Working in Bamenda

This wasn't supposed to be a holiday and thus we've both been put to work.  Dave is getting the GIS software set up and will hold training sessions on it in the next few days.  I've connected with IDF, a local development agency.  After a meeting on Sat., I arrived at the office on Monday with a full agenda set out for me.  Lydia, a previous volunteer, put together a workshop for community health workers on teaching HIV/AIDS clients how to cope with their disease with good nutrition.  What I'll be doing is creating workshop booklets for the clients. I was asked to do this because of my training in ESL/Basic Literacy and my experience in teaching adults.  And as I've begun, my love of scrapbooking is making this a fun project.
But I guess it's not all work all the time!  On Saturday we experienced the market.  What a wonderful crazy place.  Everyone is calling out from their little stalls trying to convince "mama" to buy.  A lot of fruit and vegetables were quite familiar but there were also some new items.  I tried to learn about those foods and how they would be prepared:  things like yams, plantain, huckleberry, cassava, dried fish, etc.
Sunday we attended a Baptist church.  Our driver didn't know the start time so we arrived at the end of the message. Oops.  But that was just the first service.  We then attended a Sunday School class and sat through the entire two hour second service.  The African music was just as I'd imagined; just like those children's choirs that come sing for us from time to time.  What struck me was that here I was, half-way around the world, joined together with a huge congregation worshipping my God!
In the afternoon our driver, Theo, showed us his home, a very tiny one room apartment.  Then he took us to a local tourist site, a botanical garden.  He was also a very good tour guide and identified for us the mango, orange, guava trees, palms, banana and plantain trees.  As it is nearing the end of the dry season, it isn't very fresh and green but it was a beautiful garden nonetheless.  The curious thing was that admission was:  children 250 fr, adults 500fr, and tourists 1000fr. Really now?
Today is another day and it looks like it will be a full one again.  But I can't you about it yet...