Are we feeling comfortable yet?

September 1, 2012—

               We have now been in DR-Congo Kinshasa for another week.  Do we feel any more comfortable?  Do we feel like we know what we are doing?  Maybe a little but not really.  This week seemed to be a little bit more like typical weeks will be.  Last Sunday, we went to church as usual.  Our block starts with priesthood/relief society first, then Sunday school, and ends with sacrament meeting.  The Elders quorum has more members and meets in the bigger classroom.  The other senior missionaries and I attend the High Priests quorum.  I enjoy the meetings and am impressed with the quality of instruction. I actually enjoy attending the regular Sunday school class because I can focus on French the whole time. I still find there are some whom I understand so much better than others.  The accents and way of talking can differ with different people.  I just hope that it will get better and better over time.  Sister Robinson and the other senior couples attend a Sunday school class just for them.  They take turns teaching the lesson which they teach in English.  So far, I am the only one not to attend because I want the French more.  Sister Robinson will be teaching the class tomorrow and is finalizing the lesson.  By the way, in sacrament meeting they announced that this week they will be making three wards out of two wards.  Since our ward is one that will be broken up, we are anxious to attend sacrament meeting tomorrow just to see and feel how the church continues to grow here.  The boundaries will actually split the senior couples into two different wards, but our mission president, President Jameson, is suggesting that we continue to attend the same ward since our memberships aren’t here anyway.

               Monday started as normal with a devotional at the S&I (Seminaries and Institute) building.  This devotional is held every Monday at 8:00 am for church employees in S&I, construction, finance, and temporal affairs.  It lasts just less than an hour, but what a wonderful way to start each week.  I love the way the hymns are sung not just in this meeting but in all the meetings.  The spirit is so strong and we get a feel for the members as they present a spiritual thought (talk).  We then open the PEF Center which is in the same building.  The posted hours for the Center are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, but so far we are there by 8:00 and it is closer to 4:30 or a little past before we get everyone pushed out.  We have two wonderful young volunteers who help us and keep the Center open when we have other meetings or appointments.  Boris Kabeya and Dieumerci Kalonji have just been amazing to help us.  I love some of the names like Dieumerci meaning thank God.  I can now say Kabeya and Kalonji but most African names still just fly over my head.  Laraine does so much better than I. 

 

Laraine is at her desk keeping everything going. The bottom picture shows Kebeya and Kalonji helping  participants.  They are the two nearest the back wall on both sides of the table.

 

 

 

 

 

              Every Monday, we have a meeting with Tommy Muhemedy, the Area Finance Manager, to go over the funding of PEF loans, payments, and our budget in running the Center.  I am grateful that Tommy goes by Tommy which is easier than President Muhemedy (he is 1^st counselor in the Kinshasa Stake).  This meeting is so helpful because we need to understand the process of handling the PEF loans and finances, but also because banking in DR-Congo is not like anything I have seen before.  I went to the bank to cash a check Monday so we would have cash to take to one school to pay a student’s tuition at a school that doesn’t have a bank account to wire funds into.  They wanted my Congolese driver’s license or passport to cash the check.  I only had a temporary driver’s license and they wouldn’t accept that.  Our mission president has told us not to carry our original passport but only a color copy of the passport and visa.  They didn’t want to accept that.  I didn’t know what I was going to do.  Luckily, I was told that because I had made a photo copy of my passport that they could keep, they would let me cash the check this one time only.  I was grateful when my permanent driver’s license came through on Friday. 

 

 

 

              There were only two tellers (cashiers) and they have a chair for you to sit down while they help you.  I had to sign the back of the check once to endorse it and a second time to acknowledge the receipt of the cash.  The teller had to manually fill out several forms, run them through the machine, stamp them and I don’t know what all.  It took me over 30 minutes to cash a single check.  With driving and traffic, I was probably close to 1 ½ hours just to go to the bank.

               Also Monday, I met with Russel Mbaya (again one of the easier names, and yes I spelled Russel right), Area Director (Africa Southeast-West) for Employment Resource Center to talk over two schools that needed to be approved for PEF and to make sure participants had done the proper research into schools and jobs before submitting an application for a PEF loan.  Pitshou Banguminga Kamalandua is the assistant director and a great one to work with too but gives you an idea of the names we deal with.  I’m glad we just call him “peet shoe.”

               Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked mostly from at the Center going through files, learning programs and procedures, working with students, sending lots of emails, and trying to learn what we are doing.  Laraine actually went with Sister Billings on Wednesday to make a presentation to the Mont Ngafula stake family history coordinator and the area FH coordinator.  They took Kalonji with them to translate and had to travel to the Mont Ngafula stake center which is quite a drive in itself.  They didn’t get back till 5:00 pm so I kept the Center open till they got back.  I don’t think there were any participants there making loan applications, but because most of our students can’t afford computers and some don’t have electricity in their homes, they come and use our PEF computers for their school/studies.   We let them use the computers if no one is there to complete a PEF application.  When we leave after 4:30, the traffic is worse in getting back to our apartment so we still got home just before 6:00.

