Likasi's Little Lorraine, and others

We took Pres. and Sister Headlee to Likasi for District Conference this weekend. It's starting to feel like home. Brent and I have been there five times in five weeks. It's not a fun drive, but it's worth it to see the great people there. We have come to know so many wonderful, faithful people in this district.

Here are two sweet primary leaders, a faithful older sister who speaks only Swahili, the District RS Pres, with Sr. Motshikana (our dear missionary friend) and a RS counselor.

I wore the African dress that the District RS gave me when Sister Beck was here and Sister Headlee wore an African dress too. The members and missionaries all seemed to enjoy our wearing them. They said now we were real "Congolese women."

Then there is my translator. He helped in the Auxiliary training when I needed to go from French or English to Swahili. He's from a town 75 km away where there is a group of about 75 members. Seven of them came by transport to Likasi for District Conference. What a nice man!

Young Women and a group of children at district conference. They love pictures, but rarely smile.

This is the part of the Kapele family (they have 10 children). Their other two sons were in our mission. They're now in the Kinshasa Mission. We love those boys. The girl in the middle will go on a mission in March. This is a great, faithful family.

And here are our wonderful missionaries. There is a very special spirit among the Likasi missionaries. It's always been that way and continues to be so. They are just a very extra wonderful group of elders.

This is the district president's wife and their little baby, Loraine. The baby was born on the day we had our first district conference in Likasi and they named her Loraine in honor of our first day together. Just have to love her, right! Just have to love Likasi!

What Would They Do Without It?

According to About.com, Alexander Parkes publicly demonstrated a plastic like substance in the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Then in 1867, while setting out to make an insulator, Leo Baekelane invented the first true plastic (Bakelite) and transformed the world. Certainly it transformed the Congo. I'm not sure how they could get along without it. While we have been here we've seen thousands, literally, of plastic chairs. You can't go for more than 30 seconds most of the time without seeing a plastic chair.

You can furnish a restaurant, open a phone card, money changing, or produce business with a plastic chair. You can be a security guard, make accommodation for a congregation in a church with pastic chairs or you can just hang out with your friends if you're all unemployed. (90% here)

This little girl was helping set up for Primary. This is the most common way to get your chair where you want it to be. Sometimes you just take your own chair with you.

There are whole stores full of plastic. At the bread store we frequent this is the daily site as plastic bins are filled with bread and carried away on the heads of sellers.

If you don't have the money for a plastic chair, a plastic bidon, which once had oil in it, works.

There are also many other great uses for old plastic bottles and jugs. These people have little and they are so ingenious to put everything to use. With a few plastic bottles and a pop bottle you can have a little gas station. Old pop bottles are used as funnels by cutting the bottom off and inserting the top into the gas tank or a plastic jug. On the right there is both a plastic funnel and a pop bottle funnel. Pop bottles also make good watering cans if you poke holes in the bottom and then shake them over your garden. They make due and waste nothing!

With a bidon and a river nearby you can open a car wash.

Plastic bins, basins and buckets are also used for everything. You use them to wash your clothes and your dishes, to hold and measure your products at the market, and to store your clothes if you don't have closets.

Our funny elders had this sign near Elder Mpoyi & Vumpa who were washing clothes & dishes, who were actually the only ones working when we came to their apartment that day. The Ivorians must like cheap labor.

Missionaries for Sale -Elder Mpoyi $5 , Elder Vumpa $3, , Elder Kabengele $10, All the Ivorian missionaries $999 a good price.

You can carry almost anything you want on your head in plastic tubs, bins and sacks.

Plastic purses, shopping baskets, bags and buckets are practical and commonly used.

They used plastic flour sacks to pack charcoal for sale. However, to increase the capacity of the sacks, they poke sticks down inside the sack, fill that part more charcoal and then wrap weeds or plastic strips around the top to keep the additional chunks of charcoal in place.

Sheets of plastic can be a barrier for a construction site, repair your broken window, make a roof, a shop or a whole building.

On the road to Kolwezi there is a whole village made of plastic. They even have places with "restaurant" and "hotel" written in marker on the buildings.

Without plastic, what would they do?