Penny and I are now in our Pacific Northwest home, after three good days in Belgium and only two delayed flights thereafter. But don’t ask us what time zone our bodies are in…. Bittersweet is the word to describe leaving Cameroon, but it is now time to reflect on what God has done, and catch-up with the mail! Gary
Sunrise and Butterflies
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
We still have occasional power and water outages, but we don't really mind, because we get to refocus from computers to books and conversation. Modern problems, yes? I caught a gorgeous sunrise this morning, which changed and was gone within 90 seconds.
The past couple of days I've been finishing some of my 52 articles for CABTAL and SIL, and Gary's finishing projects too.
For dinner, we have similar things as at home. Had spaghetti yesterday. Sometimes have beef or chicken, potatoes or rice, eggs, carrot sticks, stir-fried veggies, pineapple, yogurt and granola. Thursday we'll have guests for baked beef/bean/cheese enchiladas. Not a lot different; I was surprised.
Tuesday we went to a large "Artisantes" area of carvings, painting, beads, leatherwork crafters. It's somewhat like a swap meet, in that, vendors try to get your attention and get really excited if you buy ONE item from someone else. Then they urge you to come look at their items, for "One minute. Not to buy. Just to look only." After not too long one gets "input overload" and moves on or leaves. 
One of the most interesting and beautiful items to find is “butterfly wing” art. As in this photo, every piece of the art is made of different colored wings, glued on. Wow! [Double-click on the photo to get a closer view]
Bananas and Beignets
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Do notice we took our past photos and notes OFF the archives list to the right, which is too hard to navigate easily, and placed them again in a LONG, LONG row, below. So enjoy scrolling through the photos again.
We are into the beginning of the rainy season here. When we hear the banana leaves flapping outside our windows, the wind is picking up and rain is quick to follow. But in addition, they enjoy LOTS of thunder and lightning too!
We've had a number of "GRAY" Pacific NW morning skies and loved it! Even had a few days under 80 degrees!
A couple of days ago I walked to my favorite seamstress shop after work, about three blocks away, to gather her bi-monthly sack of "scraps," which her team saves for me. "Nothing is too small," I tell them, as they shake their heads at the "crazy American." But I have gathered a nice assortment of pieces of African fabric! I'm in scrap heaven!
While there, the sky, which had been graying, decided to DUMP! So we visited about 30 minutes while it poured, then when it finally turned to a light drizzle, I walked home. It felt sooooo like Seattle! I loved it and hardly got wet.
Agropole is the name of the most wonderful French bakery we often pass on the way to church or town. When we get anything, all of which is baked fresh daily, of course, it is a taste bud treat. A favorite we've gotten about three times is a beignet, (ben-yah), which is simply a big doughnut hole. I mean a HUGE doughnut hole, the size of a softball. The one in this photo is about to bite Gary!
Time is flying, and we can't believe TWO months have passed already.
Flaming Toast & Head Wraps
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
Tastes of home are favorite events. Often this begins in the morning with oatmeal or scrambled eggs. Nothing over-easy, here. Yolks must be broken, to cook completely through. And of course, eggs need toast.
In our early weeks, we’d hold a piece of bread over our gas burner, as in the photo. We soon found, however, that as the bread browned, it became brittle and broke off, falling completely into the flame. Our creative solution is now to hold a cookie cooling-rack with the tongs, and place bread on top. This allows TWO pieces to be passed over the flame, without a risk of dropping! We also took the “wimpy” way, for a few days, and borrowed our neighbor’s toaster.
I mentioned in the past blog that you’d be amazed at my attempts to tie a woman’s head wrap. Possibilities increase with the size of fabric one uses. The largest I’ve witnessed was four feet square! Three or four women have shown me techniques, so I took my 2’x3’ swath and tried my hand at the art. In the previous blog you see the “Side Knot” I used for our Valentine’s banquet.
My first attempt I titled “African Spear.”
Next I created “African Arrow.”
But my favorite honors a north Cameroon animal, “African Flamingo.”
Gary's Office, Penny's Dress
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
Your international news shows lots of activity here in Cameroon, and we are fine. Since we have a bit of time on our hands in Bamenda, it’s fun to look at recent photos and chose a few to share.
This is Gary’s boss Archie and Francis, whose job Gary is doing while he’s gone to a month’s training.
