Category Archives: Africa

This is it.  I’m off to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  We catch a plane out of Saskatoon at 10am and travel via Toronto to Paris.  Will arrive in Paris on Saturday morning.    I guess the only problem will be that it won’t really be Saturday morning for us.  We’ll be missing 7 hours of good old sleep.  Oh well.  We’ll try to stay awake by doing a tiny bit of sightseeing in Paris.  Then we get on another plane Saturday night and arrive in Bangui in the Central African Republic (neighboring on the north western border of the Congo) on Sunday morning. 

We are not traveling light.  We have four big cases full of dental supplies and each of us has a trunk with our personal stuff plus.  I expect we’ll find the baggage handling easier on our way back.  We DO NOT intend to bring back empty cases.  Someone will make good use of them in the Congo.

The biggest hassle we expect will be the red tape of getting dental supplies through customs and through airport security.  I would appreciate any prayers you are willing to offer up to God on our behalf.

It is early.  I’m having trouble sleeping so I came downstairs got on the computer and checked out my e-mail.  I think in some ways I am just having pre-travel jitters.  But the messages on the e-mail were good.  Do not worry about the situation in Kinshasa.  Internal flights are running as usual, etc.  Songo came by the Gustafsons and was glad to hear I am still coming.  They sense that God is in the timing of this trip as well.  All is good.

Still hard to sleep.  I guess I’ll get tired this afternoon.  Last day of work today.

Tomorrow banking stuff.  Picking out flowers for the wedding I’m in the weekend after my return.  Tieing up loose ends.  Finishing the packing. 

Just as we are preparing to leave for the Congo, trouble breaks out there again.  Rumors of an attempted coup.  Fighting in Bukavu and the UN support people pulled out of Kinshasa after rioting. 

Still I have a strong sense that God is taking me back there.  The trouble is far from Equateur province.  But we had planned to travel down to and leave the country by Kinshasa.  That is where the girls have birthfamily.  It is the only part of the trip I am nervous about.  Not sure what will happen.  Changing our tickets would also involve getting another visa for RCA since we are transiting to the Congo from there on a single entry visa.  There is no time left to apply here for a change of visa.

I need really clear guidance about this part of the trip.  Writing in the sky would be acceptable! 

Seriously, I would appreciate prayers.

This week seems to be a week of “lasts”.  Last sedation day till fall.  Last day at the school program today. Yesterday the last day of classes for my high school kids. The last Friday coffee at the Bison. And only 5 more working days till I leave. 

Our visa’s came today.  All in order.  One more detail in place. 

I have always had this recurring dream that I get before a big trip.  In the dream I am desperately putting things into a suitcase and rushing, rushing to get to the airport.  Just get there to see the plane(or bus, or some vehicle) taking off without me.  It hasn’t come this time.  Either it has been too long since I travelled like this or someone is giving me an extra sense of peacefulness about this one.

It is stressful in some ways getting ready.  I am not a good organizer so that part just making sure I have taken care of the details is always stressful to me.  On all our trips before I pretty much took care of the packing and Leo did the administrative details like tickets and visa’s.  I am doing most of it this time.  Not that Leo hasn’t been around to help, but he hasn’t taken over like he would if we were going together.  So I could really be panicked.  But there is an incredible sense of this trip being exactly right, of God moving to see that it takes place right now. 

There is also a different sense about this trip.  I am not sure how to pin down the difference but it is a bit like God has something up his sleeve if he has sleeves.  As if he is moving things around me to accomplish some purpose.  I am not going to accomplish some great plan of my own.   I am just going to help and to encourage and to renew friendships.  I have plans to do some upgrading of the dental personnel but other than that I don’t have a big agenda of my own.  And this is the scariest part of the whole thing because I am not sure exactly what God wants of me.  So in some ways I’m saying OK, God I will try and fit into whatever plans you have for us.  You take control and help me to listen for directions from you.”  It is a bit of a vulnerable feeling but good at the same time.

It’s hard to believe that in two weeks we will either be languishing in the airport in Paris or gazing up at the Eiffel Tower waiting till the evening flight down to Africa.

Well, these will hopefully not actually be lectures but will be more like seminars where we all get involved in the discussion so that whatever is learned will be both practical and retained. 

Today I have been working on infection control.  This is such an important aspect of dental practice here in North America where we have relatively few really bad bugs around and relatively huge numbers of products to kill them off with. 

