Goodbye Cameroon

We have now been back in Cincinnati for a little over 24 hours, and life is haltingly returning to our normal routine. We were sad to leave Cameroon, but we enjoyed our last few days. The day before our departure, we took a picture of our entire team:

This picture includes (from left to right): Dr. Doug Whittemore (honorary team member, UC graduate, and urologist from Connecticut), Noah, Jeff, Jane, me, Sara Tomelin, Dr. Bryan Cairns, Dr. Mary Cairns, and Dr. Hannah Fischer. Doug, Bryan, Mary, and Hannah will be staying through the rest of the month.

Noah and Jane made some new friends by way of the drainage ditch...

... and Jeff and I enjoyed an afternoon hike and bird-watching with Dr. Palmer...

We watched some kids playing a spontaneous game of football in honor of the unusual appearance of the sun...

And we dropped by Remedy's house one more time to see the rest of her family...

... and to eat some "plums"...

We took one more sunny picture in front of the hospital...

The kids once again traveled beautifully, and we all enjoyed the drive back to Douala ("Look, Mama, bananas on her head! And a goat!") We arrived at the Douala airport around 7:30 PM, and the kids waited patiently for our late flight. Jane reported that Bunny was sick with malaria:

But Bunny made a speedy recovery and fell asleep quickly in Jane's arms as we raced down the runway calling, "Goodbye, Africa! We'll miss you! See you soon!"

Our last weekend

We have had a wonderful weekend at Mbingo. It is bittersweet, as we know our brief time in Cameroon is drawing to a close. We started the weekend with a morning of shopping at the embroidery shop, the craft shop, and the market. It was a comedy of errors, as we ran to the craft shop (where they had no change), then on to the embroidery shop (where I forgot the letter for Anna), then back to Dr. Palmer's house to get the letter (it was still with Jeff), then back to the market to get change, then to our house to get the letter from Jeff (he was at Dr. Palmer's), and finally to the embroidery shop to buy souvenirs and deliver the letter. I have never wanted a cell phone so much!

After the market, we had a great lunch and put the kids down for a nap. Jeff met with Dr. Palmer to discuss resident education, and Hannah and I set off up the hill for a hike. As we crested the hill, we spotted two unidentified white people in the distance:

Dr. Palmer showed us some beautiful spots at the top of the hills, including an incredible waterfall that cannot be adequately described by this photo (note water in left corner and precipitous drop):

We rushed over to the Sparks' house for pizza after our hike, and the Sparks family gave Dewey's a run for its money:

We all slept well and woke up early this morning for breakfast in our African dresses! They fit so perfectly and made us fit in quite well at church. 

Jane had a huge grin on her face as she walked up the path to church:

And both kids were fairly quiet during church with the aid of two very important objects featured in this post-church family photo:

We did a bit of flower-picking and mountain-climbing after church:

One of our favorite waiting-for-lunch activities is sprinting down the hospital hallway:

After lunch, Sara, Hannah, and I delivered Sara's beautiful mobiles, balloons, and coloring pages to the kids on the pediatric ward. It was such a joyful hour playing with the kids (and nurses), watching their faces light up.

This was of course an amazing afternoon, but the highlight of our trip occurred when we went to deliver Kara Beth's letter to Remedy and her family. You may remember Remedy (age 5) from our last trip:

This little girl went to Italy in 2009 (right after our trip) for repair of a serious heart defect. We were so thrilled to see her, happy and thriving, with her family this afternoon:

We reenacted the Remedy and Noah photo from 2009:

Thanks to Kara Beth for introducing us to Remedy and for giving us the chance to reunite with her during this trip! We are thankful for her and her story.

Friday afternoon in Cameroon

It's been a busy few days at the hospital: rounding with the residents, teaching neonatal resuscitation courses, and leading afternoon lectures.

 When we returned from the hospital in the afternoon, Jeff and I were able to fit in a quick rainy hike with Noah. He ran down to the grassy airstrip and only wiped out once:

Jane was having fun with Sara and Hannah back at the house. She put her "baby bunny" on her back and carried a basket on her head, just like a Cameroonian mama.

I will post more photos and updates from the weekend tonight.

Doughnuts and dresses and dragonflies... oh my

I am happy to report that we just survived our first Cameroonian plague. We were walking home from our dress fitting (more on that later!), and we happened upon approximately 4000 crazy, possessed mayfly-looking creatures at every turn. The Cameroonians look delighted by the sudden infestation, but we made a quick beeline for our house (no pun intended). Unfortunately, we soon discovered that they had seized our home as well:

Within five minutes, they dropped their wings, mated with another stubby little body, and vanished completely. They are gone now, and I just spent 30 minutes sweeping up wings. Wow.

Backing up a few days, it has been extremely busy around here. We had a rough weekend of bad outcomes at the hospital, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and helpless on Monday. Fortunately, we began to see improvement in some of our patients. This little guy with significant burns stopped having fevers:

This boy recovered from malaria:

One of the missionary families (the Sparks) invited us over for doughnuts on Monday night. The kids were impressed with the doughnuts as well as the light sabers. We were very impressed by the doughnut-making process:

On Tuesday, we had a traditional Cameroonian meal of foufou and njama jama (you know I love food photos)! Jane loved it as well:

Yesterday and today, Hannah (the pediatric resident) and I taught our first Helping Babies Breathe courses. These neonatal resuscitation courses were designed by the World Health Organization and other global groups to prevent neonatal mortality. We are studying the educational and mortality outcomes of this course during our time in Cameroon.

In between morning report, rounds on the wards, afternoon courses, and research studies, we love our time with Noah and Jane around Mbingo.

Jane, Sara, Hannah, and I got measured for traditional Cameroonian dresses on Monday, and we were delighted to pick them up this evening. I will give you a sneak peek of Jane and my matching dresses, though you will have to wait for the full effect on Sunday. You can imagine who picked the color for us:

Our day ended with a beautiful sunset; you can't tell where the mountains end and the clouds begin. We look forward to another busy day tomorrow.

Trekking up the hill

After 30 minutes of singing and dancing in church on Sunday morning, we set out on a hike ("trek" in Cameroon) to enjoy the first few hours of sunlight we had seen in a while. Noah made it all the way to the top of the nearby hill by himself, and Jane enjoyed her spot in the wrap.

I am finding it very hard to fit in blogging or emailing, but I will try to catch up a bit tonight! Miss you all and thanks for your emails and comments.

Wet

The past few days in Cameroon have taught me several things about the rainy season:

Do not underestimate the rainy season. "Rainy" includes a few hours of rain per day, a torrential downpour all night, and/or pouring rain for 24 straight hours. The 24 straight hours applies to Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon, making us all a bit concerned that we would wash away. However, it also gave us time to play in the rain...

...eat a fresh avocado (licking the plate clean)...

...shop at the very wet Saturday market (can you find Jeff and Noah?)...

...review charts for our research study all afternoon...

...and learn to play the African drums!

We are off to bed now, but I look forward to reporting on our SUNNY morning (today!) very soon.