Dinner at the Ngua Home

We are rarely invited to dinner at anybody's home, so we were excited when Bishop Ngua of the Kasavubu Ward invited all the missionary couples to Sunday dinner. We made plans to follow him home after church, since there are few addresses here and finding anyplace is totally impossible without a guide. So, after church a the Staggs, Hatches and the son of Bishop Ngua all piles into our car. The teenage son was in our car to help us find the house just in case we got separated from Bishop Ngua and the rest of the family, who were in the car in front of us.

It was quite a trip. Here when people tell you it's not far to wherever you're going, it could be a two minute drive, but it's just as likely to be a 10 minute one. This trip was the latter, or longer and it was quite a drive.

We left the church.

Then we headed down a pretty major road that we'd all traveled before.

Suddenly Bishop Ngua turned on a smaller, dirt road that we would have totally missed without his guidance. We didn't even see that there was a street there. It led us off-road, under a bridge and down through a dry river bed .

From there we went on a small dirt path which was clearly not often used by cars. We thought that it would have been a river bed when it's been raining and the water is high.

We traveled down that road for a long time as it wound around through the city. Brent kept saying "Surely there must be an easier way to get to his house." But it didn't seem so. The road went on an on until finally we ended up at a gate where the driver of the Bishop's car stopped.

We were totally surprised when the gates swung open and we saw what a different world was just inside the gates that enclosed his property.

Sister Ngua and her sister were busily making last minute preparation. They must have worked for two days over their charcoal fires to prepare this fabulous meal. They had platters and bowls full of food. There was rice, potatoes, some distinguishable green veggie, pork, beef, fish, chicken and some tiny little birds (we think that they were sparrows.) They had a delicious tomato-based, vegetable-beef sauce to go on the rice or potatoes. There were many choices of beverages and papaya and bananas for dessert. They had enough food there for 30 people, which was probably good since they had 12 children waiting in the kitchen to eat the left overs. Her sister, a doctor and their son-in-law, whose wife and baby who are in Provo at UVSU, were there for dinner too.

Bishop Ngua must do very well as the director of customs in Kinshasa. He told us that they had worked for 10 years to build their home. As they got a little money they would work on something. Then they'd save a little more and do something else.

We enjoyed a real feast and a delightful afternoon of visiting and getting better acquainted.