 “Le but principal d’un programme de prévention de transmission des maladies est de réduire le tôt de pathogènes qui entre dans le hôte au niveau ou les défenses normaux peuvent prévenir l’infection. “

There you go – one of the main points we have to remember.  And if your French is good enough to figure out what I said you can go ahead and critique the grammar!

Something happened today that for me was beyond anything I was expecting. 

I was in the sanctuary this morning before the service, spending some time in the quiet of that place talking to God.  I find it a good place to go to connect with God, a place where God visits us on Sundays anyway, and where, when I am there sitting and talking with him, his presence is almost palpable. 

There are a lot of things I have been talking to him about lately, family concerns, concerns for our congregation and for friends, concerns for those who have had people close to them die recently.  And I tell him of my plans for the trip to the Congo which of course he knows anyway, but still I tell him of the things that most concern me at the moment. 

The denomination has committed itself to providing funds for the dental supplies I need to take with me but have asked me to do as much as I can to get things donated.  This week I received a large box of supplies from my regular dental supply company, and I really appreciate it.  But do you have any idea the cost of dental supplies?  I am taking out things that have about half the value of what we consume in our office for a month.  The guys have had almost no supplies sent out since the beginning of the civil war in the Congo.  Sometimes what I am taking seems like a mere drop in the bucket of the immense needs there.  And there are still a few things to purchase that were not donated and that I must take. So I have spent a fair bit of money on supplies and there are costs of travel and of  bringing the dental guys together at the Congo end, feeding and providing lodging for them while I spend time encouraging them in their work and upgrading their dental knowledge. 

On Saturday the women had a bake sale.  My part was setting up a display table with a few art objects from the Congo.  I had to be in Saskatoon for the evening so could not be at their sale. 

This morning the women presented me with a cheque for $1000.  This will cover the costs of bringing the guys to Karawa as well as feeding them for the week or so that we are together.  Whatever is left will go into the supply pot. 

Pentecost Sunday.  And God came.  He came with a show of his bounty and provision. Confirmation for me that he is in this whole trip with me. No fire, no tongues.  Just women’s hands reaching out in generosity and love to people on the other side of the world.  And once again, I am amazed.  He is so good.

Visa forms are pretty much filled out and ready to go.  Just have to get the copies of tickets and pay. 

So hopefully everything will be sent away tomorrow. 

I do not like to fill our these forms – it makes my head hurt and my eyes sore.  But I think they are done!

There is all sorts of paper flying around here and more to come.

Tonight I have been filling out visa application forms.  All have to be hand written. 3 copies for each of us for the Congo.  2 copies for each of us for the Central African Republic.  My hand is sore so I’ve come down to the computer for a break.  We download all these forms off the internet.  Too bad they couldn’t be filled out that way too. 

And tomorrow Leo has to go and get a letter notarized that states I have his permission to travel with the girls. 
I guess they comply with the international regulations on movement of children.  Which is good from the point of view of protection if I was trying to run off with them.  But more paper.   

are one of the most expensive ways to have pictures taken.  The girls and I need a slug of them for the visas.  One more expense behind me. 

One step closer to leaving. 

God!  I am so homesick for the Congo!

Not sure why but I could cry it hurts so badly.  Greg is back.  His mom brought a little book of photos over for Kongawi’s boys.  And I guess for us too.  And then the things Greg talked about in church on Sunday…

Pictures!  What conveyors of memories.  Memories of more than the sights – memories of sounds, odours, the dryness of red dust -the humid warmth – the inquisitiveness of the people – kwanga – smoke in the dry season air – the hunters with their monkeys slung over their shoulders like some kind of large handbags.

Memories of jostling, hanging on tight kind of trips in trucks over such incredibly bad roads that they should be termed impassable – getting out and walking ahead, letting the empty truck negotiate the road alone because it’s safer that way.  Memories of the exhaustion of riding my motorbike through deep sand. 

Memories of the tropical rain – coming down so hard it leaves canyons in the earth.  Lightning so close it blows holes in the walls.  The sky blackening with churning clouds and the wind picking up to gale force before the storm.  Sometimes driving a grass fire before it so that the air is full of black ash like flakes of some mutant kind of snow.

And the sky at night full, absolutely full of stars.  Unless there is a full tropical moon giving almost enough light to read by more than enough light for the villages to come to life.  And the night is full of the sound of drums and dancing in the village.

I want to be there again. 

Soon.   Be patient.