Congo: Day 3

I wouldn't say that I'm scared here in Congo. However unsafe I know that it is, being in Kinshasa does not seem to be the same country that I've read about on the internet. Everyone is warned to travel to the DRC at their own risk due to the recent war ending, but I never felt that I was in danger by being there. At first I was uneasy and careful, but I realized that as long as you aren't breaking any rules there is no reason to be concerned. There are officers, soldiers, and UN trucks all over the city to preserve safety, but if they were not there it would be a completely different story. Probably the closest to being scared that I was during the trip was the time we were passed by 7 police cars and motorcycles blaring their sirens! They were followed by 4 huge trucks of soldiers, and every one of them was carrying their big scary guns. I just sat completely still. What was happening?? These were the images I'd seen on the internet that I prayed I'd never have to come across. I had to fight with all my strength to not take a picture. "This would be the worst possible time ever!" I had to tell myself. I finally found it in me to move, so I turned to Dereje sitting in the back to get his input. But to my surprise... he just laughed at me! He said that this happens in Ethiopia too when there's an important president or official coming through. Well then... That settled it. I had no more reasons to be scared. However intimidating they may seem with their giant guns and stone cold looks, they were just there to keep the city safe and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I felt so comfortable around the soldiers after that, that I almost asked one of them to smile for a picture for me. But I stopped myself... sometimes fear is a good thing. It keeps people from doing stupid things.

When I woke up my mom was already at the doctors office with a group of kids from Eden. Dereje and I had breakfast at our hotel and my mom sent a van for us to join them at the doctor. We picked up the kids and most of them were sadly wearing the same dirty clothes that they were wearing the day before. We crammed them all in and we fit about twice as many people into that van that would ever be allowed here in America. Given... most of them were just little shorty-pants kids. But they weren't used to being in a car and were deathly quiet the whole time, some even went to sleep. But the little 2 year old girl I had on my lap just played with my hair and smiled the whole time. By the end of the ride we had to peel sound asleep kids out of the car and send them back into that orphanage. I hope the place gets renovated fast otherwise we're going to have to work out another living situation...

Afterwards we went to a feeding center a few hours away. They provided kids with meals that needed food whether they had family's or not. Along with that program, they also care for pregnant women and help take care for the baby's after they're born. On our tour of the place we saw a woman in the back room sitting on the cold dirty floor and in labor! There were doctors around to help, but I felt for her. I knew living in Congo meant a hard life, but this just confirmed it. The tour ended and we handed out some of the donations we had brought. We passed out clothes, candy, and toys for the kids. But for some reason, the only toys we had with us this day were 4 toy cars for this group of over 50

kids! So I quickly invented little a game with them of trying to pass the car through a couple of other kids' legs without them catching it. It was just a quick solution to my realization that there wasn't going to be enough to share! But it didn't take long before most of the kids were involved and they barely realized that there weren't very many cars to go around. They weren't used to having a lot of things, so they were all really good about sharing the cars. But now we know where to bring more toys next time! This center was doing so much for the community and needed all of the help they could get! They also cared for a few kids who had been orphaned so we got to spend some time with them and take their pictures before we left :)

We treated ourself to the 5 star Memling Hotel for dinner and ate outside by the pool enjoying the weather after dusk. We asked the waitress if we could get internet from outside and she responded in ENGLISH that she only spoke French... Great. I was more then a little frustrated, being that internet was the same word in French with only the hard, phlegm spewing, "k" sound in the middle that I have attempted and failed at many times! It baffled me that the cleaning ladies that

came to my room this morning tried harder and were able to communicate better with me then the waitress at this classy hotel. My guess is that it's probably for the same reason that the people with money here make sure that they let the world know their status in society through their attire. Its a form of separating themselves from the lower class because the rich don't want to be associated with the poor. By speaking French the were trying to show us their status level... but ironically my interactions with the women that came to our room to clean were FAR more pleasant and enjoyable :) This is only an observations of mine, but it makes sense to me as this air of superiority translates into the way the poor and the orphans are provided for in the country. There are some people with A LOT of money but they ignore the suffering around them and instead build expensive homes in private neighborhoods. We continued to gather our thoughts from the trip and got to hear a lot of input from Dereje.

Since the program in the DRC is new and this is only CCI's 2nd trip to Congo, there are still things to be figured out in order to make these trips go more smoothly. We really appreciate your prayers for the adoption program here, but especially pray for the kids and their caretakers that are trying so hard to provide for them.

