Fall has Arrived

Today marks the first of October. It is so crazy to think that I have been here for almost three months. There has been a lot of activity going on over here in the Jackson Village. For the past several weeks we have not been a full house, either it being Karen and Katelyn taking a trip to Yaounde, or Chris leaving for the week for meetings. We have all been in the grind of work, school, and meetings.

Work has been going well; it honestly has been really rough and challenging. I know that when I came onto this project that it was not going to be easy, but I did not really realize how intense and how much work really has to be put into this project. Every Monday we start the week with a meeting to see the progress, and to map out our week ahead. I like Mondays, not only because I get to fill out what everyone is doing on a white board, BUT on Mondays we go to the Helping Hands Orphanage and put or lessons to the test! That is right people; we are test running the Luke Lessons for Bible Club over at the Orphanage. I have to say, that it really has been amazing to see all the work that we have put in flowing out into the minds of children. The kids seem to really enjoy Bible Club, and the Lessons seem to flow wonderfully! We have had to make a few drastic changed to our lessons to make everything flow better, but I think we FINALLY have a template that works in the classroom. Kids love the included coloring pages, and seem to get a hoot out of all the games we have created as well. Lessons for Luke are a go people! Monday’s are really a good day for me. (Despite the damper that it is the ending of the weekend.)

It seems the majority of us kids are really into eating and living a healthy lifestyle, I think I am one to be the part blame for that, so every morning I have all of us girls working out! I have noticed that it is important to exercise our bodies. I notice that for the most part if we all work out our moods are lifted and we all feel refreshed and ready to start the day’s adventure. Maimu, the new young girl from the bush who just moved in seems to be doing well, she is catching onto English really well, and it is pretty easy to have a conversation with her now. The only problem she seems to have living here is the “white man food.” It is so funny to see someone having a hard time eating spaghetti, chicken noodle soup, and baked potatoes. We have all been raised to eat that kind of food, so it is interesting to watch someone who has no idea what any of that is eat it. She has made good friends with bread and nutella though…

The horses made their way to the Jackson Compound about a month ago, there is a young missionary family with three kids who have taken to the horses so usually once a week, granted good weather, and we take the kids out to ride. I must say, I came here to Cameroon with no real experience riding horses, but now I am able to canter, gallop, and trot bareback! We have only two horses currently, but there is talk of a third horse joining the compound!

The Jackson’s sweet golden retriever, Autumn is going to hopefully be having puppies in a few months! Today we got the official okay from Chris, well more of a forced agreement, that we can breed her! I have never been around a pregnant dog, nor been around to see second old puppies! If all goes correctly, we can be having puppies in December! Right in time when Karissa makes it over for Holiday! It really is going to be a fun time coming up!

On top of puppies, horses, work, and new people, we are soon coming up to “October Break.” Yes people, Grass Valley is not the only place that gives High Schoolers a week break in October. We have a slew of people coming over the end of next week to celebrate the week off! I am not one hundred percent sure I personally will be able to take a full week off work, but if that is the case…I am so looking forward to that week. Sleeping in and days filled with no agenda is really what I personally need to be quite honest. I am so exhausted all the time. Working a full day, ending the day with making dinner and doing dishes, gets exhausting..I have hit the point where the weekend is no longer refreshing.

That pretty much concludes the Cameroon update. We are busy all the time, and it seems like I can rarely grab a moment to myself. There are people around all the time, and activities going on all the time. I have been having good times, and bad times. I continue to be challenged daily, and I have been growing significantly in my faith. God is good, and he allows everything for a reason, no matter how much we do not understand.

I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogging. It has been busy, hence the time flies by. I wish you all a wonderful Fall, it is slowly turning over to dry season over here, so the rains are slowly going away L