Kinshasa Journal

Well, we made it to Kinshasa! It's been a whirlwind. I tried to keep a record of events so that I could post them later. I may have gotten a couple of things written for the wrong days, but all of the events are true. Sorry it's so long. I actually left a lot out. I wish I had photos. Taking photos here is illegal in a lot of places and I haven't chanced it anywhere yet. So, here's my journal of the last several days.

Day 1 – Monday
Arrive in Kinshasa at 7pm. Our team had hired two men to help us collect our bags, but when we arrived, there were three men doing the job. We, of course, knew none of them, and couldn’t have stopped them if we tried. In fact I think David did try. Once Garth and Brian got us to the vehicle, the third man, who had stayed on our heels this entire time, demanded money for his service. We were happy to let Garth take care of it. We were taken to our home and introduced to one of our new sentinels. We found beds made, clean water, pizza in the freezer, and food in the fridge. John, a pilot but also our team’s IT guy, had even set up our internet for us. Discovered none of the exterior lights work, which is a safety issue for us and for our sentinels. Garth said he would tell the landlord.
Day 2 – Tuesday
We tried to cook eggs for breakfast but the stove wouldn’t work. Spent the day with Garth. First we went to Josh’s school to get him enrolled. Josh and I were able to take a tour of the campus. We went to the U.S. consulate to register, only to learn that you can no longer do that in person. You must do it via internet. Experienced our first restaurant in Kinshasa. We had these things called schwarmas: basically chicken, French fries, and coleslaw wrapped in a type of tortilla-shell-thingy. And Coke in a bottle, with real cane sugar instead of corn syrup. We looked at furniture and appliances but didn’t buy any. We were getting an idea of what is available and what the prices are. Dinner with Garth’s family. Power went out this morning but came on again about ten hours later.
Day 3 – Wednesday
David discovered that the stove has three breaker switches and only one was on, so now we can use the stove. Shopping. We were told to make a list of things we needed so Garth could take us shopping. All the newness, combined with jet lag had our heads a-spin. I couldn’t come up with a very good list. We wrote down some food items and some household items. Went to several stores and found about half of the items on our list. I’m told that’s not uncommon. We visited a physician’s assistant/missionary to discuss staying healthy in the Congo and what to do if we have problems. We had a lovely lesson on the various parasites. Today was Josh’s first day of school. One of our team members, Sandy, lives right down the street so she gives Josh rides to and from school. Dinner with John and Marilyn. He makes amazing salsa. I must get his recipe. This time of year is rainy season and we had our first tasted of that tonight with a big storm. Arrived home and discovered our roof leaks in a few places and one of our windows had broken. Power went out for a few hours. I’m thinking this might be something I should just expect. Emily was invited to a girl’s Bible study at the TASOK campus (Josh’s school).
Day 4 – Thursday
We have city water, but it is inconsistent and not drinkable, so we have a reservoir that holds 1,000 liters for when the city water is off, and a filter. Today we learned that we need to keep an eye on the reservoir, or have our sentinels do it. The water had been off for a while and we didn’t know it so I was doing laundry, washing dishes and floors, and we were all taking showers. We found out the water was off when our reservoir became empty. Thankfully, water came back on shortly after and our tank filled back up, so we learned our lesson without having to haul water from a friend’s house. Now we know. David got up in the crawl space and looked at our roof. We thought it was tin. It looks like tin from the outside. It is actually asbestos, which is why no one collects rain water off their roofs. It is old and there were at least two cracks that he could find. Dinner with the Writebol family. Brian Writebol is the other full-time mechanic here.
Day 5 – Friday
The stove has some wiring issues. Something about arching and burning. David put some electrical tape over the bad spots. I’m not too sure about all that, but I have to cook. David Francis took us shopping for furniture. We found a dresser for Emily. We ordered a sofa and loveseat from this business that was about 6 square feet, made of tin and wood with dirt floors. They get fabric, foam, and wood from where ever and make furniture with only hand tools. It is far from perfect, they don't even cure the wood, so sometimes after you buy it it warps or cracks, and they stain it any color you want. Someone said they thought the stain was shoe polish but I don’t know. Considering their resources, they do an amazing job. When we arrived home, there was a man in the yard who claimed to be the plumber. The landlord had sent him to fix the leaky toilet. It was supposed to have been repaired by October 1, and our MAF guys had repaired it on the 11th before we arrived, so he was sent home. David and David also worked on the wiring for our dryer because it was burning up the outlet and plug when we used it. Some of the families in our neighborhood have a weekly play day so I took Emily and Daniel . This week it was at the Greene’s home. They are local missionaries. We stopped at Sandy Francis’ for a while. She has kittens at her house, which we enjoyed. Potluck dinner with the whole MAF team. We had a very nice evening getting to know people better and watching them interact with each other. They are like a big family, and they just welcomed us right into their family “ as is” . Arrived home to discover we had no internet.
