Orientation is over! I am in Pittsburgh sorting, packing, making lists, organizing, planning and
trying to make sure I don’t forget any detail that needs to be taken care of. There is a for rent sign in the front yard of my house. I have a tentative date to take the bulk of my stuff into storage and various lunch/dinner dates to visit with friends before I go.
Here is the projected timeline:
Aug. 17 –
20 trip to Memphis to visit my brother and sister-in-law
Aug. 22 (or
so) trip to Mechanicsburg to visit my parents
Aug. 26 (or
so) continue to Philadelphia to visit my sister and family
Aug. 30
leave Philadelphia for Younde, Cameroon (via DC and Brussels)
Sept 1 (or
so) drive from Younde to N’gaoundéré (also Cameroon)
Sept 4 (or
so) drive from Ngaoundere to Baboua, Central African Republic
Sept 7 (or
so) drive to Bohong, CAR to begin Sango (nat’l language) class
I will be traveling (from Washington, DC on) with Elisabeth
Johnson who will be teaching a seminary in Meiganga, Cameroon after she takes
French classes in N’Gaoundéré. We met
and got to know each other during orientation.
Fortunately, Joe Troester, who also works for the ELCA in
Baboua, will meet us in Yaounde. While
there we need to buy some things that we couldn’t bring with us. My list includes: printer/scanner, wireless router, cell phone,
and mosquito net.
Driving from Yaounde (in the southern part of the country)
to N’Gaoundéré is about an 11 hour drive – all but 50 miles of the road is
paved and they are working to pave that.
The drive from N’Gaoundéré to Baboua is about 5 hours and
includes crossing the border from Cameroon to CAR which can take up to an hour. I think that road is now paved – something new
in the last couple of months for the Central African part.
Wow! That’s a lot of dates and details, but, of course, my
life is all about details and dates at the moment.
Oh, and today is my birthday. I am having dinner with a friend and then going to the Shadyside Arts Festival.
