Our internet was down all day yesterday, so I wrote this and then couldn’t post it.  Meanwhile, yesterday, Matthew took his first flight.  He and pilot Nick Frey headed out to Vanga on a chartered flight for some people so that Matthew could check out the hanger and post there.  I am hoping he will post about it and share some pictures…but maybe you already saw this one posted on facebook?

Matthew and Nick take flight!

Thursday we all took a family trip downtown to the Mission Aviation Fellowship office.  The office is located on the Av de Justice (you can Google Map it, I think) right in line with several consulates and embassies.

The drive downtown (we were not in the driver’s seat) is an interesting one.  In Western terms, we went from the suburbs to the big city.  Here, we drove through winding neighborhoods, over very damaged roads, through some crazy intersections, and suddenly we’re on a road that is several lanes wide, paved, and even has traffic lights.  Not traffic lights like I’ve seen them before.  These are arrows that count down from 99.  If there are police officers there, do whatever they tell you, not what the light is doing.  Anyway, the MAF office is in a building with several other missionary and non-government operations (NGOs).  We met the national staff, had a brief orientation, and then the kids and I waited in a little room while Matthew and another person conducted interviews for his helper/driver/interpreter.  Not knowing the language, roads, or shops, Matthew will be far better off with sometime who knows all of those things to help him.

After those were over, we drove around, seeing a few more places to go shopping, found something akin to Walmart, but even that comparison is a stretch, and stopped for lunch.  It was our first trip out to eat…the restaurant was Lebanese!  We had tasty schwarmas and Cokes.  I have not been a Coke drinker, but here…oh man.  I don’t know if it’s the heat or the “real” Coke (made with sugar syrup instead of HFCS), but they taste SO good here.  It’s bad, I know.

Then we headed home to the heat.  The power, as of Thursday, had been out for three days in a row.  It would come on at night and go off in the morning.  Kind of annoying, but it’s been on since Thursday night now and we’re hoping it stays this way for a while.  I got lots of laundry done yesterday, walked with the kids down to the nearby open market (with a friend, because my French is limited to “bonjour”) and got lots of little things cleaned.  I even baked biscuits!  The stroller is great, but the roads in our neighborhood are hills and made of sand (yep, sand).  Let’s just say, I got my workout!  It’s about a half mile to the marketplace, called the Commercial Centre.

This morning the MAF wives had a lovely breakfast and prayer time for our team.  It was a great way to start the weekend.

At last count, I had 14 or 15 mosquito bites, one spider bite, one black fly bite, and one unknown bite…awesome.  If you’ve never seen one of my mosquito bites, then you should know that mosquitoes LOVE me and if I scratch them, even just once, they turn into horrible, inflamed, irritated Bites of Doom, an inch or two across.  You should also know that Matthew has just a couple of bites and, most importantly, neither kid has any bites!  Yay!  Go kids!

One of my (Lisa’s) biggest personal fears in coming here was the bugs.  Okay, IS the bugs.  I’m not a fan of anything creepy and crawly.  I’ve developed enough self-control that I don’t scream or react “poorly” unless they startle me (and then there could be some screaming).  So, I knew there were cockroaches here, and I lived in trepidation, wondering how my first encounter would go.

Our first morning here, it was about 3am and we were up because that’s what time you get up when you’re suffering from jet lag.  I was milling through our bins in the living room, looking for something, when I saw one scramble across the floor.  It stopped and I stared at it, wondering where my fear was.  I was amused, but not fearful.  So far, the ones we’ve seen range from one inch, to nearly two inches long.  I showed it to Matthew, just before it skittered under the piano.  It didn’t even occur to me to try and kill it until later.  It did show up again and Matthew took care of it.

The next morning, I found two in the shower and dealt with them myself (see picture in previous post).  That was followed by a cockroach free day (the only one so far) and then the fear and terror struck.

