Francophonie and Preparing for Elder Holland's Visit

Week of October 8-14, 2012

 

            It’s been a wonderful week, much better than I anticipated.  The Francophone Summit (all French speaking Africa countries) has been going on here in Kinshasa and we were told there would be heightened security.  We’ve noticed a lot more police presence on the streets and a lot of military with big guns.  Even this picture from our apartment window of the Place shows police (in blue uniforms with florescent green vests) in the upper left, two upper right, one in front of monument and one below.

 

 We’ve also been warned that the party that didn’t win the elections last December would be demonstrating.  Their candidate has been under house arrest since the elections.  (What a nice way to treat a political candidate!)  The man who is in office now is the son of the past president who mysteriously died when our present leader became president.  Well, enough about politics.  Although we are trying to keep track of all that’s happening in the U.S. election process.  (I hope they don’t put our defeated candidate under house arrest.)  It’s getting closer and closer to November and we’re excited to see the results.

 

            On Tuesday we met with another bank, called BCDC Bank to see if they could to a better job tracking our students’ accounts.  After seeing the problems that continue to exist with our present bank, I’m about ready to put my vote in for the new bank.  We went with Tommy and Eduardo, our two who head the Finance Department for the Church in Kinshasa.  Tommy’s a very distinguished, quite young Congolese who serves as a councilor in our stake presidency.  Eduardo has just been transferred here from England.  He’s from Spain.  I think I told you about him in an earlier email.  His wife is from Portugal and they have 2 daughters who are going to an international school here.  (It’s off the subject, but I’m happy to report they love their school and have many friends from the Congo and from India.)  Anyway back to the bank, we walked in and it almost felt like a bank in a big city back in the states.  It even had an escalator and a conference room and most importantly they seemed to have the services we are looking for.  I’m afraid we’re a little scarred wondering if what they tell us is really what they will do.  This is BCDC bank in downtown Kinshasa.

 

 

            Wednesday, at the request of our mission president’s wife, Sister Jameson, I spent a few hours at their home showing her how to navigate a little better through new.familysearch and how to do a little research.  It was fun!

 

            As we drive to work each day I haven’t been able to take as many pictures (because of the police and military presence), so maybe I can make a few observations:

 

1.                           There is no negative connotation when you see 2 men or 2 women holding hands.  It’s a sign of friendship and quite common.

2.                           All the services we find we can’t live without at home are brought to you at your car window at stop lights that can last as long as 2 minutes.  No need for a Maverick, we have young men coming to us to sell cold pop, cold water, many have whole cardboard candy stands on their heads.  More commonly we see vendors selling pocket packages of tissue and Congolese flags.  There’s also no need for an ATM, we have other young men swerving between cars with bundles of francs.  Our PEF volunteer said that it is primarily for taxi and transport drivers who run out of change and still need to make change for passengers, or other vendors who need to make change.  These money changers charge a commission to give change so it is their business.  They will sell change to anyone but for most of us, the commission is more that we pay to exchange money somewhere so we don’t use it.  It seems that we go to the mission office to change dollars into Congolese francs because if you go to the market, hair salon, bank, etc., there will always be someone appear to carry your shopping sacks to the car, to help you park, watch over your car and then help you back out.  If you don’t pay them 500 fr. (50 cents) we’ve been told they will remember and next time you park in the vicinity, something could happen to your car.  Fun thought, isn’t it!

3.                           As we drive through the city we see a lot of crippled people (people missing an arm or a leg or people with withered limbs).  We wonder if it is from birth defects, civil wars, or something else.

4.                           We still marvel at the beauty of the people, their beautiful smiles and their straight backs (probably from carrying heavy burdens on their heads.  This week we saw a man with about 6 to 8 flats of eggs with 30 in each flat, balancing and turning his head as he walked confidently down the street.)

5.                           If the Congolese were asked to go to war (and they commonly are) and they fight like they drive, I’d hate to be their enemy.

