Week One, short version

We’re here in Cameroon's capital of Yaounde, housesitting til January, meeting friendly, helpful people at the 2 places we’ll be working, both of which are within walking distance. We have some college friends in town who have welcomed us and helped us out a lot already, and even took us on a picnic. We’re getting by with our French but it’s uphill for now, and lots of people speak some English. We just got cellphones. Ann lost her voice yesterday. It’s 65 to 85 degrees, intermittently rainy, and we listen to rain and thunderstorms at night and birds in the morning. The one light in the living room when we arrived was a fluorescent tube inside of a fat eight-foot boa constructor skin mounted on a 2x10, which casts a soft warm glow over the room. It’s raining, but we see lots of sun every day.