Death to the iPhone/French as a Second Language
Yesterday was the hottest day we have yet to experience here. It wasn’t so much the temperature, but the humidity was extra thick. You could see it in the air. It was 93F, but felt like 100F, according to the internet, which is always the source of correct information, you know.
But, really, it wouldn’t be that bad…and it’s probably already been that hot…except that the power was out. All. Day. No A/C. No fans. We spent most of the day on the porch, out from under the sun, but trying to catch any breeze that blew in. Sadly, the wind was taking a day off, probably due to the heat.
No electricty and being so hot are not exactly conducive to me wanting to cook dinner, despite being able to turn on the generator to do so. We can’t leave it on long, because the price of fuel is so high, but it is needed to keep the fridge and freezer cool. However, on this particular evening, I was not in the mood. So, we left Levi with his friend, Lydia, and took Amelia down to the Commercial Centre to check out a little cafe that just opened there. They have hamburgers for $10 or other little treats. We just got sandwiches because it was cheap and the guy there didn’t seem interested in cooking.
While we were trying to translate the menu, we couldn’t figure out one particular word: gaufre. The only context we had was that you could get it with chocolate or ham or orange. What the what? So, I took out my iPhone, opened my French translator app, discovered gaufre means waffle and dropped it. On the tile floor. Glass shards flew everywhere and I just stood there dumbfounded. Our only smartphone and it lasted just over a month. Ugh. I felt terrible about the waste, my sudden lack of phone, our handy apps (we had ones for French and Lingala), and my ability to have internet despite the power or internet situation. Such a bummer!
Tragic
We ate and walked home. I stopped by a friend’s across the street because I could see she had tried to call me (the home button still worked), but couldn’t use the touch screen to see her texts. Convenient she is staying across the street. We talked about a new phone for me.
Today we went shopping and it was another adventure, as grocery shopping in Kinshasa always is. But, during one of our stops we sent our driver, Pepe, out to get a new phone for me. Another missionary has one that works and she enjoys it, so we told him to get one just like it. Tah dah! New phone! It’s like a Blackberry rip off, but it makes calls and sends texts and takes pictures and even has a little flashlight at the top (because the power goes out a lot, see?).
(Phone update: Tomorrow our phone will be flying with our friend to Canada, where she is spending the summer busy with stuff (aka: having a baby) and when she comes back in August, maybe she’ll bring it back intact! Woo hoo!)
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Tonight a few ladies got together for a movie night. The power was out, but sometimes frivolous use of the generator is required. Our neighbors across the street (different ones than previously mentioned) have a projector and a big white wall and surround sound. We had popcorn and Cokes and Amelia was a little angel.
The movie was called “Midnight in Paris.” The thing I noticed most was that during the movie French was spoken on and off. There were no subtitles (it was a Woody Allen movie) and it flowed seamlessly in the conversations. What took me aback was that I didn’t notice when it changed from English to French until nearing the end of the movie. I can’t understand what they’re saying…my French is not yet that good, but after hearing French every single day for over a month, I’m no longer noticing it as a foreign sound. I hear the word breaks; I can pick out things I understand. Soon, I hope to simply understand what is being said. Speaking it would be wonderful! But, for now, I’ll enjoy that I no longer find it a foreign language, but as rather something I don’t yet understand.
Random Picture Post!
This lizard lives in our front yard. I have named him Edward (pronounced, Ed-vard).
Amelia loves to empty my shelves. Nightly.
Our anniversary flowers.
Levi at the park on the TASOK campus. Doesn’t every kid’s park have a bamboo forest behind it?
I’m not sure she could smile any bigger
The last Battle of the Roaches. So far, we are winning (see previous post).
The gecko that lives on our kitchen window. He still needs a name.
Sunset before they took down the palm (see previous post).
Nick, a pilot and defacto IT guy, fixing our internet while it was down last week. It was a good week for Nick, can’t you tell?
You know those pillow pets that are so popular in the states? Sunshine is Levi’s pillow pet.
