GlobalChristian Travels

Life and Thoughts in Cairo

2007-11-21T08:25:51-05:00

This is Karin Zylstra, writing again from Cairo, Egypt. I have been very delinquent about posting, so it is now over two months since I wrote that last post. Needless to say I’ve done quite a bit in that time, including attending classes and taking a weekend trip to Jordan. I’ve also been settling in to a mindset of living in Cairo as opposed to being a perpetual tourist.

Classes have been a mix of challenging and repetitive. I am taking two Political Science courses that are graduate and undergraduate combined, and these are making me seriously reconsider the wisdom of this whole concept of grad school for Karin. I’m also taking Arabic for the first time, which is difficult and confusing, to say the least. In addition to class in Modern Standard Arabic, I am also doing private tutoring in the Egyptian colloquial Arabic. Sometimes this is helpful, but also can make things more confusing and causes both teachers to look at me strangely when I interject words of the other dialect into a sentence. Class structure is very similar to what I am used to, but there are other aspects I have had to adjust to. It is interesting to suddenly look around and realize that I am the only American in the class, and then wonder what I’m supposed to do when the professor slips in a side comment about the chaos in Iraq. It is also interesting to learn what it means to be discriminated against for the first time in my life. I can’t say that it is anything big, but little things that are enough to both frustrate me and make me slightly ashamed to be so petty when others are suffering real discrimination.

The weather in Cairo has recently become quite nice, even chilly. My roommate and I find that when we sleep with the window open at night, it is a little harder to get out of bed in the colder air. I also have had several “encounters” with cars, though not actually being hit head on, but sometimes I or the driver misjudge the other’s trajectory and we come into close contact. My friends and I joke about how this is the place for any adrenaline junkies, because there are many opportunities each day to have that near death experience (especially if you assume a street in one-way, and then find out very quickly that it is not). Logistically I have enjoyed traversing about the city on the Metro system and am also quite proud of the fact that I know the five or so words that are required to direct a taxi back to my home.

Over the time that I’ve been here, I’ve developed relationships with different groups of people and find my new acquaintances to be very diverse. There is the group of Christian students at AUC, both Americans and Egyptians, and I have been so blessed by the kindness and hospitality extended to me from those people. Even though I am only here for one semester, these students have opened themselves to me and shown me true friendship, even though they are in their senior year as well. There are also a different group of Christians that I have connected with through the church I attended in the southern suburb called Maadi. This is non-denominational church with a very diverse congregation. A large part of the community is ex-patriots working in various organizations here in the city. There is quite a large group of young adults that have hosted several good functions. I also spend quite a lot of time with non-Christian friends, which I have found to be very enjoyable as well as thought provoking. Though with some of them I feel completely comfortable, I realize that if I want to talk about my spiritual life I have to preface it with a disclaimer or explanation. This diversity of friends has at times caused me to feel overextended, but also has enriched my life in ways that I could never have predicted before coming to Cairo.

In addition to being a blessing, these friendships that I have developed, as well as old relationships from home, have caused me to do a lot of thinking, but in very different ways. Living in a Muslim country has caused me to have a lot of questions about the nature of salvation and a person’s individual convictions. Given that in Egypt it is illegal for an Egyptian to convert to any religion other than Islam, I have been thinking a lot about the role of Providence in the lives of people who are not only trapped into a religion, but do not even realize that there are questions to be asked. Coming at that same question from a different angle has been thoughts about the nature of a Christian’s faith. Among the other study abroad students here, I meet a lot of people who say that they grew up attending a church and used to believe, but now no longer claim faith in Jesus. What does it mean that some Christians turn away from their faith, some doubt it very strongly, and others never question? I guess I’m wrestling with classic theological debates, but to me they don’t feel that abstract. They feel like the email exchange I have with a friend from home, and the impromptu conversations with my friends here in Cairo. To me it’s not a denominational divide, or what have you, it’s something that affects the people that I care about.

