More news from Bunia

Greetings from Bunia:


Wednesday 27th 10.00am

Greetings to you all.

I will take the initiative today and write the first part of the Blog!

I am writing this in the office while the library laptop is being scanned and another antivirus programme is being downloaded (when the power is on)! Who says that men can’t multitask!

I have spent most of my working time at the college so far trying to clean the main desk top computer and the lap top which is destined for the library, of some rather nasty clever viruses. Whatever else they do I don’t know but they take up so much of the computer’s processing power that there is only 1 or 2 % left for real work and they also have the ability to block attempts to remove them. On top of that the power supply has been so intermittent that the desk top machine crashes, sometimes every 2 or 3 minutes, when the voltage drops or goes off altogether. Dr Philip has suggested that we purchase a 12v Car type battery and a charged and a 110volt “inverter” to run the desk top machine. This will act a UPS and stop the computer crashing. For the uninitiated, an inverter takes 12v DC from the battery and converts it into 110V AC and a UPS is an “Uninterruptable Power Supply”. We hope to be able to make this purchase on Saturday morning before we go to the market for the weekly shop. Please pray that all will go to plan.

Back at home we had no mains electricity all day yesterday and suddenly it comes on at about midnight!! The light on the veranda, which had been left switched on, was shining in onto my face. So I got up to switch it off only to find Dr Nancy also up. She was filling two “Thermos” flasks with hot water from a kettle, the kettle having been left on the electric cooker with the switch on just in case we should have power in the night!! This ensures there is hot water for drinks in the morning.

The power was off by the time I got up and so was the water. There was only a rusty sludge coming from the tap as I went for my morning wash! Fortunately there is always a supply in the kitchen in plastic cans mainly to be passed through the filtration system for drinking water but available for other uses if necessary.

Dr. Nancy was at the hospital first thing this morning so arranged for me to be picked up by the college Director General, who sent a driver in his spare car. I think Janice has told you about it. To say that the windscreen is cracked is the biggest understatement of the year! I must try and get a photo of it for you. The car creaks and groans as it “bottoms out” over the ruts in the road and there is a worrying smell of hot oil around the outside!! A definite MOT failure with no hope for a retest!!! Having said that, the young driver was very cautious and careful, picking his way along the road to take the least rutted path irrespective of which side of the road that was!

We arrived at the college in time for morning prayers. I like to sit with them, although not understanding what is read or said. Sometimes they will sing to a tune I recognise and I try to recall the English words. This is a little easier if they sing in French! It is good to know that they are sharing THE WORD and having fellowship together before starting the day’s work. But this morning, as the talk began, I was passed an English Bible opened at 1 Corinthians 15.58. “So then, my dear friends stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.” This was just the encouragement I needed, as, in my wakeful moments last night I was getting very despondent at achieving none of what I had planned! This morning we also had an encouraging Email from Maud Kells who is a WEC Congo missionary on furlough who has read our Blog. We certainly need your prayers, without which we WILL achieve nothing.

Now for the Englishmen’s favourite topic: the weather. Really it’s hard to imagine that we are only 100 or so miles north of the equator. The daytime temperature is about 26C and the night about 19C. Being the rainy season there is plenty of cloud about during the day which keeps the temperature down as the sun is very powerful. The rainy season is from September to May and we understand that the last two weeks have been as “rainy as it gets”! The rain is not every day and when it does rain it’s pretty heavy as the picture in the last Blog shows. The showers are usually short lived, an hour is about usual. We did have several hours the other day though, which left the roads in a mess.

Friday 29th 10.00am

Friday always starts well as it starts with the Students Service at 7.30am. This morning I was on my own as Janice has a Hospital morning with DR Nancy this morning. I am sure she will have some stories to relate as a result. It is great to part of the students worship once again. The choral singing was very moving and although it seems to be so informal, starting with one person singing in the congregation then others joining in and walking to the front still singing; it was obviously prearranged and rehearsed as those who came forward were dressed similarly!

As Dr Nancy was at the hospital The Dir. General, Mele, was my chauffer this morning driving the MOT failure! On the way from the church to the college I had another new experience; a police road block. The physical block was length of timber with 6” nails sticking out of it placed across the road. Pass at your peril. Apparently they were checking insurance and believe it or not the MOT failure is also uninsured! The result was an additional passenger, a policeman, to the college to ensure their instructions are carried out. Mele has now gone off with the policeman to get insurance cover.



