Photo 28 Aug
Testing out the quick photo feature on the app now that we have a tablet. Would you, especially not on Facebook, like to see random photos that make up our day? And, yes, Levi wrote that himself, with a bit of vocal encouragement by Daddy.
Our New Ministry
Sorry for the long pause in blogging. Honestly, this time, it’s just plain ol’ laziness. Our power and internet have been better. Though, “better” than nothing is not necessarily saying a lot, they really have been cooperative.
Once again, each day could be a blog post (not actually true, because some days are very normal, and other days could be a month of Sundays’ blogs) and trying to pick out a few highlights from the last few weeks would be hard. But, I’ll start with our biggest new thing. We have happily agreed to help take over some aspects of a local ministry temporarily. The overseers are a couple who live across the street, Lee and Becky, and have been missionaries here in DR Congo since, well, forever. She was actually born and raised here and is a third generation missionary to the country. She and her husband run a home/center for orphan boys. The home is a few kilometers away, and the day-to-day operations are managed by a few Congolese folks, but they financially support it and manage those funds, as well as have the boys over to their yard once in a while to run around.
They asked us to take over while they return to the states for furlough with their two sons, both adopted out of the center. We will oversee that the money gets distributed and is being used properly. The fun part will be having the boys come over once a month to their yard, which has a large trampoline and enough room for some football (soccer, of course).
So, to start our journey and meet the people we will be working with, we went with Lee and Becky to their church, which they also help guide and disciple. Their church is in the same network of Baptist churches like the one we attend weekly, and the one we visited in our last blog post. This particular week was special because the congregation was voting in a new pastor.
The Sunday morning started out pretty early, because the church is 40 minutes away. What we didn’t anticipate was that it was also the last day of Ramadan and that all of the Muslims in the area would be attending a city-wide service at the stadium. Since we had to cross the city and pass the stadium to get to church we got stuck in traffic. The “traffic” was caused by the Muslims walking through the streets (one of this city’s few multi-lane, paved highways) and taxis carrying more Muslims stopping in the middle of the road to let out their passengers. Thousands of people, all dressed for worship, heading toward the stadium. This city’s Muslim population is growing rapidly, but we never knew quite how many there might be. Now we have a better idea. It is also interesting to note that the stadium is famous…ever heard of Rumble in the Jungle, the big match between Muhammud Ali and George Foreman in 1974? That is its home.
But anyway, we finally arrived at church. We had taken two cars because we couldn’t all fit in one, but we got as far as we could go with a “regular” vehicle, being an SUV in this case, and all piled into the real Congo-ready auto: a Toyota Landcruiser with a lift, oversized tires and a snorkel. It’s also bright yellow. We wondered why we couldn’t take the other car. Lee just laughed and said “oh, you’ll see.” Sure enough, we drove through the jungle. Granted, it was a crowded neighborhood with concrete block homes like any other Congolese neighborhood, but these “roads” had mud and ruts so deep, it looked more like a creek bed. And this was an easy week.
We arrived at church just in time for Sunday School. Amelia and I went with the ladies, with Becky teaching the class. Her Lingala is as fluent as her English, and she translated the gist for me, and all of the questions the ladies had about Amelia. Matthew and Levi stayed in the main building for the men’s class.
After an hour, it was time for church. Becky played the electric piano, a first for any of the local Congolese churches, and then she translated most of the sermon in my ear. It dealt with the best story in the book of Judges, chapter 3.
Once church had ended, it was time for the meeting to vote in the new pastor. We stayed outside to wait. Since this was important, and the Congolese timing is not as rushed as Western timing, we waited a long time. We had brought plenty of snacks for the kids and we took turns poking our heads out of the church’s gate and having people shout “Mundele!” at us. The boys visiting from the boys’ home entertained Levi and Amelia for nearly the whole time, though they spent a good chunk of time catching hornets in plastic bags. Eek.
Finally the meeting was over and our next stop was to visit the boys’ home. Getting back out of the neighborhood through the creek bed was made that much harder by the team of dudes who suddenly decided to fix a water line in the road and dug a ditch…in the middle of the road. So, Becky jumped out to help Lee straddle the ditch and, at the last second, drive right over the ditch. It was awesome. One of the “foremen” on the job was also directing Lee, but he was trying to cause him to go into the ditch. Why? Because, if he goes in, he needs help getting out, which would be provided, but not without pay. He did ask for money once we were over the ditch. Something about passing, like a toll, perhaps? The Congolese are never short on creativity in ways to make money.
Also, driving away during the lunch hour, when everyone is out and about, people called us a new-to-us term: Chinois. We are used to shouts of Mundele! Mundele! but calling us Chinese is not something we’d bee associated with before. Fascinating.
So, off we went. The boys home is hard to describe. It is a small lot, surrounded by a wall, which describes nearly every basic lot in Kinshasa. The home consists of one building locked up and houses the supplies and office, the adjoining room is where meals are served (currently, they are prepared off site and the boys take turns picking up the food, because too much theft was occurring having the food kept at the home), though the boys tend to eat outside. Finally, is the “living quarters,” where there are a few bedrooms with some bunk beds, but the boys prefer all to sleep in the same room for security reasons. There is no electricity and the only water is a spigot in the courtyard area.
