Congo Trip, part three -- Mungindu

Thanks for all of your kind comments on my Congo trip so far!

Today, I want to focus on the third place we visited, one that was new to me this trip—the health zone of Mungindu. The DR Congo is divided into health zones and Mungindu is located over 100 km away from Kikwit. Edgard has a seed association there, but hopes to partner with the health zone/hospital to create more associations, in the hopes of benefiting the area. If they can grow their own food and make money doing so, then the hope is that they can afford their medical care. (The sad thing is, if you can’t pay your bill, they hold you hostage in the hospital until someone (usually family members) come and pay it for you. There was a young girl there who’d given birth to a baby who’d died. Her husband abandoned her as a result and she’s been there for four months, because she can’t pay her $75US bill. If the hospital had a seed program, then they could at least send her out to work in the fields so that she could earn money to pay her bill.)

So, our trip to Mungindu took place on Sunday afternoon. And what was just over 100 km, took us four hours to complete! It was like driving in a sandy ditch all the way there. It was super bumpy and swervy and at least twice, we found ourselves airborne in the back of the truck! Thankfully, no one got hurt (although I had a very close call with one of the benches landing on the tip of my sandal-- just an inch away from my toes! Thankfully, God protected me from serious harm!)

When we arrived, the sun was setting and we were led to this huge old Belgium house with a large veranda that over looked this gorgeous valley. I could easily imagine the orginal owners completing the house and over looking this spectacular view and feeling like kings!

Mungindu held a few personal challenges for me (one of them being no running water, no toilet and an outhouse that consisted of a little hut with a hole in the ground and two two by fours on either side!) It also stormed pretty badly that night, so I was unable to go out and use the outhouse, but God helped me out (I was able to hold it until morning!) and He also kept us safe!

Then next day we toured the village, met with the hospital staff and got a tour of the medical facilities. Here are the photos I took:

This building was the maternity ward. It was hard not to be shocked by how primitive everything in the delivery room looked. I was just super happy that I wasn't suppose to be having a baby that day!

After our tour, we met up with Edgard, who was spending time with his association:

Because we had the long drive back and a meeting scheduled with Edgard later that afternoon, we left shortly before noon to drive home. This time, we carried an extra passenger:

They'd rigged a carrier for this chicken and attached him to the roof! I'm assuming he became someone's meal eventually and I forgot to inquire about how he faired on the ride home, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was deeply traumatized!

Thanks for looking!

Congo Trip, part two -- Kikwit

So, after spending two days and three nights in Kinshasa, we traveled to Kikwit to visit Edgard and BTEDE.

Now, last time I went to DR Congo, we flew to Kikwit. But now, with the highway paved between Kinshasa and Kikwit, not as many people fly there anymore and therefore, there are less flights. So, to travel on a Saturday, we rented a bus.

The distance from Kinshasa to Kikwit: 525 km.

The time it took us to get there: 12 hours.

We blew a tire on the way.... thankfully we were travelling uphill at the time, and had just arrived at a village. Here are some photos I took there:

These two women were visiting and laughing-- it totally made me smile!

We arrived in Kikwit after dark and settled in at the Catholic House hostel.

The next morning, Edgard came to pick us up for church. Well, we actually attended two services. The first one was at Edgard's church...

I love that they have three choirs!

One:

Two:

And three:

This last one is Edgard's choir. He's the second one on the right.

After introducing ourselves to the congregation (& getting a great reaction when I greeted them with "Mboté!"), we left to go to Papa Boma's church, where Konrad would be preaching. We drove part of the way there...

And journeyed the rest of the way on foot, uphill.

Here's a couple of photos of Papa Boma's church. Konrad said that last year, there were no walls.

And inside, we sat at the front on plastic lawn chairs. The women's choir was preforming...

And then the congregation sang, accompanied by these drummers:

At one point, people came forward to give money to buy bricks for the walls. When they did, these boys banged on their drums in celebration of their generosity. It made me wonder if people back home would give more if there was a little more celebration involved. ;)

Then, Konrad got up to preach. He spoke on Matthew 11:1-6 and I thought it was very good. Of course, he had to pause a lot for Delbert to interpret for him. But it was personal and relatable. He made sense of what Jesus said in verse 6: "blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me." This verse hadn't made sense to me before, but now I understood it.... blessed are we who still follow Jesus, even when _____________________ (we get sick, our prayers aren't answered, things get hard, He doesn't make sense to us, etc.) We're blessed when we trust Him regardless.