Levi reading a bedtime story to Sunshine.
Levi watching a cool beetle walk around my basil.
We’re back!
Annnnnd, we’re back! The internet was a little iffy once it was back up by mid-week, but one cannot just have internet. Finding the combination of internet, power, and time became tricky as the week went on. Have we ever mentioned the power situation on here? I can’t remember if we did. Power here in Kinshasa is extremely unstable. In short, the power company is corrupt. The lines here are still the original lines from the 1960’s and repairs have just been spliced in. Little splices, over and over, on cables that can hardly be described as buried. During the rain, most people just stay inside because stepping in a puddle is a very common way to die when there is an unknown power line exposed. So, we lose power very often and totally at random, anywhere from 15 minutes to 15 hours at a time…last spring this neighborhood was without power for six weeks. But, here we are and here’s a blog post I wrote on Monday and finished it tonight!
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Saturday, April 28
Matthew spent the day hard at work, but here at home. He finalized the project in the kitchen, and began, continued some of the other ongoing projects. I’ll let him fill you in on the details, but he got a lot done. I was less productive, after a long, hard week (for both of us) and spent extra time with the kiddos, folded laundry, and did some tidying. Nothing special to living in the Congo, I know, but life is life, no matter where you’re living.
That afternoon, just before sunset, the sky turned the sepia-toned color it always turns before a storm. It had been hot, so rain was to be expected. The humidity and the heat become so intense by late afternoon, that the only thing left for the atmosphere to do it dump water everywhere. Anyway, I ran outside to remove all of the diapers I had just hung to dry, and got them under cover. Not twenty minutes later it started to sprinkle. About ten minutes after that it was the most intense storm either of us had ever witnessed. I took this picture of the palm tree across the street. It reminded me of the pictures of the hurricanes in Hawaii.
whooosh
The wind was blowing sheets of water sideways through the air. Branches breaking off of our trees were hurdled across the open yard. The noise echoing off of our tin roof was extremely loud and Levi politely requested that the sound be turned down, it was too loud. The lightening was intense, though it is always intense here. Kinshasa has the most lightening strikes of anywhere in the world. There was thunder to match the lightening’s intensity. Between squalls, Matthew went outside to check our property, but all was intact.
Just as darkness settled, the storm subsided. The power came back on (it had been off during the storm, no surprise there!) and besides the chaos in the yard, it was as if nothing happened. We texted our friends, who were due to come over for a game of Settlers of Catan, that we were ready.
They were late because across the street, at the MAF-owned house, a tree had blown down. Actually, several. The big tree, though, had crashed through their wall. Other trees had come down in the neighborhood, in several missionaries’ yards. The MAF internet antennae had also come down, so we have no internet. I am blogging, but I have no idea when I’ll be able to post…
So our friends arrived and it began to rain again. More storm. No more power. We continued our game by lantern light and didn’t think much about it.
The power came back on in time for bed, but was off again sometime around 2am.
Sunday morning we had already planned a family day. We had both had rough weeks, for various reasons, and were feeling drained as a unit. The thought of just relaxing together seemed more restful than trying to make church happen. Levi started the day at 7am and we were out the door by 8:30am, still without power.
We decided to head down to the Commercial Centre, the little market closest to our house, to see about breakfast. We found some fresh bread and munched on it while we ventured down a street we hadn’t yet seen. It was behind our house and we have been hearing loud church music. Turns out, there are two churches back there and it seemed that they were still practicing for a later service. One had loud singers and one had a generator with a worship team. The little concrete buildings were similar to the church where we worshipped last week. We passed many houses and people out and about. We even passed one house where the guard asked, in English, if we were Americans and said the house that he was guarding belonged to someone from the American Embassy. Good to know!
We were home by ten and, without power or motivation, snacked a little more and read while Levi played outside and Amelia just sat there looking adorable, playing with some toys. I fell asleep at one point and Matthew gathered some tools to take to the upcoming work party across the street. That tree was not going to move itself!