I had almost given up on my old laptop which has now developed the dreaded blue screen but one last attempt just before lunch and we now have a clean machine! Software reinstalled and waiting to update the antivirus from the internet on Monday.

Today was supposed to be the day we were collecting 210 Swahili Bibles from Shalom University. We arrived there at 16.00 as arranged to find that the key holder had gone home early. No one had thought to tell him we were coming. So now 14.00 tomorrow, Saturday, is the time. I hope we succeed as we are going to Nyankunde on Sunday and want to take a box for the Bible College there.

God’s richest blessing on you all.

John.

Greetings and news now from Janice:-

It hardly seems possible that we’ve been here for 2 weeks now.....halfway through our visit!

On Thursday morning Nancy asked if I would do some more labelling of tins and jars in the kitchen store......I clearly labelled a lot for her in March, but this time I had come with a lot of adhesive labels ready for such requests at the home or Hospital. It makes it far easier to pick out a tin when the electricity is off!!. I then went out with Marguerite to do some shopping in 2 local markets. We were out walking for an hour and a half in glorious sunshine 27 degrees plus [ sorry, I know it’s been very much cooler in UK!!]. These markets are much more ‘rustic’ than the main Saturday one. The pathways between the little stalls are almost like ‘mountaineering’, they are on such uneven rough ground! My ankle stood up to it all, amazingly! And of course it was great fun!



Friday morning...today 29th....dawned really hot. At 7.15am I went to the Hospital with Nancy, and accompanied her on her ward rounds. She checked on many sick children and women; some extremely sad cases of Aids and Diabetes, and a young woman who was unconscious after a severe stroke. Mavis Swallow had knitted some cute little teddy bears, and I gave out at least 6 to sick children today....They and their Mums were thrilled, and of course these children rarely have toys of any kind, so they look quite curiously at such gifts! The Maternity wards were full of adorable babies and proud Mothers. Guess what?...I took loads of photos! The Mums are thrilled to have their babies photographed. The Unit didn’t have any prem. babies today, so there were none to wear the gifts of tiny hats and cardigans knitted by Sue Burns and friends of Audrey Watts.

A nasty road accident case was brought in while I was at the Hospital...an 8 year old boy with a very severely fractured leg of both femur and open wound tibia. I watched Dr Philip operating on it... What incredible skill!

MANY thanks to all family and friends who sent Emails and Texts this week. It was great to have news My mobile connection is suddenly playing up today, so I can’t be certain of if and when it works!

The lights have all gone off, so on battery power now.8.30pm. I don’t think this Blog will be sent this evening....who knows! But I will wish you all ‘Good Night and God Bless’....and sign off! Oh, there is light....but like dim candle level!

Janice.

Greetings from Bunia: Tuesday 26th October 2010

We haven’t been able to check our Emails since Sunday due to lack of electric power etc, so I can’t acknowledge any yet! Poor John and other college staff have also had problems with their computer work. John will give details on that. I am typing again in readiness for an Internet slot....hopefully with photos this time.

Yesterday morning I completed the next Flannelgraph set which is for the School for the Deaf here in Bunia.....” L’ecole poor les enfants sourd”......! [ My French is expanding!].

At 9.15 am today the Director and another teacher came for their lesson. Oh, how I valued my sign language knowledge because, although limited, it was my lifeline for today’s teaching! The Director only spoke French and sign language; the young lady teacher was profoundly deaf, so could only sign! So, English wasn’t much help!! However, with my basic French plus signing we all communicated, and they were soon able to understand the flannelgraph idea. We had a lot of laughter, and over coffee they were both intrigued with comparing our British Signing compared with their American method. We practiced with each other and had an enthusiastic and fun time signing in both styles and being amused by some of the differences! I was able to give them copies of various diagrams of the British signs [from my past lessons with friend Mary Cripps!], which they were keen to learn. They were thrilled to take the Teaching Flannelgraphs back to the school. There are no books of Bible story pictures, so this will ‘bring the stories alive’ in their Religious Study lessons. I hope to visit the school soon.

All the medical items, which were donated by friends, have been gratefully received. Absolutely everything is useful and needed. The toothpaste and brushes are going to the Deaf school when Dr Nancy will be giving a Hygiene lesson!