And typical to a computer room anywhere in the world, here Gary is hard at work.
Two weeks ago we were on the way to a Valentine’s dinner with our next door neighbor Beth, when these neighborhood boys came along. They love to greet and get a handshake or hug. Gary took our photo, since I wore my brand new Cameroonian outfit!
Babanki Project, Dusty Tan, Lake Awing
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008
Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we serve in Cameroon.
Sorry for few updates for a week. We've been on the road and without internet much of the time.
During the weekend, we got wonderful interviews and photos for CABTAL articles on translation teams. But the past two days I've had what Cameroonians so delicately call "running stomach," so I've remained close to the room. As a compromise, people have met me here, at the Baptist Guest House, for interviews.
So far we’ve interviewed and photographed teams from BOKOKO, AWING, and PINYIN languages. This includes linguists, translators, project coordinators, exegesis checkers, Bible Use and literacy specialists, and many, many pastors of village churches.
This work entailed seven bone-jarring hours of rutted, rocky dirt roads EACH day, to/from sites. Thus, we return each day with "dirt tans." Gary and I are bruised from hitting the sides of the jeep, and he took a camera video, to show it, but it was great fun. The “Wild Cat” roller coaster has nothing on Cameroon!
Cameroon’s NW mountains and many valleys are absolutely GORGEOUS! Here is Gary at Lake AWING.
We’re often reminded of WA State, except here it's hotter, dryer, dustier, and there are coffee plants, papaya, and banana trees everywhere!
Pray for these people who desperately want to read the Bible in their mother tongue, with all the cultural nuances.
We plan to go on to two more language projects tomorrow, then home to Yaoundé.
Bolak & Mathaus, Two Mamas
Monday, Feb. 18, 2008
Finished a normal week, then an EVENTFUL weekend! Friday morning I was up early. Met CABTAL Personnel Director Bolak Mekwi [on left in photo] at 7 a.m. for our day trip SW to Edéa. Took a taxi to the bus station and left Yaoundé about 8:30 a.m. for the 2 ½ hour trip in a big tour bus. Beautiful scenery along the way, and got a photo of a “bush taxi” van in front of us, with a half-dozen pygmy goats tied on top—a common sight.
Also lots of interesting “bush meat” for sale along the highway: small deer, muskrat, parrot. Since it was early morning, I didn’t buy anything for Gary’s dinner. We were also traveling at between 80 and 110 kilometers per hour, so quickly I didn’t even get my camera out.
Met Mathaus Njack [on right on right] in Edéa and taxied to his house for an hour interview and great lunch of HOT foufou (thick cornmeal mush) and d’jamajama (fine-cut, tasty spinach-like), from his pastor’s wife. He has a Master degree in Linguistics and is very excited to begin “Language Development” for the Bakoko language, with more than 100,000 speakers, in nine dialects.
We visited also with his pastor, heard stories, held babies, talked with neighbors, then tried to get a bus back to Yaoundé, after 4 p.m. BIG mistake. On a Friday, many people want to travel to nearby relatives to visit and shop, so every bus, big or small, passed us, PACKED. All that was left were luggage racks on top, where GOATS travel. 
Another interesting, colorful, fun and productive day in Cameroon, Africa!
Wed. Feb. 13, 2008
In this photo, Jim feeds his many babies cheese, and they follow his voice—begging!
Our mornings begin with roosters, from 4 a.m. onward, depending on how late THEY sleep. Our first week, one rousty fellow crowed ALL NIGHT. But no longer, he must have become dinner. If we are quite tired, we don’t hear them.
Later each morning, neighbors wash their metal pots, beginning about 6:15 a.m., so we know it’s time to awaken. Gary’s temperature and humidity gauge tells me most mornings are 77 degrees and 72 % humidity, which now feels normal. If there is a mist or morning clouds, it may get as cool as 68-70 at night, when we use TWO sheets! On a few days, humidity was 45% and 50%, but it rose later.
Yesterday, however, there was no cloud cover, and by 8 a.m. it felt 100 degrees. That is when I rush between home and work and burrow behind curtains like a groundhog, with our big Wycliffe Assoc. fan on high.