Another thing that I’ve noticed in the people I interact with here is that so many of them are searching for something. Some of them know what they are searching for, others only that they are searching, but the vast majority doesn’t even realize that they are missing something in their life and keep trying to convince themselves that they have it all. I see it in the guy who says he’s kind of bored and is thinking about getting involved in some volunteer work. I see it in the girl who is trying to prove how independent and self-sufficient she is.

Overall, being in Egypt has made me appreciate both the things I have here and the things I have left behind. Because I have left good friends at home I really am grateful for all the friendships I have been able to make here. This perspective also gives me a slightly different mindset for going back to Wheaton College for my last semester. I don’t know how many international students typically attend, but I am planning on hunting them down and befriending them.

I have a little less than a month before I head home, but this seems much shorter. I consistently feel very blessed by my life and experiences here, and feel that Cairo will be an important part of my life for some time to come. I would love to hear from anyone reading this, so if you want to contact me, my email is karingracez@gmail.com.

Travels in Egypt

2007-09-11T16:43:26-04:00

My name is Karin Zylstra, and I was a Research Associate at the Institute for Global Engagement in the summer of 2006. I am now spending this fall semester of my senior year studying at the American University in Cairo (AUC). I was invited to share some of my experiences and reactions on this blog, so here goes.

I am challenged by the task of using words to describe my impressions of Cairo. My thoughts are summed up in pictures and experiences, but I will try to describe some vivid encounters as I go along.

To start at the beginning…My flights over to Cairo were fine. The trip from Frankfurt to Cairo was almost half full of AUC study abroad students, which was entertaining for me, and I’m sure for the other people trying to peacefully travel home. There was a sort of organized chaos at the airport getting whisked through immigration, and a non-existent customs to shuttle buses waiting to take us to the various residences. That ride was the first of many fully packed rides and our first introduction to driving and traffic in Cairo. To digress briefly, traffic in the city is intensely personal. It’s kind of hard to describe, but you’re not really on the road with other cars, but just a whole bunch of other people. The lane lines are completely disregarded, there are no understood areas of personal space around cars, horns are used no less than twice a minute and are a language all their own. Being a pedestrian is also quite an experience, and widely acknowledged to be one of the more dangerous aspects of Cairo. Sidewalks aren’t really used, either because they are covered by trash, an extension of a sidewalk vendor, used by people smoking sheesha…you name it, but the effect is that most people walk in the road, sometimes on the sides, sometimes not. The common wisdom is that you take your life in your hands when attempting to cross streets. I often have oncoming cars accelerate as I cross in front them, very lovely.

Culturally, I can’t even begin to describe the amazing differences I see here. People are intensely involved in each others lives and very friendly to each other. This carries over to foreigners like me in different ways. There are the guys on the street who whistle and hiss and do anything to get my attention (for future reference it might take me a while to respond to anything but my name said loudly and distinctly). But there are also the workers, guards and street vendors who are eager to talk and hardly let me ask the few questions I know in Arabic before using all the English they know (or Arabic that I understand) to ask me many questions about myself. I had a 45 minute conversation with a maintenance worker in the hotel, with topics ranging from education to religion and prayer to family relations (this was clearly in English).

I have enjoyed observing my fellow study abroad students, almost all of whom are from America. There are more than 300 total, and a little less than 100 living in this hotel, which has created a kind of American ghetto, which I’m sure is either very entertaining or annoying to the locals in this neighborhood. I share an apartment/flat with 7 other girls, which is a really good set-up, because there is always someone to talk to and hang out with.

