It’s been an interesting couple of days here in Kinshasa. The offices of HOPE here are two old apartments on an old Baptist mission compound. The supposed first ever Protestant church in Kinshasa is across the street, but that’s beside the point. The water here at the office comes pretty rarely lately. The staff generally keeps the faucet open in the bathtubs to collect water for hand washing and for operating the toilets. Well the night before last the water must have come on with a vengeance. We came in yesterday to find one of the two offices flooded out. The hallway was a lake, not quite deep enough to swim in, but deep enough. We all rolled up our sleeves and swept, scraped, bailed that water out. The office below us got some of it too, but for now at least relations seem OK. We’re now making sure that the faucet is off when we leave - it takes some diligence since the faucet looks just the same on or off when the water isn’t on. It was a frustrating hour, but it was great to see the level of teamwork that got the office dried out and got us all back to work.
Last night we had a celebration dinner since Lee is leaving to go back to Pennsylavania. He did some souvenir shopping at the Mennonite Store and he’s taking back some samples for the 10,000 villages program. They have some beautiful things that are very high quality there at the store. We walked around the block to a roasted chicken restaurant that served some of the best chicken I have ever tasted. Anyone who comes out here to visit will get a taste, on me. We’re talking good. They spice it just right. There were some very talented musicians busking in the restaurant. Their songs are mostly in Lingala and Kiswahili, but then they had to break out into La Bamba for us foreigners and I think they’d have just kept singing it until we tipped them. La Bamba Kinshasa style.
This morning we awoke to see that the tire on our jeep was flat. We spent a good bit of time figuring out how to get the jack to raise it high enough and then how to get the wheel off when it was pretty stuck. There were some twists and turns and with the help of HOPE’s driver, the tire was changed out. You just never know what adventure will arise next.
Brain:
Your stories make me remember my time in Africa and make me wish I was back there. I will spend the rest of this day thinking of you and of Africa and hoping that I can be there with you both some day, even if it is just for a short time. Peace to you and your house.
Jeff