Last the best of all the Visitors- FIRST FAMILY VISITORS EVER!

Allan Bird and Lori and Doug Baker visited 

Two days after Sister Petersen left Allan, and his daughter, Lori and her husband, Doug were to arrive for a short visit.  So, we regrouped and looked forward to our first family visitors in Africa.  We were so excited.  Just as I finished getting everything ready for their visit, they emailed saying that they had missed their flight and wouldn't come until evening the next day. We were disappointed that our already short visit was now even shorter.  But they arrived the next day and we had a fabulous time!  They were such good sports about everything and it was a joy to have them with us. We had a great adventure together for just three days and then they headed off to the Masai Mara in Kenya for a safari.

 Saturday morning we started off bright and early for a humanitarian site visit.  Our great humanitarian couple, the Moons, and their interpreter  Felix lead the way.  Very few people in this Camp Luka area speak French, only Lingala.  We also needed Felix to get out and help negotiate the drive and help move vendors when the road gets too narrow to pass.  It's quite a trip as things get more and more primitive, roads are all dirt with great holes in them, and the way narrows until you have to go the final quarter mile on foot.

  Upon arrival children begin to wave and run beside the car and by the time you get out and begin walking you have a crowd following you like you were the pied piper of Camp Luka.  They're all eager to shake your hand and to say "mboti," which is hello in Lingala. 

                                                             Everyplace you go they want to talk to you and touch your hand. They are happy and curious and it's one of the highlights of going there to see these adorable children. It's also one of the most distressing things.  They have so little. Their clothing is torn and soiled and yet they have big grins on their faces and try out every bit of language they have to try to talk to us.






I was a bit surprised at how Doug related to them. He loved talking to them, giving them "knuckles" and the cub scout "wolf sign."  They loved him right back.

The owner of the land where the project sits is always there to say hello to us. He joined the church while the well was being built and is a faithful member.  He's also the chairman of the water committee. In exchange for letting the church build the well on his land, he is given 15% of the money paid by people filling their containers. It's about 10 cents for five liters of water. One little lady last time we were here said it was just too expensive and wanted the price lowered. The money is used to maintain the pump and they've done a good job of that at this location. It's been working 10 years.

Next we visited the little school right next to the pump.  As always, the head master was kind and friendly. He was happy to have us take pictures of the inside of his school. This was the first time we've been there when school was in session. There was a younger class and an older one.  They were studying the heart when we went in.






There was a little confusion when we arrived and the teacher immediately got out her stick, tapped a couple of kids on the hands and chased away those trying to come in with us.







The head master (in pink) and his assistant were happy to show us their classroom and proud that they have this school. It runs on two sessions of two classes with about 25 in each session.  It appears, since so few children speak French, that most of these little ones in this area are getting no formal education. These children who were in class today are the fortunate ones.

These are two of the nicer houses in the neighborhood. Their dirt is swept and their laundry is hung neatly on lines and on the fences. They don't appear to have any power source and their water comes from the well we provided.

On the way back to the car we passed many food vendors on the little road. I've never looked very closely at what they're selling but Doug was fascinated and took lots of pictures. I'm not planning to come back here to shop.

This is corn and cassava flour used to make the traditional and staple food of the Congo, fou fou.  It's a very thick dough that you don't bake, but serve in a ball. You pinch off a piece and dip it in sauces. It's nutrition is suspect and for the Congolese it's the main stay of their diet.  They eat it every day and they eat it with your hands. One young man told us that "a day without eating fou fou is like a day without eating."

There were brazed grubs, termites, caterpillars, and fish heads for sale.

And in the middle of it all, there was "bush meat."  That's a euphemism for monkey. His little leg is on the right.  They certainly have different culinary habits than we do. Dried, salted and brazed meats are a real treat in the Congo. 

After leaving this well area we visited  another place in the same area that was hand dug. The same rules apply at these wells.  We think that the owner is a little less strict about people paying when they get water and the Moons worry a little that when repair time comes there won't be money to pay. This money is actually put in a bank under the name of the water committee members.
It's a great plan if the people are disciplined in collecting and saving for repairs.

After watching this young girl, Doug and Allan wanted to try their hand at pumping water. they took their turn and were most pleased when clean water came gushing from the spicket.

They also wanted to give cutting the grass a try. They saw the lady who owns the land cutting her grass with a machete. It's one of Africa's most versatile tools. You can cut your grass, trim your trees and bushes, edge your property, open coconuts and pineapples. A machete is a useful, and a little scary, implement that is found in most homes.

This cute little girl seemed to enjoy the whole show put on by the Mundelles. 

                                                                                                                                                        

From the wells we went to the Camp Luka chapel site where our program for construction is starting to put the roof on the new church complex. What a blessing this program is.  We see such hope for the future of our young members who work in it. We were thrilled to hear that some of our RM's have been hired this week, after finishing their internship. 