6.                           Eloping is unheard of in the Congo.  One of our volunteers, Kabeya, has just gotten engaged and he just beams.  Kalonji, our other volunteer has just had a brother and sister get married in the last month.  Their ceremonies are very important to them.  The food they honor their guests with should be some type of meat.  Meat is a greater treat than sweet desserts.  When Kalonji was asked if anyone ever elopes.  He said, “No, they think too highly of their families to ever do that.

           

            On Friday we got an e-mail from our mission president to stay home.  We called our PEF volunteers and told them not to come in and we stayed at the apartment and worked emails from home.  It gave us a chance to get some things done that keep getting pushed aside when we are in the office.  Friday and Saturday were the days that were most worrisome for demonstrations, and we were told we didn’t want to be caught in one.  But Friday night we were invited to come to the mission home to have dinner and pick up Brother Robert Milne from So. Africa, who is Manager International  Security Africa Southeast Area.  He and another man from church security, Ron Rumble from Tooele, Utah are here to prepare for Elder Holland’s visit in 2 weeks.  We’ve had the honor of housing Brother Milne during his visit.  Rob is on the rightand Ron is on the left.

 

 

We live in U.S.A.I.D. housing and it’s very secure as we drive in the gate, our truck has to be inspected underneath and under the hood for something suspicious (I assume it’s bombs).  A lot of people don’t like all the security, but we do.  Across the street is a big square and Friday night they were setting up loud speakers, etc.  I became a little worried and asked if we could return from the mission home a little early to insure we could get into our apartment.  We got home at 6:00 and everything was just fine.  In fact with all the police presence we’ve never had such an easy time getting through town.  We went to the roof (11th floor of our building) and took this picture today.  The actually installed a big television screed that is broadcasting happenings around the Francophonie Summit.  You can see the truck that brought everything in and some of the people standing in front watching.

 

            Saturday we hosted dinner at our apartment for Rob, our church security guest, President and Sister Jameson with Ron the church security guest they were housing, and Elder and Sister Smith from downstairs came up to dinner.  This shows everyone visiting before sitting down to eat.

 

The picture shows President and Sister Jameson and our two guests.

 

Laraine made chicken pot pies which were a big hit.  President Jameson said that they were better than those he always ordered at Cracker Barrell back home.

 

It was lots of fun and the Jameson’s weren’t as intimidated as I was so they stayed until about 8:30.  It was interesting to hear about the security concerns of each of the countries here in Africa and Rob was able to explain about the DR Congo history and culture in comparison to other African countries, but it was more fun to just hear about their families and share a little about our family as well.

            Speaking of our family, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASEY!!  We love you and are so proud of you!!

            And I hope we’re not speaking too soon, but we know Ryan will be sustained today as the new Bishop of the Stevens Creek Ward in Evans, Georgia.  We love you and are very proud of you, too, son!!

            For Val and Laberta, we ran into a very handsome young man, Elder Ndonzo, who served in Uganda while you were there and even while you served as temporary president.  He glowed when we mentioned your names and said to tell you that the advice you gave him to go home and honor his Priesthood has been very valuable to him.  He thanks you for it.

 We said that we went up on the roof and took some pictures.  For us it shows the big changes made in cleaning things up, in planting grass in the Place, and in making preparations for this big Summit this weekend.  The grass did not exist when we first came.  It will be interesting to see if they keep it up.

This shows the fountain but also the central railway station across the street.

This pictures shows just how close we are to the Congo River.  It is one of the four largest rivers of the world.  One place we looked shows that it is second behind the Amazon River for flow at the mouth.  Because it is always raining somewhere along the river, it does not have the fluctuations of some of the other big rivers.  This looks across the river to Brazzaville, capital of Republic of the Congo.

This shows the many logs at the dock.  Forrestry is one of the large industries in DR Congo, but everyone indicates that it is not done with conservation and planning for the future in mind.

Some say that this is the most beautiful building in Kinshasa.  It is the government building.

This is Laraine on the roof as we look across the Congo River.

 





Things continue to go well for us.  We hope we can continue to move forward.  We just had 13 loans approved for funding so we stay busy.