Congo: Day 5 Final Post!

It doesn't get much crazier then this.

This trip has become a complete turn around. On our first day here we were almost kicked out of the country, didn't feel like we were even accepted here, and weren't even sure if we WANTED to stay after everything that happened. But after our last day here I wanted nothing more then to spend at least one more day in Congo. I had just reached the point of enjoying being here and it was time to go. I'll explain...

In the morning we went Eden and it no longer felt like we were strangers to these kids. We were greeted by name and with lots of hugs and love, and I think they could tell that we loved them too. While my mom went off to take care of important things, the kids dragged me by the hand to play checkers with them. They were using a home made version with cardboard and bottle caps for pieces. And for the first time I really started to feel what it must be like living here. On our first 2 walk-thru's I felt more like just an observer, feeling sorry for the kids living in these conditions. But sitting there in the dark, on this rickety table, playing on this sorry excuse for a game, knowing that there wasn't much else for them to do, it made me wish even more that that there was more I could do. But they were still being funny and silly and before we even finished the game it it was time to go. There was a lot to do today and we were already behind schedule.

Then we were on our way to visit Mafe, a small orphanage in Kinshasa that I'd been warned by my dad that it was VERY difficult to get to. The first time my parents went to Mafe they had not been prepared for how difficult it would be. After a couple minutes of driving the sand was dubbed too difficult to drive through. They had been told to get out and walk the 1 and a half hours the rest of the way in their sandals and flip flops. NOT fun. This time we refused to go unless we had an appropriate car to drive us the entire way.

Well..... we were promised that the Mini-van we were in had made it to this orphanage and back and that we had no reason to worry. Hmm.... we were concerned but we believed them. We hit the section that my mom warned me was where they had to stop last time. Instead of slowing down and stopping we started to speed up!! "It is the only way we can make it" our driver told us!! We braced ourselves for the turns as we spun on the sand and the driver almost lost control!! I probably would have enjoyed it so much more if I wasn't so scared for my life! This continued for about 10 more minutes as we gained speed and spun around at EVERY TURN. We were all scared but laughter took over us as our coping method. I was laughing SO hard as I heard my mom gasp every 5 seconds! Sometimes I would brace myself for a crash against a building as our driver would changed directions at the last minute almost missing the turns!! I actually thought it was a fairly exciting drive... but my mom just glared at me when I told her that :P Buuut to our surprise we made it there!

The kids at Mafe were sweet and we brought them some cars and clothes and took lots of pictures of them :)

But when it was time to go we braced ourselves for the drive back. We just skidded around the sand like a ball on a pinball machine again. But this time... we got STUCK! :( I think it took about 2 hours to finally get out but I can honestly say that it was probably my favorite 2 hours from our whole trip. We had stopped right at the edge of a soccer game that had brought out about 50+ kids to play and watch. And I ended up hanging out with some "street kids" that had come to see what was going on. (But... I'm not sure if "street" is the right word though because this was like no street I've ever seen. Maybe "sand kids" would be a little more appropriate...) So I was surrounded by these "sand kids" and they were probably the cutest things in the world!!

So while the men did a lot of this:

I just watched a lot of this:

But best of all I got to play with these guys:

These kids were ADORABLE! I took these videos when they just didn't stop cracking me up. The the funny little guys were doing hand noises and arm pit farts... boys will be boys.

The kids above inspired me to teach them one of my favorites... the "hand-snapping-thing-that-im-not-sure-even-has-a-name"!! They did pretty good too. I still laugh every time I watch this one...

How can you not love this little face?? This is the same little guy that entertained us all above.