The home used to be pleasantly decorated to be as home-y as possible, but a former dorm dad sold everything off for his own profit. The current dorm dad and his wife have their own house elsewhere and take care of some smaller children there, including a couple of young girls, and the older boys just stay at this house. In the states, we might be appalled that these boys are not constantly supervised, but things are different in Congo. In some ways, it’s fine; in some ways, it can’t be helped; in every way, it is what it is.
By now our kids were exhausted and tired of being on display, and so we started for home. Lee and Becky had us over for dinner and we enjoyed chatting a little bit more about our new responsibilities.
Fast forward six days to Saturday. The boys, and the girls, all came over to Lee and Becky’s for their last time before furlough. Several of the boys had just come to the center, so Becky spent time analyzing their situation and getting to know them. They are very careful of the boys’ background they support in the home. They only want real orphans. Many of the boys seek out the center, even though they are living with relatives, simply because they will be able to eat a regular meal there and be provided for, but Lee and Becky are currently only seeking to help boys who literally have no where to go, especially once they are a little bit older (10-12 years) and no other orphanage will take them.
We stopped in and out during the day as we could around our own kids’ naps and meals, and played with the kids. Watching Matthew get his butt kicked by two little boys in football was hilarious. One of the other boys, Jordan, took it upon himself to teach Levi how to play. Levi kept picking up the ball and running with it, but Jordan was very patient with him. The oldest girl, Josephina, loved Amelia and kept carrying her around the yard.
The new boys bring common troubles: histories of abuse, abandonment, stealing, fighting, and health risks. A couple of the boys had chiggers. Chiggers are like ticks that bury themselves into your skin and lay their egg sacks. They exist in the states, but most of the time, people recognize and take care of the problem quickly. Boys on the street are unable to keep clean or see the potential hazards. This Saturday they were able to get that taken care of as well as get haircuts. They also have scabies and a few had ringworm. Becky made sure to send them home with medicine and instructions at the end of the day.
We had fun with the kids and are excited to see them again soon. Please pray for us that we are able to maintain good order so that the home can continue. Pray that we are able to communicate to the other Congolese who help manage and run it, and that we won’t have any unpleasant surprises.
I hope to get in touch with someone who coordinates raising support for this center for boys and will post a link to the website as soon as I have it.
Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the related adventures…
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- Levi and Amelia playing in the truck after church. It’s totally normal to put your baby on the hood of a truck.
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- Levi and Amelia were on display…Amelia loved the attention.
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- These are where the boys go to the bathroom. They are just holes in the ground, but it’s private at least.
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- The meal prep area entrance on the left, and the sleeping quarters entrance on the right. The courtyard is entirely visible, and the bathroom are on the right side of the picture.
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- Here is the gate, one of the few properties in this neighborhood with razor wire – this is considered good here.
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- Paul, Lee and Becky’s adopted son, helps out with the haircuts on the new boys
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- Orelick, Lee and Becky’s older adopted son, shows the younger kids his baby bunnies
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- The aftermath of getting the chiggers and their egg sacks out
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- Most of the boys (and girls) of the center currently
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- Heading out to catch taxis home just outside the gate on our street (you can see a sliver of our wall, the dark gray, on the left)
New Church, New Friends…but not at the same time
Sunday we visited a new church. This church is with the same group as the church we normally attend, but their pastor is Congolese and had recently guest preached at our church. While we didn’t understand most of his words, we appreciated his delivery and his conviction. Plus, we learned that he was Pepe’s adoptive dad and that Pepe lived with him and his family. Since Pepe is now a regular part of our life, we wanted the chance to visit his church as well.
So, Pepe made sure he had a Sunday that he wasn’t working and met us at our house. To help him remember he wasn’t working, Matthew drove while Pepe sat in the front seat giving directions. We first drove to his house. It was in a part of town that neither of us had seen yet. The drive took us along the Congo river and it was truly beautiful! (If you’re from here, you drive past the turn to Chez Tin Tin.) It was in a new neighborhood, but it looked more like the African villages you see in pictures. We realized the difference: no walls for each house. We drove as far as the road let us, then walked the last few hundred feet. Pepe showed us his family’s pigs, including a new litter, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, and guinea fowl. If you haven’t seen a guinea fowl, Google it.
Next we drove out to the church, which is over by the airport that MAF uses. This side of Kinshasa was new yet again. We had to park a ways away this time, since the roads are not wide enough for cars. These streets and passage ways reminded me more of those sad commercials for starving African children. And, yes, there were naked children running around. I wouldn’t consider it impoverished, just very different. We walked to the church, which was three walls and a roof, surrounded by an incomplete wall and a narrow opening, about three feet up…so you literally had to climb into it. But, you know, whatever.
We were late, but didn’t feel so bad since we had been following the pastor. There were about 50 people there. We realized that we were special guests. And special guests, especially white ones, have special seats…right up front, at a ninety degree angle to everyone else. We were on display, and once again we were grateful for our dedication to training our kids to be still and quiet during church. The training is ongoing, but they’re pretty well behaved.
The singing at this church was awesome. The men sat on one side and a few played African drums. The women and children sat on the other side and they all had metal shakers, made from aerosol cans. It got loud, but the songs were all classic hymns in Lingala. It was so fun!
During the preaching, Pepe joined us up front to help translate. Of course, Pepe translated into French, but it helped Matthew a little here and there.
