Saturdays Adventures

So I have this new friend, his name is Benjamin.  I have been giving Benjamin bubbles.  Every day (sometimes twice) he comes to my house with the empty bubble bottle and I give him another one.  Friday I asked him if he was really using all these bubbles as it seemed excessive compared to all the other kids (maybe he was washing with them or spilling them, I didn't know).  He said yes, he has two sister that are younger than him and they really like them and he plays with them.  So Friday I gave him two bottles of bubbles.  Saturday morning Brian woke me at 7am to tell me this kid was wanting me outside, to sell me something?!?!  WTH, drug my butt out of bed to find Benjamin (who knew how long he had been waiting for us to get up since they get up here at like 5 every day!) at my door with this 6 ft stalk of sugar cane and his empty bottles of bubbles!  Asked him what he was doing with the sugar cane and he said it was a gift for me.  Heart smiled again in Africa!  I gave him four bubbles and silly bandz, my kids have never eaten sugar cane this should be fun.  When we got home from our hike he was at my door waiting for me again, this time with pears (avocados).  Thanks to my Joplin gal pals I just gave him a big bottle of bubbles and told him not to tell anyone where he got them!  He is so sweet.  This morning, Sunday, we were woken again at 7am to the door bell (he's probably been waiting outside for an hour and got tired) by Ben with a bag of potatoes!  Tomorrow he said his mother told him to bring beans.  AAAWWWW, what have I done!!!  I am going to have to break his heart and tell him that we are leaving on Wed.  Next trip...Bubbles for Ben!

 

Trails pretty good here, not too much under brush, but lots of tree canopy.  There were also these pretty flowers all over the ground that had fallen from trees above us, kinda neat section of the trail.



Saturday we took another hike, this one was what you would think of as in true African style.  Brian, myself, and the boys, along with the Palmers, and Stephanie, Lauren (the dietitians), and Jaimie (the PT) drove about 40 mins further up the mountains outside of a volcano lake called Lake Oku.  Just a bit of FYI... Lake Oku is apparently inhabited by the spirits and you are not suppose to swim or get in it (bad luck).  The tribal chiefs do sacrificial offering at this lake for the good fortunes of their people.  Parked on the road and hike through true African jungle to get as close as we could to the lake.  It was a nice hour hike through thick vegetation to our destination then back to the car for a picnic before heading back down to Mbingo through the small villages and many corn and bean fields.  

There were goats on the mountainside.  This was the shepherd shack that we stumbled upon in the middle of no where.

Lake Oku, about as close as we could get from this side of the lake.  It was cool and very cloudy .

At some points the tree canopy was so dense it became rather dark, was nice and made it cooler than our other hikes.



Daddy had to make Tobs a walking stick early into the hike.  Most of the leafy vegetation hit right at his face and he didn't like it much.  Needless to say, the walking stick didn't even help much.  After walking with his hands in the air for a while and crying, daddy decided to carry Tobs.

When the mountain got to steep, Tobs hung out with Mrs. Palmer and had a snack.

Joe at the shepherd's shack

Daddy sneaked a picture through the hole in the side to see how it looked inside.  He teased the girls by telling them there was a tv and a sink!

Aside from Daddy having to carry Tobs for some of it and Joey falling on a prickly plant that made him whelp up a bit and his leg burn, it was a good day a good adventure to end our last week in Cameroon.




Daddy won't be able to do this much longer!

 

To end our day Grace and the boys played in her restaurant, "Daral Baral", that she has set up in the back room.  Then we had homeade ice cream which I must say was delicious considering I winged it and we did not have an ice cream maker!  Anyone who would like to try some home made African style ice cream when we get home, let me know, I'd love you make you some!

Here are some other pics and video he wanted me to add from this week. 

Ingenious reusable cautery grounding pad,that I pay big bucks for disposable ones...Why?



I've seen this on the Discovery channel, but is more amazing in person.  They (the ants) marched like this in a continuous stream for more than 30 minutes while Brian was standing there waiting for the family.  The next day, you couldn't tell they were ever there, and haven't seen them since..

From the Boy's hike last week, video from the top of Mt Mbingo...