Is this the final posting?

Tues. 30th March.


I’m doing some afternoon typing, and we hope to get our final Blog diary from the Congo off to you this evening.

Janice with Moses the gardener.

We seem to have been here for a lifetime! But tomorrow we will be setting off on the first leg of our journey home. If there are no April Fool Day Flight surprises, we should land at Heathrow around 6am Thursday!!

Tomorrow we will be leaving this fascinating country and people, and many new friends. The last few days have been very busy, and particularly for John as he’s been finalising the computer work, and instructing the College Staff in the use of the programmes etc.

We have also had many invitations to people’s homes for ‘farewell meals’....including one this evening. And Nancy and Philip have arranged similar meals here; all featuring Congolese food, which we have thoroughly enjoyed during our month’s visit.

Nancy and Philip are amazing people, as are so many dedicated missionaries. Without being here to witness everything, it is impossible to imagine the amount that is packed into every day. Via our Blog we have tried to give you an insight into the work undertaken by them. They are totally dedicated for caring for the sick, preventative medical work and the education and training of the young Congolese people as Nurses and Doctors to improve the conditions and welfare and to serve in their own country.

DR Congo has many, many highly intelligent people among the very poor and throughout the whole range. But so many cannot afford education beyond junior school. Nancy and Philip support individuals and families as well as the Hospital and Clinics via the support of WEC and their own Home Churches and individuals etc. Our admiration for them is vast.

Some Emails have asked how my ankles are faring!! Well, they’ve taken a hammering I guess with all the walking on rough paths, and climbing in and out of the high 4x4 car!!! But miraculously haven’t hindered all that was needed of me!

By the way, the baby I saw born by caesarean has survived and is now flourishing. As well as the various practical Hospital and Clinic work I’ve done, I have also spoken/encouraged staff and students with their English.

Enough now, it’s over to John for a Final contribution.

See you in the UK soon!

Love and thanks for all your interest and prayers,

Janice.

Well, I have nothing to add to what Janice has said except to say that so much is achieved with so little of the resources we in the West take for granted, and with such grace!!

Truly AMAZING GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!

I had intended finishing work this morning but transferring the programme to the school’s computer threw up one or two problems with the format and language. Sorting it out was also a problem because the operating system on the school computer is in French. So I was relying on knowing where things are rather than the written directions! Mind you, language has been a problem all the way through. The blame for that is mine more than anyone else’s. So a return to the school was necessary this afternoon just to tidy up.

I have left them with a copy of the programme to play with for “training” purposes and trust that when they come to actually use it in July when the students finish they won’t find any bugs!!

John with Aaron the anaesthetist.

A meal with Melkizadek and Rose.

It truly has been an amazing month. So we will see you soon back in the UK

God’s blessing on you all.

Latest News from Bunia DRC

Hello, again! It’s Saturday afternoon 27th, and I just have some time to type some Blog news with battery power before we get a meal ready for the usual Doctors English speaking evening! Family and friends know that I am not an ‘early morning’ person, but a night one! So, I have had to be in complete reverse in the Congo! Breakfast a 6.30 am and bed around 9 pm or earlier!!


For example, this morning I had showered [cold water of course] before breakfast; then a 15 minute walk with Nancy and Marguerite to the Tailors [more outfits for us!] and back home; then off by car to the Bunia market for the usual big Saturday morning shopping [John stayed in computing today]; then I was dropped off at the Church to go to a typical Congo wedding and free to take all the photos I liked.....and what a spectacular wedding, like nothing one could ever imagine!! All that packed in BEFORE lunch at 12.30!!!!

Wednesday morning I was at the Hospital fixing my labels in the Pharmacy and women’s ward, helped in the ward by a couple of handsome male nurses, and watched with the usual Congolese enthusiasm by the bedridden patients!

I spent the afternoon with Wendy at her Physiotherapy clinic in Bunia [walking there and back]. A fascinating assortment of patients! And I spent Thursday morning at the clinic in Bunia town with Nancy at her surgery/outpatients session. 31 patients seen and treated between 8am to 1pm!! All ages with a variety of problems: Diabetics, lumps and bumps, infections, TB, Aids......some to be sent on to see Philip re surgery etc. The people walk for miles, or by motorbike taxi, and sit happily and without complaining on the veranda from maybe 7am until they are seen!!

This will amuse you: Nancy explained that when she says” I will give you the Coca Cola test”, it’s the finger prick blood test for “Glucose Tolerance”!!!And when she says” I want you to go to the weight loss clinic”, it is the Aids assessment clinic!!

