Monthly Archives: July 2004

Today we should be leaving the Congo.  We fly Kinshasa – Paris – Toronto – Saskatoon.  Then back on the road up to Prince Albert.  Then jet lag sets in again. 

Not looking forward to the airport in Kinshasa.  As I remember it, it is dirty, hot and a good place to get robbed.  No nice food courts.  In fact if the flight is going to be a good one it would be safer not to eat there at all.  There would only be food from sidewalk vendors I would think.  I do not have good memories of Kinshasa airport.  I don’t suppose civil war has improved the airport any. 

It will be good to get back home.  I am sure we will be missing all of our friends.  I know I will be glad to get back to Leo again!  Next blogging should be done from our home computer.

Today we should be flying down to Kinshasa, the capital of the country.  A huge sprawling city of umpteen millions. Most of those people are unemployed, live in poverty or scrounge for a living.  And there are also people at the other end of the economic spectrum – the very wealthy. 

The one thing that is striking about cities like Kinshasa to NorthAmericans are the walls.  All yards, except of the poor are walled.  High walls with shards of glass or spiles on the tops.  And every walled yard has it’s guard at the gate.

My girls should be able to spend a few days getting reaquainted with some of their birthfamily.  These may be emotional days.  Pray for Sara and Grace.

I will also be renewing acquaintences with a dental friend – Dr. Kasuku and his wife who is a final year dental student.  Dr. Kasuku came up to Karawa to spend time with me before he opened the clinic down in Kinshasa for the church.  He was teachable.  He didn’t know much about the actual practice of dentistry – like how to do a filling – but he was willing to learn, even from the guys I had trained who were not “real dentists”.  That kind of humility was, to say the least, uncommon among the educated elite.

This just came in today from Linea:

The past two weeks here at Karawa have gone too quickly.  I have been so
busy that I haven’t even had time to think about how much I miss being able
to blog.  Actually, it is like living on another planet.  Work here starts
at 7 and they work through with no break till 2 and then are done.  It gets
a bit long for me with nothing to eat or drink but they are used to only
eating one main meal a day so it works out well for them.  I learned to
take along a bottle of water.

After 2 I eat, then a short siesta.  Then it is almost like I am sort of
visiting personality – I receive visitors till about 7.  They just keep
coming.  Some is talk about problems I need to help them with at the
hospital.  So I listen and although I have no real say I give them my
advice – for what it is worth.  Yesterday afternoon we were talking through
the problem that one of the students I trained deserted his place of
work.  He also took off with a lot of the instruments and then was invited
by the medical co-ordinator to attend the course I gave.  Needless to say
it caused a few questions of the hospital administration and of Songo who
is the longest serving dental therapist.  So we were dealing with that.

They have a local FM station on the mission so last night after I finished
receiving visitors, I had to spend half an hour talking on the radio.  Most
of what we talked about was dental health issues.  That was a first for
me.  Fortunately, I remember most of my Lingala so that is the language we
used.  More people speak that than French.  The radio is a useful tool for
getting information out.  It is something we didn’t have when we were here.

Tomorrow we will be on the road again – back to Gemena.  Then down to
Kinshasa on Tuesday.  I think the time there will pass quickly.  There are
people I am supposed to see to see if we can get dental health issues
covered in the health project funds.  And the personal things we need to do
will take time too.

I do look forward to a nice long hot shower again.  Half of our time here
we have had no water.  Part of the time we have had no electricity.  By the
end of the hot and humid day if there is no water for showers – we have a
serious problem.  I have taken a complete shower in less than a gallon of
water!  Not only that but if one leans over a bucket while showering there
is some water collected with which one can flush the toilet.

Hopefully I can get access to the internet in Kinshasa.  Otherwise I have
not has access to my e-mail other than through the Gustafson’s or Jacques.

I miss all of you.  I will have lots to tell you when I get back.  My
journal is fairly full.

Greet everyone at church.  Tell them all thanks for their prayers.

Linea

Posted by Randall

I should be returning to Gemena this weekend.  I am not sure what the day will be – probably Monday or Sunday pm.  This will be a road trip.  It is about 80 Kms from Karawa to Gemena.  Back in the good old days when the roads were really well maintained we could do this in a little under 2 hours.  Now – who knows.

I hope I have been able to send out some e-mails over the past few weeks for Randall to post to this blog.  If there are none then something prevented me from sending e-mails.  It is a very untechnical world out there in the jungle where there are no phones to speak of.

This came in from Linea this morning:

I will try to sum up some of my most memorable experiences of the past week.

First of all there was the trip from Gemena to Karawa.  75 Kms  Three and a
half hours.  Jacques Kongawi has a joke that began to take on a new
meaning.  “how do you tell if someone in Canada is DWI?  They weave all
over the road.  In the Congo anyone caught driving straight down the road
has to be inebriated.”

The actual distance covered as one weaves the way around the holes in the
road (these are holes, penza!) and down into and out of holes filled with
stagnant pools of water that threaten to cover the hood of the Land Cruiser
is without a doubt longer than the 75 Kms.  The speed – how about 10 to 30
Kms an hour?  30Kms on the straight stretches without holes seemed pretty
fast – horn blaring so people and animals would get out of the way!

We arrived at Karawa late on Sunday afternoon.  Songo came by a few minutes
later.  Hugs all around.  So, so good to see him.  He is the first person I
trained to do dentistry.  Saw our old cook – he cooks for the guest house
so is again cooking for me this week.  Still bakes wonderful bread.   Other
familiar faces too.  The names are gone from my memory for most people but
they are gracious and do not mind reminding me of their name and how I
should know them.

Everyday, I teach from 8 till noon and then again from 2:30 till 5:30 or
so.  We are spending good time together.  Subjects covered are a whole
range from my prepared lectures to what they have had to deal with –
including war wounds.  the digressions have actually been the best.  From
their talking about how they can co-operate to their how to improve their
working conditions.  Today they are getting paid for their wages from
March.  They are so poor!  They have to do so much with so little, deal
with so much pain.

When I return home in the evening, there is another group of people waiting
to say hello.  Finally dark comes and it is my time – I can take a shower
and get ready for the next day.  We are fortunate to have electricity here
so I can read till I fall asleep.  I don’t know that I could keep up this
pace but so far I am very glad I came.

(Posted for Linea, by Randall)