Going South for the Summer/Christmas in JoBurg

Loading up for the drive to the Kinshasa Airport at 6:30 am Dec. 4, 2011

Some of you may know by now that we American senior missionary couples becameDR Congo refugees for 3 1/2 weeks when there was political unrest in our city of Kinshasa due to a recent Presidential election. Our Mission President was forced into making a very difficult decision that we 4 couples needed to leave our country for safety's sake, so we were flown to Johannesburg, South Africa, where we languished, ate, played, and most of all, yearned for home (Kinshasa). While there, we became reacquainted with malls, cheap food and commodities, cultural events, freeways without potholes, movie theaters, and the beauty of a modern clean city . We refugees were treated like kings and queens by the missionary couples serving there. We also took advantage of the temple and attended four sessions.

We did some fun shopping there, and as you can see, President Jameson made a magnificent purchase of an African drum. (In his previous life he was a drummer for a small band, and it has never completely left his system.) That is Elder and Sister Hatch with him. They had the unique opportunity to fly to Zambia during our vacation and train a new office couple there. They returned to Joburg shortly before we flew back to Kinshasa. We missed them!

We went to a local Lion Park and spent the day taking pictures of the animals we will never see in the DR Congo (all were eaten). Elder B doesn't really count these animals as being wild because there is a fence around the various enclosures, and if these animals were released they wouldn't know how to survive. This guy doesn't really look very menacing -- just sleepy.

Here is Sis. B with her favorite type of animal. This was taken at the Johannesburg Zoo, which is a step or two above Sequoia Park Zoo.

And here we are at the end of our "vacation" at the Johannesburg airport, ready (and I DO mean ready) to fly home to our Kinshasa. See Elder Hatch with his new acquisitions? The outback hat and new backpack. Wonder what he plans to do when he returns to New Mexico in February??

We thought it humorous that our newly acquired Johannesburg friends felt so sorry for us having to live in the DR Congo (horror stories of the great sacrifices we must make when living there....) We would explain, "Yes, Kinshasa is dangerous, has the worst roads in existence, the craziest drivers ever to get behind a steering wheel, the dirtiest air on the planet, the most expensive mission on earth, more garbage on the roads everywhere than you can ever imagine, has nowhere to go for fun except the local grocery store, no beautiful sights to see, AND WE LOVE IT!!!! We can't wait to go HOME!!! Call us crazy....
And now that we are home, rest assured that life is normal, we are safe, and we are happy!

Elder B and Masha goofing around on an old broken down truck near a water project.

As soon as we got home, Elder B and I were back out on the road checking out our projects to see what progress had been made in our absence, and to see our wonderfu friends, the site monitors, the contractors, and our translators. It was HEAVEN to get back to work and it was even MORE heaven to see that they missed us almost as much as we missed them!! We have had some precious reunions these last few days, and for that we are most grateful. We have learned that it is definitely the people who make Kinshasa beloved to us all. What a blessing to be here!

If you look closely at this picture, you will see that it is a cemetary. See the gravestones? And the people have planted corn amongst the graves -- what better use for all that unclaimed soil between the graves? These people are extremely resourceful.

A completed well opened for use at the moment the picture was taken. That's Kedikedi in the long blue shirt teaching a village woman to pump properly. We love Kedikedi - a quiet, unassuming, kind and cheerful man.

Some beautiful children who love to have their picture taken.

Eddy, one of our valuable site monitors, hamming it up with some more beautiful children.

A completed (and nicely painted, I might add) ten-stall latrine next to a school of 1100 students. Until we built these toilets, they were using two old stalls with no way to wash their hands or "flush" the hole in the ground.

Now we are caught up, except for the pictures we lost on our personal lap top that crashed while we were in Joburg. Luckily we were given another Humanitarian laptop that we brought home to use in our apartment, since we do some of our work there.

We love you. Happy New Year.