I was able to register for classes a couple days ago, which was a very hectic process, as it is at all schools. I am currently taking a class in Egyptian Politics and Government, which I really hope will include some field trips. I am also taking a seminar course in Ethnic and Regional Conflict, which probably will not have any field trips. I am also signed up for Arabic 101. This is Modern Standard Arabic, which is all reading and writing, and isn’t really spoken anywhere. I was stumped by the choice between that class and a beginning level in Egyptian Arabic, which I would then be able to speak while I’m here, but nowhere outside of Egypt. My current thought is to do some tutoring out of class so I can learn Egyptian Arabic while learning to read in class, we’ll see how that works out. I’ve been taking an evening class for the past few days. It is a program offered by the school called Survival Arabic. The class, instruction and experience have all been excellent. Our teacher is a very nice Egyptian woman who loves to teach us Arabic words, but also Egypt itself. She will always tell us certain cultural things to do or avoid, and we have gone on two eating excursions during break time. The first day we went close by and had futir, which she called an Egyptian pancake. It is flat, flaky bread that is rolled up with either honey or cheese inside. That was very delicious, of course. The second day was a bit more adventurous. We all went to a sit-down restaurant and had liver and brain. Both were cow’s meat, and both breaded and fried, but quite an experience, most likely not to be repeated.

Another unexpected benefit of our Arabic class was that a group of us were able to go with our teacher’s son to see the pyramids. After getting up ridiculously early we took taxis out to the Giza area of southern Cairo, where the pyramids completely dominate the landscape. After choosing horses over camels (the horses were “fast” and we would “run” across the desert, and they were half the price) we set out. The horses were not exactly race horses, but that was probably better, given the trouble some of us had staying on when they managed to work up a bouncy trot. We spent probably an hour going out and back, and paused briefly about half a mile from the pyramids. Even from that far out, they are quite an incredible sight to behold.

Ok, so now we have gone to and returned from the Red Sea, and that trip was really cool. To be honest, one of the more exciting parts of it was the food. We all stayed at a resort on the beach and all our meals were in the restaurants in the hotel. I think that they staff might have been slightly overwhelmed by feeding 300 college students who have been eating fast food and 30 cent meals for the past week. We had one orientation session which we all did our best to shorten as much as possible and then hit the beach. The Red Sea is really warm and really salty. I hung out with some of my roommates and friends and later in the night I went to a belly-dancing show with some other roommates and friends. The resort mostly consisted of beach and umbrellas, so the snorkeling I had hoped for never materialized, but it was still a good time.

Sunday morning I got up early for another AUC sponsored trip, this time to the pyramids. We saw the three main pyramids in Giza and then traveled a little further south to some smaller step pyramids. At one of those, we actually got to go down a very small chamber into the burial chamber and see the sarcophagus there. The whole trip was pretty long and hot (shocker), but one very bad thing is that my camera began what appears to be a slow death, so I will soon need to replace that.

On a more personal note, much of my time here has been spent trying to find balance from extremes. I am a very people-focused person, so it has been a challenge for me to leave all my friends from college, especially during senior year. At the same time, I am faced with meeting hundreds of new people (so many names!) and developing different kinds of friendships. I guess I’m still learning how to relate to people on different levels: learning that I don’t have to be best friends with everybody, but still trying to understand what it means to treat them each as a valuable person. I’m also really beginning to struggle to know how to balance doctrine with personal interactions. What happens when I speak with Muslims and am convicted that their faith is more sincere than my own? How on earth could I then say that I am in the right and they are not? More superficially, how do I distinguish between Egyptians who are just curious about who I am, and those who want to swindle me or gawk at a blonde American without a head-covering?

Even after only a few weeks here, I am astounded by how much I have learned and in so many different ways. I am still getting used to the schedule here, as classes are just now starting. The Islamic holiday of Ramadan is starting soon, which will create a totally new dynamic in the city. I am looking forward to taking trips outside of Cairo, possibly to Alexandria and Mr. Siani. I will try to keep this blog updated on my latest escapades. If you would like to ask me any questions, or respond at all, please feel free to email me at Karin.G.Zylstra@wheaton.edu.

Shah in Street - or is it Shahin Street?

