Camimo Piquenique

Our missionary couples, the families of the two European employees of the church and the families of our staff had a "farewell" picnic (piquenique) in the "park" inside our complex. There's a big, somewhat grassy area across from the mission office that served as our park.  The couples, spearheaded by  Van Hauvermats and Granas, made all the arrangements and did all the set up for a fun little Comimo farewell "piquenique."

 Eric and Eduardo manned the grill as Sister Smith took at peak at the beautiful assortment of meats being prepared.
In addition to the BBQ'd meats, we had delicious salads, kabobs, chips and snacks, fire roasted chicken, breads, homemade béniers (like donut holes), and apple cake.  Everybody brought a little something and the pot luck turned into a feast.

 We all enjoyed the good food and sitting around  chatting. Bybees shared  their experience of visiting a church and finding that it's where the Kinshasa  orchestra practices. The maestro invited them to come to a rehearsal this week and we might get to go with them before we leave town.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. One of my unfulfilled dreams in Kinshasa has been to see that symphony. I've tried to get to see them since we saw the special about them on 60 Minutes.  It's a remarkable story and I'd love hear them play.                                                                                    .

However, the best story of the day was told by the Gates. They had been arrested that morning.  The police accused them, unjustly, of running a red light.  They took their papers and told them go to the police station.  We typically don't give our papers to the police.  Rather, we just put them up to the window.  It makes the police mad, but we don't lose our papers.  They, wisely, stayed locked in their car outside the station. However, since the police had their papers, we had to do something. They couldn't just drive away. Aimé was summoned and came to their rescue. Thanks to his smooth-talking lawyer's tongue, he made the whole matter go away without even paying money.  GO Aimé!                                                                                                                                  

 Speaking of Aimé, his family made cute shirts for the party.  We were touched by this effort.    

They said "We love you  Jamesons  Thank you"      

 

Aimé, his wife and daughter and Effie's sister, who lives with them, were all there.  Pascal, Gloria, their son and  his niece, who he's raising, came. In Africa, almost everybody has more than their nuclear family living with them.  It was really fun to have these two families join us for the "piquenique" at Comimo. 

After we'd chatted for awhile, Eric brought out a boules game.  The objective of this game is to throw your heavy, soft-ball size, metal ball and  try and get it closest to a little orange ball, which is called the piglet. It's somewhat like horse shoes but the rules seem to be a bit complicated to me.  You play on teams of three. You have two balls each.  Somebody is the judge of closeness and he chooses who goes next and who's closest as the game progresses.  You also need to keep track of which ball is yours since they all look about the same. I never could keep track of my ball in golf and this was the same. The game was a big success.

                                                                                                                     

Just about everybody joined in, including Brent. He's not a game player, at all. So,  it was extra fun to see him out there tossing balls. He and Pascal were on the same team and got pretty excited about being the closest to the piglet.  There was a lot of "high-fiving" going on with those two.
                                                                                                           

Some of the group enjoyed being spectators more than competitors, but almost everybody got in the game at one point or another. Even little Devina got into the game and had a good time.

 In the parks in Europe you see old guys playing boules all day. Things get pretty heated as they talk politics, drink wine and play boules. We were much less competitive, but there were moments of close inspection to make sure whose ball was closest to "this little piggy."

The kids seemed to have a good time too. Here, it's always a special treat to be with children.  

 And Pascal enjoyed playing a little soccer with the kids. 

It was just the right kind of farewell send-off for us.  It was low-key and relaxed and we had a great time!  We will miss these dear people so much. They have been such a big part of our lives for the last two years.