It’s always amazing to me how you can get on an airplane and
a few hours later (okay, more like 24-30hrs later) be in a totally different
world. That’s how it felt when we
left Seattle after 7 months there……and then arrived here in Kinshasa. We left the cold, cloudy, rainy
weather of the Pacific Northwest
to arrive in sunny, balmy, warm (i.e. HOT) Kinshasa. There is so much to love about the Pacific Northwest, and we
did enjoy our time there, but since the name of this blog is “Hursts In Africa” I would rather write about
life here.
It has been great to see friends. I’m always touched at who actually remembers us…a city of
over 10 million, yet the car guard at a certain grocery store remembers me and
asks where I’ve been for so long, the lab tech at the hospital welcomes me back
(Emmy wasn’t feeling well this week and needed a malaria test – negative, thank
God), and even the banana lady welcomed me back with some extra bananas.
Pat went downtown to arrange for our internet hook up. When he wrote on the form “Assemblies
of God” for his employer the entire office suddenly recognized him (HOT
tropical sun + bald head = the need to wear a hat)….Ends up everyone in the
office is a member of one of our Assemblies of God churches here. They greeted him and laughed as they
told some of their favorite stories that he has preached on over the years.
Sweet fellowship, pleasant “hello’s”.
I’m also reminded how people struggle here – daily tasks can
be so difficult and time consuming.
People fight to make their way through the day, to earn enough to feed
their children at night, and to keep a bit of their dignity.
As we live here, observe, and interact with life, here’s a
glimpse of what we see…..
Today I was grocery shopping and was walking up a street when
a huge fight broke out. Three
policemen (in uniform!) were yelling and shoving one another…..of course this
drew the attention of everyone, soon there was yelling and a crowd. I quickly got out of there, ducking
into a store. When things calmed
down I was able to return to my truck.
Someone told me that the 3 policemen were fighting over 500 congolese
francs…...approximately .54 cents.
We’ve also had a mentally ill man outside of our gate the
last few nights. There are
basically no quality services here for those with mental illness and it can be
quite sad. They often wander
around, eventually choosing a corner or street block as their territory. This particular man was violently
angry. He began YELLING around
10pm, he was very agitated and talking nonsense. He would walk up and down our little block, banging on doors
and ringing bells. This went on
until well after midnight. Emily was unnerved and none of us got much sleep
until he settled down. It was
eerie, lying in bed and listening to his angry ranting, it also was sad,
thinking of his confusion and anger, knowing that there were no services to
help him. It made me very
thankful for our security guards – something that can seem exaggerated or
extravagant when you’re not here, but can be very necessary when facing the
realities on the ground. But more
than anything, I know that Jesus is our security guard, and that is our
ULTIMATAE peace.
