Thursday, January 15

For the last couple of days we've been sitting on the edge of our seats wondering about the arrival of the pickup. The estimated time of arrival was Monday but we haven't heard a word. The shipping company emailed me and said they had sent the original title and bill of lading by TNT to Ruth's address. Well, Ruth's address is a PO Box. It hasn't come there. She's never heard of TNT, so now she's calling the customs broker to try to figure out where this thing is. The tracking process shows it is in Douala and waiting for us to pick it up, but there's nothing on the site about where we are supposed to go to get it, since it's not at the post office. Aaargh.

LATER
The broker knew where the TNT office was, so we started a morning of errands. We got the title from the TNT place and took it to the customs broker. He said he'd try to find out if the truck was on some ship in the harbor. We went to the doctor's office and talked about the drugs we needed, and he called a pharmacy wholesaler. So then we went to the wholesaler. It took quite a while there. When errands were down, we again met up with the students. This time we went to ______. (Shucks, I can't remember the names of these villages.) This one was unique. While most of what we have seen are houses paralleling the road on either side, this one had a real town center with a “green” and a community gathering place. The students did assessments in what I believe was the town hall. Everyone was so tired. It's been a very long week, and out at the hotel they had the typical problems with shower water disappearing and the electricity going off frequently. And they got mighty tired of the cooking in the little dining hall there.

Ruth and I continue to marvel that I am actually here. And the time is going so fast.