Visits to the Kinshasa Apartments and our Multi-national Mission

When we're in Kinshasa on a Monday morning we like to go and visit apartments just to see the missionaries. We don't get to do that as much as we'd like.  It's not really an apartment inspection. Our full-time employees go there often  and do that duty, thank goodness!  Asking kids to clean their room was never one of my favorite tasks.  But it's good to see the apartments now and then.  We usually give them a half hour's notice or maybe we just surprise them.
First, we visited two different apartments for elders. They have water and power almost all the time and looked well kept.

The small gas hot plate seen here is something we've put in all 17 apartments in Kinshasa and the five in Brazzaville.  They use an electric hot plate when they have power and the gas when they don't.
This apartment even has cupboards in the kitchen, which is not common in DRC.
Beds, study table and chairs, a standing closet for clothes, kitchen table and chairs, fans and a book case are provided for each apartment.   Usually there are 4-6 missionaries in each apartment.

One of the favorite foods here always seems to be salted, dried fish.  I've made it a well-known fact that I'm not a fish lover, even when you buy it filleted, wrapped in plastic and frozen at Costco, I'm not a fan!

These elders were delighted to show me the bookcase in their bedroom storing their fish.  It had little ones, which I think are sardines, not canned but salted and dried. They just throw them in sauces and eat them whole Yuck!
They had medium-sized salted, dried fish. They fry it in a pan full of oil. Then even had another type. It looks like maybe it's salted, smoked eel.  I always make a fuss when I lift a lid of a pan on the stove and see fish cooking. I hold my nose, pull a dramatically displeased face and say, "Je n'aime pas le poisson!!"  (I don't like fish!!) I always get a good reaction from that.  Only one missionary, out of more than 350 has ever agreed with me.  

 The other apartment was nicely kept too.  Their kitchen was clean as could be.  It certainly did make us happy to see them taking care of their apartments.  They all seemed genuinely happy to have us visit.

This is typical of the kitchen equipment they have.  In the blue barrels they keep the casava flour to make fufu.  The tiny can of very strong tomato paste (four times as strong as American tomato sauce) is the foundation of most of the "sauces" they make to eat with fufu. 

Here are some samples of can sizes in the DRC.  They contain (from left to right) Full-cream powdered milk,  a  US #10 can for reference, black beans, pears (US size), evaporated milk, tomato sauce (US size), small can of corned beef, strong African tomato paste and sweeten condensed milk.  The little sweetened condensed milk looks like something you'd find in a " children's play food assortment" at home. So cute!  

The prices are high on everything canned, except the tiny cans of tomato paste. All of the other products are  imported.  The small can of fruit runs about $3, tomatoes sauce about $1.50.  In Burundi there were only five kinds of canned foods - African tomato paste, tuna, mushrooms, corn, and popcorn kernels.

It requires a bit of recalculation to use these sizes of cans in US recipes, but we're grateful for canned foods. We love the assortment of things available here. 

 The last apartment we went to belonged to a group of sister missionaries.  We didn't warn them that we were coming. The apartment still looked great. They were on task and there was a wonderful feeling of sisterhood in the apartment. As we sat in the bedroom talking, we realized that this is a very unique group. I'm wondering if there's anyplace, other than visitors' centers, where a group like this would be found. The sister missionaries in that room come from six different countries.  We had  (from left to right) me-US, Sister Flagbo-Togo, Sister Mutomb (of interest is that Mutomb is the first African missionary we've ever know whose name didn't end in a vowel)- DRC, Sister Zaorobone- Central African Republic, Sister Nsenda -DRC, Sister Fanantenantsoa- Madagascar and Sister Kabie-Ivory Coast.  I think that is a very unique situation to come from that many places and live harmoniously in one apartment. (The white puff above us is a mosquito net tied up for the day.)

Even though these sisters come from many countries and have many differing cultures, tastes and habits, they're all still cute young women with fun things in common. They all giggled when Brent teased them. They all felt compassion, love and concern when we talked to Sister Zaorobone about the coup d'état  and the resulting problems in her homeland. They all squealed with delight as we passed out invitations to our upcoming Sisters' conference. And on every bed in the house there was a Teddy bear.  We just had to take a picture of them with their bears. 

On our way home from the apartment visits, Aimé, who works for the mission and is the bishop in the ward where we live, invited us to see his new rented home in the area. Twice this year he'd had a flood disaster in  his former rental home.   Because someone had blocked the drainage ditches when they built a new home, water nearly filled the house each time it rained, causing them to loose almost everything they owned.  Faced with these losses twice in one month, Aimé and his family were forced to leave their home and lived for a few weeks with a ward member. Recently they were able to get into a new place.  Aimé was pleased to show it to us and we were thrilled to see that they now have a nice, comfortable two bedroom home for their family and Aimé's sister, who lives with them. It was good to see them finally settled in a safe and secure place. During this outing of apartment visits with Aimé as our driver, he commented on having recently read about the early pioneers. He said that he was inspired by how hard life was for them and yet how they did such amazing things.  For us,  Aimé is one of those people who has taught us about true faith.  When faced with his great difficulty, even more than the usual hard life of the Congo, Aimé just kept saying that with faith in the Lord and the gospel we can be happy. He is a wonderful example of how we can do hard things with a happy spirit and make life good, despite the difficulty of our situation.  He embodies the true "pioneer spirit of Africa" and is one of our heros.