Congo: Day 2 - TIA!

I was going to post this last night but the power went out in our whole commune… right before I was going to shower too! But, as our translator reminded me “This is Africa”! It was not the best timing but after everything we’ve been doing and seeing I haven’t really been in a complaining mood or even remotely deserved the right to self pity. Mom and I leave for America in the morning, and I'll hopefully add more updates when we return.

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I love people watching. I’m sorry if that sounds creepy, but I do. I love trying to figure out what a person’s thinking by watching their body language. I like trying to figure out who they are and what their personality is like. I’m probably usually wrong but I let myself believe it b/c I would have no way of knowing otherwise :P. Here in Congo though, this game is a little bit less fun for me b/c almost everyone seems so serious! I knew that they weren’t “friendly people” but I didn’t expect them to be showing such little emotion! And I can’t help but feel a little intimidated driving around and receiving only serious stares from everyone. I can’t tell if they’re plotting my demise or if I’ve just got something stuck in my teeth. It could be anything! Our translator assured me that they’re mostly curious when they stare because they’re not used to seeing white people. He told us that the best thing for us to do is just smile and say “bonjour” and they’ll usually stop. But there’s another cultural difference for you… it’s not rude to stare!

I love seeing the color in everyone’s clothes! Both men and women wear lots of color but women oftentimes add large jewelry. And add to that the fact that every other woman on the street is carrying something on her head, this place really makes me feel like I’m in Africa! (You know that’s true when an Ethiopian says that himself!) I read that the Congolese like to dress in style and judge you strongly on your appearance. That was a huge bummer for me because I always like to dress as comfortably as possible when I travel.

But one woman in the airport completely caught me off guard! Get this... and I'm not exaggerating when I say that she had on a leopard print jacket and matching tight legging pants, zebra earrings, a LARGE giraffe bag, she was blinged out in gold necklaces and bracelets, aaaand to tie it all off… bright pink pumps. This is not a joke. Now… I’m all for adapting to a culture when you travel but everyone's gotta draw the line somewhere… mine is at wearing mismatched animal print.

We had a meeting with our lawyer in the morning, and I think it went well. Dereje was very helpful as we talked about the process in Ethiopia. It was really great to compare programs and what needed to be done to keep the Congo program successful. Then we were off to Mama Ester’s orphanage, Eden. This was my first orphanage since I’ve been to here in Congo and if it is any representation of the rest of the orphanages here… lets just ay there’s a lot of work to be done. I spent most of the day on the verge of tears as we saw the conditions these kids were in.

We got a tour of the house and Dereje, who’s seen almost every orphanage in Ethiopia, was even shocked at the “lack of standards”. We got to the kids room and it was dark, but I saw a little girl on one of the beds that looked sickly. I sat by her for a while until she was comfortable with me, and then she climbed on my lap. As I held her, I heard the story Mama Esther was telling about a baby who had died in this very place, just weeks before. The little girl on my lap continued to cough and I just thought that it could be her next! How could we prevent this from happening again?? Whatever it takes we need to improve the conditions these kids are in, whether it’s getting a house ourselves to care for these kids or some other way, we need to help these sweet kids.

We’re staying at a new hotel this trip and got a feel for another place that we may suggest to family’s coming to pick up their children. It’s in a nicer area of Kinshasa, but that doesn’t stop the bugs from biting or the electricity from going out. Internet is still slow and the hot water runs out fast. But what was I expecting… TIA!

Taking pictures are “illegal” here, so for all intensive purposes I don’t know where I got all of these photos that suddenly appeared on my memory card. But, I’ll hopefully post some of that as soon as I get back to the land of the free and the home of the fast internet.

Thanks!

Julie

Congo: Day 1

It's taken me awhile to post and a lot has happened since we've arrived to the Congo. It's not always easy for me to put things into words so I've been thinking about what I've wanted to say very carefully in order to be both realistic and accurate... all while not sugar coating anything. Before I came I was expecting to have a lot of good experiences that I would be excited to share but there turned out to be very few happy, blog-worthy moments. If I continued this way there would be nothing at all to talk about. So, here we are, at the end of day 3 and I've decided to tell it all. The Good, Bad, and the Ugly. For this post I'm going to start with just the first day.