We hope to collect the Swahili Bibles on Friday, and some of these will be taken on our proposed visit to Nyankunde on Sunday where there is the Bible College and a Hospital. This will be an interesting visit to the area where Nancy and Philip were until the 2002/3 wars caused them to flee following the slaughter of many patients and staff and destruction of the Hospital and their home. Nyankunde is an hour’s journey from here......on those rutted and bumpy mud roads! We will write about the trip in our next Blog news.

Greetings and God bless all friends and family,

Janice.

Greetings from Bunia.....Sunday 24th October.

It is 4.40pm and it has just stopped raining after an hour’s storm! We were just about to set off for a half hour’s walk across country to visit a little family when the thunder and rain began! It was fortunate we hadn’t already set off! It was sunny and hot when we went to Church this morning, and there were even more in the Service than last week’s 1,300. The Male Voice Chorale was a joy to listen to, as always!

No electricity again, but I’m starting to type on battery power, ready for a Blog to be sent whenever we next get power and Internet! Our last diary account went out on Thursday evening. We haven’t been able to check since yesterday if we have any more comments on the Blog system, or any other Emails; but we do hope to get ‘home news’ from friends and family.

Friday morning at the 7.30am Student Nurses weekly pre-College Service we had difficulty hearing speakers, due to yet another rain storm! The locals said it was BIG rain, and it was! It battered deafeningly on the corrugated iron roof! However, the lively Swahili singing could be heard OK!

I was brought back home after the service to prepare for my afternoon teaching session, while John was driven to the College to continue his work there.

The flannelgraph teaching session went well. Jeanine[the Sunday School teacher] and Marca[ the Oicha Deaf School Director]were amazed when they saw the materials. Marca’s English was good, so it helped me to explain everything with my minimal French and Jeanine’s minimal English! We had an enjoyable 3 hours, and they soon got to grips with making the picture stories; with much laughter too! How’s this for dedication and keenness to help the deaf children.......Marca travelled over 6 hours by bus [ that means very old coach!] from Oicha for these lessons, and then another 6 hours back on Saturday morning, happily taking a set of the Bible Story material with him, eager to show the other teachers and children this super way of visual teaching.

The first Deaf School was started in Oicha 5 years ago, and there are now 5 schools. I will be teaching at the Bunia school next week. It is so sad to know that Marca and others often have a difficult time persuading parents to let their deaf children be educated! It is like the time many years ago in UK when the profoundly deaf were often considered to be ‘stupid’ and would never be able to communicate, be educated or work. Some Congolese say “it’s no point him/her going to school...it’s not worth it”. The next step here, is trying to provide a residential school.

Marca was amazed to see our hearing aids.....and to know that we can get them for free. Even if hearing aids were available here, no-one could afford them. We can forget just how very blessed WE are! Here they pay for schooling, medical care, hospitalisation.......IF they can!

Saturday morning was hot and sunny for our weekly Market shopping....it really is a fun experience! One amusing incident this Saturday: - Nancy chooses fish at the stalls, looking for the freshest etc. As we were leaving after our fish purchasing, a woman called out, quite aggressively, to Nancy “You didn’t buy any of MY fish today, so I won’t have anything to put into the collection tomorrow!”

The Saturday evening Doctors meal and ‘English speaking’ was interesting!! It was on Childbirth and all the medical problems imaginable......gory bits and all! The senior midwife was also here, and I gave her the first bundles of premature baby cardigans and hats. She was thrilled.

All from me for now......hoping to hear from some of you......over to John later.

Janice.

Hi Everyone!!!

It was good to meet with the students for worship at 7.30 on Friday morning and despite the lack of understanding of what was being said and sung and no one to interpret for us the atmosphere of worship seemed to bypass the understanding and go straight to the heart!

In the last Blog posting I told you a little of the problems I was encountering at the College. I found software to remove the Worms which I had identified and having spent an hour and a half downloading it I found that the download was free but to remove the Worm was not free!! All day Friday the power supply was very erratic and in the afternoon it cut-out about 4 times midway through scans of the computer, resulting in idle time and a restart when the power was on again. On Monday we intend to move the computer so that it can access the internet directly – that might help a little as the cleanup programmes seem to want to be updated with the latest data on viruses etc over the internet before running. Please pray for continuous power on Monday!!

There are no pictures today as our internet connection, which is wireless to the MAF compound and then via satellite, is very slow this evening we think because of the stormy weather which us in this afternoon.

God’s Blessing on you all.

John

Greetings from Bunia.....Thursday 21st October.

Dear All.

