Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Preparing


The last few weeks getting prepared for our return to Cameroon have been very busy. Besides the usual packing and making sure we have all the right things, we have had two very special weekends. First, we were fortunate enough to have a very special fundraising event at our parish, St Joseph’s in Shreveport, LA the Sunday before the start of Lent. Rose and I spoke to around 30 people, about our trip last year and our upcoming 3 months to Cameroon that will start at the beginning of April. This was all arranged by our great friend and fellow Vincentian Shy Gardner. Our St. Joseph’s Conference of St. Vincent de Paul sponsored our presentation and provided home-made desserts for all attendees. Our presentation was a success both in terms of creating awareness of the needs of the hospitals in Njinikom and Douala, but also the great work Mission Doctors Association is involved in generally. We were overwhelmed by both the interest and concern expressed by those in the audience about this work and by their generous financial contributions. We plan to use the money raised to help the Sisters in Douala and Njinikom with their most urgent needs of medicine and equipment.


This past weekend our daughters Laura and Julia traveled from San Francisco to Shreveport to attend the White Coat ceremony for our youngest daughter Marcia who attends medical school in Shreveport. They also held a surprise early Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebration for us. It was great for us all to be together before we head off to Cameroon.