First Week in the Congo

We arrived in the Congo one week ago tonight. After making it through Immigration, we were grateful to see a man running towards us with a sign that said, "Moon". He introduced himself as Antoine. After traveling for over thirty hours, we were glad that someone was really expecting us! Antoine was very helpful in finding our 12 bags of checked luggage and getting us through customs. We had been asked to bring a long list of tools that weighed alot, hence, the 12 bags! The luggage carousels were quite the experience. Bill had to constantly grab our bags from other people who were trying to walk off with them. A number of people were trying to sneak into the customs area through the baggage carousels. A fight began amongst several of the security people and police. I couldn't figure out what the real problem was, only that they were getting a little too close for my comfort. Bill and Antoine were still trying to find all of the luggage. Amazingly, all twelve bags made it!

The Thomas’s, who we are replacing, and the Barlow’s, the Humanitarian couple, were out waiting by the cars for us. It was good to meet up with them. We almost had our camera confiscated. Bill wanted to take a picture of all the bags. I guess that is a big NO_NO here. A policeman came scurrying over saying all sorts of things we didn’t understand. Elder Barlow did most of the talking and agreed to pay the policeman $4.00 for the price of the picture so we could keep our camera! Apparently, you cannot take any pictures at the airport, even in the parking lot. In fact, we have learned that the only place we can take pictures is in our apartment, office or someone’s home.

The Thomas’s have been very helpful this week teaching us the many things we need to learn. We have been very grateful we had an overlap with them. They leave on Saturday.

Here are some brief first impressions:
· There are people everywhere!!!!

· There are really no rules to driving here except make sure you don’t hit a pedestrian, stop if the policeman standing on the concrete pedestal faces you, and don’t open your door if you get stopped at one of the intersections by the police.

· I have seen more disabled people here than anywhere in my life. One man apparently sleeps right on the edge of the roadway every night. I don’t know how he is still alive! He blends right in with the pavement.

· Everyone seems to want something.

· The gospel is true wherever you go and you can feel the spirit even if you can’t understand the language.

· We are blessed with a nice apartment in a secure building with air conditioning. We even have a huge generator for the building that automatically kicks in when the power goes off which is frequently!

· Shopping is an interesting experience. We are trying to learn how to get to the markets, find what we need, remember to have to have the person by the produce weigh it for us, and then try to figure out how much money to give the clerk. They usually hold up a calculator if we have asked for it to be converted to dollars. Then you need to show your receipt always at the door. And one mustn’t forget to pay the boy or man who has been watching your car!

· People carry everything on their heads from large baskets of bread, plastic containers filled with bagged water, stacks of eggs and anything else you can imagine.

· The wars they have had here have pretty well destroyed things. Buildings are in ruins, statues destroyed, schools destroyed, but a lot of rebuilding is going on. A number of the huge pot holes we have tried to dodge have actually been filled in this week. Some of the potholes are 6 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. They could do some serious damage if you hit one!

· Most days at 5:oo pm we get to walk along the Congo River. It is huge! The only boats you ever see are are flat canoe type boats that usually have two or three people standing and rowing.

· We teach English on Wednesday afternoons. The class has been growing and was the largest it has been when we went for the first time this week to observe the Thomas’s teach. This week, we will have the class ourselves. Most of the people in the class are nonmembers.