Glo and Friends in Sanga Mamba

What it is we are actually doing...

OK folks you asked for it, well at least one person asked for it.  We recently received an email from a friend and eager recipient of details about what we were REALLY doing here, and I quote “You have talked about the food, the traffic, your apartment, learning the local dialect, but so far not a single word about your missionary work, which is why you are there. Are you building houses, digging wells, teaching classes, helping at a clinic, passing out condoms or toothbrushes,.... or what? Also, no mention of the other missionaries or what they are doing, or of the local Mormon branch members. How are you
spending your time?”

So first I will explain a few things.   It has been told to us by other missionaries from our church that when a senior couple arrive in a developing country they are generally given the first month just to acclimate, to get used to the time zone, food, water, culture and people.   Not the case with us, we arrived on Saturday, January 11^th at about 9 p.m.  We were met by two other couples brought to our apartment arriving at about 11 p.m. (2 p.m. Pacific Time) we were up and going to church the following morning whereupon arrival at church we were asked to speak.  SPEAK????  These people only understand French.   But fortunately Ro translated for me.   After church the couple that we were replacing and due to depart on the upcoming Thursday, began our “training”  Now, those of you who know me well know my biggest challenge in all my years of travel was jet lag.   I was on another planet.

So from Sunday afternoon until Thursday morning we were inundated with information, meeting people, and exhausted.   After the previous couple left we tried to make heads or tails of what we had been told and decided we would reorganize our office to better suit our management styles.  The following Wednesday the supervising humanitarian services couple over all of SE African countries arrived and pretty much said, “all systems are changing, so don’t really worry about what you have previously been told”.   HA!   Then they proceed to pour information into our brains.  All the while all associates in the building where our office is, affectionately called the TA building or Service Center (don’t ask where the TA came from) paid social calls, it was great to meet them, but all of these beautiful African people (most of them male) came wearing huge smiles, dressed in white shirts, ties, black pants, and extremely closely cropped hair if any.  Missionaries wear name badges, associates in this building in Finance, IT, distribution, administration and numerous offices do not wear badges and they ALL have very long names containing mostly consonants.

By the way, if you are expecting this blog to resemble my travel columns, think again.  I will be pounding out information as fast as my fingers can type no edits and I haven’t yet found spell check on this computer.   

All the while we were being warmly welcomed by the other missionary couples who reside in our building.  They are as follows:

Mark and Elaine Smith from Utah-Perpetual Education Fund.  Our church offers financing to young people in developing countries who have served as missionaries, return home to impoverished conditions with no hope for education.  In a nutshell the young person can get an education, return to their village or community and help their community to grow and yes, pay back the financing at a low interest rate after they are employed or start a business. 

Howard and Sue Bybee from Utah- Public Affairs.  They pave the way for good relationships within the country, work with the media and spread goodwill.  I really need to know more about what they do. They had been away for 3 months in another part of the country helping out and we are just getting to know them.

Roy and Kathleen Sneddon also from Utah.  Office couple.  They maintain the Mission President’s office and some of the finances.  Again, I really don’t know what all their duties are but I do know they are 79 and 80 years old, they are pistols, run every morning and have raised 11 children.  Amazing people.

Ed and Kriss Gates from California.  They teach construction.  Well Ed does and I think Kriss does the books.  Ed goes to work on the job every day working with local men teaching them how to work in construction. 

They are all great fun people, we have all gotten together on several occasions socially, but they are  as busy as we are, so when we get together for fun we don’t spend a lot of time talking about what we did all day, we are all ready for diversion. 

So now, what are WE going to work on?  No we are not passing out toothbrushes nor condoms.   Our philosophy is that we help people to help themselves with supplies so they can develop a sustainable situation in their personal lives or community.     Example, we, (the church and previous couple) were instrumental in a huge massive, over 100 acre garden plot where people who were serious about learning how to grow and willing to maintain gardens for food to feed their families.   We provided seeds, tools and water systems for them.  It is gorgeous.  These people work very hard and take pride in their little plot of land. 

Just this last Saturday we visited a village and meet with a water committee from in the village.  They have 6 hand water pumps that we have provided for them.  They are to maintain the pumps and protect them from vandals and keep the area around pumps safe and clean.  What a lovely group of people who are taking very good care of their pumps. 

