Salut! This week started with no electricity in the hospital compound for about 48 hours...thankfully this caused no life threatening complications for any of the patients. However it did make things difficult, with patients in dark wards without any fans to stay cool, the x-ray machine, (one of the main diagnostic tools here) not working, drugs not being kept cool & Sarah assisting in operations by torch-light. Tuesday ended up being quite eventful for us...as well as the powercut, our house was invaded by 3 different types of animals - a gecko, (discovered when it jumped onto one of the missionary kids hiding in our cupboard!), our 1st big cockroach, & then our 1st ant infestation of the week (another one was found last night).
Both of us have had the opportunity to assist in operations as we split the week between the wards & the bloc. Yesterday we went into the local town, Maroua, to explore...whilst waiting for the taxi we drew interest from a couple of cameroonian men - which was interesting! We had a great time in the market in Maroua - it is a maze of different stalls with people everywhere - and this being the hot season tourists are less common, so we definitely stood out. We practised bargaining too (apparently the price they give tourists is at least double the actual price) - however they are very skilled bargainers so we suspect we probably gave them a lot more than the items were worth!
Cameroonian culture is very different to the UK especially in relation to women & relationships. Polygamy is common amongst the Muslim men, with them able to have up to 4 wives at any time...if they want a new wife they just divorce one of their other wives! It's normal for each wife to have up to 8 children each...the children are the possession of the father so if a wife is divorced the children stay with their dad. One of the men who works in the bloc is the son of the chief of Meskine...he has 21 brothers & sisters and as the chief the normal '4 wives' rule doesn't apply so he has 10! Although attitudes to women seem to be slowly improving as they have more access to education, one of the men described women/wives like 'cups of coffee', good for temporary enjoyment & when it's finished you just move on to the next cup!! Please pray that this attitude would change. Polygamy also causes health problems as it increases the spread of infections such as HIV.
Harvest was celebrated today in a 3 1/2 hour church service with lots & lots of singing, 2 sermons & a competition between the different groups within the church as to who could give the most money...the women won! Cameroonian Christians are very passionate about their faith & love to praise God by singing & dancing...every tribal group sings a song each week (including the 'missionary tribe'!) & the young people's song is always accompanied by energetic dancing!
Just a quick prayer request...as Monday & Tuesday are holidays (due to the international festival of work on Tuesday) there's a small chance that the doctors won't turn up (this is Africa!) & that we may be asked to do the ward round. Prayer that God would give us wisdom if this happens would be greatly appreciated!
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