Look what I did tonight....

I broke a board at tae kwon do tonight, using a back spin kick. :)
Thanks to Austin for taking the pictures.

A break in the Congo trip....

to show you these photos I took this afternoon.


(Is she not beautiful? I can't get over how grown up she is looking lately! I think it's the no-bangs look...)

And, posing with the new Spring jacket I bought her at Superstore this morning.





Yes, it's actually warm enough for a spring jacket today, but I'm not holding my breath that it will last very long...

Thanks for stopping by!

My trip to Congo, day 5

Day five was a full day. We were picked up early and taken to the BTEDE office for breakfast (long buns, peanuts, bananas, etc. Both Ken and Dennis had brought along peanut butter, which was a very good thing!)

Then, Edgard took us to the local school where we handed out some soccer balls that R.O.X., the Sunday school program at our church, had raised money to buy. The kids were so serious as we presented the ball to them, but once it was tossed out to them, ho, did they smile! They played catch with the ball and cheered each time someone caught it!









When we walked around to the secondary school, the kids all followed us, cheering, jumping and dancing! It was very humbling.



As we were walking back to BTEDE, we met a young boy who had a monkey on a leash.



Ken asked if he could hold him...





...and then insisted that I needed to hold him, too, because my kids would love it. Definitely a first for me!



After our visit to the schools, we drove to one of the experimental farms that BTEDE runs, with a stop at an association farm on the way. You get overwhelmed by the fact that everyone has to work so hard in the Congo and most of the work is by hand. It's tiring just thinking about it, especially in that heat!



At the farm, there was a nice shelter where it was cooler. We had some drinks, with peanuts and fried plantains. Then we took a tour of the farm, where we saw palm trees, beans, corn, peanuts and lots of cassava plants.


Before we left, we presented a soccer ball to the family that lives at the farm. (The extra kids in the photo are ones that came from the village to see what we were doing there.)

This is Brigitte, who works for BTEDE. I loved her. She was always smiling and ready to talk to me-- definitely nice, being surrounded otherwise by only men! In the picture with her is Fabrice, the chauffeur.




When we left the farm, the children ran behind the truck for over a mile if not further.

In the evenings, we'd go back to the Catholic House where we'd have supper (I think this night we had chicken in the same thin tomato sauce with spaghetti noodles and greens. It tasted good until Len found a moth in his serving-- after that I pretty much lost my appetite.)

In the evenings, we'd have electricity from 7 to 9pm, so that's often when we'd shower. The light in my room didn't work for the first couple of days, so I had to shower by flashlight, when there was running water. Otherwise, we'd use the buckets.

We'd spend the evenings sitting outside and talking. Some nights Edgard would come back and join us. We'd discuss projects, etc. Otherwise, we'd just spend time sharing stories and getting to know eachother better. It was a nice relaxing way to unwind from the day and process what we were seeing.

Thanks for looking!

*By the way, if you're interested in seeing how I'm going to put together my scrapbook album for the trip, you can check out my blog post at MSS here.

My trip to Congo, day 4

We got up early to go to the airport to fly to Kikwit, a city of 600 000, south west of Kinshasa, where the BTEDE office is located. We couldn't take pictures at the airport, but could discreetly from the airplane, so here's a picture of a plane just like the one we flew in, taken from my plane. They had two seats side by side, with maybe eight rows, an aisle and then one seat. Definitely the smallest aircraft I've ever flown in.


A self-portrait on the plane.



Some shots from the air of Kinshasa, the Congo river and then of a smaller Congolese village.

We arrived safely in Kikwit. Our mode of travel-- riding in the back of a half-ton. They put some boards across and fit a few lawn chairs in there. We'd hold on to the re-bar and away we'd go!

Meeting Edgard's wife.


Some photos taken in Kikwit:

The BTEDE office.

Some sewing machines at BTEDE. You might remember that I had a fundraiser several years ago to raise money for these. They have a micro-loan program at BTEDE where women can come and learn how to sew, take the machines home with them and then pay for them as they earn money sewing. I love this program-- it definitely makes the machines more accessible for the women. They're down to five machines and need more, so I'm thinking of organizing another fundraiser for these in Spring.


Maman Brigitte and Dadoo, making lunch in the kitchen of BTEDE.



