Interviews in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire

We started our last round of interviews by going to Brazzaville and Pointe Noire.  It's always great to spend time with the missionaries.  I showed a video about working with less actives and had a good discussion with them. Rescuing the less actives is one of the four goals that we have in our mission.  We've had some good success lately as our missionaries have rededicated themselves to this effort.  The other three goals we've had are to be completely obedient, teach families thereby putting them on the road to the temple, and read the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of our lives. We've encouraged our missionaries to work toward these goals now and adapt them to their post-mission lives.  Brent held personal interviews with each missionary. These are the most important meetings that he holds, according to Elder Holland. It takes a day for each zone and it's an intense time for him. But it's worth it.

The view from the Brazzaville Stake Center

Then we flew on to Pointe Noire to be with our eight American missionaries and theWheatleys and repeat the same process. Wheatleys have moved to a new house and it's much nicer than where they previously lived. It's got much more room for us to gather for interviews and zone conferences. 

   

 Interview time is relaxed and fun with the Americans since he only has eight interviews and we hold a mini- conference. We talked about less active efforts again and had time to just sit, visit and enjoy being together. 

 

There's a water tank on the street where the Wheatleys live. You can see the people gathering each day to fill their bidons as they buy water and haul it back to their homes. 

It's a privilege to be with such fine dedicated, faithful missionaries  We had a really good visit and then headed home to get ready for our next trip just a day later. 

Another Sweet Reunion

We flew back from South Africa with Elder and Sister Cook, Brother and Sister Bonnet and Pres. and Sister McMullin, who were all on their way to Kananga, through Kinshasa.  They were all supposed to come for dinner that night, but plans changed and only the McMullins were available, which turned out perfectly.

We had the McMullins come to dinner and share a bit of time with  Frere Malabi and us. Frere Malabi's  passport was never found and he's been making passport arrangements for over a week. His sweet family is still waiting patiently for him in Dar es Salaam.   We had another great reunion.  As he told the story of his time in prison and the amazing miracle of his release, we were even more amazed and  grateful to have him with us.                                        Now if we can just get a new passport for him and get him out of DRC and back with his family, we'll all feel even more grateful and relieved.                            

Our Last Mission Presidents' Seminar

Wednesday we flew to Johannesburg for our last mission presidents' seminar.  These seminars have been a fabulous experience as we sit in company with the other 10 mission presidents, the Johannesburg MTC president, and the three members of the Area Presidency.  We are always buoyed up and inspired to be better people and to do our work with more commitment.  These have been very special times for us.

 Five of us will be released in July,  Broadbents, Padoviches, Jacksons, Von Stettons and us.  Each couple has served for two to three years and we have come to love them through this association. They are truly amazing people who have inspired us to be better at our job and in our personal lives. We'll really miss them.

 The Seminar was two days of instruction from the Lord's chosen leaders as they shared things presented at General Conference and matters related to our area.  They're remarkable men and women.  They have become mentors, leaders and dear friends during our years in Africa.  Pictured are Elders Cook and Renlund of the 1st quorum of the 70 and Colin Bricknell, an area seventy in Africa .   We love them and will miss our time with them.
It's strange how leaving these friends is perhaps harder than leaving friends at home before our  mission.  We will not likely pass this way again.                                   We stayed in the wonderful Hotel Westcliff. It was about as far different experience from our Kinshasa mission as one could get.  It always feels a little like a vacation when we go to Johannesburg, but we really enjoyed this place more than any place in all the world. It's located on the side of a mountain with a panoramic view of Johannesburg.

 Below is the view from our window.  The pink ball was our Liahona when trying to find our way home as we traveled around in JoBurg. Next to the ball are the spires of the temple. It's a beautiful sight.

The hotel was like a little village with flower-lined, winding cobblestone streets that lead from one complex to another.  Our rooms were beautifully appointed and the service was fantastic.  The restaurant was first class. We liked staying in this lovely place. It was a real treat in every way.

                                                                                                                                                   We had extra time in Joburg since there are only a few days during the week that you can fly from Kinshasa   We did some shopping for the couples, attended a session in the temple and enjoyed ourselves completely. We even had time to go with Richard and Annette Curtis and Dale and Ruth  Renlund to Cabano and Sons, my personal favorite African arts and craft shop.  There are just too many irresistible things to buy there.  Good thing that this was our last time in Joburg. 

A cute young clerk saw our name tags and told us that his name was also Jameson.  

So, we just had to get a picture of the two Jameson guys. 