Friday morning at 7.15 it is off to the weekly Church Service for the College Nurses. We had been asked to sing and give a testimony. They all ‘knew’ us because we’ve been every week, and they know we love there amazing singing. We sang “There’s a New Name Written Down in Glory” as it’s got a ‘swing’ to it!!! You expect clapping and arm waving and possible cheering for all kinds of situations, but WOW, the clapping and cheering etc. after our singing was more on a par with having scored the winning goal for England in the World Cup!!!!! The Congolese exuberance is amazing to hear and behold!! Then we were asked to sing it again at the ‘Thank you/farewell’ meal and entertainment they put on for us at the College in the afternoon.....more cheering and their wonderful spontaneous laughter, especially when I demonstrated that I would have to sing in England with the step and arm movements [and hip wiggling!] that they do!! They joined in the chorus too!! John will mention some more about the ‘Farewell Meal’, but family will know that i don’t like to think of my meat as animals or birds that were once running around, and especially not recently alive and well!!!....read on!

And thank all family and friends who have emailed us. It’s seemed a very long time since we were able to email anyone at any time we liked, or pick up a phone and talk!

Janice........now over to John for his contribution!

Hi to you all.

It’s now Sunday evening, 6.50 and we have had a full day again, but more of that later!! As you will gather Janice is having a much more varied and exciting time than I am! I did take a morning out to visit the hospital during the week to see the patients and conditions there but usually, following breakfast at 6.30, I am at ISTM (the Nursing College) by 8.30 where I work on the Computer Programme until just before 1.00. No one takes a mid-morning break but I have coffee brought in for me!! Walk home for lunch takes about 20 minutes. Following lunch I walk back to the college for about 2.30 and work through till about 5.00 then walk back. I have got to the stage where the staff will be able to input each student’s marks into the database and produce an end of term certificate without having to type all the details into a Word template as they do now with all the possibilities for transcription errors. If I can I will try to include a copy of a certificate with this Blog.

The farewell at the college was a full blown evening meal and Janice and I were given a special piece of chicken as honoured guests – the gizzard or crop – which signifies that the chicken was killed specially for us! Another sermon there I think!! We were also given a gift, an African carving of a canoe with two people in it with a load of fish. The people are Janice and I and the fish are the results of our work. Janice was also given a dress length of material with some significant decoration!

Church this morning at 9.30 to the French language service with three choirs taking part; (the men’s’ choir were in a different outfit again, that’s three we have seen!). Nancy took us out for a buffet lunch. Our evening meal was with Jonathon and Janine (Jonathon is a Director at the college). They live in a property on a 7.5 acre plot which the college are hoping to buy and develop into a new campus with office accommodation. The site is on the edge of town with stunning views across the valley to the hospital.

Our time here is coming to a close and tomorrow I hope to give some instruction on using the database, document the instructions and maybe add another group of students to the list of those they can produce certificates for!

Many thanks go to those who have followed our blog and also to those who have commented on it; also to those who have emailed us. Your prayers have enabled us to tap into that inexhaustible source of strength that is available to us all if we commit ourselves wholly to God.

God bless you all – see some of you soon! (on Good Friday)

John

Travel Plans.

Hi everyone,

You may have been wondering how we have been preparing for the BA strike which covers the day of our return flight to Heathrow on the 30th.

We (that is Philip, Nancy and I) actually heard about the possibility of a strike quite early on via the BBC World Service radio and also an Email from Peter. We managed to keep it from Janice until yesterday to save her any anxiety! The first part of the plan to be put in place was that Nancy immediately booked us 5 nights B & B at a convent guest house in Kampala so that we could still leave Bunia as arranged on Monday and pick up a flight as soon as one became available. Yesterday evening I received confirmation by Email from BA that our flight had been cancelled. I also had an Email from our travel agent who had obtained permission from BA to rebook our flights offering flights via Nairobi leaving on Wednesday at 19.55, local time. I emailed my acceptance and received confirmation of the booking this morning. This morning Philip emailed and Nancy phoned (!) MAF Uganda to see if they could rebook us for their Wednesday flight, which they did.

This now gives us an extra two days here and a much more convenient journey home notwithstanding the change at Nairobi. Our flights now connect within a few hours whereas previously we had a wait of some 17 hours to wait in Entebbe airport. So instead of arriving at Heathrow at 16.00 we now arrive at 05.55 Thursday morning!! What might have been a disastrous end to our trip has worked for good as per scripture!!!

