On the Road Again!

I am trying to add a couple of pictures.  It's not the best I've ever taken, but it is recent!  Next time I'll wear a Phillips or Pittsburgh t-shirt!  (To bad I don't have an ELLC or PLUM one)

Willie Langdji, one of the West Africa area representatives for the ELCA has arrived in N'Gaoundere.  He will be taking me to CAR tomorrow to introduce me to people there.  Here’s the tentative plan: 

Me on a main street of N'gaoundere

• Leave N’gaoundéré sometime between 8 and 9 a.m.
• Drive 4 hours or so – some good, paved roads, some not – to Garaou Boulai, this is a Cameroonian town on the border with CAR.  We stopped there for the night on the way here.
• While in the border town, we need to arrange some paperwork so that the Toyota HiLux that will be mine for a while can be driven in CAR.  It is registered in Cameroon. 
• After crossing the border (which can take some minutes or an hour), we will drive an hour to Baboua. 
• If the Central African church vehicle is available, National President Golike will drive to the border to meet us and travel back with us.
• We will stop briefly in Baboua so I can see the house and house where I will stay eventually.
• Then it’s off to Bouar, a town 2 hours further east.  That is where the national church offices are.
• I will stay there for a couple of days to see what is there and then go ½ hour further north to Bohong.  There is a Lutheran clinic there and it is where I will study Sango (though not on this trip). 
• After a couple of days in Bohong, I will go back to Baboua to get ready to go to study Sango.  By then, I should have a better idea which parts of the stuff I have I need there and which can stay in Baboua.
• I will be studying Sango through Oct. and maybe into Nov.  We shall see how it goes!
• I know already that early in November, I will be back in Bouar for a partners meeting.  That involves officials from the EEL-RCA (Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne- Republique Centrafricaine), people from synods who support programs in CAR (2 in North Dakota and LA-Gulf Coast), and those from other missions working in the area.  (More on that as it happens!)

 So, I will have a pick-up truck that will be “mine” to use.  It is a stick shift which I haven’t driven for a while, but I am more leery about the size and the road here.  Fortunately, I don’t have to drive tomorrow.  I figure I can get used to the roads in Baboua or Bohong where there is less traffic before I’m ready for them to “turn me loose”!  In any case, I need someone with me since I don’t know how to get anywhere – so that person might as well drive…

I did have a lesson today on how to check fluids under the hood and to find what I (or someone with me J) need to change a tire.  

Here's "my" truck.  It's on a carport so you can't get the full feel of its size...