A two cardio point day!

I noticed a coment about not seeing pics of mom.  Let me just say that she is very difficult to snap.  She does not like her photo taken.  I did manage to get a few though.  She is doing good.  Becoming a master hand clothes washer! 

Grandma washing clothes!

Grandma, Lovely, and Bless



Ready for church.  Grace and I are in our new African dresses hand made by Bellta.  (They cost us $20 total to make)Grandma was very moved by the singing again in church.  Wish I could bottle up their spirit.

 Sunday after church we went to Bamenda with Dr. Nana (the orthopaedic surgeon) and his family.  They took us to a restaurant for dinner, best meal we've had since we've gotten to Cameroon.  It was chicken pieces with plantain, carrots, onion, and green beans.  Very traditional Cameroonian dish, very yummy!  After we got back home Brian led another Sunday afternoon soccer game.  It was the biggest one yet since there was added guest in the hood due to the party.



My new favorite drint, Guiness Soda.  We had it at lunch on Sunday.



Tobs and his friends

Notice daddy's head butting skills in the middle of all the local boys...show off!

This is Courage, I love Courage!  She has the prettiest face and smile!
She and the other kids spend good portions of the day trying to get the avocados, guava, and mangos out of the trees even though they are not ripe yet because they cannot wait to eat them.  They walk around an knaw on them still sour and hard.  I just want to take them away and say, "just wait a few more days and it will be so much better", but they can't!  Asha!

Lunch in Bamenda with Dr. Nana's kids.  Found table on the balcony overlooking the street (Emenim playing on the loud speakers in the background).  Good day, Good day!

Daddy says Bamenda is a lot like when he was in Senegal.  Busy, dirty, and poor.

Today was a Monday!  Or at least it started that way!  This morning the rooster (now my alarm clock) did not crow and we were late for breakfast.  I was afraid that maybe it was served as dinner for the birthday party that we were invited to Sunday for little Eli who turned two, but Margaret (our cook) informed me that no the rooster probably just slept in today.  Thank goodness,  as much as I have complained about it I am starting to get used to that old bird.

After breakfast I headed straight to the dental clinic for a marathon day of dental work.  Not like in the states though.  The dental technician did two root canals (one finish and one start) on molars, eight front composite fillings, and two molar root tip extactions on one patient.  She never let him close his mouth!  And at one point actually told him she was getting annoyed at him for not keeping his mouth open.  It is crazy how brut they talk to each other.

Grace is learning this first hand as she is getting more comfortable and familiar with the children and their families here.  She has had her feelings hurt pretty bad a couple times because she thinks that they are being mean to her because of what they have said to her.  It is hard to explain that it is just the way they talk to each other in their culture and it is one thing we have to learn to accept if we are going to put ourselves in the middle of it.  I would be hurt too if they talked to me the way I hear and treating each other!  They think nothing of it.

Daddy was done early today and we decided to venture out to find a waterfall.  I was an interesting hike to say the least.  As my title stated, I got not one but two and maybe even three cardio credits today for it!!  And I just have to say thank you to Monica or I would have been d.e.d. on that mountain.  But it was good to conquer.  I'm gonna let daddy blog about it, he's super excited we made it.  The video at the beginning of him huffing and puffing is the near end of the hike up to the top.  He will tell you about it and add more pics.

As for me I'm going to bed!!!!   AL

K, Brian here, time to talk about a real Allan Ipsen style hike.  Only one spine surgery today, so since they didn't need my help in the OR this afternoon and as it was a lovely day I decided it was time to hike to one of the waterfalls you can see from the hospital.  I decided, that the "big waterfall" that word on the street is that you can't get to the base of, just hasn't been hiked on by an Ipsen.  So, that was the mission today. Have to show a picture of the spine table I invented/McGyver'd to do the lumbar microdiscectomy on.



African Andrew's Frame



We had some other willing participants, Lauren and Stephanie the dietitian students from North Dakota wanted to come along, as well as Amy and Grace.

Lauren wondering where Dr. Ipsen is leading her...

Started out fine, just a little path out to the corn, yam and bean fields they have on the hillside.  It came to an abrupt end about a kilometer from the base, with tall viney weeds.  I was not deterred, the cool thing about the "bush" is you can walk on it, step thought it, slide on it, crawl through it, up it, and we did all of the above to get to the waterfall.  Was amazing when we got there, 60-70 foot water fall, breathtaking...

Ipsen's at the unreachable falls.

So then the question is getting back home.  I voted to go across the water, to the other side, where with another 1000 feet of "bush whacking" we'd be at some previously cultivated land that would be easy to walk on.  Voted down, so we head back the way we came, but then quickly had to choose, go up, or back down the way we came.  Up was easier to climb and possibility of road up top, we thought.  Down was tougher to do, but we could see the path we had forged.  Amy voted up, so up we went.  Man was it up.  I've never skied down hills as steep as I went up today.  There were spots, I didn't even have to extend my arm to touch the hillside at shoulder height.  The picture and video, barely do it justice. Pic below shows us about halfway up the hill.  At one point, the girls were about 10-15 foot behind me, but because of the grass and slope of the hill I couldn't see them.

All that said, we did make it to the top, dirty, sweaty and very pleased to see flat ground.  It's very interesting hiking/climbing as you scale up grass clumps, pulling your way up with whatever you could find, using them as both steps and hand rails.  As you can see all the girls were pretty pleased when we made it to the top.  I was super proud of the two Ipsen girls as it was one of...if not the toughest hike I've ever been on.  Now, we can all say we forged our own trail to a waterfall that the locals said you can't get to, climbed out over the top of it and lived to tell about it!!!!  My girls are officially "Africa Tough" now.... 

Night,

BI