Upon my arrival in Douala, Cameroon, I witnessed so many things,
but most of all, what welcomed me was the warm hospitality of those I met. The
main group consisted of Franciscan nuns and other religious orders. From Douala,
three of us lay missionaries had a day trip to our assigned site, and mine was
in Shisong, Cameroon.
I have to admit that
the road was not like LA, but it was worth traveling. I saw plantations of
bananas, pineapples, mangoes, corn, and many other produce that stand along the
road. There were green beans, carrots, okra, mangosteen, rambutan, etc. They
have rich natural resources. When we stopped by one of the stands, the vendor
peeled a pineapple right away and handed a slice of it to each of us, which was
so sweet and juicy.
We were also met by the missionary families, the Hornes and the Newburns, with such kind hospitality and that was a blessing that I witnessed. I arrived in Shisong with Sr. Renata and their driver who pulled our car right in front of the hospital house they assigned to me. Almost everyone who saw me arrive greeted me, "You are welcome, and we will take care of you." Their reaction was so memorable.
St. Elisabeth Catholic
Hospital is pretty big and their cardiac care center is truly state-of-the-art.
It is managed by the Franciscan sisters, and the site is very clean and
organized. I saw green surroundings, and different livestock, such as cows,
goats, chicken, and turkey. The common modes of transportation are taxis and
motorbikes. I heard different people speak English, French, Pidgin, and their dialect
Lamnso.
We toured different
departments in the hospital compound, including their shops for carpentry,
laundry, engineering, housekeeping, sewing, cooking, and others that make the
hospital function independently. I also visited the oxygen, vacuum and
compressed air control section, and other biomed equipment in the cardiac care
center.
They have three chapels in the hospital property and a parish church about 50 feet away. People ordinarily greet each other anytime of the day.
How would you like to join me here in Cameroon?
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Cameroon? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Cameroon in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi Alicia,
ReplyDeleteGlad to read that you made it safe & sound. All is still same on the home front. Except we are in stage 3 severe drought restrictions in Chino Hills. We can only water on odd or even days depending on your street address. We just finished JACHO & we passed with flying colors. What a month we just went through. Remember those days? Well looking forward to your blogs. Jenny B