2007-07-26T15:35:34-04:00

GlobalChristian intern Stacey Pistritto alerted me to this cool travel blog through the Middle East by her friend Ryan who wrote it last year. Moving stuff in this entry from Israel/Palestine in November 2005, before Israel's campagin in Lebanon:

"Every step is a political statement in the land with no name. A new man of Galilee changes my life. The old one becomes commercialized, fake, enshrined in incense and tourist sweat. The new man is about life-is about humanity-is about loving your enemies. Religion is a tool, not a slave-driver. The human in the uniform is still a human. The human from a different ethnicity is still a human."

Reprise: Amy Rowe goes to Vietnam

2007-07-26T15:25:32-04:00

This was just such a good blog that I have to reprise it again here. Amy Rowe blogged while travelling in Vietnam. Christianity Today featured the same trip in their cover story in May, and you read some of the other blogs of folks who were on the same trip: Mark Galli, managing editor at Christianity Today; Kevin Colon, lead pastor of Cool River River Church in Superior, Colorado; and Bob Roberts, founding pastor of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas.

Day 5 - Airplane Reflections - Robert Seiple

2007-01-23T16:30:00-05:00

On 11 January, Robert and Margaret Ann Seiple returned for their 13th visit to Laos, a country where they have been integral in efforts to promote religious freedom. During their trip, they will meet with representatives from the Lao government, including Vice President of the Lao Front for National Construction, Mr. Tong Yeu Tho, and provincial governors; U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Patricia Haslach; and Lao religious representatives at the national and local level.

We ended our visit on a “high”, a very good meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad.

We have become friends over the years and were greeted with genuine affection. Somsavat was instrumental in successfully solving the various issues in Keng Kok (mentioned previously), and meetings that celebrate “win-win” solutions always seem to go better.

Somsavat has recently been elevated to the Politburo, one of the top 11 leaders in Laos today. His star continues to rise, his power increased, and the case for long-term relationships building has been clearly made yet again.

Following a spirited, light hearted “give and take”, I gave Somsavat the details of the second co-opted church outside of Keng Kok. He promised to look into it immediately (“I will call the Governor tomorrow”). The U.S. Embassy will follow up with a “diplomatic note” which will cover all of the other problem areas discussed at lower government levels.

Summary reflections:

The value of our “top-down, bottom-up methodology was proven again and again. We have gained respect and credibility with the powerful, the implementers, and the ultimate receivers. Relational diplomacy is key, an approach proven by what we have been able to accomplish.

I would resist the temptation to establish a more former MOU with the Lao government. We have been able to go anywhere in the country, see any official or group desired, have access to decision makers and implementers alike, talk to the press, be hosted at all levels of government, provided pulpits to make our case. No one else has this freedom. Plus we receive critically important logistical and informational support from both the U.S. and Lao Embassies. Each government has strongly suggested we avoid the entanglements of bureaucracy. I agree.

Given the above, we need to be very intentional as to how we pass the baton. At the very least Chris (Seiple) and I will need to travel to Laos together for a couple of times. The Lao always reference our family (as well as the number of visits we have made) when they talk about “our friends.” We need to extend that with Chris.

It is time for another Lao delegation visit to the States. We planted the seed and it immediately began to produce fruit. Invitations should be sent directly from IGE to Mr. Tong Yeu Tho, Vice President of the Lao Front for Construction with copies to the U.S. and Lao Embassies. The invitation should be signed by both Chris and me. It will be helpful to the Lao for us to explain the visit, articulate a rationale, and be specific concerning individual meetings.

There were two critical events in creating our relationships with the Lao. The first was the Delegation visit to the U.S. (this, according to Dr. Siho). The second was finding a mutually beneficial solution to all the people of Keng Kok. Both of these events produced trust, diminished paranoia, and bought time for relationships to mature. Nothing easy or quick here. Invest for the long term, or keep your money in your pocket.

Transitions, lots of transition. We will have a new Lao Ambassador in D.C. and new U.S. Ambassador in Vientiane. Greg Chapman is gone, Terry Mobley leaves in May but Harvey Summers (a good guy and a great disposition for the Lao) is already aboard to track our issues from his perch in the U.S. Embassy. Dr. Siho has retired. We will miss his wisdom and his clout (which almost totally evaporates with retirement). Mr. Tong Yeu Tho will be critically important to us and, of course, Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad is most important.