No pictures this time!!

Bless you all for your interest.

John

Monday 22nd March and we only have one more week in DR Congo before beginning our journey back to the UK! In some ways it feels as if we’ve been here for 3 months not 3 weeks!


And oh, what an even MORE amazing morning I have had!!John came with us to the hospital for the first time. After following Dr. Philip’s ward rounds together, we parted company when John declined watching operations, preferring to go with the Physiotherapist on her ward rounds!

 But I went [fully gowned etc] to watch Philip perform an intricate operation to remove a lump from a young woman’s breast. Hopefully it will be benign when the tests are done. The delicate operation techniques were incredible.

I was just watching the nurses preparing the patient to be transferred from the theatre, when Philip came back and said “Come quickly, there’s a caesarean op just starting in the other room”...!! He placed me in THE viewing position...!!?...and oh, my goodness WHAT an amazing experience! [But I’m so glad I’m past child-bearing age!!].The baby wasn’t breathing, but after endless work on him by the senior anaesthetist the baby was able to breathe on his own, and it is hoped he will be OK now. The anaesthetist, Aaron, is the man that gives John lifts on his motorbike!

John told you in the last posting about our sightseeing trip on Sunday afternoon, and one of my photos we’ll add to this will be of a local herd of magnificent African cows with their huge horns. Mind you, I don’t think I’ll look next time a quarter/side of beef is trundled past me on a barrow on its way to the Market butchers!!....You’ll also see the beautiful views of the sky and mountains in the same photo.

Janice.

Hi all.
After a period of uncertainty re our return flight which is on the last day of the BA strike we now have positive information that we can rebook the next  day via Nairobi so that wont be too bad.
Managed to keep it from Janice untill this evening (24th) so not too much worrying.
Must go now and get the power off.

Our Sunday

Hello, again!


I believe our last diary entries were written on Friday, and finally got sent on Saturday morning when electric power etc. was restored for a while! It is now Sunday 21st.

John mentioned that I had received my African dress, delivered to the house the day after I was measured for it! Wow, what an outfit....not quite according to my order, but beautifully made! I think the tailor felt that the top I chose was too plain in design, and wanted me to be dressed in a more ‘distinguished’ and fully Congolese style!!! I have worn it this morning when we went to the French speaking Church morning Service again. We may add a photo of John and I, taken on the house veranda!

We had more rain this morning, but the sun is now as hot as ever, and the sky is blue.

Saturday morning was the usual visit to the big Bunia Market. It is such fun....How am I going to adapt to boring old Sainsbury and High Street shopping when we return to Uxbridge?! Another thing I will have to adapt to is doing the cooking, washing and ironing!! You can get used to having Domestic Staff for all that!!

Friday evening Nancy and I left Philip and John at home while we went off for a ‘ladies night’ at the home of one of the MAF wives. We thought the two men would be glued to their computers all evening, but we returned to find the house in darkness and the men in bed!! No electricity meant no computing/internet, and no lights! Next morning we also had Breakfast by hurricane lamp lighting! Saturday evening we had the usual ‘English Speaking Evening’ for Doctors. This time 3 of them managed to have the meal, but missed the medical presentations. One Doctor, one anaesthetist and one assistant Doctor had to leave when a call came through for an emergency Caesarean operation!! [Quite common for a normal dinner party evening!]. An MAF pilot also called in, as they do!! The rest of us studied African Snake Bites and treatment; Hepatitis B; and Skin diseases and treatments!! [You know, just the usual after dinner discussions with photos!!!].

John mentioned that I’d found another niche for my label making artistic talents!!After making labels for Nancy’s kitchen tins and jars, I was immediately called upon to offer my services making labels for the Hospital Pharmacy! [Even more important to

Read clear Drugs and injection labels!]. There are no sticky labels. All are written on white A4 paper which i first measure and rule etc! Then cut out and stuck with cellotape over the labels. I’ll be at the Hospital tomorrow to put them in place, and collect more details for labelling cabinets in one of the wards! I love going to the Hospital with Wendy the Physiotherapist. And doing the ward rounds to see her patients [including the burns man who is slowly progressing] and giving a hand where I can.

That’s probably enough from me for now! We are also soon going out on a sightseeing trip in the car.............More ‘tumble drier’ experiences over the Cong roads!!........Janice.

Hello to you all!

