On The Road Again

Graduates and Bible School Staff
One of the churhc visits with Murray & Joy
On the road again...

We left Samfya at about 9am Friday morning, heading towards the DRC via Mansa. We needed to stop in Mansa to get our new passports and get the visas transferred from the Emergency Travel Documents. We could not believe it. We went to the immigration office and had left with all things done in less than 15 minutes!! If you know Zambia at all you will know that this is truly amazing! We went to the Braham’s (missionaries from Canada) for lunch. They were the people our passports were sent too. They are so lovely and gave us an amazing lunch – actually more like a dinner! They had also done some printing of the elders pamphlet written by John MacArthur and translated by Francis. This is what Donald, Levy and Francis were going to teach on this weekend.

Ok off on our way again. The border this time is not so bad (the Zambian side) – actually quite a breeze to get through. Now we head off down a dirt track. I was wondering where on earth we were going and when were we going through the DRC border. Katie and I were both a bit apprehensive about the DRC border because of the last time we went through it! Ok Levy is telling us to stop as these were his friends on the side of the track. Actually what it is, is our stop. We unload the car as we are leaving it for a man to look after as we are going across the Luapula River. I was still wondering where customs was! We head off in a long boat and the men (Levy’s Friends who were actually from the church and also graduates) started singing. They sang us all the way across. It was rather nice. Donald helped to row the boat. Well we are getting close now and who on earth are all those people and who are they waiting for? Oh there is Murray and Joy – Yay.

Kasenga – Democratic Republic of Congo
Oh my goodness all those people are there for us!!! You should hear the singing to welcome us. They are amazing! They get us off the boat and all our luggage went with them. I hope the people taking it are actually church people – we certainly don’t know! The singing volume was incredible. I wonder if our church could sing like that without music! INCREDIBLE

Well now we need to go through customs- There it is the little building over there! We go into this tiny room which has two customs officers in it, Donald, Gwen, Katie, Levy and Francis! Ohhhh man some of the other men came in too! It was so crowded and hot. I was kinda wondering why the other men were there but they had organised a special price for us to get through so needed to be there. The customs officers couldn’t say my name so kept calling me Patricia! Well no problems at this end of customs either. We pay our money and go. Murray has all our luggage and the boxes of Bibles but we are told we have to walk and that we have to go the long way!

Ok now it is VERY hot for us and we are going to walk! It took us about 20 minutes to walk, however with all those people the dust was amazing and I started coughing – that darn asthma. Now where is my ventolin – oh that’s right I left it in Samfya!!! Oh well just deal with it and carry on Gwen!!! The singing started as we started to walk, again absolutely incredible! They sang the whole way and I mean the whole way right into the Catholic Mission!

Now, in our original plans Katie and I were going to spend the weekend with the Braham’s in Mansa. Donald had found out that the Catholic Mission was the best place to stay in Kasenga and had flush loos and inside showers. We get there and everything looks nice on the outside, we opened the door and ohhhhh what a different story!! The flush loos were kinda flush loos – we had to pour water into the toilet bowl after it had been used. Ok I guess we could deal with that, at least it is in our room and isn’t a pit! Now for the shower. A good start, we have a shower box and a shower rose. Ummmm the tap for the sink doesn’t work. Uh oh the shower is for looks (and it wasn’t that pretty either). When we shower the men heat the hot water and then bring it to us in a basin. Yep that’s right we are having washes out of a basin again. I don’t think I will trust any of these people again who say oh the place is fine!!! Oh well we are here now and no way back until Monday.

Today is Saturday and Donald will be at his conference with Levy and Francis. Katie and I will be going on the road (so to speak) with Murray and Joy.
We had a great time looking at all the projects Murray and Joy manage. There were schools, churches and clinics. At one school Murray was not too happy as progress of the building had been very slow. When he inquired as to why, he found out that the elders weren’t very happy that the headmistress of the school was put in charge of the project. They came and took the cement that was supposed to be for the mortar. The new school building is to be bricks. The old school building caught on fire. They have put on a new grass roof for the time being. Murray actually felt sorry for the lady as it wasn’t her fault. The elders had their noses put out of joint because they weren’t in charge. It is the culture here. It is strange for a woman to be in charge and these elders took advantage of her!

Everywhere we went people were so happy to see Murray and Joy. They had lots of meetings of reports given of progress and also what still needs to happen and how much it costs. Then discussions on whether the funds Murray and Joy have charge of will be used for the particular projects at hand. People are always wanting more money, but as Joy said to me they also have to be trying to do some things themselves, or they will always just rely on others to help them instead of trying to help themselves.

