These photos were all taken by Nicole and she was generous enough to share them with me with full permission to use them here.  Nicole is an awesome photographer and I encourage you all to visit her blog or her photography site and if you’re ever in need of a photographer while in Edmonton, Alberta, look her up!

Meanwhile, enjoy these shots.  They are a mix of personal family shots, really awesome shots of Africa, and a few repeats of mine done much better.  And, if only I could have left them at their original size (10-20MB EACH, ya’ll), but sadly, I had to take them pretty far down and it still took nearly two hours to upload them all…on a good day, no less.

Click the first picture to scroll through like a slideshow.

We gathered down at the river and climbed into Glen’s boat.  We took off down the swollen river to search out some sandbars.  We didn’t have much hope, since we hadn’t seen any from the air.  We went a while to a point where the river opens quite wide and the sun became very hot, so we decided to turn around.  About half a mile from the swimming hole nearest our guest house, Glen offered to let anyone out to float the rest of the way.  He had a small, black innertube and it was just right for Levi.  I anticipated Levi’s panic, but instead, he became excited and jumped right in.  Nick, Matthew, and Nicole helped make sure his tube stayed in their general vicinity, but Levi had a grand time.  Glen ran the boat, with Jocelyn and I and the baby girls, back to the swimming hole.  Once everyone had floated back it was decided that they wanted to do it again, so Jocelyn and I headed home while the group went back out.  Levi was so excited to be floating down a river in the Congo!

Levi and Daddy enjoying the river run

Nick and Glen looking stoic on the Wamba River

Nicole and Jocelyn look a bit alike, eh?

Nicole hanging onto Levi while he chats with “Mr. Nick”

That evening, we headed out to Glen and Rita’s for dinner.  But, first, Matthew and I each took a turn in the parachute plane.  Getting the chance to see Kikongo from the air was so awesome!  The sky was calm.  I didn’t notice, but according to Glen, when we took off during my turn, the parachute pulled funny and we almost rolled.  I didn’t feel a thing!  Whew!

Matthew ready for take-off

Matthew went for two laps around the village

During the parachute plane flights, we got to experience the crowding of the children, like all good African missionaries seen on TV

Levi and his new buddies

I took the camera with me, though most of my shots were blurry, a few came out ok. This is Kikongo from the air.

We had a lovely dinner and learned more about Kikongo’s history, as well as the history of the Chapmans and their ministry.  When I think of missionaries, I think of people like the Chapmans: “alone” in the jungle, teaching the people about Christ, and living!  They are awesome people.

Classic African game

We wrapped up Saturday back at “our” house with a tired game of Settlers of Cattan (Matthew won and we won the use of the one fan for the night) before collapsing into our squishy water beds.

Sunday morning came early with church.  The French service began at 8am and went for an hour.  The Kituba service would start at 10 and last three to four hours.  We were ready to go for the French service!  Amelia walked nearly the entire way there and the entire way home!  We were warmly welcomed into the airy building with singing and shakers made from tin cans and carved handles.  We enjoyed the French service, though I felt like I understood less than at our regular Lingala church.

Walking to church

The choir was amazing

After church we headed back to the house, a few had a quick last jump in the river (jumping in and leaving the wet clothes on is one recommended way to stay cool, since it was in the mid-90’s for most of our trip and no A/C in the jungle).  Glen and Rita brought us lunch, including some amazing homemade ice cream!  We finally packed and headed out to the plane.  The group of kids were back to carry our bags and say farewell.

We took a few pictures and climbed on board.  Forty minutes later we were back on the ground in Kinshasa, tired but satisfied at the lovely weekend we enjoyed together.  We loved seeing more of DR Congo and meeting some other missionaries who are doing amazing, tough work in the jungle.

Goodbye Kikongo! The neat row of houses and palms was part of the pastoral school that Rita’s grandfather built

Super Dad

The post-jungle kit: worm meds for the kids, malaria cure, and a malaria test. So far, so good…

Part 4: Nicole also happens to be an amazing [professional] photographer and has gifted me her photos from this trip…so next will be a showcase of her amazing work…you can cheat and go to her blog, though she’s on safari in South Africa right now and may not have posted yet…

We landed without any sickness in Kikongo to another welcoming party, though this one was for us.  It seemed most of the village kids had come by to welcome us and immediately grabbed our bags and took them away to the house where we would be staying.  It was very helpful.  Glen and Rita welcomed us and showed us the house.  The house had three bedrooms, plus an office, a living and dining area, and a great kitchen with a large pantry.  The fridge, which was propane, had been turned on for us, water had started to filter, and the flush water bin was filling.  The propane stove was luxurious with four burners.  The house doesn’t have electricity, but the 12v system run off solar panels provided lights at night.  The water was a rain catchment system, though it didn’t provide a lot of pressure, the house had been set up well for it.

