Visiting Yaoundé-Time with the Elders

We're always torn during our visits between time spent with missionaries and time spent with mission branches, which need a lot of training and direction. Our time has to be divided between these two assignments and we never seem to get enough time with either.

We love being with the missionaries and had some good time with them this trip. We were able to attend a baptismal service for seven people. It's amazing how much love we feel for them in just a few hours as we heard their stories, saw them baptized and then confirmed the next day in church. A little grandmother and her grandson joined that day, along with several young men and one young sister whose uncle had introduced her to the church and preformed her baptism. Our missionaries handled the service perfectly.

There was great support from the members of the branches as they met in our little rented building. We were so happy to share this day with all of them.

This was an especially great day for one of our elders, Elder Schmid from Mesa. On his first day on his mission in September, he met a young man and at that first meeting challenged him to baptism. At this baptism service Elder Schmid baptized this investigator. It wasn't Elder Schmid's first baptism but will be one that he'll always remember.

A returned missionary who Brent had released the week before in Kinshasa, Elder Ngo'oh, was at the baptisms and church. He's now Brother Jean Claude, but it sure was fun to see him at this branch being a great support just a week after seeing him as one of our missionaries.

We laughed with Elder Tingey as he played the keyboard with the simplified piano book, which is also all I can manage to play. He said that his mom had told him that someday he'd regret not practicing more, and she was right. My mom said the same thing and was just as right. But he did a good job with his piano playing. His music, which added greatly to the meeting, although limited in his eyes, would have made his mom proud.

We always take the opportunity to do a little training and teaching as we visit our missionaries. It was made very clear to us in our training at the MTC that this is our primary responsibility.

We also visited their apartment and Brent took time to interview them. This individual time together is very precious to him and I think that it is to the missionaries too. It was preparation day and they had their laundry drying all over their apartment, but were happy to take time for a personal interview.

I especially love seeing our missionaries walking away down the dusty streets,

heading out to make a difference. We sure do love these guys!

Mefou Primate Park in the JUNGLE

We spent the week in Cameroon and while there we had a wonderful p-day outing with the Thompsons, our great missionary couple and good friends. They took us straight from the airport to the Mefou Primate Park where we had a fabulous time. The sky was clear and blue. There was no rain or wind and it was just a perfect day for an outing. The Thompsons had thought of everything. They even brought water and snacks, which were most appreciated after a few hours of travel.

As we drove from the airport to the park, the road narrowed as we moved out from civilization.

The homes were made of a construction that we hadn't seen before. They were wood poles with mud packed between them and then stucco on the nicest of them.

We saw small homes scattered in clearings and even a little church along the narrow dirt road that cut through the dense jungle.

By the time we got to the park the road was barely wide enough for the car to pass and the jungle was very thick. It's the first real Tarzan-style-jungle that we've seen in Africa.

There were some buildings at the front of the park that were interesting. The people who work at the park live on the property at least part time.

There were some traditional houses displayed and also one used for an office.

There we met our guide, Vincent. We also found a huge nest on the sill of the traditional house.

There were plants with enormous leaves growing by the buildings and throughout the jungle.

Having just come off the plane, we were in our regular dress clothes, which wasn't the perfect attire for walking in the JUNGLE, but that certainly didn't dampen our enthusiasm for this fun outing. Brent was even wearing his suit and best shoes, but he shed his suit coat, rolled up his sleeves and we headed off into the park.

The primates in the park were all either rescued animals or had been born in the park. There are about 400 primates there. They live in huge enclosures and are fed, but the goal is still to prepare them to be returned to the wild. We only got to look at them through electrified fences, but the compounds were enormous and the animals were in very comfortable natural habitats. We couldn't see from one enclosure to the other, but as we headed toward them the primates knew we were coming and began to call and make a great racket.

The first enclosure we came to was for the Chimpanzees. They were in the trees and throughout the underbrush but when they heard us coming they ran to the fences to see us. Vincent warned us that they were naughty little guys and indeed they were.

They followed us along the path, grabbed handfuls of dirt and sticks. Then when we turned out backs they threw things at us.

In the movie Madagascar, there's a place where they say to the Chimps. "If you have any pooh... fling it now!" Well, these chimps had it and they flung it. Sister Thompson turned her back one too many times and they hit her right in the back of the head with a big, nasty clump. Naughty chimps!

Just beyond the chimp enclosure was the area for baboons. They were well behaved and didn't pay as much attention to us as did the naughty chimps. There were several varieties of baboons.

The males were very colorful and more interested in looking at us.The females almost all had little babies hanging on for dear life on their mother's stomachs. The moms were plain in color, a little shy and they mostly turned away when we looked at them. Vincent said they turned away to shelter their babies from possible danger

After we passed the baboons, Vincent headed off the path and onto a jungle trail. We walked for about half an hour on a tiny trail through the jungle. After a few minutes Brent started asking Vincent if he was sure he wasn't lost. We certainly would have been without him to guide us.

We came across several of what Vincent called "rivers of ants" as we walked through the jungle. Yuck! But we didn't see any snakes. When we asked about snakes Vincent said they were there, but when they heard us coming they left. That made all of us happy!

We also saw cocao trees. We recognized them at once from having studied them at grandkids' Chocolate Camp last summer. We could have made a bunch of great chocolate if we'd had the time. It made Brent's day to have seen chocolate at it's source, but it really didn't look half as good in this form as it does in a Hershey bar.

There were some amazing trees in this jungle. One variety was enormous. We could hardly see the top of it and the roots came up out of the ground at least two feet.

It was quite interesting to climb over the roots in a dress! Sister Thompson and I contemplated for a minute how to get over the wall of roots We took a picture in front of the tree just to get perspective on its size. It was so big that all five of us linking hands couldn't have reached around it.

After about a half hour in the jungle, we came to the Monkey compound. There were at least four or five varieties of monkeys.

None of them looked like the monkeys we see at home. I didn't see any of them swinging by their tails, even though some of them had very big, strong-looking tails and although the trees were full of monkeys. I asked Vincent if all monkeys had prehensile tails. He said that these were all "old world" monkeys and none have prehensile tails. They only use their tails for balance. "Old world" monkeys also have nostrils that face down like humans, while "new world monkeys" nostrils face to the side.

Since I still have a lot of the preschool teacher in me, I found all this very interesting. When we asked Vincent about his training for this job, he said that he had university degrees in agriculture and biology. We enjoyed his information and comments and it added a lot to the trip to have him as our guide. Plus we'd have still been wandering in the jungle had he not known the way out.

Another half hour walk through the jungle took us to the Silver Back Gorillas.

Seeing them was one thing that I really wanted to do while in Africa. They are magnificent animals. It would have been more exciting to see them in the wild but sadly, the only way to do that is to go to Eastern Congo, which is very dangerous. From there you take a helicopter into the remote locations where they still live wild. It doesn't sound like something that would be a good idea. So, I guess this Mafou Park is as good as it's going to get and I'm happy to have actually seen silver back gorillas. Here's more useless info. They're called Silver back gorillas because as they age their hair turns grey, kind of like it does on senior couples' heads.

A day spent on an African outing with good friends is a real treasured memory.

We are grateful for the effort of the Thompsons to make it happen! It was a great afternoon!