A Healthy Hospital in Cameroon

2006-10-03T09:21:34-04:00

Dear Family and Friends,

After an exasperating experience of writing a long, detailed report, it disappeared into cyberspace, to be retrieved...nevermore. Oh, how I dislike computers!

However, since my work today was lighter than usual, I will try to muster up the stamina for yet another report! Usually, I spend six days a week at the hospital, reminiscent of my days of residency when I was much younger! School has started here in Cameroon and the costs of sending children to school and buying supplies are deterents for people to see the doctor, so there were fewer patients today.

The experience here is very different than anything I experienced in medicine in the US, but I expected this to be different. Each day I learn something new! I see rashes that I have never seen or heard about before and know less how to treat, diseases that I had only read about in books, and assist in procedures that would be rare for family physicians in the States. When women's health issues come up, I feel that I know more about what I am doing, but most of the time, I feel inadequate to handle the things that appear in our clinic here. At times I feel like a medical student!

There are many patients who wait in the "waiting rooms" which are breezeways with straight, backless wooden benches with the chickens and the roosters ambling about. They do not get upset with the wait and are happy when you see them. Such graciousness and politeness are amazing. They speak Pidgin English, so even though it is English, I need a translator!

Even the children are patient but look at me like I am from Mars. For many of these children I am the first white person they have ever seen so I have to try to establish some rapport with the goodies I carry in my pockets! I am the first American volunteer doctor in Mutengene Hospital, so everyone refers to me as "the white doctor".
News travels fast and I have already had patients come from towns away from here "to see the white doctor". This further scares me because the black doctors are better equipped to handle these things than I, but Africans have longed believed that white doctors know more!
That's not comforting! Ha!

Malaria is the most common problem here and I have definitely learned to diagnose that rather quickly and have memorized all the options for treatment. (So if any of you think you might have malaria, you can call on me when I return to the States!) We see many of the things one might encounter at home: anxiety, depression, colds, gastritis, weakness, dizziness, abdominal pain. Here, however, the complaints engender other differential diagnoses, and that's the part that is challenging!

Never have I seen so many pregnant women in one place!! Children are still a status symbol in this culture, and the family size (sometimes up to 15 in one family) is one contribution to the vast poverty we see everywhere here. The Africans have been very active in establishing programs of education to try to make some impact on family planning here. Our hospital has a weekly clinic, led by midwives and nurses, which focuses on family planning. It is generally well-received, but some believe that their own people are trying to impose on them western practices. The unstable infrastructure of the government and the oppressed position of women also contribute to this poverty, among other things. We have met many young women in their 20's and 30's who are making important changes by becoming educated and finding paying jobs, but progress is slow!

All general surgery is done by family physicians in the hospital, so all day on Tuesdays we are in surgery. The OR is nice enough, but we have no EKG machines, no BP monitors (except for a nurse who sits at the patient's head and periodically takes the BP), no ventilation to keep the air clean and pure, outdated instrumentation. There is one suction machine for the entire hospital and no X-ray equipment except a very modern ultrasound instrument, acquired for them by an American). That is our life saver, especially with post-term or ectopic pregnancies. They have no cautery to help them stop the astounding bleeding we see. Having said all this, I am in awe of the skills and giftedness of the African doctors, and I feel privileged to work alongside them! They remain calm under adverse conditions!

Abdominal surgery and gynecologic surgery is very difficult because of the immense adhesions distorting the anatomy, a result of the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and pelvic inflammatory disease. I will spare you the gorey details of what we see in those abdomens, for I am sure it would be hard for some of you! We scrub with a bar of soap and rinse with rain water, flowing from a pitcher held by a nurse! But all the gloves, gowns, etc. are very sterile, so they rarely see post-operative infections! Our patients recover well and can be discharged in 3-4 days! Amazing! The wards have about eight beds or more, so forget a private room! I wish some of you who are acquainted with the neonatal ICU's could see ours here. There is one wooden incubator and our little two-pound preemie, born yesterday, is doing so well that he pulled out his NG tube and his IV last night!

