Dry Season

The dry season is back, which means the muddy roads have turned into dusty roads.

Plusses: don't have to deal with rain almost every day, shoes are not muddy, don't have to be super careful getting out of the car so as to avoid getting mud on legs, roads are not slippery, sun is shining, and the daytime weather is warmer (don't have to wear a sweater everyday).

Minuses: allergies are worse, everything is acquiring a fine layer of dust (even inside), everything outside starts looking red, nights getting colder, and the sun is painfully bright at times.

My corn was harvested about a month ago, but I haven't started eating it yet because we decided to save it until later in the season when it's expected that the price for corn will go up, since there was not a good harvest of corn this season.

The parish priest in Tatum (Fr. Evaristus) noticed that I have been missing from Mass (in Tatum). This last Sunday (the 18th), there was a special mass for all teachers with the bishop in Kumbo to celebrate the centenary. The Sunday previous (the 11th), I was in Bamenda with Elise (from Mission Doctors), the Hakes (the couple in Njinikom), and the Newburn family where we went to Mass at a Piarist parish called St. Michael's. On the 4th, I was in Kumbo with Elise prior to her visit to Tatum. 

Since Mission Doctors and Lay Mission Helpers are sister organizations, Elise was visiting on behalf of both. She had to report back to Janice on how things are going here. A few days before she arrived, I let Br. Isaac know that she was coming. He had the students prepare some songs and dances to welcome her. It was pretty impressive what they were able to put together on very short notice. The week of Nov. 5-11 was Catholic Education Week for the diocese, which meant that schedules were disrupted. It was also the start of the first week of teaching practice for the TTC students, so they were not on campus most of the day. Elise only spent Monday at St. Pius X because she had to leave early on Tuesday morning to go to Bamenda to meet with the auxiliary bishop there.  On Monday, the secondary school students all had to march into town in the morning with the Catholic primary school children. But when they returned to their classes, we were able to visit the classes I teach and Elise had a chance to meet the students. In the afternoon, they gave their welcoming presentations and, afterwards, we had a little social gathering with some of the teachers.

The weekend I went to Bamenda (17-18), started with a trip to Mbengwe for all the staff of St. Pius X. We were returning their visit from last year. The plan was to leave in a bus at 5am. But the bus didn't make it to the school due to the bad roads, so we had to take taxis to meet the bus in Kumbo. We didn't leave Tatum until about 6:30am to arrive in Kumbo by 7:30am. For some reason it took another hour to leave Kumbo. So we didn't reach Mbengwe until close to 2pm. Near the school in Mbengwe there is a Claretian monastery that the teachers from Mbengwe took us to visit. It is a beautiful place, and they make their own yogurt (yummy!). The main thing we did once we got to the school was to have a sport competition. We played volleyball, handball, and football (soccer)... and lost all three. Because we arrived so late, the games didn't finish until it was getting dark. Then I had to get a taxi back to Bamenda (about 1 1/2 hours) to meet the LMH/MDA group  there. I arrived while they were still eating dinner. It was good to visit and exchange stories. I didn't get back to Tatum until late on Monday.

I had met the Newburns previously as they had managed to make a visit to Kumbo a few weeks before. The auxiliary bishop of Bamenda is from the Kumbo area. His mother died recently and many people came for the funeral including the Newburns. I was able to make a trip down to Kumbo on the Thursday before and spend the evening with them before returning to school for classes on Friday. They are a nice family and I'm impressed with how well their kids seem to be handling the new environment.

I think that pretty much catches you up.

Oh... here are my latest experiences with slippery roads:

First, on the morning when we were going to Mbengwe, we were in the taxis heading to Kumbo. About ten minutes from Tatum (right before a town called Kishong), we were passing a group of men trying to pull a car back onto the road (the front end was hanging over the edge) when the car suddenly plunged down the hill, but then we went around the corner and didn't see what happened. The teachers in the taxi behind us saw it too and told us that the driver had been in the car, but managed to get out without getting hurt. The next time I passed by the spot, the car was gone.

Second, and more personal, the following Monday when I returned from Bamenda, I was able to get a ride from Kumbo to Tatum with Br. Isaac but had to wait for a few hours in town because his car was getting fixed. When we finally left it was getting dark. We were about three-quarters of the way back (on the Kumbo side of Kishong), when we came to a spot where there were two large trucks blocking the road -- one of which looked like it was stuck. So we had to take a detour on the shoulder. As we were going, a car came from the other direction, so we had to pull over even more. The shoulder at that point is actually a raised hump on the side of the road with a fairly steep hill going down on the other side. So, Brother was trying to negotiate around the other car and we ended up sliding off the shoulder away from the road. With the help of some people pushing the car up, Brother was able to get the car back on to the shoulder and then on to the road. But in the process, the clutch was burned out. We made it into Kishong and then had to call the Marist brothers to send someone to pick us up. It made for a tense end to a long day of travel for me.