Great news!

One must keep their eyes open at every moment if you want to see great "stuff" here. We saw this little stand just outside the gates of the church complex project.  You never know what fun sights await you. We had a great chuckle about this. 

Then we headed back to the mission home to enjoy a quiet evening together.  It was a busy and wonderful day with the family. We're so excited that they've seen Kinshasa and will know just what we're talking about when we tell our mission stories in the future. They'll have also have some good stories of their own to tell. Kinshasa is quite a place!

Visitors, Visitors and more Visitors

The last week of March and all of April was a time for visitors in addition to our regular mission life.

Public Affairs Visited   

 It began with Public Affairs visitors, Michael Otterson, church director of Public Affairs, and Michael van Rosen, also from headquarters in SLC, Sean Donnelly, Area Public Affairs director and the Bybees, our country public affairs directors.  We had them in our home for dinner and had a most enjoyable and informative visit.
I have never really appreciated the "business lunch" and always thought it was just a way to get a meal and have it paid for by your business. But I have learned on this mission that a lot of good and much understanding comes over a hot meal. It's always a blessing to have people come to our home for dinner.

Left to Right- Jamesons, Bybees, Michael van Rosen, Sean Donnelly, Michael Otterson

Carol Petersen Visted

Then Sister Carol Petersen, the wife of a former Kinshasa Mission President came for 10 days. She made a trip to Lubumbashi for the weekend and stayed with us the rest of the time.  Her husband had been Brent's trainer in France forty-seven years ago and was a great influence on Brent. We had only seen them a couple of times since then when we went to mission reunions.  I remember the first time we met them they had just returned from their mission and told the group about it. I was so amazed that anybody could have done what they did.  I certainly had no longing to do what they had done and no thought  that we would ever share the experiences that they'd had.  After we arrived in Kinshasa Brent Jameson. and Brent Petersen communicated by email and Brent Petersen was very helpful to Brent.  The Petersens had always planned to come back together, but he died last year. She's a courageous lady to come by herself to live their dream.                                                                                                                

 She was determined to come anyway and was courageous enough to do it alone.  We had a great time together. We talked and talked about this unique life experience that we've shared. She was able to have many joyous reunions with people she loved

Thierry's wife, Natalie, was one of the Peterson's missionaries
and was there for the reunion. 

Sister Peterson joined us for our Sister's conference and then she went to Lubumbashi for the weekend. She returned to Kinshasa overnight and then flew home again. She's a courageous lady and was rewarded for her efforts with a wonderful time revisiting Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and  the Congolese people who she loves.

Sandy Taylor and Curtis Butterfield visited 

Left to right- Curtis Butterfield, Elder Billings, Aimé Ngoy,

who works for us,  our RM ,Aimé Mbuyi, Sandy Taylor and me. 

We enjoyed having Sandy Taylor, the head of Human Resources for the SE Africa Area and Curtis Butterfield, a human resources director from church headquarters in Salt Lake come to visit and have dinner in our home. 

They were here to hire a new supervisor for temporal affairs. Sadly for the mission, but a blessing for him and for the church in our area,  they got the best man for the job, Thierry. He'll leave his job at the mission in June 1. We will miss him and in our hearts we can't imagine life in this mission without him, but we understand that this will be a good career move for him and a great blessing to the organization of Temporal Affairs in Kinshasa.  We're still friends with Sandy, even after she took Thierry from us, and we have enjoyed working with her over all these years. We ended up at the construction project at the same time while they were here and we had a great dinner in our home with them. What good people work for the church! 

During this visit Georges Bonnet, head of TA in the Africa SE area who was also visiting, took time to talk to the church interns and employees there.  It was so thrilling  for us to see six of our RM's in the front row. They're gaining a trade and happy as can be. 

Jeff Clayton visited 

We very much enjoy having visitors at our home. It's fun to see people and enjoy their company and it's good to have a little quiet time to talk about business and about life.  In April Jeff Clayton, the church attorney in Johannesburg was here working on legal matters.  He joined us for dinner and it was a great evening  Jeff and his wife, Marge graduated from Highland High in the same class as me. Isn't it amazing that we're here together in Africa over forty years later.  It's been nice to reconnect.

Visitors keep us busy, but it's such an enriching experience to share time with them and so good for them to spend time in the Congo. Their ability to help the church grow and succeed here depends on people coming  and knowing how things can be done here in this unique most place. 

March Came in like a Lion and Stayed that Way

Big news came in March when we found out who has been called to replace us as Mission President and wife in the DRC Kinshasa Mission.  We have talked by skype and email several times since they were called and we're so happy to have this wonderful couple take over when we leave.  It's also very strange to know months ahead when your calling will end and who will replace you.
 We've begun to have a lot of "parental feelings" toward missionaries and members and it feels good and comfortable leaving them in the hands of the Cooks. They're great!


