Bienvenue en Cameroon! (Welcome to Cameroon)

March 14, 2011
Whew! What a whilrwind of 2 days! As I write to you from Hotel Mont Febe in Yaounde, Cameroon. As I ponder on yesterday's travels (ie. the scrambling before departure), it's a wonder I made it here! Let me first tell you how I came about joining HTI's medical/dental mission to Cameroon.

I attended the annual Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, KY this past November. This was my 2nd time at the conference. I knew I wanted to make connections with a medical mission group while there. On the last day of the conference, I stumbled-upon Dr. Dan Wiklund at the Health Teams international booth. He engaged me in conversation about the work of Health Teams international, and invited me to join he and his team during their annual trip to Cameroom. Dr. Wiklund's dynamism and warm welcome grabbed my attention, not to mention the great opportunities to learn new skills in medicine and dentistry on the field! A nurse working at the booth greatly encouraged me to pursue the trip, affirming that she had phenomenal learning experiences working with Dr. Wiklund on previous trips!

Upon returning from the conference, I prayed about the opportunity, and inquired more about the trip. In early December, upon returning from working in Haiti, I determined to join the group and made it known to the missions committee church. Their supportive response to my plans further affirmed my decision. In addition, Dr. Wiklund's dilligence in communication (I can't tell you how MANY emails I received from him between December and March 13th!), "filled me in" on every detail of the trip! I have not yet worked with a medical mission leader more thorough and communicative than he, and one who managed to pay such great attention to both the mental and spiritual preparation and growth of his team members! I highly reccommend mission trips with Dr. Wiklund and HTI!

As for the whirlwind of my travel experience, I was up until 3 am Saturday night arranging my things last-minute as always. I got up @ 8AM Sunday morning, only having 4 hrs of unrestful sleep as our clocks were forced to "spring forward" Saturday night. I still had last-Minute "affairs" to take care of on the computer and with packing, and completely missed church (felt terrible about that)!

My dear friend Grace arrived at 1:15 to take me to Dulles airport. She helped me organize a few things in my luggage then began moving them to her SUV. At that time it was probably 2pm... we were supposed to leave right @ 1:30! I was falling behind no doubt... Then, to add to the chaos, the wheel of my carry-on piece completely snapped-off! I needed the carry-on for my personal belongings as the two check-in pieces were filled to the brim with medical supplies donated by my hospital (thank you St. Joseph's Medical Center!).

Thankfully, I had another carry-on, though much smaller than the other, so I had to leave some things behind and do a complete rearranging of my things! A video recording of what transpired in my neighborhood parking lot as Grace and I scrambled to unpack and repack everything, would certainly have made millions on America's Funniest Home Videos! What a mess! Grace was the PERFECT friend to handle the situation with me, helping me keep my cool the entire time, and moving quickly to help me get it together! THANK YOU GRACE! You're AMAZING!!

We FINALLY left @ 2:30 for Dulles, and Grace's navigator was estimating a 1.5 hr trip! I was SOOO late for my 5:15pm flight! Somehow we miraculously arrived in 50 minutes! I made it to my gate towards the end of the boarding period, praising God as I found my seat, for helping me make it despite my disorganization! He is soooo good!

I met my team members during our connection in Paris. We are 16 of us all together, 14 coming from Washington state. I switched seats to find more space during our flight to Yaounde and happened to sit next to one of the administrators at the Cameroon embassy in D.C. who was travelling to Younde for a conference on human trafficking. He was pleased to learn that our team was travelling to Cameroon to serve the underserved. The embassy, apparently, was looking to encourage such activities.

Visibility over Cameroon was very poor as we approached the airport for landing. Its no wonder that it felt like a sauna when we disembarked from the plane! It took a while for us to get through customs... two stops. One to check our yellow fever vaccination cards, the other for visas/passport control. Thankfully, all our luggage came through unscathed!

Upon exiting the airport, we were greeted by Pastor John and Kathy N'Goh, the full-time missionaries who helped organize our working itinerary and would help lead our team. They have been serving in Nimbe Cameroon for over 14 years, and continue to serve while both their children are studying in the U.S. WE also met our cameroonian team members: Jean-Marie and Pastor Peter (translators), Franklin (translator and driver), and Jean-Paul (driver).

We loaded most likely over a TON of luggage onto into a little old bright green mercedes-benz van that resembled a squared-off VW bus! We all travelled in a 15 passenger van (on it's last leg) and the N'Goh's SUV. Made it to Hotel Mont Febe around 6pm. Eat, swim, sleep was our agenda for this evening... Already liking the food... Fresh papaya, pineapple, watermellon... I may have trouble dieting here! We have an AM orientation meeting tomorrow morning before we leave for the city of Yoko, within Cameroon's central province. "A demain!" (French for "See you tomorrow!")