We had our outing this afternoon. It was a visit to the Hydro Electric Plant which produces what power we do get from time to time!! That in itself might sound uninteresting but it took us alongside the airstrip with the main UN base on the other side of the road then past a refugee camp set up by those who fled the centre of the town during the 2003 fighting. Many of the folk there have still not returned to town despite the settled conditions that now exist. Most of the way the road was lined with small settlements of mud houses, some round and some rectangular; some thatched and some roofed with corrugated iron. Often outside the houses would be small piles of beans or corn on cloths or small heaps of charcoal for sale. There seemed to be an endless stream of people mostly on foot but some on motor bikes passing along the road.

 The photo shows two push bikes loaded with charcoal heading towards town. The charcoal burning is done in the forest. Most of the people we saw would live on what they can grow; selling any surplus to buy sundry items they need which would be minimal. I suspect that few cars (or 4X4’s to be more precise as no car would have made the journey!) have passed that way as the children came running from all directions, waving and shouting, as we passed. One little lad who came to the car was particularly pleased to see Dr Philip who had operated on him for Typhoid Fever. He showed us his scar too!!

The scenery was stunning! It had been raining in the morning and now the sun was shining and everywhere looked clean and fresh. Bunia itself ids on a plateau about 3500 feet high and is surrounded by forest covered mountains which are about 5500 feet high.

To get to the Hydro Plant we had to pass an army “check point” and from then on we had one of the soldiers in the car with us. The plant is in a sorry state. As a result of a fire in 1990 there is no proper roof. A small part of the plant has been restored to working order and is covered by a temporary roof. No wonder Bunia is short of power!

There must be a sermon there somewhere!!

Oh! We were thinking of our Male Voice friends yesterday both during practice and performance!!

Blessings to you all

John

Hello, again to everyone!


As we have very little light in the room this evening [not unusual, of course!] I am typing up another bit for our next diary of events. I wish I could do touch typing, because it would be easier in the dark!

This morning, 16th March, I spent some of the time making new labels for all of Nancy’s spice and food jars and tins. Large bright ones that can be seen more easily in the dark or semi darkness of the early mornings and evenings!

Later, Marguerite [one of the Domestic staff] took me to the local tailor/dressmaker shop [mud hut, about 6ft x 12ft] to be measured for an African dress!! There were 6 ladies industriously working in the small room, machining, ironing, cutting wonderful multi coloured fabrics. Between M’s Swahili and French, my limited French, I THINK I know what I’ve ordered! It was all accompanied by lots of fun and laughter. The male boss measured me for a top and skirt, and it will be ready TOMORROW! The cost is 10 dollars [£6.40] and the material cost only about £3.50!! And if I would like another outfit, it will only cost 8 dollars to make! I obviously made a good impression; or gave them their entertainment for the day! They loved having their photos taken, and crowd round to see the photo on the camera! Children are fascinated.

Marguerite then took me to the local market as she needed to buy bananas. She and the stallholder went into fits of laughter when I said I had never seen or eaten as many bananas in my whole life! We have them with nearly every meal, raw or cooked/fried in various spices!

Janice

It’s the little thing that you begin to appreciate about home after a while! I was called upon to open a couple of cans of tomato paste (it comes in small cans and not tubes here) which were resting all attempts to open with an assortment of openers. I managed to get some of the paste on my fingers and proceeded to lick them only to be severely reprimanded! The outside of the tin could be contaminated with goodness knows what! Actually Typhoid is quite a serious problem here, even in the piped water supply so all water that is drunk or used for food preparation without boiling is filtered. There is an embryonic health insurance scheme for the locals and joining this scheme entitles the participants to a water filter kit. The picture shows some being taken off on the back of a motorbike! Immediately after this picture was taken they promptly bounced off!!!!

Work is quite frustrating as it is difficult to get a grasp of the class / marking structure used. The mains power is off again and unfortunately the batteries on the solar system are practically flat. Normally they have the afternoon to charge up but the fridge freezer was left on all this afternoon leaving little for the batteries so it will be early to bed. This Blog will not go off until am on the 19th.

19th. On Friday mornings the students gather for worship at 7.30 am. This morning was dark and very overcast. Very few of the students have watches so there were not many there at 7.30!! Following the worship about 60 or so stayed behind for a test. I was asked to invigilate which was a novel experience as in this morning’s sermon they had been warned against the evils of cheating!!

Just after arriving at the college at about 10am the overcast sky gave up its load of water all at once!! It was the sort of downpour that we in England get perhaps once a year and went on for about an hour. The water was pouring off the roofs into the guttering which is not attached to the roof but is a concrete channel around the houses or else just onto the ground. From the window I could see the water streaming across the open ground. It smells very fresh and clean now and has laid the dust which was beginning to follow every vehicle that passed.

