Dude, where is my luggage?

The airport baggage claim in Douala is a zoo but thankfully this time went much smoother due to 5 men from the church showing up to welcome and assist us. It still took a long time but we felt much less frazzled. As Drew, Victor, and the men located luggage we stood to the side with the children. After checking and rechecking several times we found that 3 of our bags were missing, including, wouldn’t you know it, that hygiene carry-on bag I was required to check in. To report the missing bags Drew had to get in a long line of other unfortunate souls in a small, airless room. When he got to the desk he was relieved to hear that they could look up the missing bags on the computer and see that the flight had run out of storage room but they would be sent in 2 days. With that information in hand we headed out to the vans. Again we found that the journey was to be smoother. Arriving on a Wednesday held much less traffic and the van trip took only about an hour and a half. Now to see if our van could make it up the steep hill to the mission this would be the final challenge.
We were riding in the first of the two vans with Mom Chamberlin, the orphans, and two other men. We began to climb the hill but as it reached the steepest part it began to lose traction and slid back a little. We gave it a few tries before the men, Kent, Bless, and I climbed out. I followed the boys up the hill while Drew and the other men got behind the first van and began to push. Unfortunately this van was not 4-wheel drive and though the driver had it floored and the men behind were pushing it still proceeded to slide backwards. There were some concerned moments but finally the van got some traction and made it to the top of the hill. At the mission the vans were quickly unloaded and a delicious meal was waiting for us. It was a lovely welcome from the people here.