We do wear sunscreen if we’ll be in the sun, especially midday. The malaria prophylaxis we take daily has a side-effect that IF we should burn, we will blister. So as a red-head, I’m careful. 
A friend implied we were not “suffering for Jesus” enough, from the photo of our nice apartment building. So here is a cabana we’ll pretend is our house instead—until the rainy season.
It has rained twice, which is totally unusual for Jan. or Feb. And of course, the second time, this past Friday, it absolutely DELUGED, 20 minutes after my laundry went up on the line, providing a second rinse?
Wed. February 6
Two successes! Yogurt and Chad evacuations!
Beginning on a light note, I did "learn" to make yogurt in CAMBO orientation, but until we moved to the apartment, I had not done it myself. First time out I produced a TOTAL FAILURE of warm, milky yogurty liquid. However, I spoke to other volunteers, got more tips, and "had at it again," as Jenny, our Scottish companion would say. Then success! Now..if only I can replicate in again in a week...
If you catch international news in the states, of course you know of unrest in Kenya and Chad. But closer to home HERE, we had nearly 50 overseas long-term Wycliffe people evacuated from Chad Monday. Those I met are all in good spirits.
French troops helped them to a safer French school location, then took them via armored trucks to the airport and flew them south to the country of Gabon, then to our coastal Cameroon port of Duala.
Yesterday 37 people bussed north into Yaoundé and are now housed on three sites here with SIL. We had one young man move in two doors down the hall from us. Nine more evacuees arrive today, when another man will move onto our 3rd floor, top, left. 
A few chose flights north to Europe. No one knows when they will return to their homes and work, at this time. Though a grenade did explode in their housing courtyard during evacuation, no closer personal threats were experienced, to our knowledge.
I understand some students at the Rainforest International School, on the same compound where Gary works, have parents among the evacuees. What a blessing all are safe!
You know how to remember their many needs to the Father, at this time.
February 3, Sunday evening
This is what a surprise looks like for Liz and Amy, two teachers at the private Rain Forest International School (RFIS) here for missionary and ambassadors' kids, mostly. We brought tons of gifts for people here. OK--not exactly tons--but our church family donated 10 boxes, stuffed with 100# of goodies!
We packed and hauled it all half-way around the world. Now we get to enjoy playing Santa Claus! People are particularly enjoying dried fruits, seasoning mixes, Tylenol and CHOCOLATE CHIPS! But they are certainly HEAVY. We're glad to be gifting them out.
We had a nice visit from the local wild-life 
when this big croaker swam through bathroom pipes, as one commode was being repaired for a couple of days. Our Wycliffe Assoc. host Mickey White called him our resident "Toad Stool." Keep sending those comments and questions to: gplent@gmail.com.
Tuesday, January 29
Note: I added information next to the meal photo in the previous post, to explain what each item is. DO continue to send questions and comments to gplent@gmail.com! We have loved hearing from people.
I had my first experience of what we call "running stomach" this past Thursday night and felt fine in 20 hours. Thankfully it was quick, since we packed and moved into our permanent apartment on Saturday evening, to live for the next two months. After a week of training in a camp environment at Cameroon Basic Orientation (CamBO), we now have a wonderful kitchen, dining/living room and our own bathroom!
Our Wycliffe Associates hosts Mickey and Barb White took us to the grocery store to get basic food for our household. We still have to keep reminding ourselves to NOT drink or wash toothbrushes in tap water, but to have boiled it or use the filtered water. Note our 3 gallon "reservoir" beside the fridge. We divide foods, wrap and freeze, to keep fresh, like in the states.
Gary and I each began working in our respective departments today. He's learning to fill in their computer needs while Francis is gone a month.
I had individual workshops with four staff members at Cameroon Assoc. for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL). There are now 10 staff I will work with, so we are flexing with daily schedules to get everyone a series of sessions.
Except for three of us, the staff are all dedicated, experienced Cameroonians. Our goal in working together is to help them improve skills in writing English correspondence, since they speak and think generally in French. Our first session today was great! They each realized tips to help their particular department's writing needs.
We finished a malaria training course this past week. Started our series of three rabies shots here on Monday. They are highly recommended, but cost one-tenth the cost of in the USA.
Weather remains mild, usually 73-74 degrees in the morning and 78 or 79 by evening. Humidity has gone from a low 33% one day only, to a usual 56%. We feel warm but acclimated.