Day 1:

This trip to Africa started out with my mom and I heading to Ethiopia for 9 days. During that stay we decided that it would be a good idea to bring our Ethiopian country representative, Dereje, to the DRC with us. He could help us by talking to our new Congolese workers a little about Ethiopian adoptions and give and them an idea of what's worked well in the past and what hasn't. It turned out to be a good idea... but more difficult to accomplish then we could have imagined. It turns out that bringing an Ethiopian into the Congo is not just a difficult task... it's a nightmare! We had done all of the appropriate steps before coming but that wasn't good enough.

We had nothing but difficult experiences the first day accented only by an encounter with a Congolese man whose name means "welcome" and a very appropriate meaning as he was the first person I met worthy of that title. He was very friendly and was kinder then anyone we'd met so far. By the end of the day I was referring to him as my angel because I probably would have ended up in tears within the first few hours upon arriving if I had not met him on the short ride on the people mover. We lost sight of him as we made our way to the immigration lines but that wasn't the last time i'd see my new friend.

We finally got to the immigration desk and my mom was first. She went through without a problem. When I went up the only question I was asked was if I was with the woman who was in front of me. "Yep." Apparently that's all she needed and I was through just by uttering one syllable. But Dereje did not get so lucky. Mom and I tried to wait for him on the other side of the counter so we could walk to baggage claim together but the guards were not happy with our lingering and briskly sent us away. We didn't need more then 5 minutes to realize something was wrong. My mom left me to wait for our 7 duffle bags while she went to go look for him... but we didn't realize that it would be over 2 hours before we would see each other again.

I don't know the details of what happened during that time, but all I knew at the time was that I was starting to get scared. All I could do was to keep watching for the bags b/c worrying wasn't going to help anything. During a small confusion that involved a lot of people running I realized that we had been waiting at the wrong conveyer belt and that I had just lost my wonderful spot in the front. But that was ok because that led me to finding "Welcome" again! Normally I would be more hesitant about talking to a "stranger" in a brand new place but this man was the only english speaker I'd met and was just a kind man. He eased my nerves as he told me about his return from America and what I could expect in the DRC. And then he emphasized what i'd been told many times. Congo was not a friendly place and that if I didn't speak French i would have many difficulties. And he was very right... When the conveyer belt came to a stop and none of my bags had arrived yet, "Welcome" encouraged me to go look for the other 2 members of my party. But I was not treated very well at all by the guards and and one laughed as he told me that my mom and Dereje had been taken away. What?? Why? They were set on speaking French until one finally told me in English that she knew where they went but I couldn't go see them until I had gotten all of my bags! So many things were wrong with that... What if they never arrived? So far there had been none at all! I was about to breakdown but "Welcome" saw my distress and just talked to me some more while we waited and waited... He told me that sometimes this happens and all that the security guards want is some money in order to let someone go. That is just wrong. That's not how a system is supposed to work at all...

I had long lost track of the time when finally I saw my mom coming back through the doors and I could just see the distress on her face. She explained what happened and how after the security found out that she had come with Dereje, they took away her passport so that she had to be retained with him! She had already been let through once but then all of a sudden she wasn't even allowed to come tell me what was wrong! But after a couple hours of misery she was allowed to come find me, but Dereje still needed to be questioned. I was starting to think that he was being held for ransom after all. Mom helped me find the bags, which was not easy when it's a system of every-man-for-himself. But we made it and went outside to find our translator, Dido. Finally! He found us and we were escorted to his car to wait while he

talked to security to try to get them to release Dereje. And boy did we wait... because all I could do for my first 3 hours of being in Congo was sit in a van playing angry birds :P. But at last we saw our Abyssinian friend was free! Whatever Dido did saved the day because it turns out they were getting ready to send the poor guy back to Ethiopia! The entire day was gone by the time we reached the hotel but we were just glad that we were all finally here to stay and could get started with seeing kids the next day.

I doubt every entry to this country will be this difficult but we learned a lot about the system just through this experience. People have warned me that this is not an easy place to stay and after several difficult experiences I've seen this for myself as well. As hard as it may be, it's not a good enough reason to stop what we're doing. Immigration may try everything in their power to keep us out and the government may not consider adoption work and helping orphans a good enough reason for Dereje to enter the country but that's all the more reason to get as many of these kids into family's as possible! These orphans are the victims of a system that considers them of the lowest priority and they are not being cared for adequately. I have seen some of the most malnourished kids I have in my life here and they are the ones suffering, not us. We will find a way to keep coming back because this may be some of these kids' only hope.

I Never Want to Leave!