I was laying in bed, sleeping, until it was 3am and I awakened.  On the top of the mosquito net I saw an outline of something that didn’t belong.  Levi had not been sleeping well, so Matthew was in bed with him, and Amelia with me.  I laid there, staring, wondering what to do.  My first decision involved going over Amelia to the other side of the bed, so at least my feet weren’t under it.  I still didn’t know what it was, or whether it was inside or outside.  I was optimistic: it was a moth on the outside of the net.  Yep.  Now, sleep.  Yeah, right.  I laid there for an hour, trying to be optimistic.  Sadly, I was crammed into a corner of the bed and couldn’t get comfortable.  So, I decided to put my big girl panties on and go back over to the other side.  After an hour of not moving, that moth was obviously very comfortable, right?  So, I got comfy back on my side and closed my eyes.  Five-ish minutes later I reopened them.  Gone.  It was gone.  I finally began to get nervous…  Where did it go?  What was it?  Was it inside or outside?  I was trapped, either way, inside the net.  Okay, back to being optimistic, it went away.  It had a meeting, or friends to see, or it got hungry and went elsewhere.  I closed my eyes again.  They popped back open and I saw it…on the other side of the top of the net, skittering a la a cockroach.  Panic.  Fear.  I still didn’t know whether it was inside or outside, but I did know that I wanted out…so, I played a game of dodge the cockroach’s dropping space, just in case he was inside (I was optimistic he was not), crawling from one side of Amelia to the other.  1-This is a king size bed.  2-Amelia stayed asleep throughout the whole ordeal.  Finally, I found a moment of escape and took it…sliding out from under the net and into Levi’s room.  Levi stayed asleep, too, as I told Matthew I needed some assistance in our room.  He grabbed a flashlight (something I had been unwilling to do) and some bug spray.  The cockroach had been INSIDE the net.  INSIDE, I tell you!  I worried about bug spraying Amelia, but Matthew used the flash light to get elsewhere and sprayed it.  We ended up chasing it around until it finally died.  Scooping up my theoretical big girl panties, I actually crawled back into bed and laid there for another hour…but, no, I did not sleep.

One more story for you for today.  Two days ago Matthew and I were chatting next to the kitchen sink.  I noticed two hair blowing in the breeze of the fan, poking out from beneath the corner of the sink, about six inches from my hand.  Nope, not hairs.  Cockroach antennae.  BAH!  Matthew got that one, too.  It was big.  Ick.  Icky ick.

So, you can pray a prayer of praise that I have handled my bug encounters with grace and you can pray that the cockroaches will stay out of my way if they value their lives.

Today is day four in Kinshasa.  I think the past five days could warrant a blog post for every hour that has been lived, but that seems slightly impractical.

But, let me review our travels.  Traveling across the globe, especially with a two and a half year old and a seven month old, is an adventure in itself.  And we were no exception.  However, many of you were praying for our travels and not only were those prayers heard, they were answered!  Our travels could not have gone better!

Monday morning, April 2, Matthew and I woke at 3am, after just three short hours of sleep.  We got ready, grabbed the kids, said a tearful goodbye to my mom, and left for the airport.

Our first challenge was getting all eight bins, one big stroller, one kid pack, four carry-ons, and two little kids through the airport intact.  My dad was an essential part of getting our bins into the airport.  We were a little nervous about weighing the, four of them weighed 49.8 lbs (max of 50) at home, so we were hoping for accuracy or, at least, grace.

When we pulled into the end of the line at the ticket counter, a tall man with a commanding presence came over and said, “Come with me – you’re my problem now.”  So we followed.  He greeted the kids happily, checked our passports, joked with us and my dad.  When it got to the part about paying for second bags, we explained that our travel agent said our destination made our second bag free and, while he didn’t really believe us, he said he would “play stupid” and give it to us anyway.  He said “I don’t want to take your money today.”  Then he asked if any of our bags weighed over 50 lbs.  We told him no and he told us to throw them across the way.  He barely even glanced at their weight!  It was the best experience we have ever had at an airport.

After saying another tearful goodbye to my dad, we made our way to the second challenge: security.  Stroller, kid pack, two tiny ones and four carry-ons – we all made it!  Nothing got searched, stopped, patted down…nothing.  It was flawless.  Yet more prayers answered!

