Not Exactly A Vacation

A couple from our church (who shall remain anonymous) embarked on a missionary trip to the West African nation of Cameroon last month. Following are a pair of live reports of some rather hair-raising goings-on there of late.

~ ~ ~

As I write this we have heard about forty shots of tear gas released on crowds within the past forty minutes, here in Bamenda. In fact, we are watching, across the short valley.

About 10:30 a.m. about sixty to eighty people ran down Two Mile Road, shouting. They were immediately followed by about three dozen troops. Then the tear gas began, which wafts down their hill, across a short valley and up our valley. We smell and see the white smoke, about a mile to a mile and a half away.

Some shots are huge booms, which sound like cannons. But vendors James and Basi say it's all tear gas.

Now there's black smoke, which means burning tires has begun.

We'd hoped things might be settled by noon, and who knows, they still may.

Please pray for people's safety. Please pray the conflict over increased food and gas is resolved and ends. Ask your friends to pray, since this is affecting all Cameroon cities....

We are here another two days. Bamenda, where I am, is still on strike and we are on compound lock-down.

News forty minutes ago says the capital of Yaounde, where we were headed home and which began normal this morning, has now erupted in mob violence and looting, like we had yesterday. I won't give all the details, but things were within a quarter mile or less of us, much closer than expected.

So all Wycliffe compounds there are in mandated lock-down.

By the way, tear-gas stinks, and about sixty to seventy canisters of it were burst around here yesterday.

So even if Bamenda calms down today, we cannot enter Yaounde until it is calm. And when calm occurs, we must always wait twenty-four hours for re-eruption. So that equals another two days...at least.

If things get really bad, threatening our immediate safety, the compound director has an evacuation plan set for all us, north, into Nigeria. But we hope not.

I finally had the doctor here, also the compound director, give me an antibiotic to kill my intestinal protozoa. Hope it works. 80-90% sure.

We do have a bed and food and water and occasional internet. It's still a great adventure!

~ ~ ~

That's one word for it, I suppose. I suspect most of us would describe it a tad less enthusiastically.

What could possibly motivate an American couple to set aside their "conventional" life here in the States and venture forth into that dirty, dangerous, chaotic maelstrom?

Yes, that is a rhetorical question.