Time out, mid way break...............

Saturday 25 March 2012

Time out, mid way break……………..

Now that we have reached the half way point in our VIM trip to the Congo, we wanted to pause and take stock of what we have posted on this blog and the story we have tried to tell so far.  We hope we have not been too Pollyannaish in what we have presented. 

We came here to do a specific project, one that was basically an infrastructure project, getting a guest house renovated and ready to receive future VIM teams coming to the Congo and specifically, the Congo Central Conference.   This project was probably not as potentially rewarding in its satisfaction as some of our orphan, medical or school projects that we had done in Zimbabwe over the past three years, but it was one we chose as it has a future payoff in support of the many, many projects needed in this Conference.   We also realized that we would have a chance to see and report, first hand, on the conditions and needs, albeit, on a limited basis considering the time we have been “up country.”

Home at Diengenga

We are staying in a comfortable compound.  The house we are renovating is in far better condition than some we stayed in while in Zimbabwe.  By almost any standard, the missionary couple we are staying with live a comfortable lifestyle, have a steady salary, enjoy access to water, whether collected in their cistern or purchased from a local borehole, have a generator and can utilize this when there is fuel available.  The majority of folks in this part of Kananga, in the whole country, for that matter, do not live under such conditions.  We have been very fortunate to have spent our time here AND have been able to observe some of the local conditions when we are out and about in the neighborhood.  The trip we made to the remote UMC Missions, gave us a very clear appreciate for what is needed now among the United Methodist Church assets and what might be possible with future efforts to help.

Selling goods at Wembo-Nyama

As Christians, we are commanded to help the poor.   Anyone reading this blog knows of poor, in our own neighborhoods, cities and country.  But what most folks may not realize is that the DRC is an entire country of poor.  Poverty is pervasive.  71% of the 71 million Congolese (2011 estimate) live below the poverty line, with 85-90 percent unemployment (and we anguish over 8.5 percent at home).  Subsistence agriculture engages about 60% of the workforce.  There are few opportunities for skilled labor.  Here in Kananga, an extremely impoverished area, subsistence farming and cheap commercial goods trading are the primary sources of income for most villagers.

Transporting water in Kinshasa

The infrastructure in the DRC is collapsed from years of war, neglect, poor government policies and lack of investment.  Less than 25% of the people have access to safe drinking water; less than 10% have access to electricity.  Only four of ten provincial capitals can be reached by road from Kinshasa, the nation’s capital, with only 10% of roads in reasonably good condition.  Transport by the Congo River and its tributaries is slow and costly.  Air transport is sometimes the only way to move people and goods about the country and this is also costly.  The railroad system barely functions.  Most of the country’s population and territory is isolated from each other and from global markets.  Religious organizations and nongovernmental organizations provide much support and assistance in the education and medical sectors.  We have given other “stats” in this blog about the conditions we have seen or experienced, but this is a country that was ranked the “poorest” country in the world, with a 2010 per capital income of $189.  We can clearly understand how this “status” is possible.

We really are struggling with what to recommend or try to do when we return home.  Many projects have been presented to us both on the “up country” trip and here in Kananga.  Some provided written proposals, some are forthcoming.  Most will have to be translated from French into English.  For each project presented to us, we can bear witness to the need.  Like in Zimbabwe, there are several connections between the Central Congo Episcopal area, the largest by far of the three Congo episcopes and U.S. UMC conferences, districts and even individual churches - nothing on the same scale as in Zim, but important, piece meal efforts.  IF a strategic plan could be formulated to combine several of the big conferences efforts into a concentrated push, like “raise the standards of the three UMC Central Congo Conference hospitals or even the six UMC hospitals in the entire DRC to some agreed upon, achievable level,” then make that happen in a specific timeframe.  It would seem to be so much better to actually achieve a major success like that than to continue with all the ones and twos projects.  You can really get a headache thinking too hard about all this, but we do want to try and help and trying to find the right way to engage all the folks that would be required to really make a difference seems to be such a daunting task.   It just seems we could do so much more to help, in a concentrated, focused way.  Thus go our musings, thinking, talking as we take this Congo journey…

Faces of the Congo