Our first meal in Kikwit: rice & chicken (we always ate meat, but this is a luxury for the Congolese who usually eat meat maybe three times a month), beans, cooked greens (these were called "macaroni"), and "fou fou"-- a staple of the Congolese diet which is basically a play-dough like dough made from cassava roots, ground into flour, mixed with corn flour. The Congolese roll it into little balls and dip it in hot sauce and swallow it down, without chewing. It doesn't have very much nutritional value, but it's filling. (By the way, it's not tasty, either.)

Thanks for looking!

My trip to Congo, days 1, 2 & 3

We left on Monday, February 15th, flying to Toronto. It was in Toronto that everything started sinking in that this was real. The flights were all fine-- from Toronto we flew to Paris and from Paris, to Kinshasa. We arrived at about 6pm Kinshasa time, on February 16th.



Driving in Kinshasa is crazy! There aren't lines on the road, hardly any signs or traffic lights and lots of lane changing and honking! This is what we saw on our drive to our hostel-- a mini-van jam-packed with people (there must have been between 12 to 15 people in there!) with a live goat tied to the roof!



In Kinshasa, we stayed at MPH, a presbyterian hostel. Here are my team members: Ken Wiebe, Len Janzen and Konrad Loewen (our church's senior pastor).



The fifth member of our team (& our team leader, who'd been to Congo four times already), Dennis Hoeppner. Here he's talking with our contact in Kinshasa, Maurice, who works for MBMSI.

An outside shot of the hostel.



The MBMSI office, where Maurice works.



After stopping at the MBMSI office, we went to visit the Bon Berger Clinic. To get there, we had to take two cab rides and then were dropped off across from a cemetery. From there, we walked to the clinic, which was quite far. And this was the middle of the day, and it was very hot. The clinic is run by a doctor named Delphin, who also runs other projects, like sewing classes, education focused classes and is also building a church in the area.

Just an example of how littered the "streets" are. Garbage is everywhere. It's very sad.

Sewing classes that the Bon Berger clinic offers to Congolese women. They were packed into this tiny, hot room, learning how to sew. They don't offer the machines for micro-loans, though, which was disappointing to hear. For these women to purchase their own machine, it would cost them $120, which might as well be $10000. We talked to Delphin about offering a micro-loan program to purchase the machines, like they do at BTEDE and he said he'd be open to it. So I'm planning on organizing another fundraiser to purchase machines for Bon Berger and BTEDE to offer the women as micro-loans.



Some kids on the street, outside of the clinic. They are so friendly. The one boy spoke to me in English, saying: "Hello! How are you?" When I said: "Fine, how are you?" he replied: "Good!" and then they all laughed. So cute!



After walking over a mile in the hot humidity, we were so thankful to be offered cold drinks. The selection in Congo is Coke (they call it Coca), Fanta (only comes in orange) and Sprite (which is more rare). Coca and Fanta seem to be the most popular. I used to be addicted to Coke but stopped drinking it nine years ago. When I told the guys this, they insisted that I have some. So, here's me, drinking my first Coke in nine years. The verdict? I didn't like it! Way too syrupy. I ended up trading Konrad for his Fanta.





At the Bon Berger clinic, with Delphin (in the white shirt). The man in the vest is Edgard Kimbau, the director of BTEDE, the organization that our church supports in Kikwit.


After leaving the clinic, we walked to the Bomoyi Ya Sika orphanage, which houses 10 orphans, all older than five.



They'd made their own checkers game (Jeu de Dames) out of a piece of wood and bottle caps.

After a couple of hot taxi rides back to MPH, we walked across the street to a type of bar where we could sit outside in the shade and attempt to cool off. My cold Sprite helped somewhat.


While we were sitting there, a boy came up to us with dead animals in cages. One of them was a monkey. He asked if we wanted to buy it. "Bush-meat" is was apparently called. Uh, no thanks. We'll pass.

My scariest incident in the Congo occurred that evening when I left my room at MPH to go to the bathroom, but had to go back to get some toilet paper. When I opened my door, there, across the room on the curtain was a huge cockroach! I was already a little sad and teary (a little homesick, I think) so I trekked across to the men's side of the dorms and called for someone from my team to come and help me. Thankfully, Dennis and Konrad (with camera in hand!) came to my rescue. It took several attempts, but they finally killed it!


After that, I just prayed that if there were cockroaches around, that I just wouldn't see them. And I didn't see anymore on the whole trip!