It hasn’t been possible to get onto the Internet for more than a few minutes in the last 3 days. Apart from everyone being busy, we haven’t had any mains electricity in the house for all Tuesday and most of Wednesday, and none so far today!! John also had problems at the college.

A big tropical storm yesterday afternoon also made the light indoors very dark, and I had to resort to using my ‘headlight’ to continue cutting out and cataloguing the hundreds of flannelgraph characters. These Betty Lucan sets are wonderful and very detailed, and I’m sure the children will love this teaching method, but it will take a lot of organising on the teacher’s part......and I gather the Congolese are not the most organised people! I’m giving the first demonstrations tomorrow to the Director of the Congo Deaf schools, and to the local Sunday school teacher in the French Church. Next week I will demonstrate at the local Deaf School.

Dr Nancy has recovered from her Malaria attack, and I think we will soon be taken to the Shalom University to collect the Swahili Bibles and then discuss the distribution system.

There will also be visits to the Hospital and the new Maternity Unit which was being built when we were here in March. Supplies of the beautifully knitted premature baby cardigans and hats which we brought with us will be taken to them. I hope to get some photos of babies wearing them later on.

This afternoon Nancy and I went to one of the MAF homes to attend a ‘Baby Shower Party’. I had met the mother-to-be in March. She is married to an MAF pilot.

Moses, the gardener, has worked wonders in the garden here since March. We are eating a lot of home grown salads and vegetables. There are also Banana, Papaya and Avocado trees. Moses stands on a shaky corrugated shed roof, holding a 15ft. pole with a knife attached, and slices huge Avocados from high branches!! They fall on the roof with a resounding ‘bong’!!

Over to John now.......

Janice.

Good Evening all.

There has not been much for me to tell up to now. Entering, or rather “importing” book details into a database is not very exciting and doesn’t give one much to tell.

I have been walking to and from the college more as Nancy has been housebound. Three 20 minute walks per day is much more exercise than I am used to but I enjoy it even though one has to watch every step for stones and gullies in the path or road in case you stumble. You also have to be aware of the motorbikes coasting downhill from behind – all you hear is the squeaking suspension!! They take great delight in passing as near to you as possible!

The excitement at work started yesterday afternoon when one of the young men, who was having trouble printing a document from his desktop machine asked to borrow the laptop which will be dedicated to library work to try to print the document. I arrived this morning to find that he had unnecessarily loaded software on to it and with that, viruses which crashed the machine. My data is still there but it will take some work to access it. I will probably bring the laptop home and work on it over the weekend. I identified two “Worms” or something similar on the offending desktop which were consuming all the processing power, leaving so little that there was nothing left for normal work. Another problem was trying to run anti malware software on a machine that is not connected to the internet. They would not let you proceed without updating their databases on the internet!! I left a scan running this evening which I trust will find and destroy the worms or whatever they are!! I think my priority tomorrow (Friday) will be ensuring the machine is clear of viruses and unnecessary files.

We really do appreciate your interest and covet your prayers!

John.

Sunday and the First day at work

Hello again from Bunia!


Sunday was a very full day, and a very hot one at 30+ degrees!

We went to the 10 o’clock Morning service at the large French Church. Hundreds of folk were pouring out of the earlier Service when we arrived; then we were packed with about 1,300 men, women and children for our 2 and a quarter hour Service! It was the usual dynamic time of singing by the congregation and several choirs; welcoming visitors, where a microphone is passed round to say who you are and where you’ve come from, and why you are in Bunia. Many were cheered and applauded, especially the many students who were here from N.DR Congo ready to start the new academic year which starts this week.

We quietly melted in the heat, but didn’t fall asleep during the Pastor’s long and animated sermon on the whole of Ephesians chapter 3...!!

We were enthusiastically welcomed and greeted by folk we had met in March.

At 4pm we were invited for a meal at the home of Jonathan and Jeanine. Their 5 yr old daughter was thrilled with the baby doll we’d brought for her; and the 7 and 9 yr old boys whooped with delight at the small motor bike toys! The 5 teenage nephews / orphaned friends were grateful for gifts of biros and exercise books as they started back at school and college the next day.

We will be spending some of the donated money gifts on more pens and books, because many school and college students can’t afford them. What to us costs very little money here, is often unaffordable to them, on top of the struggle to pay school fees for juniors and seniors. And for many families it is impossible to afford schooling at all. They would not comprehend our free education systems!

