get a good chuckle – maybe I should work on adding something funny, at least it would catch their attention. After going through 350 applications in 3 days, I was so happy to have my HR Assistants, Joan and Manda, arrive to help me with the task. They made quick work of the yes applications, sorting them based on what job we thought the person would be a best fit for. The job was much more amusing and enjoyable with three of us. To date, we have gone through all 523 applications we’ve received and are ready to start interviews next week! 

The gym pioneers, testing it out for the crew!

We also were able to interview four applicants for the position of HR Day Crew Assistant – the Day Crew who will help us with the hiring process. All four were very early, well-dressed, well-spoken, with strong faith, and happy to help (we could only hire 3). It made me really excited to meet the rest of the applicants – I think the ship will be blessed with some wonderful, hard working day crew! So what has the rest of the Advance team been up to? I’ve seen them go to A LOT of meetings, for things like cars and customs and police and berth measurements and restaurant discounts; go up north to train people and try to find more fistula patients; scout out hotels for vision trips; take pictures of various sites for reports and skype into meetings at the ISC to give updates; answer many, many emails; share about Mercy Ships (often!); and so much more. Through one of her contacts, KJ got us a discount at a gym and it is amazing! We all got memberships and go most nights, running or working out or doing one of the classes. One night we all tried the Zumba class….SO FUNNY. African Zumba is next level dancing and we were nowhere near being able to keep up. Great team bonding though! 

Silly team dinners, got some yummy Indian food!

Of course all this fun and adventure isn’t without its occasional challenges: internet is a real struggle and doesn’t look like it will improve; one day we woke up without water or power (how do you do ANYTHING?!); some nights the food our cook makes is quite disappointing or way too African (although it’s getting better); the A/C doesn’t work in our main room/office, which makes for a sweaty work day. But really, none of that matters. We’ve got a great community, and I’m loving the daily morning devotions and family dinners. I will say that our community is SMALL. For all those times I complained about their being too many people around on the ship, I miss it. 8 people can only spend so much time together. I don’t know how the 1^st element did it when they were just 3 people! It’s a good lesson in embracing what you have and enjoying right now. Less people around does mean we have way more time to relax and read and workout, which has been nice. 

I’ve been listening to a new song called ‘Most Girls’, that really made me think about some things. I don’t agree with everything she says in the song, but in the chorus she says “Most girls are smart and strong and beautiful, Most girls work hard, go far, we are unstoppable, Most girls are fighting to make every day, no two are the same, I wanna be like most girls.” It was completely different from where I thought she was going – I was expecting another girl bashing anthem, and I was surprised at how much I needed to hear that message. That being a girl is something to aspire to, that every girl is doing her best in her own way, that we should be standing up for each other, not tearing each other down in our effort to stand out or be different or not associated with ‘girls’. I’ve mentioned a few times that God has done a lot of work in me, in terms of identity and how I see myself, and this is at the core of it, that I am a beautiful daughter of God and that is something to be proud of and to walk in. It was also good timing considering I currently live in a house of mostly women (which is a big change for me!) - women who are all smart, strong, and beautiful. I am so thankful that God brought me here to be part of this team and part of this adventure. 

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. ~ Deuteronomy 31:7-8

All our applicants! Please pray that we would have wisdom and discernment when hiring for all the various jobs.