Mr.GQ Africa

When we moved to Burundi six weeks ago, we sent 13 boxes via Kenya Air Freight for the Frogleys, the mission and us. Twelve of the thirteen boxes were found and delivered after about three weeks' effort. The last box didn't come. It has now been declared officially LOST. Someplace in Lubumbashi, Nairobi, Kigali, or Bujumbura (all the places our plane stopped on the way here) our STUFF is sitting in a corner of some warehouse!! Sadly, the search is over!!

We have spent about 20-30 hours at the offices of Kenya air freight, in town and at the airport.

We now have the boss of Kenya air, the warehouse guys, the customs officers, the DHL people and the head of air freight all on our telephone speed dial.

We've actually become friends with Josiane and the folks at DHL.

There were some really important things in there, like my precious well-marked and beloved 18-year old English scriptures, the crock pot that we searched all over Lubumbashi to find, linens, meds, etc. But, one of the big problems was that Brent's ONLY suit was in that box. So, for four weeks he presided at meetings without a suit. He was not happy with that situation, but was being patient until our box was found.

However, when it got close to time for the Holland/Snow visit, not having a suit became an emergency. One can't greet and entertain general authorities in shirt sleeves. So, Brent decided to get a new suit. This is not as easy as it would be in America. You don't just make a trip to Macy's or Dillards, buy a suit, have a few alterations and voila-new suit by Tuesday!

First, you go to a fabric street in town with it's many tiny shops and pick out fabric. We went to several stores along the fabric/seamstress street. Finally we ended up in a little shop, about the size of our laundry room at home, where we found a nice piece of fabric and a very nice East Indian shop owner who was kind and helpful.

The shop owner looked at Brent and said that we would need 3 meters of fabric. No, wait, it would be half meter more since Brent was tall. Then we had to haggle a bit about the price and finally we purchased the fabric. After that the store owner sent a young man who was sitting outside the store to get a tailor, who joined us in the fabric store. This tailor spoke no French or English but seemed a whiz with his measuring tape and promised to have the suit in four days, which was our paramount concern. So, the day before the dedication we went back to get the new suit, hoping that it would be done and tried to remember which one of the many little stores we'd been in was the one where Brent's new suit was waiting.

With only a few hours to go before the general authorities arrived, we were quite anxious to see if the suit was actually done and fit.

It was ready and the fit was good enough for Burundi and the dedication. Actually, the tailoring was very good. The size wasn't perfect, but Brent had a suit for the dedication and we took it back the next week and they made a few adjustments. Now Brent is very GQ. (African style.)

Big Suit------ Dressed for the dedication------Altered Suit

Not bad for $62!