BrianJBecker.com

This morning when I woke up and looked across the river the far bank was completely ensconced in fog, removed from sight.  My first thought upon seeing it, “Ah, the Pacific Ocean.”  It was a good illusion seeing as I am at least one ocean away from the Pacific in any direction.  Just about any ocean is a nice thing, but something about the Pacific feels like home.  It was my neighbor for some eight years in San Diego.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it.

I had a great weekend in Kinshasa with my friends and colleagues there.  I am blessed to enjoy my coworkers so much, those that are here in Kisangani and those that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.  There’s no question that this is not a typical job and the conditions can also present challenges, but I am well supported and in good company.

One highlight of the weekend was shopping for a desk chair and some lamps in Kinshasa with Peter.  Downtown Kinshasa is chaotic to say the least.  The streets are crowded and sometimes flooded.  Construction barriers don’t really exist.  There was one intersection that was an enormous 10-foot-deep pit.  Sometimes they use tree branches stuck in piles of dirt to mark large construction holes in the road.  Sometimes they aren’t marked at all and when the utilities make repairs, they neglect to fill in the holes at all.  But in Kinshasa there is someone who wants to earn a buck leading your car to the right parking space and then someone else who has the right to take another buck for allowing you to park and yet someone else who will guard your car for a buck.  We made it into one store with a decent chair selection and there were about four men who’d come in with us and were negotiating prices even though they didn’t work there.  I told the mama who was in charge of the place to chase them out before we could begin haggling.  She managed to do it and I had a great time dickering with her over the inflated price of the chair.  In the end Peter didn’t buy it, but I didn’t care because I’d had so much fun in the process.

Another highlight was meeting our brand new intern Omo.  She’s just cool and she has a great attitude.  She’s from Nigeria and she’s lived in France and the USA.  She’s currently studying in Washington, DC.  She rounded out our foosball competition, two on a side.  I don’t know if I have ever had as much fun playing foosball as I did on Saturday night with those three and that homemade African foosball table.  Incidentally, here they call foosball either “kicker” or “baby-foot”.  Either one must be pronounced with a French accent to get the full effect.

Speaking of soccer, you are probably aware that the World Cup is in effect.  I remember getting into it myself when it was in Japan.  A few times I stayed up into all hours of the night watching games broadcast live from Asia.  It was exciting.  My excitement is nothing, however, compared to the level of interest here in Congo.  My pals in Kinshasa don’t own a television so we weren’t able to watch but we could hear the entire neighborhood reverberate whenever a shot was fired on the goal.  It’s not unlike the jeers and cheers that ring out in Kisangani when the power cuts or is restored.  Or like the Sosa/McGwire single-season homerun race some years back.  I remember being in the airport in San Diego during one of the fateful games that season.  When McGwire was at the plate most everyone moving through the terminal was frozen and transfixed on a TV monitor (more than the usual sports bar sets were tuned into the action) and when he cranked a homer, the entire airport erupted in applause.  That might be the closest thing I’ve observed in the USA to the sense of communal energy that is always palpable here in Congo.

——-

P.S.  I am praising God for reports today that my cousin Alex has come through serious surgery with flying colors.  We’ve been praying for her here in Congo and others have no doubt been doing the same in other places around the world.  Thanks to the great physicians in Arizona and to the Great Physician Himself for caring for her needs and bringing much needed healing.