On the Road in Lubumbashi

Once a month on Thursday morning we visit the missionaries' apartments.

We deliver supplies and support money. We check their apartments for cleanliness, find out their needs and just give them our love and support.

We travel around the city from about 7am-12pm. This is p-day for the elders,

so we can find them at home. It's always an interesting day

The roads in Lubumbashi are very unique and often a challenge,

especially when it has rained.

The main streets are two lanes (where people drive like there are four lanes) and everywhere there are people walking, riding and transporting things on bikes or pulling and pushing chariots. Animals are not used to transport things, people do the jobs themselves.

Most people travel by foot or, if they have the money, by transport (minivans which have the interior stripped and benches welded into them). They put up to 22 people in them. They are packed and they are everywhere.

Carrying a lot of people is a fine art in the Congo. You put as many in your vehicle as you can. If you carry things, then people ride on top of the things in your truck.

We are often surprised at what we see coming down the roads.

You would not guess from looking at these streets that Lubumbashi is a city of 2 million people.

The streets are mostly lined with tiny shops, open markets, and vendors by the side of the road.

They are selling gas in gallon jugs, baskets, food, animals, and charcoal.

There's furniture, and clothing and about anything they can find to sell.

After you leave the major streets and get into the neighborhood, the streets are almost all either very broken, pothole filled asphalt or dirt. These are streets in the city.

It's different there than in the US. Here the closer you live to town the better the neighborhood.

and the more services and roads you have.

As you go further out from town, you have all dirt streets.

Until finally there are only foot paths.

Then there are no streets at all.

It's always an adventure on our Thursday drives. We are really glad that we have a four wheel drive vehicle and a guardian who washes our car whenever we come home.