Can i sound any more cliche? But it's true. My time here always feels too short, and especially now more then ever. Every place we've been has felt a little bit rushed, so I was glad to spent a few full days at the transition house... because with 25 kids and 10 nannies there's always so much going on! Today is my last day in Ethiopia before we leave for Congo so I'm going to sum up what we've been up to from where I left off...

The 4th day, Wednesday, we started out slow and spent the morning at the Hilton... which was basically a small taste of the pleasures we are used to at home. Internet, pizza, A/C, and lots and lots of "forenge" that look like us. After mom was done with meetings there, we headed off to the transition house. I love that she has a liscense now b/c we feel so independent... but it means we REALLY have to learn our way around... We spent the rest of the day at the house taking, video and pictures of the kids and having the best game of frisbeen in our new large-ish yard. We had an exciting and very random encounter with our next door neighbors who turned out to be American's, so Yours Truly was dubbed the one to shout over the wall and introduce everyone :P It turns out they were just as curious about their new neighbors as we were. They actually enjoyed hearing all of the "joy" coming from the house. That was truly a suprise b/c some of that laughter sounds a lot like screaming sometimes... ;) We'll see how they feel in a couple months, hah.

The 5th day was essentially the 2 hours we spent in Wolita. It was about a 6 hour drive each way and the roads are just awful. My manner of coping is by popping a couple Dramamine and hoping that it knocks me out for most of the drive. Although it was a very quick trip, we had a very successful and worthwile use of our time there :) But no thanks to my new favorite yellow pill I actually have "0" new pictures from this Thursday in Ethiopia.

Day #6: So I didn't get to go to Nazareth to see the babies that many others are coming from far and wide to see while bearing gifts of clothes, toys, and love. But I did however spend ALL morning with the group of kids from Nazareth that came to Addis for a doctors visit. Some were not in pleasant moods after spending a good 5 hours in the car to come down, while others were happy and content to just be out of the car. I loved seeing some of their personalities come out throughtout the day, sometimes quickly dampened upon being sent in to the doctor to get shots :( But all in all, they were a great group and I am excited for anyone that ends up with one of them in their family. After that, Mom and I got to REALLY know Addis Ababa a little better after mising a turn and finding a new way to get to the transition house! It even took us down Churchill street so we could get some last minute shopping in ;)

Day #7: We went back to Miskaye for the morning to finish up some unfinished business that were weren't able to do when we were there a couple days ago. But upon talking to the orphanage director we discovered another child that we would need to go see immediately. We wanted to go see this child ourselves and talk to the birth mother in person while we were in country. It was truly a touching experience and hearing the mothers story about why she was giving up her child was truly heartbreaking and... well... there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Seening the pure love behind what she was doing makes it easy to see that this is what all this is about.

The best decision I made though, was to spend the night at the transition house. I knew my time was running out and I didn't want to miss a minute. And the nannies had only just started doing my hair when my mom had to leave! It was a typical rest of the evening... wagon pulling, jump roping, looking at old pictures of kids, kids skyping home to parents... But after dinner I got to break out my movies that I promised them that I would bring this time. The kids all watched Monsters Inc which I may have enjoyed more than some of them did... and after we put the little ones to bed the older boys picked Men in Black. Good choice. After a few minutes all of the nannies joined in and it was a big party. Everyone was laughing through the whole thing and were completely hooked. And my favorite part may have been the long in depth conversation afterwards about aliens and vampires, and A LOT of things that I thought were common knowledge... but apparently weren't :)

My 8th and last full day in Ethiopia I got to wake up to laughing kids and Ethiopian music playing on the Ipod we got the house last year. It wasn't a sad day though. Although we all knew it was our last day we didn't really talk about it and just enjoyed being there. Each of these kids are really special and really made my time here truly enjoyable. Writing this now it's just starting to sink in and I'm really really going to miss them. The nannies were always great company and although communicating was difficult it didn't stop us from finding a way to have fun :) And I promised to go home and learn more Amharic for the next time I come back. One of the girls even showed me an Ipod App that I'm really going to enjoy practicing with!

Tomorrow my mom and I leave bright and early for the DRC along with our Ethiopian lawyer to protect us! hah I've been told many times that Ethiopia and Congo are very different and right now i will welcome the HEAT as opposed to this COLD Ethiopia that I've been experiencing. I'm excited to finally see this country that i've heard so much about.

I will add more pics (so check back for that :) and I'll update as soon as I can!

Julie

Ethiopia so far!