               Thursday, Laraine and Sister Billings had another Family History meeting with the Director of the Family History Center and his assistant.  Sister Billings had been trying to get priesthood leaders more involved in Family History because she loves family history and she has time when her husband is teaching and working with the construction students.  Laraine is hoping she will be able to help Sister Billings as the members here prepare for the new temple.  The family history center director stopped by our office and you can just feel his excitement as we talk about the temple and helping members be ready to take their families, living and dead, to the temple.  I think we mentioned that they told us where the temple is going to be located.  It is on the large property the Church already owns, one which the Kinshasa Stake Center and the S&I building (where our center is located) sit.  There is a big area, at least by Congolese standards, that is vacant and large enough for a small temple. 

 

The Kinshasa Stake Center is over my right shoulder.  The S&I Building is on the right side of the photo.  The PEF Center is in that building.  The temple will be somewhere where I am standing.

 

 

 

             Brother Bonnet, when he was here, went over the property and laid out where the temple can sit, where patron lodging can be located, and how they might add onto the S&I building for a distribution center.  As we talked to our mission president, we know that he is trying to make the case to also have an MTC.  Right now, the process to obtain a visa to go to the MTC in Ghana is cumbersome, costly, and time consuming.

               Thursday, I had my first experience of visiting the Director/Owner of one of the schools a participant want to attend to straighten out a financial problem in paying for the student.  I took Kabeya along to make sure we could find our way and to keep me out of trouble.  The student is now attending school with the help of PEF, but she was the first missionary or the first sister missionary from the DR-Congo.  She is pretty amazing and now trying to get the training in computer data entry to improve her life.  We thought Kabeya could get us close and then she could get us to the school.  Well, it didn’t work out that way.  We got close, but the student has to take the transport (like a taxi but fairly inexpesive) to a drop off and then walk.  She cuts through some blocks where there aren’t roads so going where she thought we could go only got us to a dead end.  We had to call the Owner to get directions and even waited on a corner for him to come and show us the last little way.  I wish I had taken a camera to show the area, the school, and to have a picture of the student.

 

               These are not pictures of that day, but these are pictures of the Transports that stop just off the Place in front of our building.  I took the pictures from our apartment.  I hope they give an idea of just what transportation is for so many here in Kinshasa.  The Transports are vans where all seats behind the driver have been taken out and replaced with 4 rows of boards (they look like 2X6s) so they can seat more people.  If you look closely in the van with the back door open, you can see the board seats.   Each row will hold 4 people but sometimes you will see people hanging out the door.

 

 

In this picture, you can see someone hanging out the door of the Transport pulling away.  I think he is actually a coconductor.  The drivers usually have someone with them to handle money, to let him know when to stop to let people on or pick people up, and to help force way through traffic.  I must say that you have to watch out for Transports because they don't obey any traffic rules.  They just want to get where they need to go as fast as they can.  They will make left hand turns from the far right lane and across on coming traffic when the left turn light is red.  I can understand why so many of them look like they have been through the a war.

               Friday was a good day.  I even took time to tell Kabeya about our great Star Valley.  I even pulled up the Star Valley Chamber web site hoping it would show some beautiful pictures but didn’t get too much.  I have found people from the Congo have no idea where Wyoming is.  Farming as we do it is totally foreign to them.  I even tried to bring up pictures of baling equipment and bales of hay for Kabeya.  I don’t think he got the picture.

               Today, we went shopping at City Market by ourselves.  It is always good to get the first time alone over so that we feel more comfortable.  We went early to be there when it opened at 8:00 am which was good.  Parking wasn’t a problem and there weren’t all the people there trying to beg or sell something.  Now we are home taking care of wash, cleaning, and our email and blog. 

 

               I have been facinated looking out our window watching what goes on down below.  It is interestly to see what I might call the two different economies here. You have the main business district of Kinshasa representing those who have jobs which goes down Trente Juin (the name of the main boulevard in the city named "30 June" for their independence day).

 

 

              We told you that 85-90% of the people are unemployed, but they make up part of what I might call the street economy.  This is all that goes on along the streets.  People sell whatever they can to make something to subsist on.  They sell bread, fruit, sodas, tissues, shoe shines, phone cards, or even beg.  They don't call it employment because they aren't emlployed but will sell things they can grow, make or buy cheap enough that they can resell on the street to make some money.  This is how most live day to day.  And most carry their product on their head.  In the photos above, you can see some just on the side of the Transports carrying soda or something on their heads.  The picture below is just across the street where you see one who has just laid his goods on the ground and others who actually have unbrellas to give shelter from the sun.

 

 

             As you leave the business district, you find more just along the roads sometimes even getting together forming a marché.

 

 

 

              One more thing I have done today is exercise.  I must admit that during the week, I haven't had time to exercise so I tried to day.  And I wanted to show you the the great track that we have close at hand.  It is actually the roof of our building that extends out back of us from the floor below us and is about as boring as running around a small gym.  Laraine took my picture from our kitchen window as I jogged.  I must admit that it is getting hotter especially during the day.  I worked up a sweat.  That is the Congo River in the background.

 

 

               We will continue to keep you posted.  We hope all is well for everyone there. We are doing great and so happy to be here. It is great to see the church grow and feel the strength of the members and leaders here.