HIV is of course rampart. I have learned more about the complexities of this disease and how well it is treated with the limited drugs available here. I saw a patient with Bell's palsy and never thought of HIV. My colleague said, "I think we should check HIV," and that's exactly what it was. She had been negative two years ago. The astonishing thing is how thoroughly these patients are counseled and supported immediately!

Living in the Baptist Health Complex, (which headquarters some of the health programs, has a pharmacy school, and is the pharmacy distribution center for the mission hospitals and health centers of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, as well as housing the CDC of West Africa!), has given us the opportunity to associate with some of Cameroon's brightest researchers and staff. The CDC director is an American woman, but all the rest of the people involved are Cameroonian. Just as a bit of history, the Baptists first came to Cameroon eons ago from Germany and the US and established health centers and gradually built hospitals, all of which have the highest reputation of any in Cameroon. People are referred here from all over. It is easy to be amazed!

Today the director of the PMTCT/AIDS program (Program for Mother To Child Transmission of AIDS/HIV) took Manfred and me on a tour and explained some of the ways they are fighting the expansion of HIV in this country. The program was initiated in 2000 with the staff approaching 1000 pregnant women, testing them for HIV, then following them and their husbands/partners with counseling. This year that number has risen to 140,000 women who were contacted and tested! Now the CDC cooperates with them, along with some government organizations and many denominations here (Baptists initially, now Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics). Since these poor women have no money, the CDC has even found funding to pay for the expensive HIV testing! A miracle of God's work in the world!

I have kept you long enough, but I wanted to share with you this once-in-a-lifetime experience that Manfred and I are having. We are daily enriched by what we see and are allowed to do, the people with whom we work, and the joy of being able to serve in this needy place.
The poverty gnaws at our hearts as we drive through the muddy, horribly pot-holed streets with the little shacks with no covered doors or windows, no running water or plumbing, and with many children playing often naked outside in the mud, and inside parents struggling to buy the next meal, but at morning prayers they sing enthusiastically: "We love you, God, because you are so good to us!" A humbling experience!

Please remember us as we do each of you!

Marjean

After two days...

2006-09-01T16:00:41-04:00

FROM MANFRED:

Dear Family and Friends,

Hope you received the email of first impressions after our arrival in Cameroon. Here is a brief note from me (Manfred) regarding my first two days in my work.

We live here in the Medical center complex, where the hospital is and where Marjean is working, in the town of Mutengene, just a few miles from the Atlantic. But the school where I am teaching each Monday and Tuesday is about 80km away in the town of Kumba. My driver picked me up in an old Toyota cab truck at 6:00 am so that I would be there to begin my 6 hr. teaching day at 9:00 am. Why 3 hours for a trip that should take 45 minutes? The condition of the road! We started off, and after the first few miles I did not think I could make it. It is absolutely the worst road I have ever traveled on in my entire life. Imagine the worst road you can imagine, and the reality is even worse!!!! There are literally millions of potholes, many so large that they can swallow an entire car -- and I am not exaggerating! Because of all the jostling and weaving and climbing up and down through deep gullies and going down into ditches because there was no way around the potholes on the road, I started to feel sick to my stomach -- it was just like being in a small boat and being battered by a very rough sea. When we arrived in Kumba after three hours of this, every joint and muscle in my body ached! It never felt better getting out of a car!

Next time I'll tell you about what I experienced and saw along the way -- I wrote a four-page "journal" about it, and will have to condense it for you.

My teaching went well. I was enthusiastically received by the staff and students of the school. The school building is plain concrete inside and out. Their resources are very limited, and there is no money for stucko or plasterboard or paint. The first floor ( which is below ground level) has windows and doors, but the second floor, where the classrooms are, has no doors yet. There was just enough money (donated by a church in Maine) to get the windows in. It's probably good that the doors are still not in, since there is a great breeze occasionally, which helps in this humid, tropical climate, especially since there is no air-conditioning. I teach two course, 3 hours each, on Mondays and Tuesdays, for a total of 12 hours.