These are just two examples of projects that we have visited to see how they are functioning, some are functioning better than others, we determine what we can do to help those that are not doing as well and what new projects can we initiate. 

How do we decide which projects to initiate?  Some are already in place for later in this year.  We have several shipments of wheel chairs coming from China.  We don’t just go out and start allocating wheel chairs.  It needs to be determined if a person could afford to buy one themselves, if so they would not qualify for one of ours.  Then we bring in doctors and physical therapists from the USA to determine the type and size of wheel chair needed by a person requesting one.   One might think that any wheel chair is better than no wheel chair but that is not the case.  If a wheel chair does not fit a person correctly they can develop pressure sores that can result in worse problems even death.  Many details have to be considered before a technical person assembles the chair and the physical therapists work with the recipient.

We have a neo-natal resuscitation program coming up in the spring we need to prepare for.  Again we bring in doctors from the USA who work with local doctors, mid-wives, and nurses to teach them how to resuscitate babies who are born not breathing. 

We also have an immunization program coming up in the spring.  We are currently meeting with other organizations that we have partnered with in the past, UNICEF, World Vision, Catholic Charities, World Bank, plus meeting with dozens of other organizations who might want to partner with us financially on these projects.    But again, we have to ascertain, especially on well and latrine projects just how sustainable the project could be.  We don’t just run around handing out money, we want the recipients to be self sustaining.  At this moment we have some sewing machines that we plan to distribute to groups of women who have projects that will generate a living for them.  Every potential project has to be evaluated carefully as we are responsible for millions of church dollars which means many reports to be filed each month. 

So, if you have survived reading all this please know I have just given you a brief outline of what we are working on.  In a country of nearly 80 million people, most of them in dire circumstances, there are hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, schools, villages who are vying for help with clean water, eye glasses, food, hygiene issues, breathing babies, immunizations, cottage industries etc.

We do not just tend to our church members, we are here to help any and all.  But life in Africa and especially the Congo is very different than it is in the USA.  EVERYTHING is difficult.  We live about a 15 minute drive from our office, on a good day, we make it in 20-30 minutes and sometimes it takes 45 minutes or more.  Traffic is insane, that is the only way I can describe it.  Ro is a champ; there is no way I would even consider driving.  The Congolese people function on a very different schedule.  If you have an appointment with someone at 10 a.m. it might happen then but probably not until 10:30, or 1 or 2 p.m.   This is who they are, this is how they live, and it isn’t up to us to change their culture.  Meanwhile we never know if/when the power will go off in our apartment or office or the internet will go down, nor do we know when it will come back up again.  In Africa there is a saying, “TIA” (This is Africa).  Rarely does plan A work and we have to always be prepared to go to plan B, C, or quite possibly Z. 

Ro made his first trip to the bank on Friday.  A simple task to be done that would take exactly 5 minutes in a USA bank.  He had to see six different people, to do the transaction and was gone for 2.5 hours.  All the while with a “body guard”.  Mundele (white face) shouldn’t be leaving the bank with cash in hand without a local person right by their side.

We have some tremendous helpers.   We have two translators Felix and Fils.  They are both local men in their 30’s.  They are excellent with English as they served missions in Uganda which is an English speaking country.   Ro is of course fluent in French but I am not and so while he is negotiating with locals one of our translators is keeping me up to speed.  Plus often locals will lapse into Lingala or some other tribal language and they translate.  I am partial to Felix as we have worked with him the most.

