Erickson Visit

 On Monday night Mary's mother and sister flew into Douala for a visit to see our little home in Africa!  Another volunteer came in on the same flight so we knew there would be limited room in the vehicle on the way back.  I wanted to be there to welcome our visitors at the airport so Sarah and I went along intending to take public transport back... it was late and the taxi drivers at the air port were all trying for outrageous prices, litterally 10X more than a fair price, we held our ground and waited.  We only needed to get from the airport to a place in town where cars go to Buea.  When one taxi that we were going to take filled up the driver motioned for us to come, I told him that it was too full and we wouldn't fit (taxis are always too full, but there were already 7 people in the tiny little car).  They insisted we come and I joked with them, telling them in French that I was fat and we were too big to squeeze in... then they opened up the back hatch and said c'mon!  Jump in!  Sarah and I looked at each other and said "why not!?" so we hopped in the trunk and got our ride for the original price we wanted!  They took us from the air port to the place to find a car to Buea and after "discussing" with about 10 guys that wanted us to ride in their taxi we got a ride home.  The total trip for both of us from the air port to Buea cost less than the airport taxis wanted to take one person into town!

This picture was taken in our trunk ride, it's not a very good picture, but it's a crazy amazing memory!  It was pretty incredible to witness African driving, in the dark, from the back of a car, with cars and mottos on your tail and shining their lights very brightly!  We must have been quite the sight because we sure seemed to entertain all the drivers that passed us, even had about 15 mottos following us, laughing, taking pictures, and videoing the event.  At first I thought the pictures and video was kinda weird, but then I thought of all the things and people I take pictures of, and decided it was ok!

Tuesday was Heidi's 30th birthday!  A pretty big day and very exciting to be able to celebrate it here in Africa, so we had some extra curricular activities during my tutoring and the boys helped me make a banner! :)

A box of goodies from home!

Heidi's Birthday celebration crowd :)

Fabric shopping!

Making birthday puff puff! 

one of the sweet fabric shop ladies up in Buea Town today taught us how to tie a headdress and then let us have them! :)  It's been great fun having Heidi and Cheryl here and we have much more fun to come!