February 17, 2011

February 17, 2011 – Thursday
--We woke up to watch the sunrise, noted we were back in the rainforest again, and settled back to wait for arrival in Yaounde. Dutifully we gathered our belongings and lo! there was Njoke with his bag – we trudged over the tracks, through the lobby, and there was Npho with the truck. We piled in and headed for Bamenda.
--Over the last few days we decided to change our itinerary. In 2008 I began an e-mail correspondence with Rev. Godlove Ndongndeh who is the Director of Pastoral Care and Counseling Services with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board in Bamenda and surrounding environs. We’d discussed ways that I might help his program and the CBCHB medical staff with psychiatry and psychotropic medications. Then we lost contact, and but one of those wonderful God Things happened – just as we were departing Bamenda 10 days ago, I had e-mail from him! We corresponded hurriedly with the result that we decided to cancel our tour to the southern provinces, and return to Bamenda so that I could meet with him and others to discuss psychiatry services.
--We arrived in Bamenda late afternoon, vibrating, tired and very glad to put our feet on Terra Firma after the past days of riding and riding and riding. I found e-mail from Rev. Godlove inviting me to speak tomorrow afternoon to the directors of the hospital, the nursing program, several from pastoral care, and perhaps others – “Mental Health and Psychotropic Medications.” We planned that I would see him in his office in the morning to review tentative plans for the next few days, and to focus my talk more definitively.