Thanksgiving Week in Kinshasa

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Above you see the beautiful Thanksgiving table just before it was loaded down with delicious dishes contributed by all the senior couples. This is the Mission Home of President and Sister Jameson. We had a very nice meal -- too much good food. So now you know that we really aren't living in a little grass hut in the middle of nowhere with no luxuries around us. We are quite comfortable, especially being surrounded by the great people we serve with.
Here are the hors-d'oeuvres that Elder and Sister Stagg provided. Crabmeat on crackers and little homemade quiches. Very nice, and hard not to fill up on before the main meal.
This picture is out of order, but since you know how inept I am with trying to move the pictures around, you get it this way.
Above is Elder B and one of our partners showing how the water which is collected off the roof during a rainstorm is stored in these tanks and used for handwashing and latrine flushing in our new school latrine (the pink and blue ones you saw in an older blog).
Back to the Thanksgiving meal, here are the pies we provided for the meal. We transported them in this nifty huge basket that was in our apartment when we moved here. Finally found a use for it, aside from looking really cool in our living room. The pies - the first ones I've made here - actually came out great. We bought two huge squashes (like the one that the jack-o-lantern was carved out of in an older blog), cooked them up and made the pies. The middle one is an apple pie. Unfortunately, we had to forego our traditional chocolate silk pies this year -- not safe to eat raw eggs here.
Our apartment complex is getting a paint job. This was taken out our front window on the second floor. The picture below was supposed to be first, but oh well. We wanted to show you an up close photo of the man putting up the scaffolding, then show you (above) exactly where he was. No safety precautions here. Just very good balancers!
Back at the new latrine, this young artist is sculpting the name of the church (in French) onto the front of the latrine -- freehand. It will say, "Gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
At a different site, these happy women and Gaston, a partner, are showing us how thrilled they are to have a well close to their homes so they don't have to go so far to get dirty water to drink. Gaston did a great job on this project, and we plan to do another with him next year. For those of you who remember Betty Williamson, mom of Vivian Moses, take a close look at the woman in the middle front. Doesn't she look like Betty?
Below is another of the many beautiful sites as we walk along the Congo River. We have heard this called by several names -- poncianna, flaming tree -- but whatever it is, it is vibrant. We also saw this in Jamaica. The Congo has so many of the same flowers and trees and fruits we knew in Jamaica.
This is how we spend Family Home Evening. Eating. That's Elder Hatch and President Jameson snacking. We had planned to play games this particular evening, but we never got to the games. Just sat around eating and talking. Our favorite way to unwind from the challenges of hot, bumpy roads with crazy drivers and hungry policemen.
At the present time we are enjoying 3 days of 'lockdown' in our apartments because of the presidential elections going on tomorrow. There may be some incidents, and the US Embassy has advised us to all stay home for a few days. We feel perfectly safe where we live, but we all want to be obedient, so we stocked up on books and a few DVDs to occupy our many hours at home. We may have to leave the country for a week or so after the 4th when the results of the voting are posted. There may be some unhappy people around. So if there is no blog next week, you will know why. We will be flying to Johannesburg, So. Africa. Another adventure!
Please don't worry about us. The news reports make it sound worse than it really is. We are loving this place and the work and of course, the people. Have a wonderful week, and thanks for visiting the blog.
Love,
Elder and Sister Bingham