After the service, the men gathered in one corner to conduct church business, count the offering, etc. The women gathered as most women at church do anyway. Pepe led us away and we went home. The kids were tired after doing very well for a two hour service.
Pepe carrying Amelia back to the car after church
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Since my birthday, things have been a bit crazy. We were blessed with decent power over the weekend. “Decent power” means the outage on Saturday began at 1pm and ended sometime after we went to bed, and Sunday we had power the entire day, out for an hour from 7-8 or so, then back out again around 9pm. Power did return sometime late in the night, but went out at 5:13am Monday morning (two minutes prior to my alarm) and did not come back until after we went to bed, which was especially discouraging after a good weekend. Tuesday, it was out by 6am and we were pleasantly surprised at 1pm when it returned. I did laundry and cooked like crazy! It stayed on until Wednesday morning at 9am.
At 9:30am Wednesday, after sending Pepe and Mosengo on an errand, I was sitting on the porch watching Levi play in the dirt while Amelia napped. I heard a strange sound, like people shoveling dirt. The pang of the metal shovel in the dirt was out of place…so, I told Levi to stay put and stuck my head out the gate. Sure enough, outside our gate, all up and down our road, were about 25 or 30 guys digging in a line, every ten feet or so. They all had work jumpers on, so I knew they were with SNEL, our favorite electric company.
The guys working just outside the door looked up and said bonjour, but no one else really noticed my white face peering out the gate. I waited a little bit and asked Levi if he wanted to see what was going on outside our walls. He happily agreed and we stepped outside the gate. The guys across the street stopped working, and this had the domino effect. Now they were all curious about the lady who brought her mundele kid outside to watch them. The head guy with the clipboard was walking by just then and said bonjour and spoke a little English. I joked that he should put Levi to work, so he grabbed a pick axe and handed it to Levi, who struggled to hold it, but managed to make the whole line of them laugh.
We waved up and down the line and stepped back behind the gate. I ran to call Matthew. Though he’s working across the street, I figured he might want to know. He told me that I should get water for them. I found a bunch of plastic cups, filled the igloo water cooler and Levi and I carried it down the driveway. They were so excited! And so grateful! Within five minutes I had about 30 new friends standing just outside my gate. A few, of course, asked for food, but I smiled and told them that I only had water today. They said thank you. Their bosses said thank you. Some practiced their limited English on me and asked if I was from America. One head guy planted himself next to the water to be sure the guys didn’t steal the cups.
Levi and I headed inside for the afternoon to get on with our day, but we went back out later with Mosengo to see the progress. Their narrow ditch, about a foot wide and now about three feet deep was starting to connect between each worker. I’m convinced that no one can dig more quickly or with more precision than the Congolese. It is very impressive. They were wrapping up for the day and the head boss approached me. He asked if they could leave some supplies inside our gate so they wouldn’t have to lug them around. The naive American in me was like, “sure! why not?” but I know better than that and knew enough that my four and a half months of Congolese culture would not be enough. So, I told him it was up to Mosengo, because I knew he would know the intent, the possibility of negative side effects (what if they accused us of stealing and asked for money…if you’re laughing at the absurdity, you’ve never been to Congo), and yet he is a strong Christian who knows how to show kindness. He agreed that it was okay and a few carried some supplies in. I asked the dude if we would power that night and he assured me it would come back on. Well, it didn’t come back until 9pm, but at least it stayed on…
…And on…it went off today for about an hour, but we’ve been going strong besides that. It’s awesome and completely anticlimactic at the same time.
Today they were back at around 7:30am, picked up their stuff and went to work. I got the water out and Alex was a little surprised that they all seemed to know me. They hung out in our yard outside the gate, left their backpacks all up and down our wall and parked their truck in front. They laid a giant red cable the length of the street, beyond where I can see in either direction. I’m still not sure what it’s for or why it’s there. I can only hope it’s a good thing. To pull the giant cable by hand, there were more men today, probably around 50, and they each had a place on the cable and a whistle blew every other second to signal to pull. This went on and on all day. Tweeeeeeet. Tweeeeeeet. But, they appreciated the water yet again. One got a little extra needy about asking for food, but I just smiled and shrugged. No big deal. He asked, I said no. I moved on and smiled at them, Levi played around, and Alex kept a keen eye on the whole thing.
As of tonight, some of the ditch has been filled, the line is laid as far as we can see. Alex collected some fancy info: the line is actually a power line off a different grid. Most importantly, it’s the grid that has consistent power. Somebody important must’ve paid somebody else a lot of money. Either way, we hope this means more power, more often.
Also, tonight there isn’t anything stored in our yard, but I think they’ll be back tomorrow to keep filling in the ditch.
The irony of the situation made me laugh. A few weeks ago, SNEL’s head guys were terrorizing the neighborhood with bolt cutters and armed soldiers. This week, their blue collar workers were storing stuff in our front yard. I don’t think I can help but smile at all I am learning here in Congo.
SNEL’s conduit and signs stored in our front yard
My contraband picture of them hefting the empty spool into the truck after work tonight. I think OSHA would be proud.
(As a note, about five minutes before publishing, the power went out for the first time this evening…and came back on less than a minute later. Switched to another line? Hmmmm….we can only hope!)