Day 6 – Saturday
No internet. Every Saturday there is a softball game at TASOK and people from MAF, the embassies, and local missionaries participate. Josh wanted to play, so I went to watch and Daniel went to play with his new friend Nicholas. The black flies had a feast at my expense. Another lesson learned. Wear bug spray at TASOK. Tried to mop the floor. I can’t figure out this mop thingy. It’s actually a huge foam squeegee with a long wooden handle and you are supposed to somehow put this shammy type cloth on the end and mop with it, but the cloth doesn’t stay where you put it. It kept falling off. The mop is too wide for the bucket. Am I supposed to wet the cloth or just pour soapy water on the floor? I just gave up and got down on my hands and knees and cleaned the floor by hand. Got a backache but we discovered that our kitchen floor is green. At least when it is wet. Dinner with Rod and Valerie. We got to hear their testimonies and how they came to be with MAF, and play with their kittens. We fell in love with one of them, but I think she is spoken for already. Emily is trying to talk David into letting us have one of Sandy’s AND one of Valerie’s.
Day 7 – Sunday
We went to IPCK, International Protestant Church of Kinshasa. About half of the congregation is Congolese. There are members from all over the world, which was fun. There is no air conditioning, so all of the windows were open and everyone outside can hear God being praised. David and Sandy took us out for lunch and took us grocery shopping. By this time, I had a better idea of what might be available and had actually planned a few meals and made a decent list. We found almost all we needed. I think I paid about 2.00 per ounce for cheese, and that was the cheap cheese. I didn’t buy very much. We found pepperoni at one store. It wasn’t on my list, but it is very hard to find here so I bought some for the freezer. Still no internet. At bed time, our oldest decided to tell us the bathroom floor in the main part of the house had been wet all day. Yes, it was sewage.
Day 8 – Monday
Hooray! John got our internet repaired! Unfortunately, we had to have a person on the roof to do it, so now we have more cracks in the roof. Valerie picked me up and we went walking at TASOK. I am still itching from the black fly bites, so I remembered my bug spray. The Greene family had us over for dinner. Came home to discover we only had electricity to half the house. Some of our wiring was burnt through. Isn’t that nice to think about when you aren’t home? Apparently, the window a/c unit we put in the boy’s room cannot be on when I do laundry. David made a temporary repair, but he had to cut power to the water pump (no water), internet, and washer and dryer in order to cool the boy’s room. That’s the only a/c unit we have installed. I wondered, if this is what happens with one unit, what will happen if we try to cool all of the bedrooms? I was really, really tired and for some reason I decided I needed to wash dishes before I went to bed. Since the water pump was off, we only had a tiny trickle coming out of the tap. And my hot water heater wasn’t working. I actually cried because I couldn’t wash dishes. Can you believe it? I should have thrown a party! I mean, who actually WANTS to wash dishes? I was just too tired to handle it.
Day 9 – Tuesday
Our driver’s licenses have arrived. They messed up my entire date of birth, the day, month AND year. AND!!!! They made me OLDER. I tried to give it back to David. I told him I don’t want to drive and I don’t want to be older. He made me keep it. They messed up his too, but they got his age correct. They gave him an endorsement to drive buses and semi-trucks. He has never done either one. In our neighborhood there is a Women’s Bible study on Tuesday evenings, so Esther picked me up for that. Our trash had been piling up because we didn’t know what to do with it. David dug a hole in the yard for the compostable stuff. We separated the burnable stuff out. The rest went into a bag that the Francis family gave us for the trash pick up. You have to pay “ by the bag”. David Francis came over. He and my David worked on the wiring (not fixed but better) and the toilet, which was till leaking sewage even though no one had used it in over two days. You can’t buy wax rings for the toilets here, so someone had used cement instead. We hope it is fixed. I’ve had “mop” on my shopping list since we got here. Now I have “MOP!!!” on my shopping list. Guess I could try the squeegee thingy. I’m thinking it might be a challenge trying to use a 30 inch squeegee with a fasten-less cleaning rag around our toilet base. David checked his email and learned that our shipment had arrived on Monday. We’ve been told it could be several more weeks before the “powers that be” decide to let us have our stuff. Tonight was my first night cooking. We were talking about making substitutions, trying to find stuff in the stores, the unavailability of convenience foods, the occasional power outage. He made the comment that “cooking in Kinshasa is kind of like camping in your own kitchen.”