RELUFA farewell party

Our friends and colleagues from our past year of volunteer work threw us a farewell party last night. The Boyds hosted at their house, which is also the house where we spent our first three months here in Cameroon, while they were on furlough in the US. Nice things were said to us. We received some thoughtful gifts. There was a ping-pong table. It was a thoroughly pleasant evening full of friends, food, drink and music, and a lovely farewell to a place we have worked, made friends, and learned a lot.

Here are a few pictures.

Val and Terri's son Iman, with his uncle Romeo.

Ann, our friend Thierry who we invited along with us, and me. Thierry is a friend of a friend in the US, so it was fun to introduce him to our work crowd.

Ann, Thierry, and Christiana, a Brit who recently finished her master's in London and is interning at RELUFA.

Annelies, who works for RELUFA member organization CED, and her boyfriend Mikel. Annelies is doing communications work for CED, so we've had some good discussions with her related to work on the RELUFA website. She loves living here, and we've had some good times hanging out, although we only met her recently.

Sorry, Gilles. I had to put this up. Gilles is enjoying a brochette de boef. I intend to learn to make them when I get back. Small pieces of tender seasoned beef, onion and peppers, like satay-sized kebabs. Here you dip them in powdered pimantes, or hot peppers.

Naomi and Salome, the Boyd girls. It has been a pretty entertaining year getting to know the Boyd family, and they have welcomed us into their home and even brought us on vacation. The girls' brother, Matthias, wasn't at the party, because he left a couple of weeks ago for an internship in the US. We owe Matthias a huge thank-you for hand-carrying some paperwork to the US for us and mailing it from the airport.

Axel plays ping-pong...

... against Valery, RELUFA's coordinator.

Us.

Christiana and Ann.

I take a turn at the table. In my fine African shirt, no less.

Got one of Val and Terri dancing.

Thanks for a fine party, if you were there and reading this. The hospitality our friends and coworkers have shown us here over the past year has been humbling, helpful, and something we won't forget.