Lisa’s Birthday!
I had my first birthday in Africa yesterday, turning the big 2-8. It was an interesting day full of blessings and surprises. First, let’s have a run down of our current power schedule. Each day the power goes out between 6 and 8 am. It does not return until 10pm or later. One night I woke at midnight and it still wasn’t on, though it had returned by 4am. Earlier in the week, we did get a bonus of the power randomly returning at 4pm, so laundry was done, as well as some baking. We’ve also been having water issues as our well-controlling neighbor next door has been out of town or something, and not turning on the pump very often, causing us to unexpectedly run out of water. But, we’ve made do by turning on the generator at lunch and dinner times to both cook and run the fridge and freezers. I’m often out of the shower before the power goes out at 6, though not always. Of course, it’s important to get that coffee done before then, too.
So, my birthday…I woke and discovered the water was out, though we still had power. So, the water heater that had been on all night had actually been empty and my shower was courtesy of our gravity tank, which was still half full. It was the kind of shower I have without power, except with the lights on. And you should know I love my morning shower and it is not a pleasant day unless I have one. So, I was not thrilled with how the day started, but on we went. The kids woke extra early, too, so Matthew had to cancel my birthday breakfast, but that was ok. (We made up for it this morning…) So, I had two off kids and Matthew went to work. Ah well, a birthday is special, but it’s still a day. And the power was still on at 8am…weird.
It went off at 9, but I was grateful for the unexpected delay, though I didn’t utilize it entirely. Then a dude came by to pick some coconuts off of our tree, which was needing done. That is always fun to watch and I’ll make sure to include a picture or two in my next picture post. No equipment needed and he takes an agreed number of coconuts as pay. Perfect! The guards at our neighbor’s house observed this and wanted some coconuts. I told Alex they could have some once our water tanks were full. Tah-dah. Full tanks.
I had made pizza for dinner the night before, so lunch was a breeze, once Matthew came home to turn on the generator. The battery on our generator died, so it now must be hand-cranked. Not for this poor-little-weak-wristed-chikungunya-girl…don’t take pity on me, I am simply wrist-challenged. And sometimes ankle-challenged. Matthew finds my waddle funny. Anyway, we had a pleasant lunch with very little work on my part, always a nice birthday treat for moms.
Now, Levi gave me a birthday present, but I always swore to myself that I would NOT be one of THOSE moms who posted every achievement of their children on the interwebs. So, I’ll stick to that and NOT reference my recent post about how Levi has never used the toilet and then mention how he gave me a present by achieving a great first on my birthday. Nope, I’m sticking to my guns. But, let’s just say Levi was very awesome and it happened to be on my birthday.
The kids and I visited Matthew at work, seeing many of our Congolese friends in the process, which is always fun. Nestor throws Levi high into the air, Papa Willy always politely shakes his hand and greats him in Lingala and French, Excellance was nice enough to run down and refill my phone credits, Papa Leopold made sure Levi did not get a bucket of cement dropped onto his head, and we got to appreciate Matthew’s building project. Levi stayed for a few hours to help Matthew at work and was a wonderful help to him. He now knows the names of several more tools, including differentiating a flathead and a philips.
Matthew came home from work on time (so, it felt early…ha ha) and started the generator so I could start dinner for the kids and he could shower using proper water pressure (the water problem, by now, had been fixed). A few minutes later Alex comes into the house and says the power was on. WHAT?!?! It was true! Suddenly, we had real power. So, of course, I ran around turning on everything…A/C, fans, lights…when you have it, use it! SNEL doesn’t charge per kwh or anything anyway, so I feel like I’d better use the power for which they’re going to charge me. We’ve been super conservative on generator power because of the cost of fuel, so real power is awesome. I did a little laundry and Matthew took over the kids’ dinner for me.
Once the kids were in bed, our friend and fellow MAF wife came over and Matthew and I walked down the street to the restaurant in our neighborhood, famous for its chicken. The best chicken you’ve ever eaten. A whole chicken. We had eaten there on our anniversary, but it was only a few days after we’d arrived, so we were still in the fog of moving overseas, jetlag, foreign language. This time, we were relaxed, confident in our French (well, Matthew was more than I), and simply enjoyed the atmosphere: little tables, surrounded by garden, completely outside in the perfect temperature (because it’s winter, it’s about 75F-ish), the lighting was pleasant in the dark outdoors. We were even serenaded by a couple, with an accompanying guitarist. They were awesome.
It was such an awesome birthday…and you know what? It’s almost 11am Saturday morning…and the power is STILL on.
Hey Look! An Update!
I thought, perhaps, I would simply give you all a brief update on how we’re doing, since I don’t think I do that very often. Daily life is not all that exciting. Well, I take that back. Daily life is fairly normal, interrupted by bursts of “oh-yeah-we-live-in-Congo” moments. The best example of this is from Saturday. The chain of events reminds us of our dwelling place. My produce lady, Mama Victorine, had stopped by with her weekly visit and to bring my order. As she was leaving, she hoisted her bag onto her head, in classic African style. Unfortunately, one of the watermelons rolled out of the bag and crashed onto our porch steps. The mess was minimal, the watermelon had cracked perfectly in half and landed with both sides upright. She looked devastated since she had hoped to sell it, so I offered to pay her half price for it. She took it and I took the watermelon inside, where Matthew was already feeding the kids an early dinner. We then proceeded to have an impromptu watermelon feast. Amelia LOVES watermelon and ate a TON. Hours later, I was wandering through the room and noticed I had missed a puddle of watermelon juice that had run off the table. As I followed the trail of juice to the floor I saw that I was not the first who had noticed it. There was a cockroach, even bigger than the previous one two weeks ago, drinking the juice. It didn’t even notice me. Since Matthew was home, I had him take care of it. He was even nice enough to clean up the rest of the juice. How sweet (pun intended).