Kids were everywhere and I mean everywhere. Wherever we went there were heaps of children. The children were becoming overbearing at times as they wouldn’t talk, smile or try any form of communication – they just stared at us! Then started to touch my arm. Even when Joy, Katie and I were just sitting they came up and stared. This was a bit difficult to cope with at times. Katie was always surrounded by children which most of the time she loved, but when it got too much would hide in the car. That didn’t stop the kids though – they just came and looked in the window!

We stopped to have a picnic lunch under a tree and guess what – kids came to watch. Yep they watched us eat!!! Then we looked around and the parents were watching as well. Oh to be so popular!

That night Murray set up the big screen and played the Jesus movie. Lots of people came to see. The kids of came early. Murray had a Christian music dvd so he cranked up the music and that really bought everyone in. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the screen as it was still too light.

It was a good day even though it was hard sometimes not knowing what anyone was saying! Murray and Joy got given 3 goats and 4 chickens today. They will be taking 2 goats and the chickens back to Lubumbashi with them. The goats will be tied to the roof all the way. It will take about 4 hours.

The next morning we were told that church started at 9am. So we are there but where are the congregation? Eventually some of the choir arrive and they start to sing and then someone goes outside to beat the drum to tell everyone to come. By now it is 10:am and they have just started.

Donald was doing the teaching. He loves to hear them sing and got the Sunday School of 250 kids to sing. They were all so pleased with themselves! Well then it was back to the Mission for Lunch and then Donald, Levy and Francis were to go back for a meeting with the elders, then the graduates then the both groups together. Katie and I decided to stay at the mission. Bad move! There was nothing to do. I mean nothing. Donald said we would go for a walk to the market when he came home and we were by the river most of Saturday – there was nothing to do. We ended up on our beds dosing on and off! We were so pleased when Donald turned up after 5pm! We headed off to the market to get a cold drink. Oh did I tell you how hot it is here!!! Tooo hot!!!

Dinner time now and it is a repeat of lunch – oh well at least it filled our tummies! It was one of Murrays goats! It was very nice.
We are planning to get to the customs office as soon as it opens in the morning so we need to leave the mission at about 7:30am! Yeah right! No one told us they wanted to give us breakfast and we have already had our cornies! Ok then we will have some of their breakfast so that we don’t offend anyone but we need to get going soon! Ummmmmmm where is the breakfast!!! Donald who is very time orientated is starting to get very frustrated. We are all packed and ready to go but can’t! Breakfast arrives at about 9:00am – now what time were we supposed to leave! We had chicken, nshima and hot rice – for breakfast!!! We have a little and then head out.

We are now at the customs office and everything is fine – we didn’t even have to go in. One of the guys did it! Now we are ready to go but where is the boat!! Oh dear it isn’t here! The women who sang us down the road are still singing. They are going to have very sore throats by the time we leave. They do sound amazing though. They are singing songs that say we will meet again in heaven and that there will be lots of flowers there – not sure about the theology there. Oh look here comes the boat. It is now 10am.

Our car we can see has been parked on the other side for a very long time! We are now on our way. An easy trip through customs again. Donald stopped in at Mambelima to show us where the conference is (you know the one with the big rock that we have seen photos of). Then we stop in to see Francis’ parents. Now off to Mansa to see the Braham’s again. They have prepared lunch for us again and it was very yum! Donald has dropped the car off to get it serviced. It will take 2 ½ hours. Mrs Braham has Anne of Green Gables so Katie and I got to watch some of it and have bought it back to our place. Unfortunately we do not have a vcr but we will try to borrow one! She also gave us Pride and Prejudice on a dvd and so Katie and I have started to watch that. What a treat!

We got home at about 5pm. This week I will be baking for going away to Lusaka and Livingstone and getting beds etc ready for the arrival of the Atkinsons. It looks like Katie might have some work to do at the orphan project cataloguing some of the books in their library but that is yet to be finalised.

Well that is it from here. We got a very warm welcome home from Copper who met us at the top of the road then got distracted when he saw the chickens and went after them! Apparently there have been some complaints about the dogs so this morning Morgan (the gardener) has been putting up more fencing and when we got home there was a gate across the driveway. Today the dogs have been contained in our yard and I think has settled Copper a lot - we can hope can’t we.
Love to everyone
Gwen