Four hours later they are still out there, chainsaws blaring, cutting through the tree. I’d go investigate and photograph if both kids weren’t sleeping.
We finally do have power, so I should get dinner going before we loose it again. Never a dull moment in Kin!
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One week later…
So, the tree that came down also knocked down a wall, which will be repaired this week. The wood was all sold, after spending two days cutting it up. Matthew worked very hard and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one person sweat so much! The storm also was the catalyst that caused our neighbor to take down his coconut palm, the one from the wind picture above. So sad! However, now the MAF internet antennae is in better view, so I guess that’s good. Oh, and to watch the locals take down this tree was a great Congolese experience. He actually waved at me while I was waking pictures. Put it on your bucket list: take down coconut tree using ropes and a machete.
Two ropes and one machete…
This week was busy, both around the house, and out. We met a few other missionary families coming and going from the bush. Such fascinating stories, it makes our life in Kinshasa seem as normal as living in the states! The wife of one of the families had some great bug stories that make my little cockroach run-ins seem silly. I’m okay with that and have vowed never to live in the jungle. Ha ha ha. You can laugh at me, it’s okay.
Speaking of cockroaches, we think we can declare the infestation over! Matthew has gone out the past two Saturdays to check what used to be their home, where we found hundreds of them, and it is bug-free! We did have a few when Matthew replaced a toilet, because they had been living under the floor under the toilet, but that is now sealed.
We witnessed a termite storm in our garden this week that was so fascinating I just stood there, dumbfounded. Thousands of termites covered the dirt in our garden (the plants are still tiny, of course) and little by little were taking off. The birds were having the time of their lives, dive-bombing the food. After about ten minutes, all that was left was little red termite babies on the ground. Fifteen minutes after that, the only remains were some wings that had been left behind. It was strange. Matthew came home about then to work on the house and asked his assistant to explain what that was about. As he explained the swarming season and that our plants were not at any risk, he also told him about the possibilities of termites as food. They catch them in nets, pick off their wings, and fry them! Of course, as he was saying all of this, he was catching the few that were left, pulling off their wings, and popping them like popcorn! He told me to fry them! Ha!
A little later, Nestor, Matthew’s assistant, showed us how to pick a mango like a Congolese and gave us the first two mangos off our tree. Mango trees are HUGE, so it takes a long stick and a good eye to catch them. Next, someone needs to pick our coconuts, I think…
I think that sums up some of the more interesting parts of our week. Hopefully our internet will stay on this course of being on all the time! Picture post coming soon!
Please Stand By…
We had a bad storm Saturday night that knocked the MAF Internet antennae down (among other things). Everyone is safe and the damage is repairable, but I’m sad to say I won’t be doing any regular posts until we have regular Internet again. Meanwhile, I’m glad we splurged on the unlocked craigslist iPhone before we left (our first ever smart phone). I just don’t think my thumbs are up for a lengthy post right now. 🙂
Nsango Na Bomoi
Finally, a blog I’ve been trying/meaning to write for days! Isn’t that the way it always is? When you have time to write, there nothing about which to write, and when you don’t, it’s because there are so many things happening and all of them should be shared! Well, that’s this week, for sure!
So, Sunday, we went with our neighbors to their church, Nsango Na Bomoi. From what I understand, the church has been in his family for a couple of generations and he is now the pastor. Besides his family, we were the only other white folk there, of about 200 people.
The road to get to church is extremely poor – in the states it would not even be considered a road (except maybe in Alaska, hee hee). It passes through one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kinshasa. It also passes a very large cemetery. The cemetery is so large and so full that bodies are being stacked or buried vertically. The edges of the graves have been washed away by years of hard rains, so there are broken graves, tombstones, and markers all visible from the road. The week prior, a bone was spotted! We know a family whose baby girl is buried there. It is a visible reminder of the need for hope in this community of people.