Matthew has been busy working at the MAF house across the street starting the building that will house our internet. Matthew is taking lots of pictures and will probably post about it once it’s finished in a few weeks. Already there have been delays, like the blocks not being delivered on time, but there is already most of a building standing.
I have been busy keeping up with the kids. Amelia is very near to walking now, suddenly having the ability to stand whenever she comes to a stop and has taken a few one-steps. Her first molar is bursting through and caused her some pain yesterday, but she’s tough. She spent half of church yesterday looking around, recognizing friends, and smiling and waving at them. She saw our neighbor’s sentinel, Excellance (yes, that’s his real name…say it with a French accent, of course), and cooed, laughed and waved until she got his attention. Then, she heard Papa Mosengo singing two rows behind us and did the same thing. Oh, sweet Millie-bean. She recently got her foot stuck in her crib slats (it’s a locally built crib, so none of those ridiculous safety precautions). I wasn’t home, so my sweet sitter, Lydia, and Papa Mosengo were able to rescue her by prying the crib slats open. Levi has been talking about it ever since.
Oh, Levi. He talks and talks and talks. He has talked non-stop since he was just under two. The kid’s vocabulary is bigger than mine. Now, he’ll speak some nonsense, and I remind him to use “real words” and he looks at me, deadpan, and tells me that was Lingala, as if I’m simply not able to understand. He’s clever and smart and gets life here just as much as we do. He wakes up in the morning and asks if the power is on. We were having water issues yesterday (see below) and he heard the neighbor’s generator come on and asked if the tanks were filling, even before we put the two together. He’s scary smart. But, that’s not to say he’s ahead. He still refuses to use the toilet – he has never used it. Not for lack of trying; he sits on it regularly. He just isn’t interested. You can lead the boy to the toilet, but you can’t make him use it!
SNEL has moved on to some other poor neighborhood and left their issues in our wake. Our neighbors did have to pay a little, once everything was settled. We were able to get out of further harassment and it seems to have worked out so far. However, it is the time of year when the dams get too much silt and sand in them, because the equipment is the original Belgian equipment from the 1960’s, just like the power lines running through town, and are not in proper repair. So, we power share. The first week it was on EITHER from 9am until 3:30pm OR 4pm until 10pm. We did have power all night, mostly. But, then they switched it up and last week it was on Monday and Tuesday, and went off Wednesday morning. It hasn’t been coming back on until after 10pm, going off again between 6 and 8 in the morning. Our generator runs to keep the food cool during the times I make lunch and dinner, but otherwise we just hang out and continue life without power.
Our neighbor next door is some government dude, head of import, we’re told. I’ve never actually seen him, but he hires moonlighting policemen to guard his house and has a collection of cars that are the envy of anyone who thinks those things are important. He also runs his generator anytime the power is off, turning it off only to fill it with fuel, I think. His banana tree is hanging over our wall with a hand of bananas ripening. Matthew says “Congo law” is that we get those bananas. Hee hee. Anyway, he bought and paid for the well that is on our property, because he didn’t have any room on his own land for it. So, the well itself is on our plot, but the pump and control belong to him. Well, he spent all last week fattening a goat that bleated all day and then, for the weekend, suddenly stopped. He was out of town, we assume having a feast featuring said goat. And we ran out of water. The guards told us they weren’t allowed to run the pump without permission, so we had a few days of confusion before we figured out the why’s and how’s of the tanks and our new house pump and the confusion with the power outage. It was frustrating at times, but we got through it. Now our tanks are full again, Alex had the chance to clean the algae out of our gravity tank, and the dishes only piled up a little bit. My washing machine is still down, so it’s not like I had to do that anyway. 🙂 Not that I would’ve had power…
So, the power went off this morning at exactly 8:05am, so we know it was switched off versus a random trip of the breaker. I can hope that we’re back to the original power sharing schedule and it will be on this afternoon, but I plan that it will be off until 10pm and adjust my day accordingly. At least Matthew moved the internet to be battery powered now! Yay! Contact!
Last week, back home in Washington, our dear friend was laid to rest. He was one of Matthew’s closest friends, the best man in our wedding. It was the first time we wished we were only a short plane ride from home. We wanted to be there, to hug and offer comfort to his family and our friends. We will miss him terribly, sad that we can’t share the rest of our Africa experience with him, since he loved Africa so much and had hoped to return sometime. We take comfort and hope from knowing that Lonnie is resting in peace and we will see him in Heaven!
We are working on our August prayer letter, so you can anticipate that readily. If you’re not on our mailing list (via snail or email), then you’ll just have to wait a bit longer for us to put it on our website, OR you can send us an email and we’ll get you added.
