February 24th

I was a bit late in getting to the clinic today, overslept, having weird dreams, just a slow-moving morning. Today is home visit day, and we usually try to get out fairly early because it gets so hot by midmorning. As I'm approaching the clinic, I catch a brief glimpse of Remi waiting outside the office and I think, "Oh no, I'm holding them up and he's out wondering, where the hell is Kerstin?" So I pick up the pace and rush in to the office, and the first thing I see from the doorway is 6 legs behind the exam curtain at the back of the office, then Remi and William and Donna jump out and start singing Happy Birthday with much more gusto than I could ever muster at 8:30! I am laughing and red and we do a group hug. They are so sweet! 

It was fun to have Donna from Global Health Ministries along on home visits today. Remi and William had to put up with a lot more chatting and stopping to look at stuff than they're used to.  At one point as we were off the bikes and winding our way through very narrow paths and alleys to get to a patient's home, and Donna and I are chatting away. I notice William holds back so he can bring up the rear behind us and he explains that "good men don't leave their women behind, or they might turn around and find they are gone." We are well cared for here! Donna lives in Sturgis, SD, home of the famous Sturgis Rally. Her husband is a motorcycle mechanic, among many other things, so she's at home on the back of a bike. We stopped for gas and started taking pics of each other, her behind William and me behind Remi and I said to her, "We're motorcycle chicks," and she says, "We're the bitches on the back!" She knows motorcycle lingo. 

Tonight, Karen, my housemate, made a feast of meatballs and boiled potatoes, fresh croissants from Solange, the baker, and her new favorite creation borrowed from Jacalyn, avocados stuffed with chopped tomato marinated in fresh lemon juice. I am becoming an avocado addict. Truly, if you haven't had an avocado right off the tree, you haven't had an avocado. Manna from heaven. (I should stop eating them now in preparation for the weigh in for the bush plane.) We had 8 of us total for the soiree--very fun!

So, it was a really nice birthday in Cameroon. Thanks for all the birthday greetings that I woke up to this morning, sent right before you all were going to bed, and for those that came throughout the day. I'm feeling pretty lucky and very grateful. 

Oh, and a political update--nothing to update really. All is calm in Ngaoundere, and it appears this was a one day thing, for now. I will certainly be following the elections this fall in Cameroon! Makes a difference to actually know and care about people here now, and know that they will be directly affected by what happens. It makes me recall a conversation I had with a man a few weeks ago on one of the walks into town with Jacalyn. He and Jacalyn were speaking French but at one point when he learned we were from America, he said, "Minneapolis Minnesota." I could understand that, of course, and I pointed to myself and said, "I'm from Minneapolis Minnesota." Turns out he has a friend who lives in Minneapolis, and I shook my head and said, benignly, "Small world." I was taken aback by his  somewhat irritated response: "Small world for those who have means," and I felt momentarily sheepish. But then I thought, no. I certainly agree that those who have money can certainly do more, see more, travel more. But it is a very small world now. The fact that I am sitting here at 11PM in Cameroon writing this, and you are probably wrapping up your day at home, and you are reading in real time about what's going on on the other side of the world, and there's hardly a person I see without a cell phone here, and there are TVs and satellites in the most remote villages, then I would argue that this is, indeed, a small world, in a very good way. I can easily continue these relationships that have so quickly developed, and keep connected to people who are now very important to me, and I am very glad about that. 

My Birthday dinner with some of the people who are now very important to me:( L to R): Kulsumi (adopted granddaughter of the Aas'), Martha Aas,  the Birthday Girl,  Karen, the chef and feast coordinator, Jacalyn, Hans Aas (mostly hidden) Yurema, who works for the EELC and is a really nice guy.

Yurema and me. 

Kulsumi and Hans. Hans is wearing his brand new, gorgeous embroidered tunic that he bought from the tailor, Aboubakar, the day we went to the mosque.