Jan 23
Did you hear the Cameroon football Lions (soccer) did not win against Egypt yesterday? We all watched it (or a bit of it) on TV, and when we scored you could almost hear the entire city erupt. International news comes from Europe, BBC, etc. It is from a bit different viewpoint. No real time to watch right now. We could also, of course, get news on-line from CNN or FOX or whatever.
But we're quite busy in classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., then dinner at 6, then clean-up by 7, then showers, then laundry, then homework, then wrestle each other for the ONE internet plug-in at this training annex, then we’re tired.
This dinner is a bowl of rice and yogurt, koki starch, fried plantains (look like bananas) and folong leaves (like spinach). The food can be small amounts but stick to your ribs a while. Remember too, during meal prep and clean-up, we are learning HOW to prep and cook the local foods, so it’s very valuable to our size-maintenance.
And did I say it's hot? Not soooo hot lately, 75 degrees. But the 75% humidity changes the effect. Then at night we hear neighborhood drummers and giant bullfrogs, incessant crickets and birds of all kinds. All lovely and interesting, but makes getting to sleep—with windows, of course, WIDE open—difficult.
Had Malaria class yesterday and did thick and thin blood slides from ourselves, to test if we get sick, especially out in villages, which will occur in a few weeks. 
Communication is fine VERBALLY. We speak with ESL (English second Language) or Francophones (French speaking). The interesting challenge for us, early on, is understanding their African culture and manner of interacting. It’s often opposite of American. In the USA we are more direct, faster paced, to the point, get-r-done, and less relational, which all takes a back seat to relationships here.
Sorry for the confusion about yogurt. “I'll never pay 50-cents again,” because we make our own quickly and easily, every day, then “doctor” it many ways, with fruit, jam, chocolate...rough life. I'm amazed at how few bugs...that I have SEEN: three big ants, lots of teeny-tiny ones, and two colorful geckos.
[Read past notes and see photos, beginning at the BOTTOM of this page.]
Jan 21, AFRICA!
We've been In Africa three days now and are in training all day, every day. LOTS to learn! Especially about the people.
Note, we are 9 hours past Seattle time, and it is 7:30 p.m. Monday here, 1/21/08.
Yes, I've been bitten by 'dem guys at night, 'da bad ones, but since we’re on malaria pills every day, should be OK. Pray for it.
Each day we are also learning about new foods, how to select them, clean, and cook properly. Then of course, we EAT them for a meal. I've loved each one so far: jamma-jamma (like sweet spinach), fried eggplant (crunchy sweet), steamed plantain (pineapple tasting potatoes), Koki bean curd & homemade yogurt! (I'll never pay 50 cents for one in a grocery again!)
Have great photos of nationals who work on the compound and their beautiful clothing!
Had morning training on tribal authority. One local chief was disciplined for selling land, when he had no authority to do so, then removed from office forever.
In the afternoon we went to a local health clinic, run by wonderful Baptist nationals. The director and chief medical officer is a male RN. Photos were permitted.
Then went to a nearby market, about two square-blocks huge. Very busy and colorful! Like a Sat. farmer's/crafter's market in the states. (In the states...listen to me…an expatriate in three days already...)
Since we are at the training center, few blocks away from our future apartment, we still live from suitcases and use the communal bathroom down the walkway...much like being at and CAMP!
Wonderful SIL and Wycliffe Associates teachers, as well as other trainees!
(Read past notes, beginning from the bottom of this blog page.)
Through Brussels
Arrived at 7 a.m. Jan 16, after basically 24 hours travel from Seattle to Chicago, layover, then into Belgium, to connect later to Africa. Rented a room and had dinner with the Belgium Wycliffe Associates Director Bob and Ena D'Craene.
Had a 2-hour nap, then toured nearby university town of Leuven. Also visited with Petra, a Christian doctrinal student from the Czech Republic. Learned of the extreme atheism and ostracism there.
Had a wonderful 48 hours, outside of Brussels. Then got a good 12-hour sleep that night. Left for the airport at 6:30 a.m. the next day and traveled south to Cameroon.
January 3, 2008
New Year's Update:
We're a few days from departure! Beginning to actually pack, if I can get the cat off my skirts. (Read previous notes, from bottom of this page.)
