Bonjour!

 

Okay, so it's not a great photo of Suzanne (didn't notice that until it was too late - and security was staring at us so I only got one shot!)  But here we are in front of one of the more modern hospitals in Kinshasa.  It's actually owned by someone from India and appeared fairly up-to-date for what little we saw of it.  Being a former hospital CEO I was interested in some other details - they have 180 inpatient beds (SLMC licensed for 176), they do about 160 deliveries per year! (SLMC over 600 per year), the x-ray was an older model yet still digital, and they have a MRI scanner although I couldn't find out much about it.

We went here to get some lab work and x-rays associated with extending our visas.  Our current visas expire after 90 days - the upgrade will be good for five years (not that we're planning on staying that long!)  Most of the staff at this hospital were pretty good to work with - one x-ray tech seemed like she didn't want to be there, but oh and well.  

For the urine sample we were told to go down the hall about 200 feet to find a restroom and then return - unsupervised, so they certainly don't know where the sample came from! We felt just a tad nervous when we were told to just place our blood and urine samples on a bedside stand with a bunch of other samples on it - "don't worry they're all labeled".  

The upgraded visa we are told only allows for one exit and return to The Congo.  While we don't have a lot of vacation travel plans 😀we also don't want to feel quite that restricted.  We have investigated and found that there is an additional upgrade (for several more hundreds of dollars of course) that allows unlimited exit and re-entry so we'll be working on that.  

There is some concern that during the upcoming elections - which unless I'm mistaken may be only the second or third "democratic" election ever - things could get a bit "interesting" so we may take a vacation then!  Last weekend, on the road we take to the office, there was a political rally with some 250,000 people in attendance - we were warned by the US Embassy to steer clear - and we did!

[History sidebar:  Other than an appearance of a multiparty election in 1960, the first multiparty election took place in 2006, with a lot of violence and an assassination in between 1960 and 2006.  That president was re-elected in 2011.  His term expired in 2016 but the government would not hold another election until 2018.  In that election, surprisingly, a new President was elected amidst lots of allegations of voter fraud and a challenge by the runner up (sound familiar) which was ultimately dismissed, and the new president was seated in 2019 - the first "democratic" transition of power since 1960.]

 

We are always searching for new food options to augment what we can find in the grocery stores here; recently we were recommended to a restaurant named "La Baguette" - which while most commonly that is a term for bread, I believe it also means chopsticks - and they serve Chinese dishes - go figure.  The Teriyaki chicken and peppered beef plates were very good and reminded us of Wong's in Klamath.  Also, next to the grocery store where we do a lot of our shopping a new cafe called Chocolate Sarayi just opened and there we had the best crepe I believe we've ever had.  Nice to have some more options!

We want everyone to know we're doing fine and not complaining - but life here remains hard - traffic is always lawless and horrible, we continue to get stopped by the police, the internet remains slow or non-existent, we're still working on the language, and we can't venture out and about, especially at night.  But the people here - and especially our missionaries - remain wonderful.  Suzanne has several piano students now, and the temple is nearby to provide a peaceful respite from the hub-bub of 15 million people.

We also finally found something else to do for an hour on a Saturday - a national museum that tells through several exhibits the history of DR Congo.  While not huge in scope, it was very interesting and informative.  We enjoyed the collection of artifacts.

One section had a few examples of tribal instruments - drums, xylophones, etc.  And of course, my virtuoso wife made some great music come out of one of them - I could not get the video to upload, but it was pretty cool!  

The highlight of the excursion actually may have been when we came out of the museum and were greeted by a group of school children about to go in - they made us feel like rock stars and were so adorable and fun to interact with for a few minutes.  Did I mention we love these people?!

Sadly, our church-employed office assistant - who has been so helpful and instrumental in getting us settled here, navigating police encounters, translating for us, helping find supplies, be a good friend, etc - was let go by the church because his position was not designated as "permanent" in the church's system and his contract expired.  We are very sad for him and his family, and a bit anxious about losing a key figure in our support system here.  

We currently have no other full time help in the office for this mission of 225 missionaries - we have two part time Elders who help with social media and a few other things - and they are great but are told they will not be replaced when they leave in about 6 weeks - beyond that we are on our own.  We believe the church is now going to contract with someone else to help us - for sure we know we can't run this mission office alone.

The weather here is moving into their winter - the dry season - right now it's about 72 at night and highs in the low- to mid- 80s.   And we're starting to worry just a bit about what it's going to be like to eventually have to return to wearing layers of clothing and coats!

We venture up to the roof of our building almost every evening to see what mother nature is going to share with us this time - the beauty and peace help hem in our otherwise somewhat stressful days.  We are rarely disappointed. We are healthy and blessed with love, prayers and support from so many - especially our family who checks on us regularly and keeps us posted on all the wonderful things they and our grandchildren are involved in.  Thank you all!  C'est un grand jour d'etre un missionnaire!