Jan 12th By Janet

On Saturday morning our day began with a trip to the tailor to get measured up. Apparently, on our last evening here, we are going to have an African night which means that we will eat traditional African food and all dress in traditional African clothing. Since we don’t have any traditional African clothing, Clever decided to get us our own outfits. Everything is a brand new and interesting experience. We now understand first hand what Denise was saying in her blog about Asian traffic. It is fascinating, amazing, frightening and comical all at the same time. It is hard to imagine unless you experience it first hand. There are motorbikes everywhere. They are all small bikes (50-250cc) with rarely less than 2 people on them. We have seen up to 4 people on one small bike and even babies as small as our little Hayden. We have only seen one person wearing a helmet. The bikes and cars and trucks get within cm. from each other. Traffic lights are rare and the occasional stop sign that you see is ignored. As Genevieve said (Clever’s wife), “There are no rules.” I thought that she would be used to the traffic but she still gets frightened sitting in the car. I try to be relaxed and occasionally close my eyes and hope for the best. Now, those of you who know me well, know that I like to have control of the steering wheel and I usually do the driving, but in the case of driving here, I am happy to leave it to those who are experienced in this type of traffic here. It is truly crazy as people cross the streets, dodging the cars and motorbikes. The comical part was when a goat crossed the road in the craziness, and actually made it to the other side with its four feet flat on the ground.

Late morning we left for Limbe (aprox. 1 hr) to see the botanical gardens and hopefully some wild animals. Unfortunately, there were no safari type animals, but it still was a great time. And I finally got to meet a few of George’s relatives (see picture – I won’t mention on which side of the family).

We feel that we have made many great friends in such a short time. The people are wonderful and are very excited for us to experience their country and culture, and excited for us to be here. They are very friendly and hospitable. We have already gone to several different churches in the area and George has already spoken 4 times, always with an interpreter. The food we have eaten is very delicious. We both love trying different foods and have not had anything that we didn’t like. On Saturday, we stopped on the side of the road and had soya, which is beef roasted on an open fire, along with roasted plantain. Ymmm. And the fresh fruit and fruit juice is so incredibly delicious.