Friday 13 April – Saturday 21 April 2012
Freezer arriving at the guest house |
Our last eight days in Kananga is a winding down time,
wrapping up of what we have been able to do while here. We have gone as far as we can on the guest
house project. The freezer and toilet purchased in Kinshasa on 22 February
arrived, but the two 500 liter water tanks, the gutters and a few other
guesthouse supplies are still on the ground in Kinshasa. Jacques left 14 April for Kinshasa and on to
the U.S. and the Methodist General Conference on 20 April. Cistern work may not resume until Jacques
returns to Kananga in late June.
Guest house renovation project equipment |
Burning trash next to the guest house |
We cleaned up and stored project supplies and burned
trash. We decided what to leave and what
to pack. Jim kept telling Sue all her
stuff weighed way too much. Heck – he’s
right… We left what we didn’t take on
the table in the dining room. Friends at
the compound will see if there is anything they may want. We were both able to pack in two pieces of
luggage rather than the three each had upon arrival. Sue left her big red duffle bag behind; Jim
packed his duffle inside another bag. We
weighed each bag and knew we were both over the limit, but decided to go with
that.
Jim reading |
Market on our walking route |
Sue reading, or is that napping? |
We had more time in this winding down time to read and walk;
to really observe the chick explosion, and to notice how low the planes really
do fly over the house as they land and take off, to watch a storm coming, and see
the beautiful skies – for these few days - more time to enjoy the moment…
Georgette and the new chicks |
Plane coming in to Kananga Airport over the compound |
Storm coming in |
Clear skies ahead |
On Wednesday a delegation from the French speaking church
across the street came to visit with us, and to let us know that they are
working on providing a translator for French into English, so that we can attend
church there an understand the service when we return.
Friday 20 April
Simon - off to Kole |
Simon left for Kole, a mission up country. He is flying five people there to check on and
work on a project. He’ll be gone for 8 –
10 days, so we won’t see him again. He
goes home to England on 12 May. We’ll
keep in touch by Internet.
We had two sets of visitors from the Kananga UMC District Offices. In the morning the Kananga District project
coordinator came with an interpreter to give us five or six potential projects,
all written in French, naturally. We
asked for the electronic version, so we can run the proposals through Microsoft
or Google translator. They left with a
flash drive and a promise to return later in the day.
District Superintendent Mutambwe and the visitors |
In the early evening the District Superintendent arrived
with four church men, bearing several more proposed projects and a nice
Congolese wooden statue for each of us.
These proposals had already been translated into English. We reiterated what we have said all along, we
will bring the proposals back to the U.S., bear witness to the desperate needs
in the Congo, and work to see how some of the priority projects may proceed
toward funding and possibly bring over volunteer teams to work for short
periods of time with Congolese partners. There are many things to think about,
many challenges, many obstacles, much need…
Jacques and Valentine were gracious and welcoming hosts. We’re grateful for the time we spent with
them and for the new friendships we have make here in the Congo.
Saturday 21 April
Rainy season farewell to Kananga |
The thunder and lightning storm that rolled across Kananga
early Saturday morning was not what we wanted to hear and see on our last
morning in this city. We were up early
and it was pouring down rain, dark and gloomy.
Since we had packed our bags the night before, we were ready for an
early breakfast and then the trip to the airport. All our bags were loaded by Françoise and
Victor. Answered prayer… the vehicle
started. We said our good-byes using our
few words of French and started off to the airport amid rain soaked deeply
rutted roads. More answered prayers… the
road was not washed out and there were no other cars, broken down or otherwise,
to impede our travels.
We were the first to arrive at the airport and the folks at
the Central African Airlines (CAA) counter were just getting ready to open the
check in process… great, we thought, no problems and we’ll be on our way when
the plane arrives in from Kinshasa and makes the quick turn-around. Wrong.
Departing the Kananga airport is not for the faint hearted. It is a maddening, cumbersome, irritating,
inefficient scene.