July’s Photo Blog
I knew that if I updated ya’ll with “boo us, our internet is slow and our power is terrible so I can’t blog” that I would jump right back on the blogging horse. So, you know, here are a few pictures from July from the Lind house!
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- Roasting chicken on our traditional-ish Congolese grill, basically a drum cut in half and filled with something burn-able.
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- Amelia eating her oatmeal. This was Daddy’s idea.
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- So proud of herself for eating her oats!
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- African sunset, beautiful, thanks mostly to Kinshasa’s terrible pollution
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- This is the notice from SNEL, with all of the “unpaid” charges they want to collect. I’m not sure why I used the dinos to represent its size.
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- According to this, they expect somewhere in the range of $1600-1700 for back payment. See? 1998. Ridiculous.
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- Amelia is so proud that she can so easily pull herself up and cruise on anything…walking will come any day.
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- This awesome beetle was hiking around our backyard. I used my flip flop for a size reference and Levi wanted his car to be in the picture, too (you can also see his toes).
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- Matthew was gone for one night and we have our first cockroach in weeks. It was also the biggest I’ve seen. See? Ew.
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- Millie-bean
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- She reads with passion.
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- Can you see him smiling? He drew those “A’s” himself!
Food: Grocery Shopping
To read the first post in our Food Series, click here.
Grocery shopping here is so fun. Okay, it’s probably just me. I love grocery shopping in general, but here it is like a game. I try really hard to make sure my children don’t come with me (does that sound terrible? Tough.), because that sort of challenge would go from fun to stressful in an instant, but there’s usually a kid sitter available.
A normal shopping day for me, about every other week or so, it is a Wednesday. Pepe comes around 9am to drive me around town in whatever vehicle we have available, usually a MAF-owned vehicle and we pay per kilometer. I get the kids situated where they will spend the morning and away we go.
Of course, the days leading up to shopping have been spent sporadically preparing, making lists and the dividing it between which stores have the items and the best deals. I’m still perfecting this and still finding treasures. I think it’s a never-ending process because the stores continually change their stock. Sometimes it’s on purpose, sometimes it’s because of customs, and sometimes their prices fluctuate so much that the product is out of our financial reach. ($15 for a box of Special K anyone?)
Once Pepe and I take off, I tell him which stores I want to visit and he helps me plan where to go first. I do have a few places where I already go regularly, so I’ll outline those…
My first stop tends to be Regal. Regal is the most unlikely store. It was the first store we were introduced to here and it is, ummmm, different. The layout is like a dirty, dim-lit, dingy convenience store, and yet they have a wide variety and you can find some things very affordably there. It is my source of diapers and formula, since it consistently has the best prices on both. It is also the best place I’ve found for mozzarella, pasta, some canned stuff, and butter.
Oh the butter…the butter here is amazing. You know the Kerrygold butter you can find with the special cheeses in groceries in the states? It’s all like that. It’s very European. When you melt it, it’s not white. It’s not creamy-colored. It’s neon yellow. It’s awesome. My white sauces are far from white. Oh. So. Tasty.
After Regal, I vary my routine. When I need to stock up on American-style snacks (like for our trip to Kenya, or for Matthew’s lunches), I stop at a little place owned by a Pakistani guy named Elli. He loves kids and speaks very good English. The store, Lafayette, is right next to the MAF office downtown Kinshasa, right off the main boulevard, so sometimes when I need to get cash, it’s convenient to go there. Oh, and did I mention it’s the only place to get semi-affordable ice cream? We went nearly four months without knowing this!!! Jeepers!
If I need to stock up on my American food preferences, I go to City Market. If City Market doesn’t carry it, it’s not here. City Market isn’t the best, and is one of the most expensive stores, but they have stuff that all Americans want. Salsa? Corn starch? Powdered sugar? Brown sugar? Pre-packaged spices (taco, enchilada, meatloaf, etc.)? If you want those, you get it there. I don’t necessarily subscribe to those things as needs, per se, but sometimes…well, it’s helpful. Ok, corn starch and brown sugar are essential. But the main thing I go to City Market for is boxed mac and cheese. It’s not Kraft, but it’s my comfort food. And, thankfully, it’s oddly American-priced. I won’t question it, though; I’m just grateful.
Sometimes, I go to the newest store in town, opening just after we arrived, called Shoprite. Shoprite is a South African chain and is the closest thing to an American-style store. Which both makes me happy and sad. Someday, I hope my language is good enough that I can shop in the local markets…and haggle down the mundele-pricing! Anyway, Shoprite has great deals on certain things. Their meat is one of the two places I would buy it and they carry one novelty: boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You know, the American standard meat? It was impossible to find here, but Shoprite has them. They’re pricey, but not outrageous. I tend to get basics there that I haven’t found reasonably priced at Regal. Oh, and their patisserie is awesome. Their croissants are the best and they freeze so well that I get a dozen or so and what doesn’t get eaten on the way home, gets frozen for another breakfast. They also have some housewares and toiletries that are reasonably priced (yay for Johnson&Johnson baby soap!), even bottles and sippy cups are suddenly available for new moms (I brought my own, because before Shoprite, they weren’t)! Shoprite, though, is already struggling. Their arrival struck a chord with the other large store owners in town and they weren’t too happy about it. We started to notice the stock at Shoprite dwindling, despite just opening. At first, we left it to poor buyers who underestimated Shoprite’s instant popularity, but now we’ve heard a rumor that says another store owner is paying the dock money enough to keep the shipping containers right where they are at the port. Corruption in action.
