Shopping in Kinshasa

With travel and a busy schedule and not loving to shop, we don't go to  the store often.  But today we needed to shop. So, we headed out early,  Saturday before 10 is a slow traffic time around town. After a long delay because of a pesky policeman who wouldn't let us go until we called our friend, the general, even though we did nothing wrong, we got to City Market. I promise that I will never complain about the cost of living in the US again. For our $280 we got this.  

Here are some of the items we bought.

    
All the vegetables were so good today that we splurged.
For this many green beans it was $9. Carrots $1 each.  These potatoes were $7.50.

     

This nice lettuce, which we can't often find, was $6.75 and the cake mix was $5.50. 

Now for the killer. The orange, yes, one orange, was $3.75. 

 It's just sad that I love chocolate orange cake and orange rolls enough to buy one. We did       find a fabulous bargain. It's something we've not seen before and will likely not see again. 

This:

On sale and beautiful! Only $6.50 for 10 packages.
So, there you have it!!. The pain and joy of  shopping in Kinshasa.
Fun! Fun! Fun!

"Called to Serve Him, Heavenly King of Glory..."

During one of our zone conferences last week we had the special experience of having a young man, who's serving as a full-time ward missionary right now, open his full-time mission call. It was a wonderful event for all of the missionaries there and for us to be his "family" for this occasion.
Yesterday we got an email from our office couple, who have known Christian well, telling his whole story. It's a tender recounting of Christian's story, so with permission from them, I'm inserting this in our blog along with pictures that I took the day he opened his call.

 A Call to Serve, The Story of Christian 

I first meet Christian on a Sunday, he introduced himself in Priest quorum as a new move-in. He was a quiet boy with a ready smile. He listened carefully in class and  offered well thought out responses. He was always  clean and neat.   Sister Hatch and I noticed him next at the weekly dance classes we were giving at the Ngaba Ward house. Again it was the same thing every week, always a smile and a happy face. Knowing that the Ngaba Ward was on the other side of the Kinshasa from his home ward, I asked him once how he was able to get to the dance class every week, and he just smiled and said "I manage."

Christian spoke fairly good English and attended every one of our Wednesday afternoon  English  classes.

Another time, the Young Men of our ward planned a service project to clean up the church house early one Saturday morning. I arrived on time and after waiting for about 15 min. I walked around the building to see if there were any young men already there. I didn't see any one so I waited  awhile longer.  As I walked around the building one more time , I noticed someone sweeping the floor in the cultural hall. It was Christian. I asked him when he arrived.   His answer was simple "At 7 o'clock as we had planned."  I found a broom and the two of us swept the building. As we worked I asked him to tell me about himself.

Christian was orphaned as a young boy in his 11th year. Both his parents were killed in the eastern Congo wars as soldiers raided his village and killed many people, including the women and children. An aunt took him in and gave him a place to sleep and eat. After a few years he was able to save and borrow enough money to pay for the transportation to move to Kinshasa. One day he was walking by the LDS church house in Ngaba when he noticed two young men in white shirts and tie's coming out of the building.  He said his heart told him to ask those two young men who they were, and if they would tell him about the church from which they had just come. He was baptised a short time later, and he has been active in the church since that day.

I asked Christian what his greatest goal was in life was and he told me he wanted to be a missionary. He stated " I have been saving my money from the day I was baptised, and I have almost 100 American dollars. I am saving everything I can." When asked  if he had a job, he said "No, but I try to find work anywhere I can, even if it's for a few hours. I have faith that if I do all I can then maybe I can be a missionary before I am to old to receive my call." His quiet voice was filled power and conviction as he told me of this goal. 

I was humbled by this young man's determination and faith. That day I made a promise to myself that I would do all I could to help Christian. It was not very long after that conversation that Christian found a job cleaning an office. One day he came to us and said that he had saved enough money to pay for his passport and visa, and that he had an appointment with his Bishop for a mission interview. He also had a full set of French scriptures given to him by a returned missionary who spent some time in Kinshasa as an intern for the state department. Christian also said " I now have 3 white shirts, 2 pair of pants, shoes, and a few ties."

Two transfers ago Christian was asked to help out the DR Congo Mission as a full-time ward missionary to fill in where there would otherwise have to be a threesome.  He gladly agreed to serve.

 As many of you know all the American senior couples were evacuated during December because of the political unrest. During this time a soldier shot into one of our missionary apartments and the bullet landed in the bed of one of our Elders. It was early in the morning and he and this companionship were up doing their appropriate studying. Because they were obedient one of our missionaries is alive today.  Christian was the companion to this elder.

Finally his call came.  Because he had no family to see him open it, he waited until Zone Conference which was held  in the Mission home for Zone Conference to open his call. He was so excited and nervous that he couldn't  even open the envelope  and asked President Jameson to open it for him.

 President did and the handed it back to Christian saying" but you must be the one who reads it." 

 
President Jameson asked Christian to read his whole call to remind  all the missionaries of the similar call and commitment that they had made. His missionary family looked on as he read that he  has been called to serve in the DR Congo Lumbumbashi Mission, in the southeastern part of the DRC and will report to the MTC in Ghana on March 2nd.  Christian's dream is about to come true. May we all have the faith it takes to answer the "Call to Serve" no matter where, no matter when.