The church also has a school. The church building itself is still being built, so we all sat under an awning that is part of the school. It had walls on three sides and a roof. The breeze coming in on the cloudy day made it less hot. It was still hot, though.
The entire service was in Lingala, which was really fun, even though we didn’t understand a word of it. There was lots of singing, some of the songs were familiar to us, though we didn’t know them in Lingala, of course. The sermon was passionately delivered and he even included the very main point in English: If you were to die today, where would you be going?
After the main service, there were ten baptisms. The congregation planned ahead and built the baptistry, and later will build the church around it. It is stuck in the side of a very steep hill, but up we went anyway, skirt, baby, bags, Levi and all! The view, though, was really fantastic. There was so much joy in seeing these people, both young and old, commit to their faith! And the singing was so passionate! One of the older widows, Mama Victorine, made sure Amelia and I had a spot up front so we could see. Amelia kept playing with one of the girls’ hair and shirt and everyone around us in the crowd thought it was so sweet.
Just before the baptisms
The baptismal - in the back ground, under the roof, you can see the blue chairs for church
After the baptisms, and the hike down the hill, we gathered with the members of the church back under the awning for a vote for the newly baptized crowd to be accepted as members. It included a mini sermon, I think because some people asked questions. Then we all had communion.
Levi attempting to make new friends. "M'bote!" (Hello in Lingala)
It was a very sweet fellowship, even with the language barrier, and we look forward to visiting again. Unfortunately, the pastor and his wife are leaving on furlough this week and won’t return until September. We are especially sad because they live across the street and have been such a help to us! Ah well, we hope they have fun with family weddings and new grandbabies! I suppose those things are important, too.
After church, and a brief discussion, Matthew declared the decision to have their family over for lunch. Our first Sunday lunch at our house! First of many, we hope! It was yet another time of wonderful fellowship and a relaxing afternoon. Exactly the way that’s needed to start our week!
Next up, I hope to write about our workers, my first shopping trip alone, and perhaps Matthew will tell you about some of the projects he’s been working on this week.
Happy Friday, everyone!
100%
I interrupt the blog post I’ve been trying to write for two days, but haven’t because of poor Internet connection and/or three-feet-tall issues, to share some excellent news! According to our records, we have just reached 100% funded! Thank you to all of you who have supported us, both since the beginning and more recently! We are so excited to have reached a goal we once thought impossible! God gets the glory for this, for sure, and we are so amazed by His blessings! I can’t even end a sentence without an exclamation point, I’m so excited!
For the Love of Bugs, Part Deux
It’s finally Friday night…though, Matthew has a full day of house projects tomorrow. We are exhausted after a challenging week. I have many things I could focus on, but since you all loved my cockroach-in-the-mosquito-net story sooooo much, I thought I’d continue.
Disclaimer: Matthew’s war on the roaches in an ongoing battle, but it has improved our situation. We see far less of them than we did initially, so my encounters are exclusive. Sadly, this also means that I don’t simply see one skittering across the floor on occasion, but rather, I am up close and personal…more and more so every day.
The other night (as seen on facebook), I was putting Amelia to sleep. She is not yet a fan of the crib or being by herself, so we still help her go to sleep. I was rubbing her back, leaning casually over the crib railing, admiring her sweet grunts in an effort to get to sleep, when I felt a tickle across both feet. In the dim light, I looked down just in time to see the cockroach run quickly away. I, surprisingly did not scream, but kept my calm…and ran all the way to Matthew in the kitchen and silently squirmed. I eventually got my courage back up enough to go back into Amelia’s room to make our escape (she, of course, was crying because she’d been suddenly abandoned. When she’s older, she’ll understand, I’m sure…though, I doubt it’ll be that scarring. (Don’t worry, I don’t actually fret about it that much…)
Before that we had a few days of cockroach-free-ness. And yesterday was also roach-free. But today. Was. Not.