Janice has gone out for a “ladies night”! She told me to tell you that she has got her dress and she will tell you about that later with picture no doubt. She also says that her labelling skills have extended to the Pharmacy now!!

Hope to get this posted this evening. No mains electricity but at least we have light from the solar batteries tonight.

Blessings to all.

John

A mystery solved!

I have discovered why I was stopped by the police on Friday evening! It was actually the first time that I had walked back home from the college. I had walked that route to the college several times and thought that the reverse direction would not be a problem but at one point along the path I walked to the right of a tree which stood in the centre of the path. What I didn’t realise or notice was that the path divided at that point and I had headed on a different path running parallel to my intended route and although I was only about 5 meters off course the two paths are separated by a razor wire barrier hidden in the shrubs. I don’t know why that path is a no go area protected by a police check point though.

Work is progressing slowly. I have partial records of some 330 students on file and I have all the necessary data to be able to print out the student ID cards. It is not easy to grasp the year / class / subject structure used and how to convert that into a database.

After work this evening I was offered a lift back home as one of the college lecturers was going to the Wood’s for a meeting. On the back of his little motor bike!! Good job that I have ridden a bike and could relax on the back. I had to brace myself for the corrugation in the road but the breeze was blissful!! This is my driver and his bike!

Janice’s turn! No, I will not be accepting any motorbike lifts!! I will stick to walking and/or being shaken to bits in the car!!

I received Happy Mothers Day emails from the family yesterday. A lovely surprise; and a comment from Mark said it must be the most unusual place I’ve been in on Mothers Day! He’s right! It was Market day shopping again on Saturday. Sainsbury’s and High street shopping will seem very tame after experiencing Congo markets!

In the evening a number of young Doctors came for a meal followed by a presentation and discussion on ‘Malaria in SubSaharan Africa’. This is a regular opportunity for them to practice their English, and they took turns to read the information projected on the wall. We helped with pronunciations!!

Sunday morning we walked to a Service at a large French speaking church of 1000 plus. If you find Bunia DRC on Google Earth and look at the pictures, you’ll find one of this Church. More greetings for us, and we had to introduce ourselves etc. More fantastic singing from a ladies choir, and also from a superb Male Voice group! I have videoed some singing on my camera.

After lunch we walked to visit a family in what you would think of as a typical remote African village. Caroline and her 3 young daughters and baby son and an orphan relative live in a tiny house with only a charcoal fuelled 1 ring burner outside to cook on! She is a cheerful Christian young Mother, with a very sad history typical of many in the Congo. She fled with her 3 tiny daughters in the 2003 war, but her husband was killed. Nancy found her in a refugee camp and helped get her some temporary domestic work with some missionaries. Then last year she was attacked and raped, resulting in the birth of baby Joshua! Another example of the care that Nancy and Philip have for families, and finding some monetary support for them via their home church in Canada.

We then went on to have an evening meal at the home of the Nursing College’s manager. Walking back home from there [with Nancy and Philip] in the pitch dark plus torches and head lights was another new experience!

We were both at the Nurses College this morning. John is working very hard with his computing.

I think this must be all for this evening. Thank you for keeping up with us via the Blog! We now wait to see if we can get internet connection to send it! I wish we could answer more individual Emails, but, as we’ve said before, it isn’t easy!! We have to grab the moments!

God Bless,

Janice

More News

Some of you have asked about what the weather is like. It is coming towards the end of the rainy season. The dry season starts in May but I am told that like us the seasons are very variable these days. We have had some overcast days with a few showers but no tropical downpours as yet. Thunder storms were forecast for the day we flew in from Entebbe. As we flew we could see the storm clouds building up around us but no storms were in our path or materialised after we had arrived. The temperature is in the mid 20’s on overcast days but on a day like today (Wed.10th) when the sky is clear the temperature reaches 35o C in the shade. Fortunately there is a moderate breeze to help you cool. The 30 minute walk to and from the office works up quite a sweat!! Fortunately the office in which I work (that of the “Directeur General”) is nice and cool with a good breeze coming in through the open windows most of the time. Most of the houses are built so that the sun does not shine directly onto the windows. If there is no balcony there are overhanging shades built onto the wall to keep the sun off the windows.