Kikongo

We strategically picked out rooms for sleeping.  We would put Amelia in the pack-and-play in the closet with a mattress for a door.  The foot-tall gap at the top would provide ideal airflow, while blocking out noise and light.  Levi would get the top bunk in our room and we would get the small water bed below.  Except for Levi’s bunk bed, all of the beds were water beds.  You find this a lot in interior Congo for several reasons: they pack well, local mattresses are just foam pieces and not at all comfortable, and they keep you cool.  Actually, in the morning coolness, they are downright chilly!  However, this one was tiny and the mosquito net didn’t provide a lot of clearance around the edges, so it wasn’t ideal, but it worked just fine.

Our neighbors made this arch to welcome us

This billy goat lived behind our guest house

Once we were settled, we headed down to the river.  It was quite the little hike through the jungle, but the river was gorgeous.  It was swollen at the moment, so any river side had been flooded.  However, most everyone jumped right in and Levi finally got used to it.  It was a bit deep for my comfort level, so I just dunked my feet and watched.  There was a lady doing her laundry in the river right there and chattering away with Rita.  The local language is called Kituba.  It sounds similar to Lingala, but has only a few words in common.  Thankfully, hello is one of them: mbote (mmm-BOH-teh)!  French is also spoken, but not as much as in Kinshasa.

After the river and the hike back to the house, Rita brought us a light dinner and I put Amelia to bed.  Nick, Matthew and Nicole went out to see Glen’s toy: a parachute plane.  Nick and Nicole got rides during the calm dusk hours.  Glen uses it as a ministry tool to get between villages.  He has managed to rig it so that he can carry all of his A/V equipment and show the Jesus film in villages who wouldn’t otherwise have any access to such things.  It’s faster than biking, though he does a lot of that, too, and more fun!

A bit later, after dark, Nick, Matthew, and Nicole went out for the Friday night movie.  Glen sets up his screen, projector, and speakers to show fun movies.  This one was called Buddy, with muppets.  Jocelyn and I stayed behind to stay out of the bugs and make sure the kids would sleep in this new location.  We enjoyed some girl chat and Oh Canada tea – yep, it tasted like maple syrup!

The guys and Nicole came back and did some star gazing.  The thing about the entire village being void of any power is that there is no ambient light once you’re away from the house.  It’s just vast darkness.

I did interrupt the star gazing at one point when I discovered a new creature in the kitchen sink: a scorpion!  It was tiny, but got pretty fierce as he realized this was it for him.

Finally, it was time to turn in and try to sleep.  It was so dark, and there were no man-made noises, but I would not call it quiet.  Those bugs are LOUD!  However, after such a long day at Vanga and Kikongo, we were too tired to care.

The next morning, Amelia and Levi were up early and we were ready to see Kikongo.  Matthew and I snuck away (alone!) to go see Glen’s early morning rides in his parachute plane, but there was already a breeze and he couldn’t go up again after his test flight.  So, Rita gave us a tour of their house and grounds.  They are animals lovers like us and have many chickens, a hornbill named Bill (his mother’s name was Hillary – ha!), and a couple of forest antelope.  They are like mini deer!

Rita also has befriended a clawless otter and become its caregiver.  Once though extinct, but have been found to be in good population, the otters are still a rare site.  This one lives at their house and Rita helps the people in the village understand not to kill and eat it, like they do most wildlife.  This otter is truly amazing and the stories and pictures I saw are priceless.  Rita is like the Jane Goodall of this clawless otter!

The forest antelope is just right for Levi

Glen and Rita’s house

One of the coolest flowers I’ve ever seen

After we returned to the house, Glen gathered us up and we went on a tour of Kikongo.  We saw the market, which was very small compared to Vanga.  We toured the hospital, and their lab, as well as seeing the schools and the pastoral college that Rita’s grandfather built.

The lab tracks Sleeping Sickness, which is very common in surrounding villages

If you were ever in lab school, you used one of these to measure the hematocrit

I have NO idea what this is…

The lab staff, and one doctor, were very happy to have us come. They even asked me to look into fixing an instrument for them, but I was unable to help.