 Elder Hatch

               

Kimbanseke Water Project Closing

  Since in Kinshasa there are no sights to see, no beaches to walk, no animal parks, no movie theaters, no concert halls, no mountains to climb.... You get the picture?  For recreation we like to go to projects with our Humanitarian couple, the Binghams. They go out to places that are unimaginable and do projects for the communities in the Kinshasa area. Last week we went to the closing ceremony for a project done in tandem with an NGO called Congo Kazi, that drilled 10 wells in one neighborhood to give them clean water from ten pumps in the area. They also built a latrine for an elementary school attended by about 800 children.   It's quite amazing to tag along and see their fantastic projects and it makes a great P-day.

This project was in the community of Kinshasa called Kimbanseke. The first adventure was getting there.  

We started out on a road that wasn't too challenging.  

 

Then it got more crowded and smaller.  

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  Then it really got narrow, overgrown and bumpy.

  

After that came the river bottom and finally a drop off that was crossed by a big abandoned water pipe. If you hit the pipe wrong got you ended up high centered and sliding down the pipe or if you didn't turn sharply enough you crashed into a tree.  Coming back up, as in the picture, was easier than going down. It was all quite the adventure. 

  
When we made the final turn there were several hundred school children chanting, waving at us and running alongside our car.  They were led by a clown. I've always though that clowns in general were just a little frightening and I think that clowns in Africa definitively are.
  
The children led us to the set up for the water project closing.  Hundreds of blue plastic chairs awaited us in a large clearing next to the school and we were led to a place in the front under the plastic awning where honored guests were seated.
  
Since the official program stated over an hour late, which isn't unusual, we looked at the school project while we waited. They had built a large latrine. When the Binghams came to monitor its progress one time, they found them painting it hot pink. Sister Bingham laughed and said that must be for girls' part and they'd have to paint the boys' part blue. When they came back the next time, they had done just that. The funny thing is that in Africa pink and blue are not designated for boys and girls. You're just as likely to see a man with pink shoes or carrying a pink back pack as you are to see a women. But there they are, the pink and blue latrines all roped off for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

  

Near there on the back of the school buildings was a system of rainwater collection where water was gathered in large green tanks. This water will be used for flushing the two toilets,one of which is located on either end of the latrines. These were for staff use. The rest of the latrines, which  was for  student use, didn't have flush toilets, but were a big improvement over having no bathroom facilities at all for 800 students.
   

 The program consisted of talks by the head master of the school, , President Mabaya, the president of Masina stake,  the head of the NGO with whom the church worked and, presentations of certificates of thanks by Thierry (our office manager and member of the stake presidency in Masina). Then came the clowns and after them a group of children. Both presented skits and songs about good hygiene. Then the Congo Kazi staff sang and talked.
                       

   
 

 Lastly came comments by the chief of the community. He thanked the church and Congo-Kazi for the wells and the latrine.  He talked about the blessing water will be to the community and then mentioned other projects they needed done. (this always happens)  After his speech,  we all followed him to the latrine for the official ribbon cutting ceremony.  He was given a bottle of Coke, from which he took a drink, and then he poured it on the ground around the latrine, as the crowd looked on and cheered and applauded. After the ribbon cutting they gave brief tours of the latrine to the dignitaries. They demonstrated the use of the flush toilets and showed the running water in the sink of the staff restroom and toured the simpler children's area as well. 

  

An interesting side note.  During the hour and a half  long ceremony a crew kept assembling awnings. As each section was finished it was taken right through the middle of the presentations and put into place.  By the end almost everybody had shade.

 

 The children sat quietly during this whole ceremony.  The blue chairs were filled with children in their school uniforms. There were also many other children there. They were the ones who make me sad.  Their lack of school uniforms means that their families don't have enough money to pay for school, so these children don't attend. It always breaks my heart to see these bright young minds not being stimulated by attending school.  However, they were there to celebrate the new source of water and were  happy to join in the celebration. Clean water near their homes will change, maybe save, their lives. . 

 

After cutting the ribbon on the school latrine, the chief led us all down the hill to one of the 10 wells in this project.  He cut the ribbon and took the first drink from the well. He was followed by the Binghams and many other dignitaries. 

   

On the pump it reads
"a gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/and the NGO Congo-Kazi."
    

After the dignitaries finished anybody could drink. People gathered around and watched as each person filled a bottle or the ceremonial glass and drank the clean water.  

 

One man in front of me didn't want to wait for a turn to get his drink from the glass. He reached over and cupped his hand under the water being pumped. He drank from his hands several times and then poured the last handful over his head.  It's amazing how life changing and what joy clean water can bring.

There were big smiles and some amazement as they watched the water flowing freely from the big blue  pump. The joy of fresh, clean water was evident in those who will be serviced by these wells.

The last event of the "turn over" was refreshments for about 30 of the hundreds of people there. They sat all the African men and the church members at tables. The women stood and all of us were given a bottle of pop and a hard roll. This was a show of gratitude and hospitality toward the community and church leaders who had come for the celebration of the water project completion. 

I'm grateful to be a member of a church which sees the needs of communities and goes to great effort and expense to make things happen. I'm also thankful for the Binghams' willingness to serve as humanitarian missionaries. Without them in Kinshasa this project wouldn't be done.   Without couples who sacrifice to serve, none of this would be possible. So, we encourage all of friends to jump in, the water's fine!

  

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