We had the elders over to our apartment for a spaghetti dinner on their preparation day. We were sad to hear that Elder Brown will be leaving to go back to Douala on Monday, Aug. 7th. Elder Mol, an elder from Congo, will come to Yaounde in his place. Around the table we have Elder Ndonde, Elder Badger, Soeur Badger, Elder Aviles, Elder Brown and Elder Wiberg.

This is the mobile candy store. The young man with the wheelbarrow is selling goodies to Fabrice at the end of our driveway. 

On August 5, 2006, the elders held a talent show as a missionary activity. They participated by doing a skit that had everyone doubled over with laughter. Elder Wiberg is behind Elder Aviles and is using his hands to feed, wash, and shave poor little Elder Aviles.

Mary Mukankusi sang a beautiful song with the audience joining in. Mary is from Ruwanda. She was baptized a year ago. 

Olivier, the Young Men's President, did a very funny impression of Elder Badger and his "Mauvais" French. 

Nadine Kemle sang and played the piano. She was given a rousing ovation afterward. She has a a beautiful voice. 

The Young Women of the branch performed some of their traditional dances. What a lot of fantastic talent! 

This is Desiree weaving the top to a stool with plastic fibers in the colors of Cameroun. Desiree was baptized a few weeks ago. Rowan is watching him work. By the way, Desiree is blind. 

After the talent show, the Badgers were presented with a beautiful stool that Sister Badger is sitting on and the shelving unit with a picture of the Badgers painted by the brother of Dersiree. Desiree did the weaving on top of the unit. His weaving is in the colors of the Cameroun flag. What a marvelous surprise!

Soeur Martine, an old friend, surprised us by giving us matching African outfits that she had made. We only put on the tops for the picture. From the left we have Elder Badger, a friend of Martine's, Soeur Martine and Soeur Badger. Martine left that afternoon for Ngaoundere in the extreme north of Cameroun.

A friend we met in Koutaba last January came to visit and brought the Badgers wonderful produce. Ya-Ya had tomatoes, green peppers, avocados, green beans, watermelon, and carrots. We were able to share the gift with others.

Hopefully, this is the site for the chapel that will be built in Yaounde. It is up by the Omnisport, which can be seen in the background. It is a beautiful location.  

Around the city of Yaounde, we see these push carts used to carry just about everything. 

This is the newborn baby of Ekam Paul Ndongo's sister. Elder Badger was asked to give mother and child a blessing. 

The young women of the Bastos Branch are the greatest. Starting from the left is Cecile, Valvina, Soeur Badger and Coquine. Coquine gave a wonderful talk in church about proper dress standards. 

This is Claudine, a new member of the church, with Soeur Badger. Claudine is the sister of Josette and aunt of Lambert. 

An important man in our neighborhood died. These are members of his family preparing food for the funeral. Women were cooking in every space available across the street from the family home. 

These women are preparing goat meat, plantains, pineapple and other food for the funeral. Notice the goat head the woman was showing us.

The women worked together to prepare the food for the many family and friends who had come from miles around for the funeral. 

Lambert, on the right,one of Elder Badger's English students and a new member of the church, invited us to his home to buy some fish from his mother, Josette. Little did we realize what a wonderful meal we would have.  

Josette is a master at cleaning and preparing the fish. She also cooked plantains on the little gas stove in the background. 

Josette and her sister are cooking the fish on the brazier. She put condiments of onion, garlic and other African herbs in and on the fish.  

We are enjoying the delicious fish prepared by Josette. Around the table we have Elder Badger, Soeur Badger, Leticia, Josette holding a neighbor child, Josette's sister, Elder Ndonde and Lambert. We ate the meal with our hands. We washed our hands with soap and water and then dug in to the fabulous food.

The U.S. Embassy celebrated the Fourth of July this year with an open house at the new embassy building. Many dignitaries and diplomats from other embassies were invited as well as the Americans in Cameroun. There were booths with different kinds of American food for everyone to try. We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, cotton candy, ice cream, cookies, fruit and much more. The elders got their fill.

There was a short program with the presentation of the flag. The Star Spangled Banner was sung by the two young people in the picture and Ambassador Marquardt said a few words.