Also happy to see people at church help. They are bringing items the Cameroon missionaries have requested and cannot get there, like Ibuprofen, Tylenol, chocolate chips, dried fruits, Ranch dressing and Taco seasoning dry packets.
We remember from our brief training with Wycliffe that we need to make opportunities for others to be a part of this mission trip. This lets everyone "own it."
Getting two sons off to college and jobs again, from Christmas break. Lots of activity around home.
Please pray for our final preparations. Sometimes I dream in French. Getting ready, I guess. Also had a dream about a lion two nights ago. I'm going to "delete" that one. --Penny
Email us with comments: gplent@gmail.com
December 2007
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
November 2007
Thanksgiving Update:
We’ve now had eight shots each and only minor headaches during a week of Typhoid meds, a normal reaction. There are now 17 books on our “special” shelf on Africa as a whole and West Central countries specifically. We read and try to absorb information on history, cultures, customs, gestures, use of money and missions.
Penny practices language review almost daily with three French phrase books and dictionaries. Then she tries to teach little bits to Gary, who quickly slaughters the language and mixes it with his high school Spanish.
(It could get ugly.) He might ask for a pound of rice and get dried bugs! Gary may stick with nods, gestures, and English on the mission compound. He'll have to stay with "moi" as a French chaperone, in town and villages.
On the topic of bugs, we learned that we will buy a "bag" of rice, corn meal or flour from an open air market. It is scooped out of a bigger sack, 30-100 pounds they seem, in photos. When we get our "bag" home, we are to put it in a freezer for at least a day, to kill anything that moves...we'll keep you posted on that.
Early in the month we spent time with Pastor Tim Heath of Bonney Lake, who spent time in Cameroon with his missionary brother.
In the middle of November we met Rueben and Judy Stueckle. For two years they directed Wycliffe's Yaounde school for missionary and ambassadors' children. We asked lots of questions and took many notes. We'll get together again to view their photos.
A week later we spent a afternoon with Pastor Bob and Judy Allen, with ITEM and NICE. He travels into numerous African countries and teaches workshops to pastors there. This is a great need, since there are thousands of new believers and men who feel God's call to lead, but little training is available.
Because of a lack of Bible knowledge, many African believers still mix bits of their traditions and life-long superstitions into their new Christian faith. This is another reason God can teach them faster, when they have a Bible they can read, in their "Heart Language," as they say.
At the end of the month we spent time with Mary Anne Lattin, who returns to her mission post with World Venture in Senegal, north of Cameroon, one week before we leave. She shared videos and photos of her town and people. Then she showed a couple of ways to tie the African woman's' head wrap. In Cameroon it's called a Monpour (spelling questionable).
Penny is eagerly reading and asking questions about what foods are available and how are they cooked. Gary asks about the computer and internet capabilities and needs.
We both want to learn as much as we can, to feel comfortable and effective in the culture, dress and temperature, which is warm and warmer: 85-95 degrees daytime and a crisp and chilly 75 degrees at night. BRRRRR!
Email us with comments or questions at: gplent@gmail.com
October 2007
Preparing for the Harvest Update:
Please pray for us as we prepare to leave in early January, 2008 for Cameroon, West Africa! We’ll serve in the French/English speaking capital of Yaoundé, 3,000 feet in the mountains.
The computer department needs Gary’s expertise, before, during and after some staff take leave—about two months total—from January to mid-March. They also need Penny to teach English writing skills to nationals who work in mission offices and travel to villages with new ministries, interview staff, then write about them.
Of the 270 Cameroonian languages, only 15 have Bibles and 41 have New Testaments. It is an area of high need for translation, so more than 90 projects are now in progress. Most all use computers.
This opportunity to serve began 10 months ago, in January 2007, when Gary took a work sabbatical to catch-up in his home office and update several local ministries’ computer networks. All the while, he discussed possibilities for short-term computer support with Wycliffe staff.
He also asked if Penny was needed to teach English. Computer needs did exist in numerous countries, but no hardware or software was available for him to install.
In March we were encouraged to begin the process of paperwork, shots, character references, and background checks. As these progressed, we waited. Together, we’ve been punctured 14 times with shots for six common tropical diseases and have pills for three others.
Email us with comments or questions: gplent@gmail.com
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