Dr Philip drove us to the Nursing College this morning......at 7.15am!! Nancy had to rest today because she’s had a mild dose of malaria for the last couple of days. Despite daily Malaria tablets and insect repellent vigilantly applied, it is still possible to get malaria symptoms. This is Nancy’s first attack for over 2 years, and she hopes to feel better very soon.

We had a 5 hour working morning before returning home for lunch! John went back to the College in the afternoon, but I stayed at home and got stuck into cutting out and filing the hundreds of Teaching Flannelgraph characters and scenes. Teaching people how to use them will come later!

John’s Library Programme has been excitedly well received; and there is a new admin. young man who speaks very good English as well as being very computer literate. So John has an excellent assistant [ David] to help set up the complicated Library records system [in French, of course!]. David had already listed 500 of the Medical book titles to give us a good start. It is good to know that once John has set up the whole system, there will be a competent person to use it! My shelf labelling of categories will come later.

The biggest and most welcome surprise was to find that the College now has Internet access!! This is rented from M.A.F. in the same way that Internet comes to Doctor Woods’ house.

John says, no-one will read this if I write too much!! So, sorry if you’ve fallen asleep at your computer!

Greetings to all,

Janice and John.

PS Have added a picture to the previous posting!

Arrival & First Day in Bunia

Hello to everyone,

We arrived safely in Bunia, DR Congo at 1pm yesterday [Friday 14th Oct]. Tim drove us to Heathrow on Thursday evening, and our journey was trouble free with excellent B.A and MAF flights. Dr Nancy met us at Bunia airport just after we had been interviewed and cleared very quickly and without customs being at all interested in our 8 items of luggage. We were then surprised to find that we didn’t have to fill in any lengthy forms or pay an entry fee this time! We learned it is because it isn’t our first visit! We were passed through with a smile and thumbs up!

The weather was hot and sunny with 30 degrees temp.

The Domestic staff at the Doctors’ house greeted us with cheers and hugs, and 2 of the Nursing College Directors called in to give us another welcome.

We were given a free early morning at home today, while Nancy went off to do her Hospital ward rounds at 6.30 am!

Later, we all set off to the Market for the weekly shopping which is always an exciting experience! After lunch and a siesta it was then time to get ready for the ‘English Club evening’ when the young Doctors come for a meal, followed by a Medical Presentation via Philip’s Laptop, where they have to discuss everything in English. This evening the subject was ‘Surgery’!

Tomorrow we will be going to Church in the morning, and then we are invited to an evening meal at the home of one of the College Directors. It will be lovely to meet Jonathan’s family again.

Work at the College will start on Monday morning at about 8am. John will be checking on the previous Nurses records programmes that he set up in March, and we will then find out what is needed to be done in their library. Cataloguing and labelling will no doubt start in earnest after that!!

We already feel very at home in Bunia, almost as if we have never been away!

Thank you for your prayers and interest,

Janice and John.

Ready for the OFF!!

Dear all,
3.30pm Thursday 14th October 2010. Just two and a half hours before we leave home for our second visit to the DR Congo this year!
There is just time to reactivate our blog before John packs up his laptop for the journey.

Preparation and packing has gone very smoothly and unhurriedly which has been a great blessing.  We have 5 pieces of hold baggage and 3 pieces of hand luggage which is well within our limit of 6 pieces of hold baggage and 4 pieces of hand luggage.  Two of the cases are Philip and Nancy's as they were over their allowance of 12 pieces of hold baggage!! How different to charter flights!!  We have 1 case of "mission" items which consists of baby clothes, medical supplies, toothpaste and brushes, a calculator, some AA and AAA batteries and some battery LED lights.  What an assortment!!

Last evening John had an Email from Nancy to see if John could get 2 printer cables which were urgently needed.  He was able to reserve then on line at Argos last night and picked them up this morning.  Mission accomplished!!! 

We made known the need  for Bibles to be made available to the Congolese, particularly Bible students, who could not afford to buy them and have been amazed at the response from our friends who have given us £1200 to use, mostly for Bibles but some for other needs which we become aware of.  There is a supply of Swahili Bibles in Bunia and we have been told that we can have as many as we want!!  There is also a need for Lingala Bibles at the WEC founded church in Isiro, about 600 km from Bunia.  We are exploring how best that need can be met.  We will keep you posted.  

A big "Thank You" to all who have been praying, and will be praying for us over the next month.  We really do  appreciate it and need it.

Love     Janice & John