A Sad Day

I'm sad...I think I'm more sad than my kids even. Our kitten is gone. :( I was really getting attached to him! He was so cuddly. And to top it all off, our cat Patches (we've had her nearly 6 years) is also gone. She disappeared a couple of days before the kitten went missing. I'm pretty sure that she left b/c of the kitten...she didn't like him, but I figured she'd at least be back for food or something. I keep asking our nightwatchman, Michael (he and Patches were buds!) and he hasn't seen her. So...now I'm completely cat-less, and I'm really sad about it. I have no idea where we will get another kitten. But we need a cat around here. A mouse ran right in between Ben's legs the other night when he opened the parlor doors to check on our generator that was running. I'm sad for my kids too...they loved that kitten! Here they are today, out in the front yard, praying for our cats to come home: (I think they were actually done praying here, but I snapped the pic as they had just finished)


Ok...enough blubbering about cats. I'll catch up on the last couple of days. Here is my pic for yesterday (Friday) compliments of Ben.

On Wed. Ezekiel called Ben and said that he shouldn't come to town. The night before, a motorcycle taxi driver was killed by a police officer. Evidently the police had set up a random checkpoint. They do this frequently and will often set them up on their own...outside of work orders. When taxi's go through, if they don't have proper paperwork they will pay a bribe so the police allow them to go through. If the police need some extra cash that weekend, they will set up their own checkpoint to sit there and get bribes for a few hours. They get about 500 cfa a driver (the equivalent to a dollar US). Well, this one particular taxi driver had all of his paperwork in order. He had no reason to pay a bribe. Well, the officer got mad and took a stick and whacked him in the back of the head. Evidently he whacked too hard b/c he died right there. Motorcycle taxi drivers are like a gang...they stick up for each other. So, when another driver that was there, saw what happened, a mob ensued. The Police ran and holed themselves up inside a hotel. The mob ransacked the hotel and even threatened to burn it. Somehow the officers got away. The next day, to make a point, all taxi drivers refused to carry anyone, and one of the drivers (not sure if it was a motorcycle or car) drove all through town with the corpse of the one who was killed. I guess it was chaos. By the time Ben needed to go to town, everything had settled down, but yesterday was the guys funeral. Ben said that it was downright frightening. Every motorcycle headed out to the village for the wake keeping (and there are a LOT of motorcycle taxis in Bamenda! It is everyones primary means of transportation b/c few people own cars here). It was a thunderous roar of motorcycle engines and he said that they were all driving crazily...standing up...with half of their body off of the bike...no hands...standing on seats. All sorts of crazy stuff. He totally forgot to get a picture until the end of the line of bikes...but he did get one shot nonetheless.

Mobs like that can be scary here. Mobs anywhere can be scary, but it seems like there is less control over them here. Tom Needham got stuck in mob situation after a world cup game. Cameroon lost to a European country and since he was a white man, they stopped his car...he did get away thank the Lord. But we stay away from town or group situations after events like that...or elections. Just to be safe.

On Thursday we were at church quite late. I managed to get some pics of the kids with their buds - the Yeiter kids. They pair up SO perfectly. Drew and Autumn are both the oldest of our families and they are tight. Kate and Mariah are the same age and are buddies...Kate used to only want to be friends with Autumn - I think it is b/c she is older and she looks up to her. But she is starting to really get close to Riah. Then DJ and Emma are just buds. They are so stinkin' cute together! It is so funny how they just pair up so perfectly. Then there is Faith Ann and Trinity. They are still a little small to pair up just yet, but in the future I'm sure they will be great friends. Here are Drew and Autumn, since Drew hasn't been up on the blog in a while: I'm so glad that all the kids get along so well. When they were younger, getting together with Yeiters was a bit of a pain. We both had little kids...in diapers, some potty training. Whenever we got together someone would wet their pants...there was a lot of crying...fighting. It is so nice that the kids are older now and are such great friends. We rarely hear a peep from them when we get together, and it is SOOO nice. We can actually enjoy each others company and not have to babysit!

Well, my Pastor and his wife are coming to visit in about a week...so I better get cleaning!!!! We are so excited!!!