The last place I stop is the store right down the street. It’s a bit far to walk for me, though it would be doable if I were so inclined, but it’s a new, clean store that has great prices on most basics and it’s really nice because it’s in the neighborhood. Their meat is usually the best and the best priced. Their bread is also tasty and the deli counter has the friendliest ladies ever. And now they know my name and that I’m learning Lingala, so they’ve made it their job to help me every time I’m in there. It’s really fun! Monishop is probably my favorite. Levi likes going there because they have kid-sized carts.
I’ve left out a lot of stores. The selection of modern-day stores has grown exponentially in the last two years, so we’re told. Just a few years ago not one of them existed and grocery shopping meant going into a dark, dank store, looking at the products all behind glass or wire, pointing, paying for them, and picking them up already bagged.
In my next Food Series post I will talk about the cost of food here and where it all comes from, along with some garden updates! Hopefully it will be sooner than another six weeks. Ha!
Prayer Requests While We Wait
Sorry about the absence. It’s not on purpose. We have spent the last week power sharing. We only have power half the day. The battery bank connected to our solar panel is having issues, so our router is plugged into the wall. So, to have internet we must first have power. But, we are also having satellite issues, so even when we do have internet, it has been extremely slow and wordpress doesn’t always load.
All that to say, blogging hasn’t really an option. Last week’s highlights were: Matthew had his first overnight trip out to the village of Semendua, and Amelia took her first step.
So, while blogging will be rare until all of the above gets better, here is a laundry list of prayer items for you to keep us on your minds and hearts:
- Matthew’s health: he may have caught a bug while in Semendua and it’s not debilitating, just rather unpleasant.
- My health: my chikungunya is still clinging on for dear life, some days are ok, some are awful.
- Our power situation: that it improves soon!
- For our loss: one of Matthew’s dearest friends has passed away this week – he was the best man in our wedding and someone who had a great heart for Africa long before we knew we’d be here. We already miss him and grieve with those who stay behind.
- The other MAF families: one is looking for a new house, one is coming back to Kin with a new baby soon, and many are looking to start their teens’ last school year next week.
- Our sentinels: they are both going through rough times at home.
- My washing machine: Matthew found a working motor and maybe, perhaps, I’ll be able to do laundry again?
- For our efficacy: not ours, specifically, but all Christian missionaries here. We know that Christ is effective enough, let us not be in the in way of His glory.
SNupdate (SNEL Update)
SNEL did not finish their rampage last week. They continued to shut off power during the day so they could go around, snipping people’s power lines if they couldn’t prove their payments for the last fifteen years.
Our neighbor directly across the street is a third-generation missionary. She grew up here, knows the people, knows the languages, and has been through it all. She said this is the worst she’s seen it. In the past, you simply proved that you paid your bill faithfully. This time, no matter the circumstances, they want payment receipts through 1998. If you don’t have those, then you owe for them.
Her sentinel went down Friday to try and work it out at the office, and came home with our notice. A notice to cut within 48 hours if we didn’t prove payment since 1998. Thanks, SNEL, for not even being “man enough” to bring it to our gate. So, we talked it over with our neighbor. We had about half a dozen options. If the first thing doesn’t work out, move to Plan B etc.
Plan A was to simply send Alex to the office Saturday morning and tell them that the guy who normally lives here, and has since 1999, is not here. We can’t help you. That didn’t work.
Plan B was to show them the three receipts for the months we have been here, and tell them the same story (the truth). We can’t help you. Nope.
Plan C was to actually try to find the receipts from most of those years. We now know all of the receipts prior to 2007 were thrown away shortly before our arrival.
Plan D was to give our notice to our neighbor, who has friends in high places. That is the latest. So far, she thinks things will work out and they may be stopping back next April once the original renter is back, but for now, our line may stay intact.
Just so you know, Plan X was to just let them cut it. As far as we can tell, it’s completely buried under our cement driveway and they would either have to cut the rest of the road’s power, or hack away at the cement. And, as mentioned in the previous post, they don’t have the tools necessary to do that.
Fortunately, the real deal is that God is in control. He’s in control of whether or not we have power. And whether or not it matters. If we don’t have power, then we learn to deal with it (until this blows over, then we pay a guy to reconnect it). We remain faithful to our attempt to be Christlike is all of our dealings, whether it be with friends or with corrupt extortionists (is that redundant?) who claim to have…uhhhh…POWER over us. Please pray that this will blow over quickly and, hopefully, our power line will remain intact.
Of course, then again, they’re also having to power share and it gets turned off in the evenings anyway lately. Oh SNEL…
SNEL Goes on a Power Trip
Alex was taking a break with the sentinels outside the gate. Matthew decided to go check on our neighbors across the street who had had a very bad morning and took Amelia with him to help cheer them up. One minute after he walked out the gate, my cell phone rings. It was Alex.
“Oui, bonjour Alex,” I sais, confused, since he’s only just outside.
“Madame, lock the gate, the militaire,” and hangs up.
Ohhhh, so THIS is Congo.