Knowing that our time is short has made us even more anxious to make the most of every hour as missionaries. The end of March and all of April we've been in a whirlwind.

We did two more  conferences. We combined some of the zones in Kinshasa since they were small and there are now 11 zones in our mission.  It's always good to be with, teach  and train the missionaries.

 We continue to focus on four goals; being  perfectly obedient, reading the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of your life, teaching families, and rescuing the less active. I wonder if they get a bit tired of these four goals being repeated, but we have learned that they really will lead to success and happiness as a missionary and have application in their lives forever.

They have a great time together and it's fun to see them interacting with each other.  When we combine zones there's a lot of check kissing, back slapping  and head bonking that goes on, as they see others with whom they've previously served or who come from the same cities, stakes, and wards back home.  It's a rather unique thing that we have so many who knew each other or are related. It's because 85% of our missionaries come from the DRC. It's the same way for our Americans since there are only three cities where they can serve.  They mix with each other in every transfer and become very close. For them it's like they only have about 30 missionaries in their mission, so they know each other well and there's unusual comradeship among them.. 

 
The week after the zone conference round was Easter, transfers (eight departing missionaries and no new ones, because visas still remain a problem) and General Conference.  We had a great Easter celebration at the home of one of our couples, the Bybees. We had our first taste ever of leg of lamb, and of breadfruit pudding and the familiar old standby of deviled eggs.  It's really an added dimension to have couples with whom we can gather and celebrate.

March was a lion of month and I think that the next three will be the same as we race for the finish line. 

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. 

On to the English Conferences

We arrived only about an hour late in Pointe Noire.  On the way from the airport we stopped quickly to see a new apartment that the Wheatleys are thinking of moving into and then headed to their current home. Brent's getting to be a pretty skillful negotiator and worked with the landlord to get them down several hundred dollars a month on rent and get some things repaired, including adding rolls of barbed wire to the walls around the property and security bars on the windows.

By the time we got to the Wheatleys' home all the elders were waiting for us.  We walked in, sat  our suitcases down, grabbed our scriptures and began zone conference.

 These young elders are just remarkable. They are so full of the spirit and so willing to do whatever they're asked to make the work move forward. They are a joy it is to be with them!

I always feel a great sense of relief when we get to the cities where we can do our teaching and training in English.  It's such a relaxing time for me to be able to express my thoughts with the vocabulary built over a lifetime.  I'm grateful that I can communicate in French, but wow is it great to be able to do a visit in English in all three of these outlying cities!

Right after zone conference Brent had business with the branches and worked until late that night on matters relating to the three branches over which he presides as a stake president does over wards. 

The next morning before heading out of town, we went to visit a missionary apartment.  It's always good to see how things are going and how the elders are living.






 It's a good apartment.  We did have a little visit about their stewardship toward their home. We felt like the parents of teens again as we encouraged them to work a little harder to keep it both clean and neat. They seemed to understand the importance of a "house of order" and  hopefully there will be a little  improvement.

This is the view from their apartment entrance  It's a typical Pointe Noire Street.


From Pointe Noire we flew to Douala, but had to do it through Bangui, where we stopped briefly to drop off  some passengers.  We and spent a few hours Douala with the Gaileys, who were kind enough to pick us up and take us to their home until ourr flight to Yaoundé.  It was so nice not to have to sit in the airport for four hours.  We had a nice lunch and visit before time for the next leg of our journey.  "You can never get there from here" in Africa. It always takes a few stops.
We had a wonderful zone conference with the missionaries in Yaoundé and then Brent took care of some important branch business in .

 These are the missionaries now in Yaoundé.
They are dedicated and serious missionaries. What a nice group.



But this is who they are when they relax and just be young guys!  We love being with the North American elders. They are hard working and dedicated, but they sure do know how to have
FUN!!

Again we had a look at the  new apartment for the elders. It was nice and perfectly kept.  It was even so clean and neat that they got treats for their efforts.

 The apartment is  located on a main, busy street that's kind of crazy, but it's a convenient location and has good security. We hope that it will serve us well for a long time.

From the strange catwalk that leads to their apartment, there was a great view of Yaoundé.

Yaoundé is my favorite city in the mission.  It's cooler, nicer and cleaner than any other place. It's also quite hilly and I enjoy the contour of the land there.  Since it's elevation is higher and it gets more rain it's greener with lush vegetation.
After our time in Yaoundé we flew back to Douala where we had conference with the elders there and again, more church business.

  

Mild mannered missionaries.......................................... who enjoy a chance to let their hair down.

