This is the third night in a row that he has stayed here at Shiloh.  He's an assistant pastor from Daoula and has stayed here numerous times in the past.  But this time he needs a place to stay to be near his mother-in-law.  She's in her mid-50s and is a strong Christian.  When he got the phone call that she had contracted meningitis, he was on the next bus to Yaounde to help out.  After getting her to a local hospital and under a doctor's care, he came to Shiloh for the night.  As he left early the next morning, he told us that he was going back to visit his mother-in-law and then would be returning to Daoula.  But that's not how things turned out.  He did visit his mother-in-law, and he did go to the bus station to buy a ticket for his return trip.  It was at that moment that he received a phone call from the hospital telling him that his mother-in-law had taken a turn for the worse.  He rushed back across town to be with her.  The doctor informed him that her kidneys were now failing and she would need to go on dialysis.  He stayed with her through the first treatment and then came back to Shiloh for night number two.  He left Shiloh at 6 a.m. today, assuring me that no matter what happened, he was going directly back to Daoula.  He had to.  He had not brought a change of cloths with him.  It was late afternoon when the call came.  Could he have his room back for one more night?  He had barely arrived back home in Daoula when the hospital again phoned to say his mother-in-law had taken another turn for the worse.  So he boarded the bus and headed back to Yaounde.  He was with her for her second kidney dialysis treatment and then brought his weary body back to Shiloh.  The doctor says she will have one more dialysis treatment tomorrow morning.  Then they will do tests to see if the kidneys are functioning properly.  If not, things will not go well for his mother-in-law. 

The moment I heard her voice on the phone, I knew what this call was all about.

"Do we have a baby?" I asked.  

"Yes!  We have a baby!" she excitedly replied. 

(Read my December 26, 2015 blog to get the background on this story.)

Ten days earlier our dear friend had given birth to a precious little boy.  I asked how she was doing.  She quickly brushed aside the pain of childbirth to dwell on the wonders of finally having their own child.  When I inquired about the new father, the phone was quickly handed to him.  

"Mama Alice," he said, "from time to time we will be calling you to be asking for ideas on how to raise our son."  

We've raised three sons, so they consider us experts on the topic.  It's been a few years though.  Our "baby" is 41 years old! 

We're planning a trip down to Daoula to meet this latest grandchild of ours.   Guy, Jim and I plan on taking the first bus out of town on Saturday, June 18th.  We've already bought a gift. We'll spend a couple of hours holding this new little bundle of joy.  We'll take lots of pictures.  And then we'll get right back on the bus and arrive back in Yaounde before dark, if all goes as planned.

It wasn't the day we had planned.  Not at all.  The taxi was picking Guy and I up in 15 min. We had three errands to run.  Shouldn't take more than two hours tops.  Doris had already started cleaning a room that a guest had vacated last evening.  There was also a bathroom waiting for her TLC.  Then there would be some ironing.  Francis was preparing to make a chicken pot pie to freeze ahead for the next guest.  And Papa Jim was hoping to make progress on his fan repair project.

And then the phone rang and everything was turned upside down.  Would Jim be able to look at a missionary's car and diagnosis the problem?  Our friend had lost confidence in the mechanic his mission uses.  He remembered that Jim had done a superb job of fixing his car.  Must have been 13 - 14 years ago.  Could he bring the car by around 2:30 p.m.?

Jim, Francis, and Doris were instantly switched over to emptying out our under the stairs storage room.  Jim's seldom used auto tools had to be there somewhere.  The car came for Guy and I, but we promised to join the fun just as soon as we could get back to Shiloh.

Fortunately Jim managed to find the right tools fairly quickly, and was busy getting everything in order.  Since so many boxes had already been hauled outside, why not go ahead and just empty the whole room out?  Before long the four of us had everything piled around outside.  Then came the cleaning part.  Walls were divested of cobwebs, and an impressive mountain of dirt was swept up.  Even the floor got a bath.  

Meanwhile Jim had gladly abandoned us to the cleaning work when the ailing car arrived. Diagnosing and repairing cars beats cleaning any day of the week.  

With an hour and a half left in our work day, we began returning things to the storage room.  Boxes were cleaned, labeled, and put back in an orderly fashion.  Finally the mammoth job was done, and so were we!  (All done in that is!)

Mechanic Jim and friend were still having fun working on the car, so I decided to tackle the dishes.  With a cook and a cook's assistant, it's rare that I wash dishes.  But the kitchen was a mess and I just couldn't end the day that way.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

I hadn't seen her in 13 years.  Back when we lived in the village, she was the one in the family that my heart went out to.  As a young teenager she had been taken out of school and turned into little more than the family slave.  She cooked all the meals, did all the laundry, cleaned house, washed all the dishes, and did whatever else she was made to do.  She had no time for fun.  It was a life of absolute drudgery.  On those rare times when only she and I were left in the compound, she would come into our room, sit on our bed, and pour out her heart to me.  Many a time I put my arms around her and held her as she cried.  I would pray for her with tears running down my cheeks.  Always I tried to point her to God, Who was her only hope.  