The sounds are very different too. During daylight hours (6am to 6pm) there is the sound of children playing, cocks crowing, “crows” squawking and the occasional small motor bike unless you are on one of the “main” roads that is where there is an endless stream of these small bikes putt-putting along at about 15-20 mph. There isn’t the background dim of traffic that we are subjected to at home as there is no tarmac on the roads only compressed earth, heavily y rutted which reduces the speed to about 20 mph if you are lucky! At night there is practically no sound at all. With no outside lighting, either street or on the houses no one goes about at night unless absolutely essential and then only by car. If there were street lights (there are a few headless lamp posts around) most of the time there is no electricity to power them!!

There are two predominant smells. Wood burning, either bonfires or for cooking and the smell from the latrines which is not as offensive as one would expect! If you are on the main road occasionally an ancient lorry will pass belching smoke as it attempts to accelerate so there are diesel fumes but nothing like the all pervading traffic fumes of the UK.

Now for some more specific items of news for those with a technical bent. The work is going well and I have managed to design the basic Data Base and import the personnel records for three years worth of students. The main problem is “data integrity”. The data has been held on spread sheets and is inconsistent from one sheet to the other. For instance both date and place of birth were held together in one field and had to be separated! By Monday I hope to be able to automatically produce ID Cards for the September intake of students. At present the cards are produced, 5 to an A4 sheet, with each student’s details having to be typed in separately!

Although I have been offered the use of the car to go to the college, the roads are so bad I have elected to walk, which I quite enjoy. Yesterday evening as I was walking home I was called back by two armed police with whom I found it very difficult to communicate as they have no English and I have no French. They wanted to know where I was going. They had no knowledge of the house we are staying at or the Drs. Wood or the college! Fortunately they knew of the CME Clinic. But for some unknown reason they would not let me pass so I had to go back and take a detour back to the house. Sounds scary but I felt quite comfortable at the time praise the Lord.

Now over to Janice for her contribution!!

Hello again! There is always so much to tell, I hardly know how to prioritise! And I can’t type as fast as I can talk!! It’s still “mind blowing” here in Bunia!

Wed.10th at 7.15am...!!!...I went with Dr. Philip to their Hospital. It was a cross country walk of about 20 minutes. As many staff as possible start the day with a devotional time of prayer; hymns and Bible reading. I then went on ward rounds [70 beds]. Wow! What sights! What they achieve with such love and medical care with such limited space and resources is incredible! UK folk who complain about mixed wards and overcrowding ought to come out here and see what that REALLY means! And no one is complaining! Most patients, many with very serious illnesses or injuries have visitors/family squeezed beside or on the beds; and some bring bed rolls and sleep on the floor under the bed!!

Philip is the only surgeon, and his surgery skills cover absolutely every type of operation! Whatever is needed! Gynaecology, orthopaedic, everything abdominal, burns and skin grafts etc.etc!

There is 1 surgeon, 3 Doctors, 2 Anaesthetists, about 25 nurses, 1 Physiotherapist for 70 beds. Dr. Nancy sees about 50 outpatients every day at her clinic in the town.

First asking if I was OK with blood....!!...I was invited to observe in the operating room!! The details would not be for the squeamish! The young male patient was a gruesome kerosene burns case [back and front body and both arms!].He was sedated while they peeled away the black burnt flesh! Suddenly I was called upon as “theatre assistant” using forceps to pass numerous sterile swabs to the Doctor and nurses! It will sound weird if I say I enjoyed this experience.....but I did!

Walking home through the little farmlands and wooden shack homes, I was often ambushed by little children rushing for a hug, and then asking if they could feel my hair! Which they did; and I then felt every little head of black curly hair or shiny shaved ones!! There was much giggling and shaking hands, which is the usual greeting from little tots to adults! These children and families are very poor, often just growing vegetables to feed themselves, or maybe selling a few sweet potatoes etc on the roadside. But they are all so cheerful, with such a lot of laughter.

My typing time is up now! I am in darkness! But John may be able to get an Internet connection and link in with the solar power before going to bed at about 9pm.

Greetings to all at waterloo Road Church on Sunday, and greetings to all who read the Blog!!

Oh, just time to add to John’s comments about the motor bikes: if you want a taxi you hail a motor bike and ride pillion! And the most we’ve seen on one bike, so far, is a Dad,2 children and a Mum with a baby on her back!! The number of folk packed on top of an old lorry piled high with ‘goods’ is amazing! The hospital gets lots of broken limbs patients this way!

Janice.

The week begins

Tuesday 9th March, 7.30am!


Hello, again! I am having a morning at home while John walks to the Nursing College to continue his computer work. Later he will tell you details of the system for records that he is setting up for them.

