Joseph's Family

 When we were in Koza we got to know Hache and had a meal at his home.  Hache told us about his brother Joseph who lives in Buea and is a Gendairm (police officer) in our region.  He put us in contact and strongly encouraged us to meet him.  We have met with the family several times since we got back from the north and invited them over to our "home" this week for a meal.  We hosted them in the conference room of the hospital where we had enough room to eat and entertain the kids, since we don't speak French and they don't really speak English, substantial conversations are not really possible, but we had a great time!

 We did our best to make an extra special meal, I made "homemade chopletts"  This brought back SO MANY sweet memories of growing up.  In recent years we just cheat and buy gluten flower that doesn't have to be washed out; so really the last time I remember helping mom wash out choplett dough was when I was just a little tike, standing on a chair in front of the kitchen sink.

 This is my masterpiece, when I took a bite of my finished work a flood of memories from grandma's house and every other place we celebrated holidays with family and mom's famous chopletts were a non-optional component of the family feast.  Good times!

 The oldest four of Joseph's kids, in their adorable matching traditional wear.

 Mommy and Edmond.

 Mommy and Clarise.

Like I said, we did our best to put on a big spread, we had rice, beans, and stir-fry, and homemade salsa to stuff into homemade tortilla shells, along with my chopletts and gravey to eat with rice, and a fruit salad and fresh banana bread for dessert.  We wanted to be sure and have plenty, and we did... when the family went home there were so many left-overs, and it was such good food... haha, we had to eat a little more!