Christmas Update:
It was a pleasure to spend time again with former Wycliffe missionaries Rueben and Judy Stueckle. They ministered for two years, in our city in West Africa. We watched their home movies from Yaoundé, where we will live 2 ½ months, and got a better feel for the people, land and climate.
While Rueben and Gary talked computers and cockroach prevention, Judy spent time telling Penny about varieties of foods available, how to cook them, shopping areas to avoid, and when to have nationals help you find items.
At home this month, and to our amazement, we found by typing “Wycliffe” on You-Tube, there is a great jazz trombone musician by that name!
And if you type "Cameroon," there are numerous pages with photos and movies of the country, posted by visitors and humanitarian workers. These make us feel more at home there, from afar.
A friend from church, who emigrated from Sudan in East Africa barely six years ago, prepared African cuisine for Penny, including spinach with beef and “fou-fou” of white cornmeal, an African staple!
It's made as a thick, thick mush, pulled apart in pieces and used to grab meats and veggies in the center and eat, like a miny, puffy taco. Rosa also taught Penny how to prepare it. YUM!
During December at home, Penny spent more than a few days painting, moving furniture and preparing the new “guest room” for our two sons’ to return home for Christmas.
During this time, Gary spent hours deciphering the applications to apply for Cameroonian Visas. Of course, the one's we received did not match those on the embassy web site, and they are mostly in French. Some question's boxes needed to be checked, others circled, others crossed out.
Regardless of the confusion, these had to be completed and sent to WA D.C. within a very tight time-frame. The Cameroon embassy wanted them precisely three-weeks before departure.
This, of course, gave us a bit of concern, since our three week window included Christmas and New Year's holidays. There was a possibility that they might not return to us in time to leave, an especially distressing thought, since our passports were included in the packet!
Then praise God, the Visas came by Fed-Ex, properly stamped in our passports, on New Year’s Eve—two weeks early!
Email us with comments or questions: gplent@gmail.com