We headed back home for a quick lunch and some rest time for the kiddos (and the adults, of course).  We were at the heat of the day after lunch and couldn’t wait to go cool off down at the river.  Lucky for us, Glen had a motor boat!

The market in Kikongo

Found in the market in Kikongo…I am pretty sure they don’t know what Angry Birds is

They had a radio playing in the market…and this was its power

Rita coming out of the food market

Fueling station! (essence = gas)

Amelia had a young gentleman caller

MAF plane lookin’ good on the runway

Part 3…where I let my three-year-old float freely down a river in Congo and other such adventures…coming soon

MAF has built into their program the opportunity for families to take a trip to one of the regular locations to which MAF flies and supports.  This is to get a break from home, and a chance to see the rest of the country that one is serving.  For our trip, we went with our good friends Nick and Jocelyn, and Baby Ruth, and Jocelyn’s sister, who was in town for the week, Nicole.  Between the four of them and the four of us, we were equally balanced between Canadian and American.  We decided to do a day trip to Vanga, followed by spending Friday and Saturday night in a small village, called Kikongo.

Vanga is a larger village and is home to the best hospital in all of DR Congo.  It was started as a mission hospital and has grown ever since.  If you’re picturing a hospital in your Western-world neighborhood, stop.  It’s not like that.  It’s still very African, very jungle, but it is the best care one can receive in this country, with people even leaving the city of Kinshasa, and flying the one hour, 40 minute flight to the hospital there!  Our hosts while we were there were a Swiss couple who had taken over the MAF house (MAF’s main Congo base used to be there, before many of the wars in this country).

Kikongo is village of about 1000 people, with only one full-time missionary couple.  Glen and Rita Chapman are very well known through the country and have been in and out of Congo since they were babies (Rita was born here and had most of her children here).  They have been serving in Kikongo since the 90’s.  We stayed in a house that belongs to another missionary family who is currently serving in Kinshasa as the pastor of the international church.  MAF is the only way of supplies in and out of Kikongo.

So, now that you have a bit of background, let’s begin our adventure!  We left at 6am and headed to the airport.  This is how many of Matthew’s workdays begin, so it was fun to be part of his routine.  We dropped off our bags at MAF’s office, got ourselves and the bags weighed, and then headed over to a different office, more like the terminal, to get our documents checked over and our official tickets.  The sticky part was that I could not find Amelia’s passport.  I have no idea where it has gone and am not sure why it would’ve even been separated from the others.  But, we had a photocopy and the fact that she’s so tiny made it less of a big deal.  We waited at the terminal for a while, got our passports checked three times and took a MAF van over to the MAF hanger.  It was my first visit to the hanger, so Matthew took the time to show me around and all the projects he has been working on.  Picture-taking is illegal, so there aren’t any, sorry!

The Port of Kinshasa from the air

Finally we were ready for take-off!  We crammed ourselves, and all of our stuff, plus some other cargo, into a six-turned-five-seater plane, a Cessena 206.  Matthew sat up front with Nick, our pilot.  Jocelyn held Ruth, Nicole held Levi (though he moved up to Matthew’s lap for a lot of the flight), and I held Amelia.  The views were gorgeous, especially once we were out of the city.  It was a sunny day, perfect for flying.  We passed over Kikongo to see if the river that runs by there had any sandbars – it was very high and the Chapmans were curious if there were any to be seen – nope.

Me and Amelia snuggled in the back of the plane

Baby Ruth enjoyed the plane…probably because the pilot is her daddy!

The last twenty minutes of the flight were a little bumpy.  Levi has been known to get a little air sick from time-to-time and started to complain about not feeling well.  The sick bags were out, but not quite fast enough in position.  Amelia was finally asleep and it took all of my focus not to be sick myself.  We landed in Vanga around 9am to music and a large welcoming committee.  Of course, children were lined up behind the fence-line for the excitement.  The music was not for us, though  The Father was returning to the Catholic mission after furlough and was arriving just after we did, but it was fun to be part of his party.  Father Reinhardt was the cutest little old German man you’ve ever seen and LOVES kids.  He landed, with David Francis piloting the tinier 182 MAF plane just a few minutes later, and joined in with the music.  We let Amelia wander the area and Matthew worked on cleaning Levi’s clothes in the sink in the hanger.  We met Nick’s “pineapple lady” – she always sells cheap, ridiculously tasty pineapples and other goodies to the MAF pilots when they land there, which is almost weekly.  She was excited to see the families.

