SAD DAY

IT'S A VERY SAD DAY IN THE CONGO. OUR CAMERA WAS STOLEN TODAY. WE WENT TO SEVERAL STORES IN PREPARATION FOR ZONE CONFERENCE. IT WAS IN MY PURSE WHEN WE LEFT HOME AND GONE WHEN WE GOT HOME. WE HOPE THERE IS SOMEPLACE HERE TO BUY A CAMERA. WE KNOW THEY WILL BE VERY EXPENSIVE IF WE CAN FIND ONE. SAD DAY! THEN TO TOP IT OFF, THE POWER WAS OFF FOR 13 HOURS.

NOT A GOOD DAY! TOMORROW HAD BETTER BE A BETTER!

Babies on Their Backs

There is an African phenomenon that fascinates us. We can't figure out how this works, but it does. There are some things that we just should import!

One of the traditional dress styles in the Congo has a big fabric wrap that goes around a dress or skirt and blouse. Women tie this big scarf around their waist when it's not being used and it's very fashionable. Sometimes it's made of the same material as the outfit. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it doesn't even match at all. But it's all OK because the wrap is the most practical thing in all of Africa.

You see women use it around their heads. We thought that maybe it was the answer to a bad hair day. But then we were told that wearing a head scarf is a sign of honor and you can only do it when you are a mother or are aged or in some other way have earned the honor of wearing it that way.

They use it to bundle things that they need to carry on their head or sling over their back.

They wrap up in it when they're cold, use it as a shade when they're hot, protect themselves when it rains or is windy and dusty. They use it to wipe off chairs before they sit down and clean children's messy faces with it.

BUT it's greatest purpose is for carrying their babies, who are too young to walk.

They have a most amazing way of carrying their children on their backs.

They just lean forward, put the child on their back, and throw the wrap around the baby. They tuck it in front at the top and then again at the bottom . They don't even tie it. Then they're set to go! We haven't figured out why the babies don't fall off when being wrapped, or how they stay tucked in and don't come unwrapped and fall out or squirm their way out while their Mothers are walking, but they don't. Actually, they just seem to be totally relaxed and are asleep most of the time.

This lady did a demonstration for me of how she wraps her baby and tucks in the fabric. I could not see why that baby didn't just tumble to the ground. But it was there all day.

Since African families are large, there are woman everywhere with babies on their backs. A family of 8-10 children is not at all uncommon. Sometimes I think that every woman of child bearing age either has a baby or is pregnant, or both. They walk around town with both arms full of things, something on their head, a child in each hand and one on their back. It's amazing!

Three little ones!

They work while carrying a child this way. The ladies at the toll booths who come to sell you things all have a child strapped to their back.

Even little girls carry their siblings on their backs.

It's just amazing, very practical and totally Congolese.

The African Broom

We have been told that the broom is something very typically Africa. It's seen everywhere in the Congo. The people sweep the dirt in front of their shops and homes with these little brooms every day. Even in the villages you see people sweeping around the immediate area of their home. We're not sure how they decide where their yards end and the other dirt begins, but you can see them sweeping, sweeping, sweeping.

Robert, our gardener/gate keeper is holding his broom.

These women fan out along the streets every day and sweep. They sweep the dirt back off the streets and they sometimes sweep the dirt paths along the sides of the streets. We think that they are trying to keep the dust down and remove rock from the paths.

Robert brushes leaves & debris from the flower beds regularly.

These brooms are made of stiff weeds that grow in abundance here. The weeds are bound together with leather cords or string. They come in several sizes and are sold from venders who carry them in baskets on their heads. We think that people sometimes just gather weeds and make their own. We have no idea why they use handleless brooms.There must be a reason. It makes our backs hurt just to watch them. But this is something very uniquely African.

Today we bought a big, new Broom for Robert ($2.20 each)

and one for us to display on our buffet, but definitely not to use!

Yo-Yo Days

O.K! So, I think that we're working hard and learning to adjust to whatever comes, and be content and happy here. And then today happens.

Sometimes you just have to VENT!

We cleaned our house in the early morning because we usually have power and water then. All went well and we sat down to cool off for a minute, after an hour of sweeping and mopping the floors, when the power went out. We knew that we were not going to be able to do what we planned today so, Plan B had to be made and put in effect. We made Plan B and got started, when the power came back on! Surprise! Yeah! Back to Plan A. All our original plans were back in place. Brent cleaned up and I worked on-line for a few minutes.

Then I went in to get ready for the day. It wasn't hair washing day, but with power and water for sure now, I thought I should wash it anyway, just in case tomorrow wasn't so good. "It never goes out again this soon!" was my thought. So, I got totally sudsy and when I went to rinse... almost NO WATER. Oh my word! I squeezed out just enough to rinse off and thought that I could live without water and just bake today. Plan C. I felt sad that I would have to tell Brent that we now had a water issue and that would be his new plan for the day. Then I reached for my blow dryer and the thought came --"Could it be that it's not just the water, but that the power was gone AGAIN and we could not pump the water?" YES! It could. Now I had wet hair, no hair dryer, there would be no cooking, no washing clothes, no internet work, etc. etc.

