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