This morning, I did my typical scan of the shower stall for bugs. I’ve done this since I was little…it’s not exclusive to Africa…I’m just looking for different bugs. I gave myself the all clear. Ready to step in, I see movement in my peripheral. Hiding behind the cleaning brush on the side of the tub I see the famous antennae. Ugh. I grabbed my towel, got the bug spray and he was finished (our bug spray is instant, even on the cock roaches). Fine. Back to the shower, which by now was the perfect temperature that I normally have to wait for. I step in, grab the sprayer (it’s not a wall hanging kind) and I hear Amelia cry. Surprised, I actually thanked God for the roach-related delay. Had I gotten in when I wanted to, before seeing the roach, I would’ve been wet head to toe and less inclined to hear and help her. So, I toweled up again and got Amelia back to sleep. Realizing the bedroom curtain was slightly open and wanting to preserve the darkness, I slowly began to pull the drape closed. I kept my watch on Amelia, trying to make sure the noise of the curtain would not awaken her. Just when I thought it was completely closed, I looked up at my hand. Not two inches away, clinging to the curtain, was another one. What the what?!?! I suppressed an eek, backed up, and went to the shower. I didn’t want to risk waking Amelia with the bug spray and any eek-ing that might occur during said process.
Shower over, granted it was not relaxing, I went on with my morning. Eventually, when Millie woke, I “fixed” the problem on the curtain. No eek-ing required in the daylight.
Tonight, though, was my last straw…okay, maybe not the last…there are worse encounters, but it’s one of the worst kind. Do you want to know? Of course you do! If I had to live it, you want to hear about it, right??? Okay, too much build up. So, I was picking up a few of Levi’s toys after bed time. I picked up his favorite orange truck and one crawled right out of the window and onto my hand.
Done.
Getting Down to Business
So, I apologize for the silence on my part… but the good news is that I have been pretty busy – both with our new house and also with work at the hangar. It is really fulfilling after the long wait to finally be able to get to work – almost 15 months in the waiting. Thanks again to all of you for getting us here with your prayers and financial support!
The first week was set aside for acclimating to the time difference and everything else. I started to get the house into shape as well – figuring out how to get the mosquito nets best set up, how to deal with the bugs, troubleshooting the fickle wireless router, etc… I also started rebuilding the kitchen counters – getting most of the demolition done. I found that the little ants we had all over the counters had actually made nests under the tile! A first for me after years of pest control experience! Thanks to the IT team, we were set up on arrival with three batteries and a solar panel – these are hooked up to run the wireless antennae and router and will also provide power to several LED lights as well as a few fans (when I get to it). I was able to add a fourth battery, a solar voltage regulator, and also have a A/C converter charger to connect.
When I was finally allowed to start working (outside the house), I got the full tour of our facilities at the airport. I was quickly elbow deep in a non-functioning air conditioner (thanks to David Francis for the hands-on training) and starting some maintenance and repairs on our vehicles. I was also able to fit in a flight out to Vanga, and will try to write a dedicated post about that soon!
Under the Black Tape of DOOOOOOOM!
Blown fuse...wrap it with wire? Yumm, melty!
The dream sheet for Base Maintenance projects out here is as long as my arm, and that doesn’t even start addressing the staff’s at-home needs. I was able to get 12v lights going in the hangar bathroom as well as the pilot office, so now no one will get stuck on the john in the dark when the power goes out! My next set of projects out there will be getting the 12v squared away on an enclosed equipment rack (the dust here is prolific) and to get a hard-piped compressed air system installed in the shop and hangar. Currently we are dragging air hoses all over the place and the darn compressor is obnoxiously loud.
New 12v light in Pilot Office
Epic and prolific dust!
The biggest project we have on the table is fabricating a new tower at the MAF house for bouncing our wireless out to the airport. Thanks to Brion Toss and Company I have some sweet rigging concepts we are going to try to put to use: We have visions of a 10 meter tower, that will fully pivot down for maintenance. This behemoth will mount on the roof and should clear up signal issues at the hangar.
I'll see you your 5m and raise you 5!
