It was her Mother's Day gift.  Two sons.  One in University in the States.  The other going into his Junior year out here in Cameroon.  They came up with the idea.  Send Mom to Shiloh for the weekend.  Dad kicked in some money to be sure, but it was all from them.  She arrived at 3 this afternoon and will stay until Sunday afternoon.  She's loving holing up in her room and being quiet.  Eating the evening meal with us and lingering over dessert.  Then it's off to her room to watch a movie and read a book.  It's a mother's dream gift.

Princes Angel and I went to the market today.  We were looking for fancy things for me to wear to the Independence Day celebration hosted by the U.S. Embassy.  I have a fancy dress but wanted to find accessories.  I stumbled onto a lovely necklace with matching earrings.  They were second hand which made the price very low.  They have rhinestones and compliment the rhinestones on my dress.  From there we found some nail polish and polish remover.  Then some silver shoes and a little purse.  On the way back we stopped and bought some ice cream. What a treat!  It was a very hot day so we needed some cooling down. When we got back home we polished our toenails.  Princess thought she had died and gone to Heaven!  On Monday we will polish our fingernails.  The event is on Tuesday.  I've been trying out various hair styles.  Haven't settle on the best one yet but there is still time.  Guys don't have to go through all this nonsense.  They just shave, put on a suit and tie and are good to go.

Went to the Embassy this morning.  Turned in Dorothy's application to become a domestique in the home of someone with the Embassy.  Learned they pay between 80.000 F and 100.000 F.  Considered applying myself!  If we had found a job for her in the mission community she would have received 40.000 F or maybe only 30.000 F per month.  So she's on the list now and we wait and see what God will do.  Also learned a good neighborhood for her to try and find housing.  It's five to ten minutes away from where the diplomatic community lives, so it's a good location.

Also got our invitation to the annual Independence Day celebration. It's being held at the Hilton for security reasons.  With the tension between the president and our ambassador we have to be careful.  This means the invitation list has been cut in half.  The amazing thing is that our names are still on the list.  We're looking forward to a good time.  My friend Felix promises me to introduce us to the Ambassador whom she works for.

Had a long talk with Felix.  It was her lunch break.  She's normally very busy.  Talked about how much her marriage has improved since her time at Shiloh.  And the changes in her husband as well.  Her changing has impacted him for good.  She looked terrific and clearly is is a much better place.  Her husband is trying to find a job. So we are praying for him.

Told me that her sister is looking for a place to live in our area.  I put her in touch with a family near us who has an apartment for rent.  Don't know if it will meet her needs or not, but the location is good and so is the security.

About an hour ago a good friend of mine phoned.  She works with the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon.  In chatting about various things I mentioned my friend Dorothy who is here from Bamenda because she has been run out of her village.  I asked if there was any way of finding domestique work for Dorothy through the Embassy.  She gave me detailed information on what to do.  So I asked what the likelihood would be of her actually finding work that way.  My friend assured me that her changes are very good.  New people are always coming and always looking for house help.  WOW!  Wouldn't that be great if we were able to help her find work that way?  We keep on praying.

It's amazing when we can clearly see God at work.  Take yesterday for instance.  It actually started the day before. I decided it was a good day to cook up three types of dried beans plus pressure cook a chicken.  So I made one bean recipe after the other and put the chicken in the fridge to cool down.  Saturday morning Dorothy and I decided to try our hand at homemade chicken noodle soup. Then we went outside to work on our little herb garden.  It had been a long time since we harvested anything so things were looking kind of scraggly.  We have endive, a type of lettuce we grow as well.   Dorothy harvested it, cleaned it, and cut it into small pieces.  In the afternoon we received a phone call about a sick man needing a room for he, his wife and his doctor.  And they wanted to eat both the evening meal and breakfast today.  Since the chicken soup was ready, we just made some herb bread and a salad with our already cut lettuce.  It was a very easy meal.  Then today the professor who had arrived in the middle of the night wanted an evening meal.  We thawed out our chili that had been made on Friday, ate the second loaf of herb bread, and made a lovely mango cobbler to go with it.  Again, a super easy meal to prepare.  Tomorrow we are going to cook up a large sack of red beans  that Dorothy brought down to us from the North West.  One never knows when the next unexpected company will show up.  It was an easy weekend in spite of the unexpected meals.  God is so faithful.

She and her sister-in-law traveled together.  They left Bamenda by bus last night, arriving in Daoula this morning.  From there the sister-in-law took another bus to Buea while she caught the bus to Yaounde.  Sadly, while on the way to Buea her sister-in-law's bus came across a grisly scene.  The resistance army had captured a military man and killed him with knives and machetes.  Now they were cutting him to pieces much as one would cut up beef.  It was a sight nobody should have to look at.

She's with us here at Shiloh for an indefinite period.  We are helping her look for work. There is nothing for her to do in Bamenda.  Many people have fled their villages and swarmed into the city.  And so she is here hoping to find something.  We are helping her look, but don't have much hope of turning up anything for her.  She's a dear friend.  Wish we could hire her to work for us. But it is not possible.  We don't have the work and we don't have the money.

Of all the librarian jobs it has to be my least favorite.  Boring, tedious, time consuming.  And easily put off 'till later.  But today I buckled down and it's half done.  I'm going through the list of authors and comparing them with the list of books in the library by categories.  Finding lots of mistakes.  When this job is finally done we will have an accurate record of each book we have listed by authors.  There are times when someone asks us if we have any books by this or that author.  It's a quick and easy reference.  The tedium continues, but one day (soon?) it will be done.  And then I can move on to more interesting tasks.