 

On Sunday we spent the day with our good friend, Kathryn Diab, the purchaser for the church in S. Africa. We attended church with them and had dinner in their home. We've known her since she came to set up the Lubumbashi mission home and have become good friends.  Her parents are temple workers and we've seen them often in the temple. Her uncle works for the church and we've  also worked with him. It was such a treat to share Sabbath with this great family.

The last event for the conference was a temple session for the mission presidents and wives. We discovered that two of our dearly beloved returned Congolese missionaries were in the temple being sealed at the very same time as the mission presidents' temple session. It wasn't hard to make a choice.  We attended the sealing of Justine Kapele and Frank Bunda. Frank had served with us in Lubumbashi and Justine was one of our missionaries in Kinshasa. What a great joy it was to attend their sealing and see this sweet couple get the right start and become an eternal family unit.


The sealing was performed, in French, by our friend from Temporal Affairs, Georges Bonnet.
Frank and Justine live in Likasi, which is in the Lubumbashi mission. So, President and Sister McMullin also attended the sealing.  The two mission presidents acted as witnesses and the two mission Moms sat with the bride and groom in the place of their mothers. Sadly, almost nobody ever  has family with them. It was a great honor to stand in as the family for these two wonderful young people. It thrills us to see our returned missionaries making good choices and moving forward in life.

These mission presidents' seminars in South Africa have been treasured times for us.  We'll miss our couple friends and so many church employees whom we've known and loved for years.  It makes us a bit nostalgic when we think that we won't likely see many of them again.

Another Tender Miracle

Six months ago on the way home from the Temple in Johannesburg where we were with them at the temple for their sealing, the Malabi family was stopped at the airport in Burundi.  Brother Malabi was arrested for unknown reasons.  For six months we've worried about him and prayed for his release.  His name has been on the rolls in the temple and countless other people have prayed for him. We got home on Monday from Pointe Noire to hear the joyous news that he would be released on Wednesday.  We were told to call on Tuesday to make the arrangements  We were thrilled that he would finally be freed and returned to his family, but we were very sad as we wouldn't be able to see him because our plane left for South Africa on Wednesday morning. We have worried so much about him and wanted very much to see for ourselves that he was free and well. To our great surprise when the staff called the prison, they said that he could be released on Tuesday and they went immediately  to get him.  Tuesday night we had the wonderful reunion with our dear friend.  His release was a miracle that many throughout the world had prayed for and we wondered if it would ever come. We're so grateful that he is free and will be able to join his family.

The most amazing thing about this is that he spent six months in terribly difficult circumstances and came out with greater faith and goodness than he had when he went into prison. He had no anger and ill-will for those who held him, but only joy and gratitude for his release and his chance to be with his family again.  We have thought about Joseph's time in Liberty jail often over these last six months. Frere Malabi's time in the Kinshasa jails was no less difficult and no less refining for him.  We admire and love this man.

 When released he had only the clothing he was wearing, so we went to our little storehouse of missionary clothes. We found three white shirts that fit him (the last of the shirts donated by a family in Tempe) and some ties (donated by our stake back home).  We found a couple of pairs of pants that I could alter to fit him too. We only had one pair of shoes in our little stash, and amazingly, they were just his size.

It was a real tender mercy for us that he was released the one day that we were in town between our trip to Pointe Noire and South Africa.  We and many others have prayed daily for Frere Malabi's release and, after six months, it was a grand reunion.  Now we just have to find his passport, which has been in the custody of officials for all those months, and send him to reunite with his family.

Scottsdale in Kinshasa??

We were behind this very nice car in traffic the other day.

Couldn't believe our eyes!

 Check out the license plate holder!

Heading out

One of the most amazing things about daily life in the Congo is the way that women carry things on their heads. You see them everywhere you go with huge, heavy loads on their heads. We've never seen anybody drop their load and they seem to be able to balance them without even using their hands. It's quite impressive.

I always wonder how they get those heavy loads on their heads.  The other day we watched as a mother and daughter loaded up and "headed out"on their walk home.  Looking at this series of pictures you can see that they were heavy packages and it was quite remarkable that they got them up there without a mishap and then just walked away.

First they loaded the heaviest parcel on the Mom's head. 

      

Then they worked together to settle the Mom's load and to get the daughter ready for her load. 

  

The daughter picked up her load, handed it to her Mom and the Mom loaded it onto the daughter's head.  

After doing that, the Mom picked up the packages, gave some to her daughter and she and her daughter each carried some smaller bags in their hands.  

 

Then they just headed out down the road to walk for who knows what distance. 

 Hard things are a way of life in the Congo.  I'm inspired by how resilient and resourceful they are. I will always think of the Congolese people when I need to remember that "We can do hard things."  

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!