There seemed to be a dozen folks working behind the counter,
but actually only one person was really accomplishing anything. For quite awhile there were as many setbacks
as gains as the computer program was not working correctly with the weigh
scales, so the bags had to be weighed manually.
Just when we thought we were closing in on baggage weight figures, we
found out that, unlike all the other airlines we had flown - where you get a
purse/laptop bag or backpack AND one carry on piece of luggage, CAA only allows
one piece of cabin luggage. The carry-on
bags, already returned to us, plus now the backpacks, had to be handed back and
new weighing and calculations were made.
We then had a hassle about how much we were over the limit for the
checked bag and since the carry-on luggage had now become a second checked
piece, which is not normally allowed and thus would be counted as excess
baggage, we had another go around about charges. Fortunately, poor François had been through
this drill on more than one occasion and he just kept smiling and trying to
explain to us what was happening. At one
point, Francois went around and into the baggage weighing area, giving the
airline workers instructions, trying to limit the damage. Long story, happy ending and it only cost us
$76 additional dollars to get our entire complement of luggage and ourselves
ready to make the dash to the airplane, when it finally arrived.
All this time, we had been standing by the side of the
counter watching many of the airport workers wandering around on the tarmac
looking at an Orient Thai Airbus 340
which had flown in the day before on what we think was a charter flight. The plane had run off the taxi way. Its nose
gear was buried in the mud about 20 feet off the tarmac. We can only speculate what will be involved
in getting this huge, commercial aircraft unstuck, safety checked and out of
this remote, central Congo airport which does not see much commercial traffic
in a week’s time. The UN aviation
contingent stationed at Kananga did not seem to have any equipment which might
be needed to lift or pull the aircraft back onto the tarmac, so it will be
interesting to hear from someone how they finally got the plane unstuck.
Luckily, this was not our scheduled aircraft.
We were waiting for the steadily building crowd to gather at
the one exit door, as there is no order or rationale to how the planes are
called for departure, when we were summoned by an immigration official who wanted
to check our paperwork. After trying to
tell us we had over stayed our visa (we had not and had two weeks left on the
three month visa we had), he finally tried the approach that we did not have
the right kind of visa: we had a tourist
visa and we should have had a missionary visa.
Needless to say, there is not a missionary visa, only business, tourist
or work permit. We were told by the DRC
embassy in Washington that a tourist visa was what we needed for
volunteering. The “official” simply was
looking for “special considerations” and straight out asked for “something
special” for allowing him to examine our paperwork. We ended up, with Francois’ concurrence,
giving the official the equivalent of $1.50.
He made an elaborate gesture as if he was going to write out a receipt,
but alas, he could not find his receipt book.
The “consideration” was unceremoniously whisked under the blotter. All smiled and au revoirs were said. Little extra expectations of officials are
certainly the way of doing any kind of business here.
The plane arrived and we made our way, after several VIP’s
to include a Congolese senior military officer were escorted ahead of us, onto
the plane. We still had to go through
three more check points, as we walked across the tarmac toward the plane. Paperwork for the special airport tax and the
Go Pass payment, another fee just to get out of the airport, were examined. Our paperwork was in order. Answered prayer.
Leaving Kananga |
Drive across Kinshasa, the dusty... |
Drive across Kinshasa, the shade... |
The flight over to Kinshasa was uneventful, and, even with a
little bit of turbulence, a pleasant flight as we were now one step closer to
actually heading home. We were met by
John Wesley, the Bishop’s administrative secretary and driven across town the
40 kilometers to the Methodist-Presbyterian Hostel (MPH). We were greeted by Cindy and Clay Dunn, two
volunteers who have been here two years running MPH and who have made some
major improvements in the appearance, comfort and daily operations of this
important stopover for missionaries and other church guest arriving and
departing the DRC. We’re glad to be
back in Kinshasa.
MPH - Methodist Presbyterian Hostel, Kinshasa |
Welcome to MPH |