Congo's Fruit and Crawly Things

The picture above has nothing whatever to do with fruit or crawly things, but it was a fun picture because we love when this happens.....we were visiting one of our projects and took a new translator, Aime, with us. He has recently returned from serving in our mission in Cameroon, where the missionaries all speak English. and he had companions from the U.S. As we were walking from one of the springs we went to visit, this woman told us she would show us another spring. We followed her, and on the way back she began asking questions about our Church. Of course, we couldn't communicate with her, but Aime could! Here he is giving her the first discussion. She was very interested, and we gave her a Book of Mormon and some Missionary pamphlets that we always carry in our truck. Humanitarian Misionaries are not to proselyte, but we sure can answer questions and, more commonly, refer those questions to our translators, site monitors, or engineers. Most of them are LDS. They love having those missionary experiences, and we love watching them and feeling the Spirit.

Elder B was trying to show all of us that it is no big deal to carry a full bucket of water on his head just like the women do here. So ok, he got it on his head, with some help, but he didn't do any walking....that was another thing entirely!

Excuse me, what I meant to say was "with a LOT of help, he got it on his head".

Here is the owner of the bucket, showing how it is really done. After the picture, she just casually walked off as if she were strolling through a park without a care in the world. Hopefully our newly captured spring with spigots has simplified her life somewhat. Before the construction, the only way the women could get water at this spring was to scoop it up and pour in into their bidons - a backbreaking and slow process. Now those bidons are filled more quickly and easily.

Above is an amazing papaya tree. We have never seen such huge papayas, nor so many on one little tree. They won't be ripe for another month. (Elder B's favorite fruit here).

This is a Congolese watermelon. I think they all look like an old fashioned bomb with the stem sticking up like that. They aren't seedless, but if you're lucky, you can get one every bit as delicious as the ones back home.

This is what they call a pumpkin. I am going to bake it and freeze the meat to make into pumpkin bread (with chocolate chips, of course).

Here is our little friend who lives in a tree. While visiting one of our water projects our translator saw it up in the tree overhead and shook it down. After we 'played' with it for a few minutes, a woman came along and took it home to cook and eat. No kidding!

Happy little caterpillar!

That's all for this week. We are winding down, and are beginning to understand just how much we have learned here. We don't regret it for a moment. It has been an incredible journey. For those of you who can, start planning your own mission. We highly recommend it!

We love you.