We have arrived! It is so hot here! Almost unbearable. We have come to terms with the fact that we are just going to sweat constantly for 10 straight weeks. Polycarp and Rosemary picked us up at the airport in Douala yesterday and then we drove down to Limbe. Rosemary is the principal of the school where we will be teaching. We are staying in here house with her family which is on the school property. We were greeted this morning by all the students. The day starts very early here…. sunrise when the roosters crow outside our window, literally. The children are so sweet. The little ones in preschool run right up and hug you. Polycarp runs the health clinic and he took us to see his operations after we were done meeting all the students. We had a meeting with him and his colleagues, Wilson and Dr. John, to discuss what we will be doing over our two and a half month stay and what we are looking to accomplish. Polycarp has been so helpful. He has set up internet for us with a little office/café right next door to the school. He also escorted us all around town today running errands, exchanging money, etc. We are really being taken care of. When we saw Polycarps clinic and lab today we really started to understand how much the C.U.R.E. kit is going to help (a box of medical supplies we brought with us). He is so excited about receiving it that he once we started telling him what was in it he decided he was going to move the meeting that was going to be Monday to tomorrow or the next day. The supplies are being donated on behalf of the Rotary Club so that the Rotary club of Limbe and NY can partner. We are under very specific direction to only present Polycarp’s clinic with the supplies at the Rotary meeting so we may document with pictures!

Rosemary has three daughters ages 26, 20, 15. They are so much fun and so sweet. We went to market with Edwan and her friend Pascaline. All the food is bought in a big open market. We bought oranges, plantains, corn, sweet potatoes, some kind of seeds, and ginger. Edwan and her sisters are going to teach us how to cook. They are excellent cooks. Also Edwan has a friend who can make us some African dresses, so on Friday its back to market to pick out some material and have them made for us!

-Hayley

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Hi everyone it’s the other one. Well’ we’re here. We’re alive. And we’re well. At least I am. Hayley threw up once. But she’s better now. Everyone here is so nice to us. They truly could not be kinder. So we’re in good hands. But the first feeling when we got off that plane in Douala and we felt that heat, then we saw an airport so different from any we’d ever seen-not knowing really which way to go, exhausted and jet lagged, it felt strange. I felt like a stranger in a strange land. Polycarp, his friend Enist, and Rosemary were there waiting for us with a sign. Hayley saw them first I had been directed to a different line by a man I assumed worked there, but he was just trying to shake me down for money. After we got thru customs, he kept asking me if I changed my money and insisted he would take us there. Finally I caught on. I tried to get rid of him with a euro. But he only wanted Cameroon money. Anyway, it was funny. Then a bunch of boys tried to carry our bags even though all of us had the bags so they just put their hands on it and still asked for money. We had a 45 minute drive to Limbe. People were just every where, walking all along the road. Drivers just do what they want. There seem to be no rules or laws for vehicles. It got dark pretty quick- though not quite as fast as I had heard. It took about a half hour but by 7:00pm it was dark. BLAH BLAH BLAH… more later. We must go to market. It is market day.

-Kathy