 Unlike our usual frantic trips we had part of a day in Douala without meetings or other needs, so the Gaileys took us to the ocean.  Douala is a sea port, but we'd never seen the sea there before. There's a great deal of commerce that goes through Douala, but we bypassed that  area and went to a little point that leads to a Naval base. We just stopped and enjoyed the ocean view for a few minutes.

The road along the coast that leads to the Naval base.

We saw dugout fishing canoes with sails bringing in the catch of the day.

Fresh Fish Market on the beach in Douala

On the way home from our trip to the ocean, the Gaileys stopped to buy a bottle of roasted peanuts.  These women sit all day on the side of the street and pour very small peanuts, which they've roasted in a pan over an open fire, into used bottles.  Often they use fancy liquor bottles, but these ladies mostly use old pop bottles.  They use a stick to push them tightly into the bottle and it's amazing how many peanuts you can get in a liter bottle. Gaileys visit this group of ladies often.  Brent has learned to really like these crunchy little nuts so we bought some to take home. If we if just don't think about where they've been, they're delicious!

 Then we began our interesting return trip. Life is always interesting when we travel.  We flew from Douala to Pointe Noire, where we were to make a 30 min. stop to drop off passengers. When we got there, they had us get off the plane and ushered us into a room  (gratefully one that was air conditioned). The little lay over, which was to be a 30 stop on the plane,  turned into four hours in the Pointe Noire airport, with no explanation as to why this had happened. When we finally did board a plane, it was like a Twilight Zone plane.  It was plain white with no markings whatsoever.  Inside all the writing was in Arabic and the crew were Arabic, and spoke almost no French.  Just a little unnerving!  Fortunately we arrived safely in Brazzaville late that evening, ate our camping meal in the Hotel Adonis and anxiously awaited our trip across the river early the next morning.  However, when we awoke, it was raining and that meant no river crossing until the hard rain had stopped.  We waited three more hours in our room in Adonis for the rain to let up enough to cross.  It was a pretty soggy crossing .but we made it and in record time.

Love the solution for the rain bothering your hairdo. A plastic shower cap is totally acceptable head ware. 

Finally we arrived in Kinshasa more than 30 hours after we left Douala, which is a trip of about 850 miles total distance and could have taken us about an hour if you could "get there from here" directly. Like we say Rule #1 is always in force in Africa.  Nothing is easy in Africa!  But it's always worth it to visit with those who work so diligently and faithfully in these out-of-the-way places.

Step two in the Zone Conference-go-'round.

We spent the night in the "President's hotel," which is what our Congolese helpers Bishop Gaetan and Brother Nitch call it. The Adonis Hotel has became a home away from home for us in Brazzaville and they treat us very well. They always have the air on before we arrive to cool down "our room-#212."  It's the nicest room in the hotel and we get a good deal on it, since we have been there a lot and the young men who run it have become friends.  They now put "two" towels in the bathroom for us and have things just as we like it.  We have given up trying to get to a restaurant since we're always too tired and hungry to go and wait for a meal.  So at the end of the day we have a good camping meal which is just what we need.

In the morning we eat on the terrace and have our favorite meal of croissants, raisin rolls, pain au chocolat and hot chocolate, or if we take the early plane they put our breads in a little "take away bag" for us. They're so nice to us at the "President's Hotel!"

Notice the bags that we have with us in this picture.  We've learned to make a trip for nearly two weeks with just one small bag and a briefcase each.  We  can take them as carry-on bags and never lose sight of our things. It's wonderful to always know that we will arrive at our  destination and have our luggage arrive there too

At the airport in Brazzaville Rule #1 came into full effect this trip. After many trips through that airport with no problems, this time they couldn't find us in the computer. We had electronic tickets, but they still wouldn't issue us boarding passes. We usually do this process alone and it goes fine. For some reason,  Gaetan didn't leave us to do it ourselves this time, but had an airport facilitator walk our papers through. Thank goodness! It took him nearly two hours of going back and forth from the airline office in the airport to the check-in gate. So, we just stood in the airport and waited and watched. It's always quite a show.  We stood for over an hour in a crazy African style line and...

then finally got  into the ticketing area and sat and ... 

watched our  facilitator struggling to get us tickets and....

enjoyed seeing  people in their interesting African clothing. Loved his man's outfit the most!

Our plane was to leave at 9:30 and at exactly that time we finally got boarding passes. We still had to clear passport control and security and it was already time for the plane to leave.  We were sure that we had missed our plane.  We raced through the airport and made it in record time, only to find that for some reason, which was never explained, they had not boarded .  All the passengers were standing in a huge mob waiting at the door.  We were SO relieved and this as a little miracle we had received.  Our schedule is always tight enough that a missed plane can put us off for the whole next ten days.  Forty-five minutes later and with considerable relief, we collapsed into our seats and headed to Pointe Noire.