the Methodists in Kumba

On our trip to the southeast over the past few days, we spent a day in Kumba. We visited with a Methodist congregation there, whose womens' group is a client of our loan program. They plan to do an agricultural project with the money, raising yams and other crops on some rented land. They all experienced farmers already, and they are eager to begin their project when the money comes through and they can obtain the land. They need to start soon, and clear the land and plant before the rains begin in March. We saw the farmland planned for the project, and visited the clinic of a doctor in the congregation, and had dinner at the pastor's house. We met initially in their sanctuary, which is a small wooden building they are eager to replace with something bigger, maybe with some help from their USA contacts or their sister congregation in Pensacola, Florida, but they haven't heard from either for awhile. Hospitality is a big deal here, and time is plentiful and fluid. We were welcomed, show around, and well taken care of for our entire visit there.

Ann with some Methodists in Kumba.  If you tell people "no smiling!" firmly before taking their picture, we found in the southeast of Cameroon anyway, you can usually get them to laugh.

Me and some Methodists.  The man on the right is the Doctor, who provided us with transportation in his car.

Outside their church building.  It's not the entire the building, just the door and window behind Ann.

On the front porch of the Doctor's house.  He's in the middle, with the hat.  The man in the purple shirt on the right is the pastor, and the leftmost lady is his wife.  To the left and right of the Doctor are his son and another lady at the house.  Ann's in blue.

Walking through farmland near Kumba, to the plot the Methodist ladies plan to rent for their agricultural project.  This area is the breadbasket of Cameroon, and everything grows here -- coffee and rubber and cocoa for export, and all sorts of things to eat: we saw yams, coco-yams, bananas, plantains, coconuts, oil palms, mangoes, various citrus trees, spices, and much else.

The pastor's family, at his house.

The other half of pastor's house.  This is similar to other Cameroonian houses we've seen, those of people with some income who are not rich.  Construction is concrete (impervious to weather, humidity and insects, and cool), the furniture is all solid wood and heavy and formal, there is a TV (on), a stereo (on), lots of family pictures on the wall, rugs, and curtains on windows and between rooms.