What a surprise to see her again after all these years.  Shortly after arriving at our village house on Friday, she showed up.  I got the biggest bear hug of all times!  And she kept clinging to me for a long time.  A quiet girl who is not given to much talking, she began telling me what had happened to her these last thirteen years.  First she had a son by an unnamed person who did not stick around to care for the child.  The following year a young man laid eyes on her and took her for his common law wife.  They have been together for four years now and have had two children.  A handful of weeks ago she brought her three children back to her father's house to wait for her "husband" to come and pay the bride price, and then marry her officially.  She just beams when she talks about a man wanting to marry her.  Imagine that!  She who was so despised and unloved in her father's home is finally going to be married!  She said she would invite me to her wedding.  

In less than an hour the car will pick us up.  The ice chest is packed with food.  With no electricity in the village, there is no refrigeration.  Menus are carefully planned.  Ice packs will no longer be cold before it is time to head back to civilization.  

The driver of the car we normally rent for village visits is a strong Christian.  He's a hard working young man and eager to help.  In fact, upon our arrival, all three men will quickly unload the car, and then Guy and our driver will begin hauling water.  Depending on how low our water barrels are, they may take two or three  trips back and forth to the well.  The car is a great blessing.  Imagine hauling all that water by hand!  And yes, we've done it before.  But that was back when I was much younger, and still able to carry a bucket of water by myself.

The next job on the list is cutting back the jungle.  We live in a tropical rain forest.  It's rainy season and things are GROWING at a rapid rate.  

Meanwhile Papa Jim and I will be busy opening the house and attacking the build-up of spider webs, dirt, and mouse droppings.  I sincerely hope we don't come across any more mice nests.  We will also open our metal storage trunks and will put things back on the shelves.  Those trunks are an absolute life saver.  Before we bought them (they are made in Yaounde and sold on the street) we had a terrible problem with mice.  They chew through most anything and make an awful mess.  Some things cannot be salvaged.

Then it will be time for me to start cooking our evening meal.  We've invited some pastors to our village house for a meeting.  Since the meeting starts at 4 p.m. Cameroonian time, which means that's an approximate time, it is a good idea to end the meeting with a meal.  But we have no idea how many pastors will come.  It could be anything from one up to we have no idea.  So how much to cook becomes any man's guess.  But somehow it will all work out.  It always does.

It's time to leave, so I'll quietly fade away now, with a promise to come back when we return to civilization.  Assuming, that is, that Shiloh will be blessed with both electricity AND internet connection at that time.  

In many tribes here in Cameroon (though not all of them) culture dictates what happens to a new widow.  Upon the death of her husband, his brother takes her as his wife.  This is the only instance where the man does not pay the bride price.  The woman's family understands that the man's family has already paid for her.  If the brother already has one or more wives, he just adds his brother's widow to the group.  Polygamy is quite common in many (though not all) tribes, even today.  

We recently learned that in some tribes, polygamy was introduced many generations ago to eliminate the problem of prostitution.  It was thought that if a man had many wives to choose from, he would not stray from home, seeking pleasure outside of marriage. 

Nice theory.  Papa Jim has had it explained to him, in minute detail, exactly what would happen to him if he even entertained thoughts of taking on a second wife.

First thing this morning we were scrambling around trying to find a pick-up truck to rent.  Shortly after 10 a.m. arrangements were made, the truck arrived, and we loaded up.  Papa Jim and Mama Alice squeezed into the front.  Papa Jim graciously took the space between the bucket seats along with half of the passenger's seat.  This made it possible for Mama Alice to have the arm rest smashed into her right side.  Fortunately the ride lasted around 20 minutes each way.  Hardly long enough to notice any discomfort.  Guy and Joseph rode in the back.  We headed out to a missionaries house to buy a good, used refrigerator from them.

It's a neat story.  Purchased new back in 2004 for around $1,000, this fridge was not budgeted to be replaced for several more years.  Then one fine day it gave up the ghost.  Just like that.  No advanced warning.  So the missionary couple went into town and purchased a new one, similar size and make, for $2,000.  When they plugged the new fridge in, to their shock and horror, it did not work either!  This cannot be!  So they plugged it into another outlet and it worked just fine.  Hmm...maybe they should plug in the old one in another outlet, too. It also worked just fine.  The outlet had gone bad, not the fridge.  Oops!  Well, there was nothing to do but sell the old fridge.  They priced it at $160 and we bought it sight unseen.  Bargains like this don't come along every day.  

One of our two old refrigerators is on it's last legs.  But it can die any time now.  We're prepared.  Trust me, when Papa Jim declares something "dead" it is really dead.  He can breath life into most any ailing appliance.  That's one of many reasons why we keep him around.