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I wrote about our busy Friday in the post about Levi’s birthday. One of the many things that came up that day was a reminder of the devastating corruption keeping this country impoverished and desolate.
SNEL is the power company. It IS the embodiment of what is wrong with this country (at least on the west side…) and why Christ is the ONLY thing that can draw these people from their hearts of darkness. SNEL, on the very outside, seems to be a power company. They have offices downtown. They shove a bill under your gate once a month. You pay them. You have power, about 60% of the time. Oh, and the bill never comes on the same day. And the rates are made up. Literally. The meter broke long ago and it’s not really worth it to get it fixed all the time, because chances are very good you’ll get ignored. And your bill also has “back due” charges on it that are actually made up. The little offices where you go to pay your bill (remember, there’s no mail system here) are often without power (ironic, no?), so they can’t enter that you’ve paid into their computer system, so often your bill says you didn’t pay them.
But it goes deeper. The SNEL men that work in the neighborhoods to repair the power show up and have nothing. No training, no tools, to uniforms, to materials. Matthew said that to insulate the power line, they use tar and cardboard (that YOU have to buy). The power cables…live, thick black power cables…are not necessarily buried and you often see them lying in the grass off the side of the road. When the cable breaks, it’s just gets patched. Maybe that’s not so bad, except that these cables haven’t been truly replaced since they were installed in the 1960’s. They’re just spliced pieces of power cables. Our neighborhood has power because the rich live here. Our workers and their neighborhoods don’t even have power, because the lines were cut or stolen long ago.
When you pay your bill the money goes into someone’s pocket. The men that work for SNEL may get paid, they may not. Your street and your neighbors will pay for the materials and anything else you need to get your power back if something breaks. We’ve done it once and we’ll do it again. Just cash exchanged in the street.
I could keep going…but I think you have enough to chew on.
But then there was Friday. Friday, our MAF neighbors across the street (where the antennae that Matthew built lives), were given a notice of unpaid bills…for the past twenty years. If they couldn’t prove that each month, for the past TWENTY YEARS, has been paid, their power line would be cut. Our neighbor directly across happened to be standing at her gate and they demanded immediate proof of payment even though they did not have a fabricated account statement for her house.
We are told this happens every few years and they pick on different people at different times. The cause is usually that someone way up at the top of the chain notices the books look a little funny and asks someone lower on the chain why that may be. Since their pockets are probably being lined, they say that people must not be paying their bills. And SNEL goes searching for the cash.
Though, it’s not entirely unwarranted. Political figures and powerful people (in our neighborhood) think they’re above paying their power bills and probably got away with it for a while. This, too, is common. The corruption is on both sides.
So, the MAF family at the house dug out their receipts. They’ve only lived in the house for six years, but since it’s the one house that MAF owns here in Kinshasa, the paperwork has been well maintained. They were able to find back nearly fifteen years and began sorting. They had been given 48 hours, but it was the weekend, so surely there would be time Monday to get it sorted out…
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Monday I had given the kids away for the morning, planning to pack up the apartment. I decided I couldn’t carry all the bins on my own and took Alex with me. While I packed, he did dishes and swept. I was just getting ready to leave when my cell phone rang. Matthew asked where I was and then told me not to go home. SNEL was back at the house across the street, this time they’d brought armed soldiers and men with giant sheers to cut the power lines. The wife was by herself, but to go home and be seen would mean getting harassed ourselves, something to be avoided.
So, I made a few calls and eventually sent Alex home (it’s a short walk) and went next door where Levi and Amelia were hanging out. Matthew joined us for lunch and we decided that enough time had passed that it was safe to head home, though planning to just keep driving if we saw anything out of placed. We knew Alex could handle any unwanted knocks at the gate, but he hadn’t seen any so thought they probably left the area.
We didn’t see anything and pulled into our gate. An hour later Matthew decided to go see how they were doing and took Amelia to cheer them up.
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I pressed End on my cell phone and RAN down the driveway. Thankfully, Levi had just gone down for his nap, so I didn’t have to worry about him asking questions. I quietly locked the gate as I heard Matthew’s voice with several others. Nothing sounded too angry, so I felt a little better. Soon I heard Alex’s voice as well, though it all took place in Lingala, so I was at a loss as to what was going on. I hated not being able to see anything, but the voices stopped and I went back inside.
Matthew came home a bit later and Alex walked in behind him. Between Matthew and Alex, SNEL and the soldiers with them realized that we weren’t worth talking to since we are only temporarily here in the neighborhood. By the time the brief conversation was over, there were smiles all around. Alex was exceptional.
The rest of the story of the MAF house is still not complete, but they do still have power. They are working on the details and SNEL continues to demand several hundred dollars from fifteen-year-old power bills that were already paid. The family could use prayers for resilience against the harassment and that soon it would be settled.
The politically-connected person down the street was not so fortunate. They had not, in fact, paid their bill and one of our neighbors witnessed the SNEL workers with the giant sheers hand-dig up the line and cut a section out. Just like that. (And, yes, the electricity was off for the neighborhood while SNEL exercised their “power.”)
This is the state of this nation. We are feeling blessed for electricity (though, it ironically went off during the writing of this post and has been off for 15 hours) when we have it and are reminded of the great need for hope when we don’t. Please pray for this country and for the people who live under this corruption.
The Lind Family 