After travelling through the forest for 1½ hours on a narrow, winding dirt road, and being cheered and waved at as we passed isolated communities; we found ourselves on a very wide stretch of road and could see a banner across the road with several hundred adults and children waiting to greet us.
The crowds included a brass band and many groups of singers. The music, cheering, clapping and singing was overwhelming!!
We got out of our transport (rather stiffly due to the cramped seating!) and then had to join the middle of the parade which eventually took us to an open air meeting place where we were ushered into “seats of honour”!
The WEC and CECCA16 Centenary Celebrations had started as it meant to continue throughout the next two weeks of the “Prayer Walk”.
Speeches (with interpreters!), chorale singing and bands playing filled about 2 to 3 hours before we were in another parade to our hostel accommodation.
Many of these welcome ceremonies came straight after exciting but long, gruelling journeys. There were no “toilet stops” or drinks/food until the welcome was over! Of course we all carried bottles of water with us at all times!
Our accommodation and food were typically Congolese. The food dishes were varied and tasty with rice, beans, chicken, goat meat and plantain (a type of savoury banana) in various cooked dishes as regulars. Only once did a dish of food give us some worries...................... fried grubs/caterpillars!!! (I tried ONE; John didn’t!). There was usually a supply of delicious, fresh pineapple and bananas and roasted peanuts on the table.
The most basic facility in our Ibambi accommodation was the outside “box long drop” toilet in a hut 60 ft down the garden via an orange coloured dirt path which was either dry and dusty or wet and muddy! Not somewhere for a night trip however desperate! (At least it was not the more common squatting hole in the ground toilet!) We always slept under mosquito nets which was a real necessity.
We did have some lighting in the evenings provided by a generator but unfortunately not in our bedroom or in the shower room (which didn’t have a shower either!!) We had to manage with torchlight!! The lighting was not switched in any way; it was either on everywhere or off!
Thursday 7th February 2013
We were woken at 5am by the drumming of rain on the metal roof! The tropical storm continued for several hours. The grounds were rivers of muddy water. We were not able to walk to the church for the regular 7.15am prayer meeting, but had to wait till after breakfast.
We spent the morning touring the Community, visiting the Bible School. We visited the students in their classrooms and the staff in their offices and heard of, and prayed about the many problems they face.
We toured the student accommodation where many families live in traditional huts made of bamboo and mud, roofed with palm leaves surrounded by garden plots where they grow food. There were chickens and ducks (no water for them to swim!) wandering around freely. Each hut has a smaller, well ventilated hut beside it for cooking!
Thus began a pattern that was to be repeated in all the areas we visited:-
The unwillingness of the Congolese Government to pay for schools or teachers etc; it being left to the churches to provide to provide primary and secondary education; insufficient funds for teaching materials, desks or repairing or replacing the buildings. Termites destroy the traditional bamboo and mud buildings in 2 to 3 years. Brick buildings are better but many are old and in desperate need of repair. Money is so scarce that it isn’t possible to keep up with minor let alone major repairs.
The cheerfulness of the Congolese people, despite the poverty and hardship, the tremendous faith that God will provide the answer to their needs; their optimism, hard working attitude and generosity are humbling to experience.
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