After lunch at Papa Boma's (we were offered rice, chicken and fried caterpillars, but I just had bananas and peanuts), the walk back down almost seems longer, but I think we ended up taking a different route. There were some pretty nice views though...

After we got back in the truck and made it back to the Catholic House, we packed up to go to the Health Zone of Mungindu, which I'll share about in its own post, most likely tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

Congo Trip, part one -- Kinshasa

Well, I'm back from the Congo!

We made it back on Saturday afternoon, thanks to a wonderful woman at the Montreal airport who managed to get us on a direct flight home to Winnipeg (as opposed to having to fly through Toronto first!) I started to feel ill on the flight from Brussels to Montreal and worse still on the way to Winnipeg. I'm feeling better now, though. My nausea has disappeared and my appetite has returned, somewhat. Well, this afternoon, anyway.

Everyone has asked: "How was your trip?" And I have to respond truthfully that it was great! There were some challenging moments for sure, but all in all, it was very good.

I was trying to decide how to share my experience here on my blog... Last trip, I broke it up into days, but this time, I took fewer photos and went days without taking any! (I know, you're shocked! But in fairness, it's very difficult to take photos in the Congo.... especially in Kinshasa. So you have to take them on the sly. And I guess because it wasn't a brand new experience for me, I didn't feel the need to capture everything on film.)

So, I decided to break the trip into the cities/areas we visited, if that's alright with you. ;)

I'm started with Kinshasa, the capital city of DR Congo, home to 11 million people. That's right, over a third of the population of Canada lives in Kinshasa. There are people everywhere. For Mordenites, who don't can't grasp this concept, think Corn & Apple Festival 365 days a year.

We flew into Kinshasa on Wednesday evening, where we were reminded of how crazy the driving is there! Constant horn honking, swerving, changing lanes, etc. We rode in two cabs back to MPH, our hostel, and it felt as if our cab drivers were racing each other!

The next morning, Herve, Edgard Kimbau's son (Edgard is the director of the organization we support in Kikwit) came to the hostel and we enlisted his help in going with us into Kitambo (the neighbourhood where we stay) to change money, buy phone cards and visit the MB office.

Then, it was back to MPH to relax a little:

On Friday morning, we went to visit the widow of Jean Baptiste, a Congolese pastor who'd recently passed away. Three days after his death, she gave birth to a son, who she named after her late husband, calling him JB for short. She has six children now...

Here, Konrad is giving her a blanket made by a woman from our church:

We'd hoped to visit the clinic and the orphanage that afternoon, but it had rained and prevented us from doing so. The next morning, we left for Kikwit, but I did manage to snap this photo on our way out of town..... I love that they have Dora and Mickey Mouse on the side of their building. The sign says: "Good Kids School." :)

When we returned from Kikwit, Konrad and I, along with Murray Nickel and a team of nurses from B.C. went to visit the Bomoyi Ya Sika orphanage. The nurses had brought toys and a basketball hoop, along with two balls, which the kids loved!

Upon seeing a need for mattresses, the nurses pooled some of their money to buy 5 mattresses for the orphanage! Their generosity was inspiring!

On our second stay in Kinshasa, we also visited the Bon Berger clinic, the artist's market and met with members and former members of an organization on behalf of BTEDE. I also assisted two of our team members with going to a Toyota Dealership to buy parts for Edgard's truck and we spent some time in downtown Kinshasa looking for scribblers and pens to take back to the orphanage.

Here are a few more shots taken in Kinshasa...

These two were taken on our third visit to the artists' market:

These two photos were taken as we drove by, on the fly:

And these were taken on our walk back to Bon Berger and the orphanage:

And this is back at the orphanage. I'm holding Ritse.

One of the men that I traveled to Congo with in 2010 asked me on Sunday at church: "So, have they cleaned it up?" Meaning, is there less garbage around everywhere. Unfortunately, they hadn't, but I didn't seem to notice it that much this trip. I think this trip, I was more captivated by the people, rather than the surroundings. When things would happen, I'd feel a kind of affection for the people there, because they do live in very hard circumstances, something I'll never likely experience personally.

Thanks for looking!