When there is a slot [power, time, and internet] later today I will transfer this to computer, and hopefully send it off! The Doctors, who work so hard in their Hospital, Clinic and College, also have much computer work to do at home. Limited Internet supply at home, and none at the college!

My 7.30am Swahili speaking ladies Church choir practice last Saturday was a real joy...and fun! walking there in the gentle rain. It puts our choirs to shame when you see the ladies learning words and harmonies purely by listening to leaders and each other. No word sheets, music or instruments; and all with perfect timing and rhythm, including all the swaying movements which they add! Instruments may accompany them at the Church service [drums, guitars etc.]

7.45am yesterday morning, Dr. Nancy drove us to the College. John has a key to the Director General’s office where he sets up his computer. The DG is a lovely Christian man called Melchizedek! While John was at the office, I joined Rose, the DG’s wife, who would be the main speaker at a special Women’s World Day conference, followed by a parade through the town! Rose was a fantastic, very animated speaker on the subject “The Responsibilities of Wives in the Home and the Country”. The discussions were often hilarious, and I could follow the gist of it, because there were many social and family issues which I could understand in French by reading the points listed on the projected screen.

Sign language comes in handy, because the women wave their hands about, very expressively! The conclusion confirmed that the Bible gives very good responsibilities guidelines for both wives and husbands.

I was interviewed in French with much cheering and applause!! The 2 and half hours ended with cocktails! Which were, in fact, bottles of coke/lemonade etc. And a rather dry bun!!!

If my surgeon could see me negotiating several miles of rutted, pot-holed paths, he would have a fit! Waiting for an arthroscopy on my ankle I am supposed to be careful! I think the offending debris, which causes my ankle to lock painfully, gets so jiggled about that it doesn’t have time to lock!! It’s a daily occurrence at home, but so far it hasn’t happened here!!

Thank you so much for the personal Emails from our family and friends, as well as the Blog messages. It is difficult to Email back to all the personal ones in the same way at the moment. But please keep us in touch, and we will try to answer some personally eventually!

Take a look back at our previous Blogs, because there should now be some photos attached. My camera is working overtime, as you can well imagine! There are so many wonderful sights and people to photograph, including the most adorable babies on their Mother’s backs! My new Panasonic camera is excellent, and we’ve just found that it can play a slide show in camera, plus accompanying music!

God Bless all.......from Janice [in a continual state of excitement and wonder at this incredible country].

Weekend

Hello again. The weekend routine in Congo is much the same as in the UK; shopping on Saturday morning; relaxing for the rest of the day with a DVD film in the evening.


Saturday morning Janice and I accompanied Nancy and a friend’s daughter to Bunia market for the weekly shop. Shops line the road and are barely 12’ x12’ stacked floor to ceiling with merchandise with just room to get inside. We followed Nancy from shop to shop getting things like a broom, salt, and toilet rolls oh, and palm oil. This was outside a shop in a cut down drum and was put into a plastic bottle which was bought at another stall. The oil, which looks a bit like thin, pale tomato sauce is supplied to the shop in big plastic sacks! Nancy bought rice; a 50 kilo sack which was carried to the car for us, for a fee of course. She bought 2 different types of dried beans which are displayed piled on plastic sheets on the ground. They are measured out in a 5 litre tin piled high and running over; true scriptural measure. The market proper consists of row upon row of permanent roofed wooden stalls selling everything from dress material, which Janice bought, to dried fish, which we didn’t. We did however buy fish which came from the nearby Lake Albert; Nile Perch which are huge! All manner of fruit and vegetables which are grown locally; most of which I recognized although “tree tomatoes” and “cassava” were new to me. The weather was overcast and a little humid; about 26 degrees and we coped quite well. We needed a snooze after lunch. In fact the afternoon routine usually includes a snooze!

Sunday morning dawned clear and bright. After breakfast, which every day consists of a portion of pawpaw with lemon juice, and a plate of warm porridge made with corn meal and soya with a sliced banana on it, Philip took us to the WEC founded church for the service which started at 9.30. The church was constructed with mud walls up to about 6 feet with another 2 feet of wooden lattice for ventilation; the roof was pitched corrugated iron with a bamboo ceiling. The service was in Lingala and Swahili so we relied on Philip to give us the gist of what was going on. During the first hour and a half various groups of people came forward to sing in wonderful African harmony, accompanied by two guitars and a drum made from an old oil drum with a skin stretched across the open top. Folk prayed and read scripture. The pastor preached on Hebrews 3:12-14 Sin’s deceitfulness. This was followed by a communion service during which visitors were welcomed. As visitors we were invited to stay for “tea and bread”, literally BREAD, after communion. In all the service lasted some 4 hours during which time people kept coming and going. I suppose there must have been about 100 people in all. The clear sky has meant that the temperature today rose to about 30 degrees and it is still 22 degrees and quite humid at 11.30 pm. So far we have only had two rain showers, one of which was thundery. It is coming to the end of the rainy season here.