Late afternoon is spent with other faculty, students and staff. I am hosted overnight in the home of the president of the Seminary, a very simple, modest home, built 50 years ago by a missionary couple. There is no hot water, but there is an indoor toilet! I sleep under a mosquito net (it's at night, between about 10:00 pm and 3:00 am, that the mosquitos carry the malaria virus and infect people). So we take all the precautions necessary. During the day, we hardly see any mosquitos; maybe because we are covered with a special anti-mosquito spray that the CDC recommends for this climate and we purchased back home.

After classes were over at 3:00 pm on Tuesday, my driver picked me up and we took the 3 hour trek back to Mutengene. It took a little longer because the traffic was heavier, but I now knew what to expect, so I did not get beat up as much as on the way there.

I got back in time to have dinner with Marjean, who told me all about her first day in the operating room. I'll let her tell you about that herself later -- it is amazing what these African doctors, who are generalists (except the eye surgeon) have to do, including complicated surgery, without much of the fancy equipment we have in the USA hospitals. It is unbelievable -- both their dedication to serve the poor and their skill!

Enough for now. We are being challenged and stretched and blessed by being here. Hopefully we can also be a blessing to the people with whom we work and whom we seek to serve.

My love to you,

Manfred

Safe Arrival

2006-08-28T15:55:00-04:00

FROM MARJEAN:

Hello, Family and Friends,

We have arrived safely in Cameroon, after a long 20 hours in flights and airports. We almost missed our connection in Cincinnati, and then in Paris, we had two hours, but even there we had to hurry because our plane was loading when we arrived at the right terminal. They move people by bus and we were an hour in the buses, riding around the Paris airport. It seemed like we were going in circles, but we weren't. They could learn a lot about efficient people moving!

It is hot and humid. Very tropical! The area is like a tropical rain forest with many palms, crotons, lizards, banana trees, rubber trees, and some coffee plantations.

We are living in the health complex where we have a room with a bathroom inside! You may not believe this but we even have an air conditioner in our bedroom. The buildings are concrete with stucco on the outside and inside. It is very adequate for us and not as primitive as we had anticipated, though it is very simple.

Around us is a village with dirt streets. Along the road from the city where the airport is, there were many little booths and markets. Everywhere people are selling things in order to have some money. People come up to you with umbrellas to cover you and then they want some money for it, even when you didn't necessarily need their help. Charlemagne, our host and president of the Kumba Seminary was very upset with all the people who came up to us at the airport! I wanted to give them all dollars and he said NO!

The houses are open, most of them with mud floors, tin walls and roofs. Yesterday, I saw a woman carrying her things on her head. The traffic is a riot--cars going everywhere, scooters, etc. We were glad that we had a driver!

It is the rainy season, so there is a lot of mud everywhere. This morning there was a man washing the cement walkway by hand with wet cloths. The people are absolutely precious to us. They are so happy that we have come here. It is going to be a good time for us here. We are still somewhat anxious about starting our work on Monday, but each day will be easier.

These are just a few first snippets from our few hours here. We slept well last night because we were so tired after being awake for about 30 hours.

Today we will visit the hospital and the town with Dr. Wryter, the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital. Tomorrow we will go with him to his church and then to a town south of here on the Atlantic. We will see the beach that is opposite ours in SC on the Atlantic.

On Monday, our work begins. I (Marjean) will be working evary day at the hospital here, and Manfred will be taken to the town of Kumba, about 80 km from here, early on Monday morning, teach 6 hours on Monday and Tuesday, and return here on Tiesday evening. He will write you about his experiences then.

More later. We are safe and being well cared for! It will be a challenging, stretching learning experience these six weeks here.

Marjean and Manfred