We have four site monitors we work with. Their job is to be on site of water projects all during the construction stage to be sure everything is going as it should be and to report to us all details.  After a project is finished they monitor it once a week for a year to be sure it is being sustained and maintained by the local people as agreed upon.  Again, reporting to us.   We in turn report to our area offices in Johannesburg and they report to our church humanitarian offices in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Our site monitors are Eric, Jordao, Walter and Eddy.  Now all of these 6 men have names that are not this westernized, that is what they want us to call them, thankfully.   We LOVE Eddy, he is a really hard worker and fine fine man.  His picture is somewhere on our blog as is Felix’s.  Each one of these young men have endured hardships that none of us can even imagine.  They are all LDS and return missionaries from various countries. Most speak only French and tribal languages.    They have not personally told us their trials, they are very confidential and keep personal things to themselves, but we have been made aware of such things as, having witnessed their family members being shot during wars, sisters raped, babies taken from their arms never to be seen again, homes burned, imprisoned on false accusations.  (Our US prisons are a vacation compared to the ones here)  The list goes on and on.  I love these young men, they are absolutely precious.   The site monitors and translators are independent contractors who work for us and are paid by the program.  I think they are starting to get used to my quirkiness.  I feel like I have 6 adopted sons, they love teaching me Lingala and we share some great laughs.  Speaking of which, laughing is very important here because life is so difficult and subject to change in a minute so we laugh a lot instead of cry.

We are both grateful for this experience. We feel totally safe, and while we work hard every day and fall into bed exhausted every night, we get up and exercise and eat healthy food, I have bread baking in the oven and made a huge batch of granola and my phone just rang it was the Gates couple calling to see if we wanted to come to their apartment for brownies baptized in vanilla ice cream.  The woman is an amazing cook, her carrot cake beats any I have had anywhere hands down.

We have and will continue to give you updates on cultural experiences as well as projects that we are able to get approved to work on.  Feel free to ask questions, we will try to answer them.  We are best located at gloriousideas@hotmail.com.

We are grateful for each of you who write to us, we love getting mail from home, and I try to answer as much as I can.   Our adorable daughters and their families are so good to us; they are taking care of finances for us back home, send pictures of our babies on a regular bases, maintain this blog and send notes of encouragement and support. All the while they are busy mothers and professional women.  We are blessed in all ways.   Whew!!!!  Are you sorry you asked Richard?  And this was the Reader’s Digest version.   J 

Learn Lingala with us!

For those of you checking in for the first time, we have a wonderful language teacher (see previous post) who is teaching us Lingala, the local language.  Learn with us!

English	Lingala	Pronunciation Guide
Good Morning	Mbota	mmmm-bow-tay
How are you?	Oza Malamu	OO ZAH Mah LA  MOO
I am fine.	Naza Malamu	Nah ZAH  Mah LA Moo
Thank you.	Matondi	Mah tone dee

 

Drumbeats from the Congo

Drum beats from the Congo

·         Congo Choir- These people know how to sing!   Whether the hymn is sung with accompaniment or not it is sung with gusto.  Last Sunday in church it was announced that the choir would sing.  I noted that only 3 women and 7 men stood to perform.   I was sure it would be a humble rendering.  Ummmmm  well, I will put it this way, those folks could give competition to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.   WOW….what a treat.  The piece was “ I Believe in  Christ” done to perfection.   Loved it.

·         Mops-  All floors in our apartment are tile.  Looking in the “utility” closet I found nothing with which to mop the floor.  There was a squeegee looking type thing, but , “could they possibly mop the floor with a squeegee?”  “I don’t think so”.  Down on all fours I go, (Ro vacuumed so don’t worry he is doing his part)  Then while at a restaurant I noticed a young woman “mopping the floors”  Yup with a squeegee thing just like I have in my apartment.  A bucket of water, a wet chamois draped around the squeegee and a mopping you go.   Aaaaha, I tried it, it works great.   Who needs a mop?  

·         A phone so smart I don’t know how to use it-  We have been issued Samsung smart phones, only we don’t know how to use them.  We will report on that later, if we ever learn that is.

·         Papaya, apple, banana smoothies:  I haven’t ever been that much of a papaya person until now, but when it is fresh and available, OH YUM!  I have to admit though I miss my Oregon blueberry,  and strawberry smoothies.  Plus, I could kill for a handful of walnuts about now.  Anyone coming to the Congo in the near future? 

·         Eric’s wife is about to have a baby, I asked him if he was going to be in the delivery room with her when the baby was born.  The look on his face was stark terror.  When Ro told him he had been with me during the birth of all of our children I  was afraid poor Eric might faint! 

·         Enough to curl my hair?  No I am not referring to the local drivers.  We all know I have stick straight hair, until that is I spend time in Africa.  The humidity level is just the right amount to give me just a touch of curl. 