God’s blessing on you all.

Getting Started

It is now Friday 5th March and we haven’t had the right combination of TIME, ELECTRICITY, and INTERNET connection to update our Blog! Life is not as we know it in the UK! At the moment I am typing, but will have to wait to send…whenever later today! Maybe soon, maybe not!


Our B.A. flight was good; the 13 hours at Entebbe Airport was ‘interesting’!! And the MAF flight to Bunia was amazing in a VERY small Cessna [1 pilot and 4 passengers!]. And it’s the first time we’ve flown with a pilot who said “I’ll just say a prayer before we take off”….no panic! Then 1 hour 15 minutes over incredible views of lakes, rivers, swamps and forests. Dr. Nancy met us, and helped us get a fairly speedy form filling completed in the immigration office.

The 15 minute drive in their 4x4 Land Cruiser immediately introduced us to DR Congo’s pot-holed dirt/mud roads! Pot-holes? Craters and deep ruts! It’s like being in an unevenly balanced tumble drier! The seat belts barely hold you down! And we were also immediately in the heart of REAL Africa! It is amazing!

The house is like an old colonial style ranch with a verandah, and surrounded by high bamboo fencing. The facilities are basic, but warm and welcoming. Power is very limited, and it is ‘shut down’ around 9 pm, so off to bed! Up at 6am, breakfast at 6.30 and out to the Nursing College, Clinic or Hospital at 7.15am!

Today we were taken to the large Brethren Church at 7.30 for a Nursing Students’ Service [Approx 240 students there]. Prayers, Ministry, and amazing, beautiful and emotional African singing by the congregation and various groups of students. We were also introduced and welcomed with cheering and applause!

We then went to the Nursing College, where Nancy was teaching a class of about 120 students, in a very hot and small classroom [Our U. K. Health and Safety would only allow a quarter of that number!]. We were shown round the whole complex, which is very basic, but in a lovely location! Then John started the process of having discussions to see how he can best assist the staff with their computer systems.

I’ve surprised myself with how much French I can conjure up when necessary! Conversing with the Wood’s 3 very jolly Domestic Staff [cook, cleaner/laundry and gardener] was hilarious when we were left at home to acclimatize ourselves yesterday! The gardener is also chief ironer! You should see the immaculate shirts etc. under his expert hands with the red hot charcoal embers in the open topped iron!

We will be in touch with more news and experiences soon, but bear with us if it isn’t as regular as hoped! Daily can be a problem!

Keep Praying for us, and for all the wonderful and dedicated work we are discovering here with Nancy and Philip and their Medical staff.

Janice.

Here we go!!!

The time for us to leave Uxbridge approaches!!
We had the opportunity to tell our church about our trip on Sunday the 21st. And we were given a good send off yesterday, Sunday 28th. They have a DR Congo flag on display to remind them to pray for us!!
Our cases are packed with the exception of the few items we will need in the morning. We have checked in on line and chosen our seats!! Isn’t technology wonderful when it works? Neighbours have been told, our son Peter, who lives with us, has been briefed and our son, Tim, who lives locally, will be picking us up at about 8.00am tomorrow to take us to Heathrow for our 10.45am flight to Entebbe, Uganda. We arrive there at 8.10 pm local time and will be spending the night in the airport lounge to save the expense of visas/taxi/hotel. We meet up with MAF at 11.00am Wednesday for the flight into Bunia, DRC which I understand arrives there at about 2.00pm.
The last few weeks have been quite stressful. Janice’s car died on her in our one way system. A guardian angel in the form of a biker got her car off the road and out of danger and then the RAC towed her home. She has managed to order a new car, taking advantage of the scrappage scheme, which she will pick up on our return. She needed a new camera and thought that there was not enough time to do the research and get one. But Tim had already done some research and we were able to go out and buy one with time for her to test it at my older brother’s Diamond Wedding celebration on the 27th.
I look forward to reporting from Bunia next time but that will depend on the power supply and the internet connection!!
God Bless and thank you for your interest and prayers.