It’s good to be back! I love how comfortable it feels to be here. I feel right at home as we have our friend and driver, Alazar, come to pick us up at the airport and it takes away any worries I have away from the start. We’ve been here 4 days and this is the first time I’ve gotten some down time when we haven’t been on the road or recovering from jet lag. Although our schedule is nonstop now, it started out slow (at least for me). We arrived in Ethiopia at 8:30 am, which was upsetting to me b/c I was hoping for it to be the evening so I could SLEEP! I had gotten no more then 2 hours of sleep including the night before and the plane ride… so I was VERY tired. But I was determined to not miss a day of fun. When we got to the Grace Guest House I laid down for a nap with every intention of waking up for the drive out to Nazaret on the first day. But I was not an easy person to wake up and I was so enjoying my ZzZz’s that I decided to take the first day off to rest. And good thing I did b/c I slept so deeply that next thing I knew my mom had returned 7 hours later and I had not even woken up for a second… just in time for dinner :P. I was a little upset about missing the trip b/c I had never been out there, but I may get a second chance on Thursday. I’ll have to decide between going out to Wolita again to help my mom in some of the orphanages in the southern region, or go to Nazaret instead to take some kids back to the orphanage and bring others’ back

to our transition house. Both would be wonderful, but it will probably come down to which my mom would need more help with.

But after my “day off” it has been pretty busy. The second day Alazar drove us out to Woliso to visit both of our orphanages out there. It’s the rainy season right now, so it’s quite cold every day, and EVERYTHING is just soaked everywhere we go. The road’s become very muddy especially when we get pretty far out of Addis Ababa, and makes for some very troublesome experiences. Sure, the car get’s stuck a lot, and sometimes we have to take longer detours taking twice as long as we wanted… but the biggest problem is that it’s impossible to take pictures!! How am I supposed to properly document our trip when the windows are always covered in raindrops! Even when I would roll down the window to sacrifice my personal warmth for a scenic picture, the pics do not turn out b/c of all of the mist in the air blocking the beautiful mountains that were supposed to help capture the moment… Good thing I’ve got a good couple thousand pictures from my last 3 trips! The Amanuel orphan center was crowded with 52 kids and was quite overwhelming. It was unbearably sad to see all of the big kids that had long lost hope of ever finding a family. The kids that were all smiles last time we came were now teenagers that looked as us with a gimmer of hope but knowing why we weren't taking their pictures this trip. We videoed the few kids that we needed to, and met a little baby who had not been named yet, so we decided to use a family of ours that has been in our family for a few generations J

The second orphanage, Andenet, was harder to get to, and I was afraid we were never going to get unstuck from the mud at one point, but it was well worth it. There was only about 9 kids there so we really got to know them and play with them. The kids had the cutest giggles and loved the little black baby dolls we bought at Ikea for each of the orphanages. They would just burst out laughing when I would treat the doll like a real baby and give it a bottle when it would “cry”. They were adorable, and I always hate leaving the orphanages when we don’t get to spend much time there.

I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time at the transition house and I LOVED seeing the nannies again. And I was excited to see that they were as excited to see me as I was to see them. Most of them are my age and always a lot of fun. They were as happy and playful as ever and love on those kids 24/7. I brought my computer and they would squeal as they saw pictures of kids that they used to have and couldn’t believe how big they’d gotten. They would even tear up seeing how happy and healthy they were doing. They miss those kids so much and truly love each and every one.

Tuesday, the 3^rd day was my first trip to Debre Birhan and I was thrilled that the rain was being semi-cooperative so I could take pictures of the area. The huts from the Amhara region are quite different from any other region, and are probably my favorite. They look like little gingerbread houses and the cutest things when they are grouped together which each other like little communities. Thanks to a small miscommunication with our driver, Alazar, we ended up spending quite a bit longer there then we expected but I didn’t mind so much J We enjoyed practicing our barely existent Amharic with the nannies. A lot of the kids had gotten puzzles, games, and coloring books from their new families and we had fun helping them with their workbooks and playing with the ever-popular bubbles with them.

I’m off to the transition house now to paint fingernails for the girls I promised pretty flowered nails for! I hope to post more pictures next time, thanks so much for your prayers and support!

Julie

Entire rice fields are flooded for the next couple months during the rainy season

One of the few good ones I got as the rain would allow

And this is my personal favorite because I imagined this must be what the Good Samaritan and his donkey must've looked like when he came across the Jew. It truly feels like Bible times here and this story became more clear to me this trip. The sides of the road are always busy with people headed into towns and must be very exhausted from their long walks and with precious little time.