January 9, 2011

--I woke again to the morning coolness hearing birds and roosters – its good to be in Mangamba. A brisk shower, and morning coffee on the cool veranda overlooking the neighborhood. Slowly folks began to appear, talking about what time church starts, when breakfast was expected, and what today’s adventures might be.
--The church bells rang and we jumped up, but they were announcing the other church so we settled for another half hour and munched. The same bells rang again, this time for the Cameroon Evangelical Church.

--In Mangamba this church was founded by German missionaries in the late-1800s. After World War I the Germans lost Cameroon, the missionaries left, and the church building deteriorated. When it could no longer be used, services were held in a make-shift building made of corrugated tin from the original church roof.
--About 20 years ago Raphael and Ruth gave a new church to the village of Mangamba, it stands next to the foundations of the original church building. It is their gift to God and to Raphael’s home village, where he eventually will come home. Today we were privileged to worship in this church; portions of the service were translated from French and Douala to English for our benefit. The announcements said we’ll have a Mangamba clinic day - our presence has not escaped notice, people are very curious about us.
--In the early evening we were privileged to be visited by M’Boule Nseke Frederick, the old man of the village who he said he’s 84 years old but we think he’s probably older. Through translators he told the oral history of his Bonampaco lineage, his understanding of the colonial era and more recent history of Mangamba, with his family connections interwoven back through many, many generations. This gentleman is Raphael’s uncle.
--The power has been off for 24 hours – thus, no A/C, water, lights, phone service. The village has a pump well that’s a Godsend – buckets of water down the toilets…. We city folks are holding up well, everyone is cheerful and philosophically talking about WAWA, West Africa Wins Again.

--We did not see the chief today. We were told he was in Douala and we should watch for his car to drive past, thus to know he had returned. We didn’t see it.