Gabriel's Born House

Instead of a baby shower, the celebration Cameroonians have surrounding birth happens after the baby is born and is called a born house.

The school staff represents our main community in Kumbo. We live on campus with many other teachers and their families. We contribute money to a social fund which then pays out to various life events that a staff member might incur such as deaths, marriages, and births. This money helps with the costs of these events. With births there is a special ceremony attached to the giving of the gift. A delegation of 10 staff members is nominated to attend each and every house that has a new baby. We are a prolific staff, it seems, and there have been over a dozen births since we have landed here. Anyway we were very blessed to be a part of this tradition.

First, Eric and I were told we must prepare the traditional food of kiban and nyoosiji and buy palm wine. We staged our house in the normal Cameroonian party fashion: all the chairs in a circle around the perimeter of the room. We gathered our food (we even had a chicken!), beer and soft drinks for everyone, and the palm wine, then waited for guests to arrive.

The leader of the delegation gave a very touching speech expressing the tradition behind the born house and how it is very important in this culture to welcome the baby as one of the community's own. He said that in Cameroon there is a saying that only before the baby is born is the baby solely its mother's. After the baby is born the baby belongs to the whole community. The born house symbolizes that movement of belonging. The delegation leader expressed his gratitude over us sharing a child with them and how we should feel welcomed into the fold, so to speak. He also encouraged us to have another baby so we could come together and celebrate this time next year!!! He said that we have a nice big African family and that we are respected by the community. The born house is also a time to celebrate children in general and especially the making of them, which is expressed through some hilarious and raunchy traditional dances.

After we were led through the speeches and the presentation of the money we poured palm wine and drank it, a rite which no Banso ceremony can lack. We ate and drank and were treated to a very funny side of the culture; Cameroonians at a born house kick back and their seemingly impermeable reserve shatters and they become raucous, even lewd! We danced traditional style in a circle, round and round again. Eric and I couldn't understand most of the lyrics which were either in pidgin or Lamnso but we insisted upon translations being wrought for us and... wow!

Here are some excerpts from two songs:

Planty for born house, e fine fo chop, oh!
(The plantain of the born house, it is good to eat, oh!)*

Tanyi ker shwafer, wo a fer fer sho!

(Tanyi has a knife, that is used to make babies)

We had a great time! It was one of the most fun and interesting experiences we have had and it really made us feel truly a part of the culture. My heart is full of happiness for Gabriel, who will always have such a warm home here in Nso', the land of his birth.

*This should be read with a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge.”

-Logan

When Jesus Wants to Hold Your Baby

We recently visited St. Anthony's Secondary School, a new school nestled in the hills a few miles above the Shisong hospital.  It was interesting to see another school, to see it under construction, talk to the principal about the difficulties faced with a combination day/boarding student body, and to ask the students why they attend school at St. Anthony's and not any other boarding school in the country, such as SAC, or anything closer to their hometowns.

The younger kids couldn't articulate why they went there, some of them because they were Francophone and still learning English.  Basically, they attend St. Anthony's because their parents sent them there. The older students were much more articulate and noted the different curriculum and the fact that there was a business and marketing track, among other things.

Meanwhile, every single girl at the school crowded around Gabriel and wanted to hold him. I am always a little uncomfortable and guarded in these situations with strangers, but Logan is much more open and friendly. After all, she told me, what do you do when Jesus wants to hold your baby?

-Eric 

Home

After 36 hours of travel, we finally made it home to Saint Augustine's College in Kumbo. It was a grueling end to a wonderful and strange trip home to America. (I guess that's the funny thing about moving around the world: you start to accumulate more and more places you call “home.”) It has been a while since we posted anything on the blog, so let's catch up a bit.

In October, baby Gabriel was born. Logan was amazing during the birth, and Gabriel is just about the cutest ever. What a sweet blessing he is! Even when he is fussy and keeping me from sleep, I look at his face and just think of what a wonderful blessing the gift of life is. The kids all love him and dote on him. Sally alternates between fawning and jealousy, having been displaced as the youngest, and de facto cutest.

In November, we travelled to Yaounde to visit the United States Embassy, so that we could establish Gabriel's citizenship and obtain a passport. We travelled so soon because we had an upcoming visit to America for my sister's wedding, and it takes some time to get the passport as everything is done in the States. Our friends and co-missionaries Pete and Joy Newburn generously offered to care for our five older children while we went down, so we turned the trip into a little bit of a vacation. Everything went smoothly regarding travel and the application process, so we can thank God for that! And thank God for the Newburns, who constantly teach me about generosity and hospitality.

In December, the first term wrapped up at school, and we got all our marks in before the hullabaloo of recording the marks onto report cards. It was markedly easier this year (pun intended) because we made the transition from recording and calculating by hand, to using computers to keep track of everything. There were a few kinks to work out, but all in all I was very happy I didn't have to manually record and calculate all the marks for 45 kids for their 14 subjects.

Finally, it was all over and it was time to go home for a three week holiday. It was nice to be present in the United States again after an 18 month absence. We have heard stories of other missionaries having culture shock upon returning to their home country. There were some surprises as to what exactly affected us... for instance, we were afraid that after not driving for 18 months, being thrown into the gauntlet of DC area traffic would be a terrifying proposition. Instead, we found that driving in and around DC is a cakewalk compared with riding as a passenger in Cameroon. (An observation that I can confirm after again riding as a passenger in Cameroon.)

Highlights of our trip include Gabriel's baptism on Christmas day, my sister's wedding two days later, too-brief but very joyous reunions with family and friends, a trip to the museums in DC, cousins, cousins, and more cousins, cheeseburgers, snow!, and meat. I can't believe how much meat we eat in America! It was delicious, all of it. 

Just to make the trip a little strange, our kids all got the chicken pox the first day after we arrived in Virginia. You can't really have a family vacation without someone getting sick, right? We will always remember this Christmas/Wedding/Vacation as the Chicken Pox Christmas.

We are grateful for all the love and hospitality people showed us, especially letting these equatorial African residents borrow winter clothes!

After three too-short weeks, I said goodbye to the land of wifi and boarded a plane with the five older kids. Logan is spending three more weeks with family, along with the baby. So, now I get to play the single dad with five kids in Africa! (I joked with our neighbor here in Kumbo that I got to play the role of bachelor for three weeks... she corrected me, and told me I was playing the role of Mother Hen. Well, Cluck cluck cluck, I guess!)

The journey home was loooooong, taking about 36 hours to get from Dulles airport to Kumbo, Cameroon. By the time we pulled up in front of our house, I was ready for bed. A few surprises awaited us at home: Our cat had run away!!! :(  There has apparently been no trace of Theseus since the third day we were gone. Also, it turns out that of the nine chicks we raised that have finally matured, about five or six of them are roosters. We were hoping for the opposite ratio, to have more eggs and fewer chicken dinners.

We are here, we are safe, and we are recovering. Now it is back to work; we are entering the second half of our three year mission. It was good to be back in the US for a short time, and I feel refreshed and ready to get to it again. Our friend Ellen Dailor, who serves off and on at the Shisong Cardiac Center through Mission Doctors, sent me the best advice to consider as I re-enter the mission field: spend time with Jesus in prayer. 

We were so sad to be leaving home, (and so sad we couldn't make it out to our home in NM) but are so glad to be home in Kumbo. These homes are all just stops on our way to our real, true home in Heaven.

-Eric