Hope within Injustice

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to say that, here they would not really approve of me shouting that in the streets of shooting off fireworks....go figure right?! I miss being home for the celebrations since it is one of my favorite holidays. But have no fear, we are have our own USA & Cameroon party tonight with all of our siblings!

Well, it has been almost a week since I last updated, which means I have been in Cameroon for nearly2 weeks!!! The time hear continues to go fast, despite the laid back attitude that the entire town of Kumba seems to possess. Wednesday I got to talk with Mom, Dad, Nicole, and Paps! God bless them, they all came home in the middle of the day just to talk to me before I went to bed. It was REALLY good to talk to them. Just to hear their familiar voices was enough to calm me down, as always. It was such a comfort to have something familiar, even for just a short time. Here, I have been stripped of all my usual comforts and have been forced to recreate a new comfort zone, which let me add is MUCH larger already! It was good to be able to cry, laugh, and catch up together. It gave me the peace that I needed and I am doing much better now. Not that I have wanted to leave at any point, but the homesickness has subsided thankfully!

Life at the Womens Empowerment Center is never dull. We went to the market and bought fabric to "tie and die" and the fabric which we will make our traditional African dresses out of. I am learning to much there. The women are all gorgeous...inside and out. Their preception of beauty here is so different than back home, in a great way. Here, women are beautiful for their body, not for what they hope it will one day be or what it used to be..what a great change of pace! If only we could adopt this view in "the states" as they like to say here.

Yesterday we went to snail farm...not your average farm. The Heifer International project sponsored this woman to start here own project. She lives out in what we call the bush in a rundown village and raises these snails to sell. Despite her situation, she welcomed us will open arms, and like all Cameroonians, offered us food and drink. Unfortunately, the food was SNAILS. After watching the sluggish creaters roam arround cages...I proceeded to eat them...seeemingly raw. Needless to say, at that point, I decided this was not my new favorite treat! Later that same day at work, they brought both Liz and I our own drink. Not only was it a 40...its 5% alcohol....and during work! Yipes...but to them, it is considered respectful to do this..quite opposite of the response I would get by doing this at work at home! That made for a funny afternoon.

Each day here I am learning more and more...some good things, and some things are not so easy to hear. Poverty and prostitution here are quite prevalent. I am read through the book of Job though right now and am just being encouraged through that and reminded that God is with these people just as much as anywhere else, he is present here!

Tomorrow we are hiking anout 3 miles out to a local village and spending the day out there. I am so excited! Well...I have to head of to work at the Center now. I will up date soon. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, please keep the coming!

In Him,
~Shannon~

PS, sorry for any mispellings or errors, I do not have time to edit!!