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September 7, 2000
Greetings from Cameroon, West Africa!
We have now been in Cameroon for nearly a month. It has been
a busy but wonderful time getting acquainted with Kumba and with
the seminary community. We arrived in Cameroon at 1:30 a.m. on
Friday, August 12—eight hours behind schedule! After a brief
sleep at the Baptist guest house, it was off to our new home.
It was a three-and-a-half-hour, bumpy ride to Kumba. Along the
way we began to see what life is like for many Cameroonians—housing
compounds that look like shanty towns. Strips of wooden or cement
rooms that people rent by the room, with communal, pit toilets,
which are the breeding ground for many illnesses. There is often
a communal area outside where people can sit, since the rooms
are not exactly places you’d want to hang out in if you were
home all day. The lack of employment opportunities in this country
is staggering. It is quite common—and sad—to see able-bodied
men passing time and life away.
We had heard that Kumba was a large town, about 100,000, and
had once had a large German population. We therefore expected
more to the town than is here. Our first impressions of Kumba
were more of dismay than anything else. Roads are covered with
huge bumps and crevasses so that people do not drive on the right
or left side of the road, but follow the path of fewest bumps
and dips. Cars tend to move slowly, but other cars may decide
that the one in front is going too slowly and will decide to pass.
On the larger streets we have seen as many as four cars going
in the same direction, causing cars coming in the opposite direction
to wait. The rains cause sections of the roads to become small
lakes. Once we came across a logjam of cars facing off, with no
room for anyone to get around the others. We sat in the van, exhausted,
in the pouring rain, unable to move. Eventually, a policeman came
and with some jockeying of vehicles the traffic jam was finally
broken.
Besides the roads, Kumba presents itself as a dirty and poor
town. It is hard not to give the appearance of being dirty around
here—mud and dirt get everywhere! There is almost no greenery
in town, just the buildings and the red clay muddy roads. We were
happy to see that once outside of town the land turns green and
lush.
The seminary is located in the village of Kosala north of Kumba.
While the village center appears quite small, we are told that
Kosala is quite large and growing. To enter the seminary is, at
first appearance, to enter a different world. There are many flowering
bushes, palm trees, fruit trees and other greenery. Everything
looks and feels clean and bright. The seminary is perched on top
of a small hill, so from certain places on campus (like all the
other missionaries’ homes except ours), there is a beautiful
view of the surrounding hills and, on clear days, of Mount Cameroon.
Going down the hill we come to our house. Newly built, we heard
that people at the seminary had come to call our house "the
palace" due to its size. After hearing about all the rooms
and baths, we couldn’t imagine what it would look like. From
the outside, it gave the appearance of a rather nice house. It
is cement, but the seminary had taken the time to do some landscaping
around the house. The inside, however, was a bit jarring, having
just come from America. My first impression was entering a large,
somewhat dirty warehouse. The grey, cement floors always look
dirty (even our
cook/housekeeper has commented on this). The large, nearly empty
rooms didn’t help any with that warehouse feel. We have been
told that our house was originally supposed to be a duplex but
due to financial problems (or mismanagement?) it was made into
a one-family home instead. This is too bad, since much money must
have been wasted in building such a large structure for just one
family (not to mention the waste of space due to the poor layout).
It was 5:30 p.m. when we arrived. The dean and his wife brought
us dinner and later, after the electricity cut off, sent over
a kerosene lamp. We spent our first night in our new home in darkness.
The electricity goes out frequently, they say, sometimes for the
entire day or night. This makes it hard to keep food fresh.
Though we are only five or six kilometers from town, it is a
bone-jarring, 20-minute ride. Therefore, one tends not to want
to venture into town that often. Buying in quantity is preferred.
However, because of the electricity problem, buying in bulk runs
the risk that refrigerated items will go to waste.
Any negative thoughts concerning our new home vanished within
the first 48 hours. Early that first Sunday afternoon we went
exploring around the campus. Again we were dismayed when we saw
the married student housing—the same small strips of rooms,
with communal toilet facilities. We have been told to make sure
our kids are well coated with bug spray when they go over to that
section of campus, as the septic system is above-ground and there
are more mosquitoes there.
All of you pastors may be very interested to hear what life as
a seminary student at Presbyterian Theological Seminary (PTS)
is like. Due to the lack of funds, the school year starts off
with the cleaning of the campus. The students and students’
wives all pitch in cleaning and repairing the seminary. The seminary
relies on student assistance to keep this place maintained.
Tuition is 100,000 CFA per year ($145), quite a sum for the average
student to come up with. The seminary then gives the students
a monthly living allowance. For the married students that’s
20,000 CFA ($30). The seminary also provides land for the married
students to garden. One wife told us that they wouldn’t survive
without their gardens. We saw a student cooking palm nuts, a long,
hot, physically strenuous process to produce palm oil for cooking.
A large cauldron produces about four liters of oil. It seems like
a lot of work for four litres, but they do what they can to make
their money stretch.
It looks like we’ve run out of space. We’ll write again
soon. We are happy to be here and adjusting well. Thanks so much
for all your prayers of support. Please e-mail (but send no photographs
and file attachments—e-mail is very expensive!) or write
when you have the time. We love hearing your news.
Peace & Grace,
Anna & Larry Bauerband
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 32
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