These ladies helped us out of the plane…never mind Amelia’s pout – she just woke up

Father Reinhart dancing with Amelia while the choir in the back sang for him

The kids love the airplane

Drying Levi’s clothes after he got sick

Two MAF planes!

Vanga also acts as a refueling station

After we were ready to go and the plane was settled in for the day, we got a ride with Heinrich and Rosemary, the Swiss missionary couple who would host us for the day.  We went back to the their lovely home, overlooking the river, and learned about their ministry in Vanga.  He is the town’s engineer, which includes keeping the water running and helping with the town’s electricity – generator run for three hours each evening.  We settled in there and Jocelyn stayed behind with two tired little girls while the rest of us headed out to see the town on foot.  We passed a church built over 100 years ago – the mission station in Vanga celebrated 100 years this summer!  We got to the hospital grounds and were given a fantastic tour, in at least four languages, depending on to whom Heinrich was speaking.

The hospital was a beautiful campus, each department in a different building, connected by little trails, some covered walkways.  There were departments of all kinds and we passed by most of them.  In the traditional African way, the rooms all opened outside – there was not a large building filled with rooms like you might think of a Western hospital, but rather individual rooms, connected outside by a covered sidewalk.  In all hospitals here, there are no other services provided expect for medical treatment.  Any food or extra needs must come from friends or family members, so all over the campus are random families, with all of their possessions, like cooking pots and laundry strewn about, drying on bushes and the grass.  There is a nutritional center for special cases of restrictive diets or malnutrition.  A few ladies were showing us their work there, making the food, outside, of course.

The hospital at Vanga…see the laundry drying on the bushes?

Matthew pulling a tired, hot boy toward the pediatric department. Irony?

Cooking at the hospital

The linens for the hospital

Drying the gloves. Yep.

A wheel chair!

This is the guy who designs the hospital’s supplies and prosthetics. He was pretty proud of his leg brace.

Finally we got to my favorite part: the laboratory!  You’ll recall that I spent five years working as a medical lab technician and seeing a third-world lab was definitely on my bucket list.  I saw a small clinic lab here in Kinshasa, but seeing a hospital lab was really fun.  I’ll restrain myself and only say that it is very different than a modern lab, but they use many of the same instruments I used in school: because the principle is always the same in the lab, only the technology has changed.  In this lab, though, supplies are limited, so everything is reused.  Everything.  They did have a small blood bank: a reserve of whole blood, bagged and labeled with type and Rh factor (positive or negative).  They showed us the cross-matching bench for when someone needs a transfusion and the lab director showed me where they do test those specimens for HIV, Hep B, and Hep C.  They had an active little worm under a microscope from a fresh specimen that was a fun treat to see.  I was very excited to have this experience and do wish I could spend some time there to see how they process a typical sample…maybe someday!

The hospital’s blood bank!

Those leaves? That’s a poo sample.

Washing all of the supplies

Drying the beakers. Note: most modern labs don’t use beakers.

After the hospital tour was finished, we headed out toward the engineer center of town.  Much of the work in Vanga is carried on by brothers, monks, and they do very nice work.  We were able to see the shop, which is the most organized and well-built shop Matthew has ever seen – he said so himself.  The brothers also have a friendly monkey.  Awesome!

Heinrich’s shop

On our way back to the house for lunch, we went by way of the market.  They had all sorts of local foods and every sort of supply you could need.  It is mostly the same things we have in the local markets in Kinshasa, but on a smaller scale, and with grass and mud huts!

I love this. These ladies are tough!

A road in Vanga

Traditional housing in Vanga

The market in Vanga

Overlooking the river on the outskirts of Vanga

We arrived back at the house for a ridiculously tasty lunch of local cuisine, similar foods as in Kinshasa, but so much tastier grown in the jungle!  Beef in a tomato sauce, with rice and bitekuteku (I know I’m behind on my food series…I’ll be more specific on local foods in that).  Local coffee and fruit for dessert finished off a great meal.  Even the kids did great, though they were getting pretty tired.  Amelia had a great time staying behind, especially when Rosemary took her outside to see the baby chickens!

Heinrich and Rosemary’s beautiful home!

Their backyard and guest hut

“Pilot” Matthew in front of Heinrich and Rosemary’s house

We hung out, rested a bit, then piled back in the truck headed for the airplane.  Levi’s wet clothes had dried and we rearranged the seating chart a bit, then took off (over a goat that was eating lunch at the end of the runway) for our final stop for the weekend: Kikongo!

Part 2 is next…