But it was more then his impeccable ability to pull off mismatched women's shoes that drew me to him. The kid needed some pants! He was wearing underware for shorts, and they were so worn and tattered that it left him almost naked. I couldn't bear to think about how long he'd been wearing them! All of the other kids around at least had something on... I felt so bad for the kid! We had just visited one of our last orphanages so I thought that it would be a lost cause to check to see if we had anything he could wear. But after shifting through diapers and baby bottles for our final orphanage, I found a pair of brown 4T stretchy pants. It was unbelievable!! It didn't even hit me how amazing it was until later because there was no way that we would have purposely left these pants in the bag because the only kids left for us to see were babies! I can't even explain how excited I was that they were there. I LOVED seeing him with these comfortable pants on, perfect for this playful little kid. If I hadn't just been scolded for taking pictures believe me, the image of this little guy climbing trees in his new pants would probably have been one of my favorite pictures of all time. God truly showed his love for his people today. Not only the orphans in the DRC but for the "sand kids" as well.

"God loves to use things that we consider to be insignificant, like Moses' rod which parted the Red Sea, or Davids sling-shot that brought down a giant, or a boy's lunch that fed a multitude..." And I would add to that, "the pair of pant's that wasn't supposed to be there".

After visiting our last orphanage, Markos, we visited the Congo River! It was cool to see Brazaville sitting on the other side of the river, but other then that it was pretty anti-climactic. hah. From our spot the trees were covering most of our view and there was no way to even sneakily take pictures. It was basically the perfect storm of places that would easily land us in jail for taking a picture. Our viewing location was right in front of the American Embassy, we were viewing one of the most protected rivers in all of Africa, aaaand the President, Joseph Kabila himself, was getting ready to walk by!! And I guess this is as good a place as any to note that this was the 3rd time this trip that we'd crossed paths with the guy. Part of the chaos at the airport on our entrance was a result of the president landing at the same time, we passed him again in traffic when there was tons of police cars that I talked about here, aaand now we had to get out of this area to make way for the guy. I figured that he was must be trying really hard to see us and that I should at least go and say hi! But the guards would have none of it...

We enjoyed a nice classy dinner at the "Grand Hotel" and FINALLY got to relax and enjoyed being finished with our work. Buuut not without a small change of plans of course :) We checked our email and to our surprise found a reply from our friend "Welcome". Remember my angel that saved me at the airport?? We had planned to meet up again while we were here in Congo, but we hadn't heard back. He had written us the nicest email about how he had enjoyed meeting us, but had to take an emergency trip to Ivory Coast and couldn't see us. But, since he couldn't meet with us himself he sent his brother and friends to meet us at our hotel that evening!! His email told us that they would be at our hotel at 5 PM but we had only just gotten the email and it was already 8 PM!! There was no way they would still be there waiting for us. But they only proved to us to be about the nicest people in the whole world!! They had waited there as we strolled in at 9 PM and were MORE helpful then we could have imagined. They knew so much about the country and wanted to do everything in their power to help us get a house for the kids and/or other housing for ourselves while in the country. His brother knew so much about adoptions, and his sister wanted to take it upon herself to check up on our kids for us. But they didn't speak much english so they brought their 2 seminary student friends to translate :) I don't know what we did to deserve this, but we felt so blessed to have met them.

By the end of the day I really thought about how many things had seemed to have gone badly at first but really turned out to be quite the opposite. Some of those circumstances that I can pinpointed as the most frustrating times, afterwards I looked back as the most memorable moments that have led to some even greater surprises. Getting separated for hours at the airport... pretty bad. Having Dereje held for ransom... that was pretty bad. Getting stuck in the sand for hours and putting us far behind schedule... that also on the surface seemed pretty bad. But truth be told, if we hadn't been stuck at the airport, we wouldn't have met Welcome (Bienvenue) and we would have left the country with SO many unanswered questions and frustrations that were easily solved in a short meeting with his friends. And through Dereje's situation at the airport I think that we learned a lot about the system that may help us later. But most importantly, getting stuck in the sand gave me a chance to really stop and "smell the roses" on my last day. I honestly can say that I loved meeting those kids on the side of the road and really brightened up my whole perspective on the trip. Sure, many aspects of this trip were difficult but i wouldn't have it ANY other way and I wouldn't change those circumstances even if I could. They have all lead to some of the biggest blessings from being here that we would have completely missed out on. We could have had a mediocre, unexciting trip in which we always got everywhere we needed to right on time... but what kind of story would that have been? I probably would have lost all of my readers by day 1! ;)

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