dinner at Isaac and Julia's

We moved out of the Kapteyns' home over the past week, and they return to Cameroon on Wednesday after a seven-month furlough in the US. We've enjoyed living there, and one of the best parts of that has been getting to know Julia and Isaac, an anglophone Cameroonian couple. Julia works for the Kapteyns, and thus for us for seven months, as what is known here as "house-help," cooking and cleaning and helping to run the household. Isaac, her husband, has another job but does yardwork for the house on occasional weekends, and once hired on to a RELUFA work trip as our driver. We also hosted their nephew Paul's engagement dinner, and had them over for dinner a few times, and Ann goes to the market with Julia every chance she gets, where Julia has introduced her to the vendors she buys from regularly.

They invited us to their home for dinner tonight, for a joint birthday celebration for Julia and Ann. It was great to finally see where they live. Two of the sisters of Paul's fiancee came too, with a friend.

The two sisters, their friend, Ann and Julia, at Julia and Isaac's house.

Isaac, Julia, Ann, Paul and me. I can't believe we caught Isaac smiling in this one; lots of people here are serious for pictures, and this is one of the only times that I have ever seen Julia not smiling or laughing.