Picture update from G

Well, I'm back home. I barely know where to begin, but now I'm back in my own bedroom, a great deal cleaner than I have been for the last 30 hours of travel across Cameroon, from Douala to Brussels to Chicago, then back to the Twin Cities. All I can say is that I have been overwhelmed during the trip. Every experience was riveting and extreme, nothing mediocre or middle of the road. The people I encountered were beauiful souls trapped in a nation of poverty, corruption, and lack of infrastucture. I'm not sure yet whether I can call my two weeks there as a positive life experience yet. What I do know is that we touched a lot of people, and were likewise touched by them. I also know that I am more motivated to do more work to make my home a better place, after seeing all too clearly how good we have it in America.

Here's a picture update of some of our destinations, stopoffs, passthroughs, and adventures. We do hope you enjoy.

Douala looked to me like Mad Max meets Final Fantasy 7.





The perfect view of Kribi, if you ask me!:




The full entourage of 38 included a partnership team that worked to improve condiditons in Kumba Town, which is a bustling community at the end of the worst road imaginable. Also a medical team of doctors, opthamologists, nutritionists, and dentists, who all saw the worst conditions for treatment in Douala. They accomplished something along the lines of treating 2100 patients, and performed 200 surgeries. My contingent didn't see much of them until the last two days, when our groups converged in Limbe, a coastal town that once was a bustling port. My group, which traveled to many cities to provide cultural exchange, perform concerts, and do some teaching/outreach with the Presbyterian church in Cameroon, performed at 21 events for around 20,000 people, and were broadcast twice on national television, possibly reaching millions. It was a stunning trip.


In Cameroon, shirts often depict affiliation or tell a story. In this case the shirt tells the story of the return of Kribi natives conscripted by the Germans in WWI: Kribi was full of thick jungle and beautiful beaches, waterfalls, and a wonderful resort, where we enjoyed the hospitality of a Swiss woman who ran the place. We offered a song or two in thanks for all the good food (and honestly, the only proper bathroom I saw outside of the US Embassy...), and great bar.



My new favorite hair product:








At the Chief's palace, where pastor Tim Hart Anderson was honored with a title of Nguo (sort of like a knighthood), and the drummers and dancers were amazing:



G amongst the bamboo:


The view from my room in the capital, Yaounde.


Children's choir from Kumba-town: