Oh-oh!  It's 9:30 at night and they just found our drums!  The music is getting livelier.  This particular group of ladies comes to Shiloh a couple of times each year.  They are all English speakers from the Northwest Region, who now live and work in Yaounde.  

Sitting at the table, eating a meal with them, is like attending a ping-pong tournament.  First one bursts out in a dialog in rapid fire Pidgin.  Then another overtakes her with more Pidgin.  Sometimes two or three talk at once, each vying for the attention of the dwindling group of listeners.  I can understand every English word spoken, but it's all those in-between words that throw me.  I strain to pretend that I'm getting the gist of the conversation.  And sometimes I really do catch on to wisps of dialog.  But no sooner to I think I'm understanding, than the threads of a story take an abrupt turn away from anything intelligible to my weary brain.  But I love it!  I dream of understanding them someday.  Will I live long enough, I wonder?

And then they traipse upstairs to the library to begin their night time vigil.  I can't describe how much I love falling asleep listening to their music.  So let the drums roll!  I'm drifting off to dreamland with a smile on my face.