I think that you could hear the primeval scream clear into town! I did feel somewhat better and made Plan D. I had to do something with my hair. That was all the plan I was ready to make at this point. So, I found some plastic rollers that somebody left in the house and rolled my hair, hoping to make it look OK when it dried. Then I started thinking about our the next new plan for the day..........when...... the power returned.

We feel like we're riding on the power yo-yo . We now have lots of plans for the day and we're not sure any of them will happen. Such is Life in the Congo some days. Well! OK! Most days! So, it's on to Plan whatever!! VENTING does help!

It's T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G!-!-!-!

THANKSGIVING is Brent's favorite holiday. I'm not sure why, but it seems fitting that a day that is rather quiet, homey, relaxed & full of family, food & football should be his favorite day.

This year in the Congo was pretty different. No football, turkey, dressing, yams, cranberries, pumpkin pies. or parades to be found here. Nobody we talked to had even heard of Thanksgiving nor did they get it when we explained it to them. But we had a great day!

I must admit that I was feeling a bit down about the whole holiday season. No family around, no traditional foods, no way to send gifts to our family or friends. I even missed football. It was all a little sad to me, despite the fact that I am thankful to be a missionary this year.

So, we decided to do something to make it better. We made some Rice Krispy treats (which are fast becoming a Congolese favorite) for three brothers who help us, delivered them, told them about Thanksgiving and that we were thankful for their help.

Then Brent offered to take me to a fabric store. Those of you who know Brent will know how desperate he was to help me feel happier. He gets a rash when I suggest we go to a fabric store at home. But, that was the offer. What a great guy! So we headed downtown.

We had no police harassment. This day was looking up!

Stores are mostly very small (smaller than most Circle K's). They all look alike to me, so we walked slowly down the street looking for the word "tissu" (Fabric in French). We found it. But just beyond it, I saw an appliance store. I thought that we might be able to find a generator there, so we went to look. Our power went out last night in the middle of baking banana bread and the bread barely survived. It was out from 5-11pm. So.........we're getting serious about this generator. We've only had six days in November without some kind of power outage. But, there was no generator. However, it was also a grocery, housewares, etc store.

Walmart-Congo style.

It had Chinese food items, tortilla like chips, jello, sheets, dishes and other things we haven’t seen before. Then we found CHICKEN BREASTS! This was a big find. We haven't even found whole chickens lately. We walked around the store and also found this big, nice crock pot!! It had obviously been sitting on the shelf for a long time just waiting for us, because it was very dusty and dirty, but it works.

What a find! Two great things in one day!

And then, by the check-out stand, we found a tiny "Charlie Brown" tree and blue and silver Chinese ornaments.

I was thrilled. What a nice blessing!

And it was all on their "Christmas sale" 15% off.

Black Friday in the Congo!!

Two grandsons, Isaac and Trevor,

made pictures, scanned & sent them to us.

We put them up on our missionary board.

We had a grand Thanksgiving feast.

We even had cherry pie with ice cream that we found last week. It’s usually hard to find and about $12 a half gallon. This was the only one marked down to $3. We thought it was just for our Thanksgiving. We had chicken rolls, potatoes and gravy, carrots and peas (the peas were another great find and Brent’s favorite), and sliced French bread. We sat at our big 7 ft. dining room table, just the two of us. We must have looked pretty funny, but it was a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

Then that night, we watched a new TV show that Scott sent us. He took it off the computer and shrunk it down so that it was small enough to send to us. We had a little pie and ice cream and a movie at the end of the day. It’s really the first day we have taken away from missionary work since we got here. It was a fabulous day! We talked to our kids on Skype when they were all together at our house Thanksgiving night . (5 am Friday our time) It was just the usual WONDERFUL chaos of the whole group together. The girls were spread out on the floor studying the ads and getting ready for shopping at 5am on Fri. The cousins were running all over. The guys were sitting on the couch looking totally content in the midst of the craziness. It was so good to feel like we were right there. We talked and the we just watched for a long time.

I felt badly for getting discouraged. I didn't have enough faith that the Lord would help His missionaries have a good day. But He sure did! All these things may seem of little consequence in ordinary life, but here, they were a great blessing! I will try to remember this day the next time I anticipate disappointment.

This, our first day off since we came to the Congo, was perfect! It was so good to "unstring our bows" and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving.

"A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" W.Shakespeare

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare says, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" This takes on a whole new meaning in Africa. Here, some things are just totally different and beyond our understanding. One of them is names. We have to be very careful when we get baptismal and ordination paperwork that the name for the person is the same on all forms and that the people involved have used the same name every time. They have many names and they can go by any of them. They don't always put them in the same order and they don't necessarily have any name in common with their family members. The relationships are also confusing. The following is an experience that Brent had and recorded in his journal. It illustrates this well.

"In my interview with Elder Jacques Kapele, he told me that on our last visit I had given him a letter from his family in Likasi and that it had informed him that his sister had died. I was horrified that I had been the bearer of such terrible news and didn’t even know it until two weeks later. In my efforts to console him, I asked some questions about his sister, including how old she was. He said she was 73. Then I was confused. How could this be? In further probing, I learned that she was actually his aunt, not his sister. In African society, names and family relationships are not very important. They use any one of a number of names they have been given and it’s not always the same name or in the same order. They also call everyone in their extended family, and good friends, their “brother” and their “sister” so you never really know the exact relationship."

