Extreme's

This past week I had the pleasure of flying the Caravan around with our Chief Pilot. The first night of our trip we slept the night in the Chalet in Kisangani. Kisangani is nice, river town. Most of the roads are paved with only minor pot holes, and the pace is much slower than Kinshasa. The Chalet is a very nice little hotel complete with A/C and a salt water swimming pool. Needless to say it was a nice beginning to the trip.

The second night we joined our passengers in Djolu, a small village about 180 miles west of Kisangani. Thick jungle surrounds Djolu in every direction. There is NO electricity in the entire town,, and certainly not cell phone coverage.

I knew the night was going to interesting when after we landed a local NGO staff member took me on a dirt bike for a 20 minute ride up a muddy trail. I was then showed to my room, complete with a bamboo bed with a small piece of foam on top for a mattress. We were given a tour of the town by a local boy,, through the market, by the old church, what once was a school, and women planting their rice in small fields. As the afternoon sun rose straight overhead we were told the "Djolu afternoon was coming" a time of the day when every one stops work to sip Palm Wine. Palm Wine is a local drink made from the sap of palm oil trees. The sap is collected similar to maple syrup and drank straight. Straight out of the tree is has no fermentation, but after 6-8 hours it becomes almost to strong to drink. The one thing about Palm Wine is that is has an odor similar to rotten eggs although the taste is not quite that bad. I managed to drink a very small glass and went quickly back to my bottle of nice pure water.

We passed the night by moon light, not even a candle to eat by. I have not seen that many stars since I was back in Kansas, it was beautiful.

We awoke to rain pattering on the top of the palm leaf roof, 1/2 km of visibility, and about 200 ft ceilings. We went to market for probably the best coffee I have had in Congo, in a little smoke filled hut. After a few hours the rain slowed and we were able to make it back to our trusty airplane, and en route to our next destination.

That night we were suppose to come home to kin, but due to the rain that morning and more rain at our fuel stop we slept the night again " in the field". This time in Basankusu, another river town that has also seen its share of degrading times. We took the chance to was through the hospital, you could see how nice it must have been at once. And now it was scary that people came here to get better. The market in Basankusu was also another interesting place. Fresh catfish, crocodile tail, smoked monkey, as well as the other normal cuts of bloody meat laid out for hours on dirty wooden tables. What a place!!!

In more exciting news, it looks like I am headed to Lubumbashi for a week or so to finish up my Caravan training. Steve Bontrager and Bruce Yoder, both friends from the old HCA are down there so that will be great to see them again and see some more of the Congo country side.

After my week in Lubumbashi, I head to Kabul Afghanistan to fly there for a while. Our funding through USAID here in Kinshasa has been cut, which means moving some people around. I am excited to go to Afghanistan, and also a little overwhelmed by the in-security there. I think it will be an awesome experience to see a new part of the world and new culture. From the people I have talked to it sounds like the scenery is spectacular there. So keep checking back for more pics.

Good bye for now

JW

The past couple of months I have had the privilege of attending the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (IPCK). They are one of the few churches here in Kinshasa that hosts an English service every week. I have attended Easter sunrise service over the mighty Congo river with them. As well as meeting some awesome people who are passionate about what they are doing here.

This morning I experienced a time that will stick as a wonderful memory from IPCK. The choir consists of mostly local people and a few expats,,, this morning in service they performed a song as they always do. The difference this morning was that this song was a native Congolese song sang in Swahili and another language I can not pronounce. The beat of the music and the swaying of the choir members moved through everyone in the building. There was no possible way to keep from tapping your toes and clapping along. The words of the song said something like "I have looked for Jesus and here I have found him". It was awesome to see people from Congo, America, England, S. Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Canada, and many others singing along together.

And now for a complete extreme to the great experience, a couple weeks ago I was out at the airport helping clean up the airplanes on a day off from flying. We all decided to go back to the office for lunch but realized there were about 6 of us with two cars and only one driver. (Airserv provides drivers to take us virtually anywhere, its a great help) Having been here a couple of months I knew the way home well and volunteered to drive. No big deal. It would be myself and our new mechanic who only had 3 days of Congo life.
About half way home we came to a corner with about 5 traffic cops standing around. One stepped into the road and motioned for me to stop so he could let the opposing traffic proceed. I had my blinker on to turn right and as I came to a stop my steering wheel went straight,,, thus automatically turning off the blinker. One of the other uniformed guys happen to see this and looked into the vehicle where he saw two white men sitting. He then decided to come across traffic from the other side of the road to "advise" me of my blinker problems.
We discussed in my very broken French and his zero English the now apparent problem as I sat in the middle of the road and other cars wizzed by. I should mention that 90% of these other cars don't even have head lights, brake lights, or blinkers. After a few minutes of shrugging and heated French sent my way he asked for my Congolese Drivers licence. Only problem being I have no Congolese drivers licence!!!! Even more problems!!
I managed to convince him via about 1000 Congolese Francs to let me go on and I would show him the licence another day. (550 Congo Francs=$1) It was at this point I appreciated ever more our wonderful drivers who stand waiting for our phone call.
I typical case of Driving while White here in the Congo.
Well there is a few more things of interest but they will wait for another day.