Ollie Sutter

Each day in Cameroon, I felt more and more what it means to experience the human community. In an increasingly distracted and isolated culture, it means more than you know to wake up and go to sleep with the sun; to buy your water from the “mama” down the street; to speak French all wrong but to speak it much better today than you did last week; to learn the latest dance trends from your next door neighbors; to meet strangers every day and to learn that strangers are just friends you haven’t made yet; to learn every day how much you have left to learn. 

Americans don’t know very much about Africa—most of us couldn’t point to Cameroon on the map. I had no idea what I was getting into when I came to Cameroon but I came away with so much more than I ever imagined: good friends, a new family, a courage to try new things, a curiosity to learn new languages and cultures, and a vision of the world which acknowledges both the history of suffering as well as the resilience and strength of community.