I talked to a man at church one day who told me that one of our elders was his "brother." They looked nothing alike, so I pursued the conversation. He said they didn't look alike because they didn't have the same mother and father. Then I was really confused. It turned out that they were cousins.

They also call their wives their "sister."

I asked Monga about it one day when I was totally confused by this whole name situation. He explained that they are all brothers and sisters. I asked how they determined what the relationships really are. He looked at me like I was a little slow and said, "Does it matter? We are all brothers and sisters." Quite an interesting little part of African culture. Many people also don't know their birthdays. They may know the year, but no more. There are few written records here. Even now, marriages, births, deaths, etc. are often not recorded. It's hard for the people to adjust to the idea that the Lord's church is a record keeping church and records are important. And oh, does it ever make Family History work a challenge!

Pickles

We have had a very busy week. Brent interviewed all the elders and it took all morning for the full week. We also went to deliver their support money and their cleaning supplies. It can get discouraging because they generally have a long list of things that they want and are not shy about asking.

We have also had continuing problems with power and water. We have only had two days in November when they were working all day. We had 7 days when it has been off for more than 5 hours. Two days it was out for more than 10 hours. It is a challenge to have no power or water. We are convinced that we need to get a generator and need to put that on the top of the priority list,

Elder Mpoyi spent two days with us this week. He's going to the clinic twice a day for shots for his infection. We feel like he's finally improving. His companion needed to do some missionary work, so Elder Mpoyi stayed with us during the day. That meant that he had lunch with us. We introduced him to some new foods that we thought were pretty normal, but were firsts for him--tuna fish, pears, watermelon, potato chips, gouda cheese, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy treats and dill pickles. It was hilarious! He loved the cookies,RK treats, and chips. The cheese was OK. He didn’t like the watermelon and he only tasted the pear and then opted for an apple. Then he tried a dill pickle. We even warned him that it was strange and sour.

His expression was hilarious! He did NOT like it at all!! Isn't it amazing that he’d never tasted any of those things? He kept pointing to them and asking what they were. We tried to explain the American Hamburger to him, but weren't too successful! The elders mostly eat rice, beans, cassava, and bread. They eat apples, onions, potatoes and mangos too. I worry that they don't get a very balanced diet. Elder Mpoyi even talked to the Webbs on Skype this week. It wasn't much of a conversation since he speaks almost no English and Corinne got tongue tied when he started speaking French. I can relate! He's a great young man.

Today we went to visit a branch in Kipushi, 30 Km (18 miles) from our house. We took the executive secretary to the mission presidency and a high councilor from the Katuba Stake with us. Kipushi is not directly under our supervision since it’s a branch that is part of a stake, but we needed to go and see what we could do with missionaries in that area. They have none right now. The mission will be getting about 30 new elders in the next few months so we are looking at places they can be used. Last weekend we had been on a much longer trip on a dirt road in the rain. We thought this trip would be a nice, easy drive. It took us an hour to drive 18 miles. There is something harder to navigate than a dirt road in the rain. It’s a paved road that has seen no repairs for 30 years. It’s a good thing that we have four-wheel drive, even with it, we had a bumpy ride.

There are very deep gutters on the sides of the roads.

It makes it impossible to go off-road to avoid the pot holes.

This branch just rented a house to meet in and they were very happy to have it. It is in very bad shape. There is almost no paint on the walls and the floors are in poor condition. There are broken windows and I didn't dare go in the bathroom. Brent said the health inspectors shouldn't either. We hope that they can get some paint, and a lot of other things, so that it can look like a place of worship. It will have to go through the Stake and Temporal Affairs, but it sure needs to happen.

There were only a few men there when we started but by the end there were about 40 members and 5 investigators (in French investigators are called called ‘friends of the church.’ I love it!) When the meetings started the spirit was wonderful and strong. They taught the gospel with power and knowledge. Their one deacon passed the sacrament, dressed in slacks, and a white shirt and tie, fulfilled his assignment with dignity and reverence. They don’t have the idea yet about sitting as families. The children sat in front, the men next and the women in the back. In RS the Pres gave a wonderful lesson on honoring our baptismal covenants. She did it in French and then in Swahili. I think it was for my benefit and it was so kind of her. We spoke in Sacrament Meeting, as usual. We just can't seem to get the message across that we are just there to visit. But, they listened attentively and smiled and encouraged me in my poor French. They are always amazed that Brent speaks such wonderful French. They often comment that he speaks better French than they do. It pleases them to be able to communicate so well with him.

Some Relief Society Sisters

The Men of the Branch, with Brent and the other visiting leaders

The Primary and the Primary Preisdent on the bottom right

The young men of the branch

The Young Women and Lorraine

Once the camera comes out everybody wants to get in the pictures.

We really enjoy Sundays when we get to be with the people of the church. It's well worth the effort to get there! It’s a great joy to feel their spirits.