·         How to pronounce Kinshasa:  Locals are a bit touchy about this so I will make sure you do not commit the error should you ever come to visit..  It is pronounced  Kin SHAW  saw.   It is a finger nails down the black board response when someone pronounces it  Kin Shaw Shaw!   Got it?

·         Thunder and lightening and rain oh my:   Well it is the rainy season here.  I thought that meant that it would rain constantly or almost so each day.   Not really it is more like torrential downpours for an hour or so several times a day.  Hey it is warm rain, who cares,  we are from Oregon we don’t melt.

 

·       I have to say the word PINEAPPLE again.  Picked one up today.  I keep expecting that sometime we will get one that isn’t all that great.  Not yet…… Inexplicably divine! 

Our dear translator Felix

Felix is our absolutely brilliant and wonderful and good clear to his toes translator.   Now since Ro is fluent in French we don't really need a translator but the Church provides him for us and we didn't want to take his job away from him, so he and I hang out a lot and he translates for me.   Plus he knows the culture, which is rather different than Oregon culture, so he gives us lots of good advice.  I had to get his picture in this red shirt.  I like to give him and our project site monitors a bad time about their brilliantly colored shirts, so now it is turning into a contest I think, as to who can show up in the most...um...."cheerful" shirt.  Cute guys, every one.

Glo with her three foot baguette!!!!!!!

Drumbeats from the Congo

·         Bugs- really not too many, we did have one cockroach visit us last night but Astro sent him to a watery grave.   Given this is the tropics, I am surprised at the few number of bugs.

·         Water- All couple missionaries have a water purification system built into our kitchens.  So we can use "dirty" water which doesn't look dirty but it would not be good to drink it.  We use that for showers and handwashing and in a dishpan with soap and a few drops of Clorox to do dishes, then rinse with the purified water.  It really is not a pain in the neck. 

·         We keep our water bottles filled with purified water, or some couples just buy bottled water.  Neither of us have had any intestinal problems. 

·         Produce- while some of it is expensive....very expensive.  Pineapple is not expensive and it is the best I have ever tasted anywhere.  Not too acidic and extremely sweet.  We eat a fair amount of that.  I made an apple papaya smoothie the other morning and it was quite grand.   Plus the bananas are wonderful.   As soon as we bring home any produce we fill our dishpan with "dirty" water (again it looks just fine)  with a few drops of Clorox.  Then we swish our produce around in it for a few seconds and rinse with purified water and put in the refrigerator.  Works just fine, no tummy probs.

·         Fitness-  We have moved the furniture around in our living room which is quite large to create our "fitness center".  We have two exercise mats left here by previous couple.   We brought our P90X DVDs  and we brought exercise bands.  So we are now doing P90X  three times a week !  But tonight we are thrilled because we had dinner with Elder and Sister Snedden from Logan Utah who are 79 and 80 years old have 11 children and are both pistols (office couple)  They run every morning and do free weights they found on the deck of their apartment.  They don't use them all so we brought some home with us and are excited to use them.   The other three mornings we do our run/walk either on the roof of the building or on the square across the street at 6 a.m.

·         White shirts-  All the men missionaries wear shortsleeved white shirts and ties all the time unless we are out on a humanitarian project  or exercising then we dress down somewhat.  The locals refer to us all as the "white shirts".  We of course have our missionary name badges on when we are out in public, so we have to be cautious because we are white/Americans and that says money to all these poverty stricken people and some get desperate enough to do our types harm, so we urged to stay together when we are out and about, like fitness walking/running.  I have never felt unsafe, but have only been here a week but the others say the same thing, we are careful but not hysterical by any means. 

·         Weather- I LOVE THE WARM, MY BONES LOVE THE WARM.  We probably use air conditioning a lot less than many, I am quite comfortable most of the time.  It is a little humid but really not bad, not like New York in July! ugh!   It is summer now and the rainy season but it doesn't rain all the time only huge cloud bursts with lots of thunder and lightening at night and then it stops.  Again, only been here a week,

·         What do we eat-  No we do not eat bugs or worms or anything like that. We eat pretty much the same thing we eat at home.  Lots of fruits and veggies, cereal and bananas for breakfast or a smoothie.  Just made some cheese sandwiches to take to our office tomorrow.