We waited at the gate, boarded our flight, and took off.  Again, flawless.  Levi and Matthew had a window/middle seat combo, and Amelia and I had the same across the aisle.  Our aisle seaters were not too amused by the seating arrangement, but at 4.5 hours, the flight wasn’t too long.  Amelia fussed for the first two hours straight.  It was weird because she practically never fusses, so I don’t have a “bag of tricks” to calm her.  Levi fell asleep soon after take off and stayed that way until we had just about landed in Washington DC.  However, the bumpy landing caused Levi to have his first experience using the sick bag.  Good job, son.

Once at Dulles, we scrambled to the other side of the airport.  Our layover wasn’t very long, but we made it in time, got a bite to eat and began to line up.  I looked up and very much to my surprise was Matthew’s younger sister!  I nodded my head to Matthew to get him to look that way without giving away the surprise.  We were thrilled to get such a  send off!  Sad we only had a few minutes, we said our goodbyes, took some pictures, and got on the plane.  This was a Boeing 777, so it felt luxurious with its large interior, entertainment touch screens for each seat, and all of the little perks of flying overseas.  This flight was to be 7.5 hours, arriving in Brussels at 7:15am.  I had Levi next to me, while Matthew and Amelia were directly across from us.  We watched our own movies – they had a wide selection of new releases.  We slept a little, played, ate, Levi colored on his new Cars posters from his Auntie Jenny, and painted.  It was actually kind of relaxing!

Arriving in Brussels, the airport was fairly empty.  We had a longer layover, four hours, so we felt we had a little time to try and experience Europe.  Hard to do from an airport, I know, but none of us had ever been!  We ate amazing croissants and pain au chocolat (my favorite) and had awesome coffee.  And then I went to try to use the internet.

They didn’t have free wifi, but I found an internet cafe-type-thing, so Matthew said he would watch the kids while I did a quick blog post to say hello.  First of all, it was all in Dutch and I couldn’t understand how to change the languages.  Then, as I typed, I realized the keys were not in the same places.  Finally, I needed to enter our password, but the keyboard didn’t have the special character I needed, so no blog post.  I was laughing hysterically at my first moments of culture shock and confusion.  I probably looked crazy.  But, it was funny.  I did manage a facebook update and a quick email to the parents.

We took the bus over to the “African terminal.”  Brussels Airlines has direct flights to many cities on this continent.  The terminal was huge (yes, we have pictures) and had a play place for Levi (making him tired was our goal).  As we went over to board we had our first experience with Brussels Airlines staff – epic.  They whisked us on board first, took care of everything and we felt pampered throughout the entire flight.  They fed us constantly, all of the food was great.  Lunch, snack, tea, ice cream bars (YES!!! With Belgian chocolate, of course), and then another hot snack.  Levi and Amelia slept most of the eight hour flight, which was great.

Flying over the Sahara was awesome.  Looking at Google maps will give you the basic idea, but to see it in person was so strange!  Then, as we began decent over Kinshasa, the jungle and the city came into view.  Again, we were awe struck and couldn’t believe we were finally arriving.

Now, customs in a foreign country is probably the most challenging part of international travels, especially when you don’t speak the language.  We deboarded the plane right onto the concrete (it wasn’t tarmac, for sure).  We waited for the bus and crammed on with all of our carry-on bags.  Amelia peacefully stared out from the Moby wrap and Levi began to get cranky.  Poor kid – it was so hot and humid and he had to be awakened from his sleep.  We were taken directly to the customs processing center and Levi began to break down even more.  One of the officials saw (everyone noticed, really) and came to check our passports.  He kindly took me and the kids to wait on the other side, hoping to help Levi by avoiding waiting in line.  We watched through the glass as Matthew slowly progressed through the line.  He was the last one through.  He was flustered as I had not told him where I packed our address while in Kin and he had to dig through bags to find it (oops).  Meanwhile, Levi continued to be upset, but rather than showing disapproval, the officials and security would stop by and speak to me or to him.  I didn’t understand what they were saying, but they were very understanding.

