Here is a picture of Kim walking from the center finance office to the building where we stayed on the trip. The cement may look older, but SIL is celebrating its 50th anniversary of working in Cameroon, so that’s understandable. Between the buildings, there are of course lots of living things, moving and planted. Some of the moving things we saw in the first day:

We found this not small beetle hanging out outside of an office we were visiting. This guys was just across the way from our apartment:

and he stuck around for a close-up:

Joel certainly got lots of lizard pics, but we’ll save those for another post.

This view looks back toward the finance office, with many of the linguistics offices in the building below. With lots of bushes and trees, of course. Looking straight down the hill is the kitchen and dining hall:

This is the center library:

Here is Joel showing us a rainwater reclamation system (and two lizards):

And a Jacaranda tree, which graced us with purple snow on our path:

And James graciously posed next to some ripening mangoes:

It was encouraging to stay in a place with so much logistical support already in place, but also to see the beauty of God’s creation at our very doorstep!