Right now it is all about priorities and budget! Please pray for continued safety on the job, also, as a type A personality I need to appreciate the very creative world (especially in “repairs”) in which I now live.
Very "artsy", people... nice creativity... I love you for who you are... Yes friends, that is a pipe clamp on a battery terminal.
Thanks again, more to follow!
-Matthew
Bread for Relationships
I asked Matthew if I could just make it a regular daily, or every other day, habit to walk down to the Commercial Centre and buy bread. He agreed it was a great idea.
In Alaska, I made all of our bread products (from scratch, ya’ll…little Susie homemaker, right here). I once went eleven months without buying a single loaf! It fit into our lives, schedule, and, most importantly, budget. It made sense! (cents! pun!) Even in Washington, I tried to make my own bread as often as I could, but with a new baby, I didn’t exactly hold myself to the same standards of Susie-homemaker-ness. I assumed that here, making my own bread from scratch would be a necessity. I don’t have a car (or the will to drive, just yet) and everything here is generally very expensive.
Except the bread. It’s the equivalent to $.20 per loaf. The loaves are little baguettes, like a 12″ sub, or sandwich rolls, or dinner rolls, but still…affordable, I’d say. But it’s not just about cost.
Last night I needed a few produce items, so we took a family walk down to the CC and bought something from each of the three merchants with tables. One older gentleman, Papa Joseph, was introduced to me as another MAF family’s regular “vegetable guy” who delivers to their door with their order. He did that for me last week – he’s very sweet. The other two tables are run by a couple of ladies. One had a little baby and I, using my pocket dictionary, was able to ask how old (eight months) and tell her that Amelia was seven months. On our way across the street toward home, we were able to wave goodbye to everyone and they all shouted “au’revoir!” We have begun building relationships.
The point of MAF in the Congo, and the point of us being here, is relationship. Without relationship, we have little lasting impact. We, as MAF, as an organization, fly goods, services, and people. That might still happen, but in the process we are busy building trust and friendships. Those relationships may end on the runway. They may end at the market. But, they may not. We may build something deeper. And THAT is where we have a real impact. Where we are invited to share the Gospel and give people here the hope that comes with faith in our Lord. We have been saved, and we want others to know that there is hope in the life eternal for them, too. But it won’t matter coming from a stranger…it will be better coming from a friend.
So, every day, or every other day, the kids and I will walk down to the CC. For a while, we’ll simply be the mundeles (white people) pushing the strange, giant red stroller with two kids in it. Our French is very limited, but we will learn by conversing. We will smile, and use our kids as ice breakers. We will support the livelihood of the merchants in the CC. We will greet our neighbors on the way there and back. We will not pinch pennies, but put people above money. We will take a walk, because it’s good exercise. We will build relationships and make new friends. And, of course, we will enjoy tasty, fresh bread!
Easter and Beyond (Pictures!)
Amelia's friend on Easter Sunday...
Easter egg hunting pro!
Meanwhile, Jocelyn and Amelia are having a good time...
Forget finding the eggs, Levi goes right to the source...
Levi and Mosengo are best buddies (post about Mosengo coming soon!)
These flowers came down during a storm one night...
And then there's this...
Surely you read my post about the bugs…the cockroaches. Many people have told me they had…and that they laughed. Really hard. I’m happy that you did. You should know that I can laugh about it too…except when I awake in the middle of the night…then, not so much. But, anyway, perhaps you saw a comment left on there about where the cockroaches were coming from (by the person who normally lives here). And, perhaps you know Matthew well enough to know that his six years in pest control are not to be wasted here. So, that day, and the next, and the next, Matthew declared war on the roaches and their nest. So far, I think he’s won. It may be an ongoing battle, but hundreds and hundreds of roaches are now dead in their own homes (awww, so sad) and we are seeing them far less frequently. So, in the mass extermination, these tiny, tiny ants disassembles the roaches into “manageable” pieces and carried them away. In this case, they took an entire wing section. You go, little ants! You take those carcasses away!
The Lind Family 