Finally, Matthew was finished and we walked through the doors to find our contact.  Theo (pronounced TAY-oh), was supposed to meet us and found us right away and whisked us outside to meet with the MAF program manager (Matthew’s boss) here in Kin.  I can’t really describe the scene outside the airport too well (and picture-taking is illegal), but it was busy and chaotic and really fun to witness.

We waited outside while Theo would get our bags.  While this may seem like a security breech in the states (as far as leaving your bag with strangers), it is far better to have a local pick up your bags to avoid searches and “fees.”  We waited at the van for an hour and a half.  It was starting to make us nervous…we asked Ron (the PM) if this long was normal.  He said it was not.  Gulp.  The police came over to tell our driver to move because we’d been sitting there too long, so we piled the kids (Levi had calmed down and Amelia was stripped down to her diaper) and us intot the van to move.  Just as we pulled around, we saw Theo and some helpers bringing our bins – all eight of them – out the doors.  Praise the Lord!  We later found out than none of them were searched by customs (TSA did a fine job searching them and putting them back intact, though) and no fees were charged!  It was a huge blessing and we know that some of you were praying to this very end.  We were so excited about everything going so well that we forgot some major items…more on that later.

The drive home had been described as a video game called “The Streets of Kinshasa.”  We thought it was a surreal experience.  It was just after eight at night, so it was dark.  The roads were similar to some of the backroads from our previous life in Fairbanks, Alaska, but this is a city of ten million people.  The stands, corrogated tin shops, signs, various people milling about are fairly indescribable.  We saw so many things that I can’t even remember one right now.  We were exhausted after traveling for 26 hours straight.  I can tell you that we LOVED it.  The driving here is intense – there are no rules and we have yet to see a stoplight (I’m certain they don’t exist).

After just over an hour we arrived to our new home.  Ron’s wife and another MAF couple were waiting for us.  Sadly, the power had just gone out, so it was pitch black.  They lit a few candles and had flashlights for us.  We took a brief tour of the house, but we were both a little out of it to remember.  Levi immediately attached himself to a large Tonka dumptruck that had been left for him, so he was happy running that around on the tile floors.

The power came on shortly after we were done with the tour and standing around talking.  Yay!  We found what we needed for the night form our bins (mosquito nets!), said goodnight to our new friends, and crashed into bed.

We slept for about four hours and were wide awake at 3am.  Oh, jet lag.  The kids were up too.  The next thirty six hours are a blur to us.  I can’t even blog about it in a logical manner.  We experienced so much, learned so many things, met so many new people, that to recall it in detail would exhaust me all over again.  Plus, I need to move on to other things.  Today is yet another busy day of learning new things about our lives here in the DR Congo.

The MAF staff families have been so supportive.  They come over to help, call us to ask questions (once we got a local cell phone), and now that we have internet, facebook has been a great tool.  I have so many more things to share, and hopefully will make time to do so over the next few days.  Things about the bugs, the heat, our workers, the house, our new home city…

So, this blog post will end with a small miracle – a huge answer to prayer.  Those major items we forgot?  At 3am our first morning Amelia woke and needed some attention.  As I was feeding her, I had a terrible thought.  In the excitement of getting off the plane, going through customs, getting our bins returned intact, we forgot our stroller and kid pack.  They had been gate checked at Brussels.  We knew that gate checked items would not be returned until baggage claim in Kinshasa, but we forgot to tell Theo about them and then we both completely spaced.  I ran into Levi’s room, where Matthew was sleeping with him, and told him about it.  We prayed.  Hard.  It was not the end of the world to lose those things, but our thoughtlessness was frustrating and disappointing.  The next day, as soon as the first of many MAFers arrived to help us deal with the changes, we told them about our little oops.  They called the right people to look into it.  We assumed some poor person was going to have to drive all the way to the airport, find them locked in customs awaiting a huge “fee” for removal.  Ugh.

Later that day, the doorbell on our gate rung and as I looked out the window and saw Matthew rolling our stroller, piled with kid pack, up the driveway I knew the Lord was looking out for us, as he had the entire flight, the entire time we’ve been in this process, and we would be okay.  Furthermore, no fees and they had moved them to a local baggage office right in town, only a few minutes from the MAF office.

We are blessed!