Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo

It's Done for Now (Day 62, September 22, Monday)

It's done for now! The trip back from Kinshasa to Indianapolis was long. It was uneventful and just long. It took about 25 hours. I traveled with the Muya family (of three). They won the immigration lottery. We departed Kinshasa at 9:20pm local time (4:20pm EDST). We arrived in Brussels on time before 6:10am (12:10am EDST). We departed Brussels on time at 11:05am (6:05am EDST). We arrived in Chicago on before 1:05pm (2:05pm EDST). We cleared customs (with a few extra steps) and headed for our gate with only minutes to spare. All bags arrived in order. We departed Chicago on time at 3:10pm (4:10 pm EDST). We arrived in Indianapolis on time before 5:10pm. Just a 10 minutes short of 25 hours. I am ashamed to say that one bag was missing and two bags were opened illegally. The bag arrived on the next flight from Chicago. The thought of some worker in either Chicago or Indianapolis looking through my personal luggage is unbelievable. But I think it happened in Chicago at the international terminal of American Airlines. We were targeted as international passengers from Europe. Unfortunately, they did not realize our original destination. Or did they traget Congo?

An Easy Ending (Day 61, September 21, Sunday)

I believe flying on Sunday is the best day. With city check-in, the airport experience is very near American. First, the traffic is very light by Kinshasa standards. We traveled both downtown and to the airport in record time with ease. We had an orderly check-in at the SN Brussels downtown. Except for missing the first security checkpoint, the process was painless. I checked my one carry-on bag. So I just have my backpack to manage. At the airport, I was the third person in the waiting room. I arrived three hours ahead of the boarding time. This is the way end a trip to Congo!

A 12-hour Boat Ride (Day 60, September 20, Saturday)

Today was a breeze compared to yesterday. I had two objectives for the day; one, go to Didier's elementary school and two, go to Dr. Bernard's house. My Congolese friend from Indianapolis, Didier, is interested in supporting his elementary school. He wanted me to take a look at it. We drove downtown to the elementary school. We arrived about 10:45am. But only a few kids are in sight. Also, the principal's office is open but locked. The school is under renovation. It has been split into two elementary schools. It is now the original one plus a new Lebanese elementary school. The school is not only physically cut down the middle but it has an 8-foot concrete wall being built to separate the two schools. A good cleaning and paint would really approve its appearance. But it has a few issues. The roof is started leaking and it would need to be resealed. Also, the floor has quite a few missing floor tiles. Of course, the desks and blackboards need work, too. The bathrooms appeared to be in the worst shape. I could not get pass the odor to look at them. Overall, the school is in not too bad of a condition when compared to rural elementary schools in the bush country of Congo. But this is Kinshasa, the capital city. And the school is located very near the main downtown boulevard, Avenue of June 30th. Also, Dikembe Mutombo, the Congo's greatest humanitarian and famous NBA star, attended this elementary school. We finished our tour by thanking the directress of the school. As I arrived back at MPH, Dr. Bernard called to ask my whereabouts. I had failed to follow up with him as promised. He said he was on his way over to pick me up for a visit to his house with his family. His house was across town in a new area of Kinshasa for me. It was a welcomed treat to get to see his wife (Mama Deede), children (Daniel and Denzel), and his sister (Jackie). Near the house, we stopped by to say quick hello to his older daughter, Gracie, at the family store. While waiting for dinner to be prepared and finished. Dr. Bernard told me about his job in Mbuji Mayi. I thought it was desk job in the big city. He was formerly the medical director of the Bulape Hospital and Health Zone. Bulape is located in the rural poor bush area of central Congo in the Kasai Occidental Province (West Kasai). Mbuyi Mayi is the provincial capital of Kasai Oriental Province (East Kasai). This province is known for its diamond riches. But, it has a very poor rural population. However, Dr. Bernard stunned me with some pictures of his job as Project AXxes supervisor for three health zones in the East Kasai. I must admit I am not easily stunned in Congo. Conditions are bad in most places. Dr. Bernard must take a 12-hour boat ride up the Sankuru River to one of his health zones. What? Yes, it is a 12-hour 'motorized' long canoe ride. The canoe is just wide enough for a stand plastic chair. This is your seat. Also, the boat has to take 100 gallons of fuel onboard for the trip. My standard 9-hour ride to Bulape in the Landcruiser is nothing compared to this journey up this crocodile infested river. Basic health care is needed in this area. Some children in this area had never been vaccinated. He found over 20 children in one village. The food was great as always. The fish and greens were outstanding! Also, Denzel had grown so much and was very playful. This trip I had to postpone my stop to see him in Mbuji Mayi. Next trip, I will take the trip up the river. And I got a few months to think about it and plan.

Good Things Do Not Come Easy (Day 59, September 19, Friday)

My job for today was to get the shipment moved from the Consolidated Protestant Relief Services' (CPRS) warehouse to the United Nation's Mission to Congo (MONUC's) Movement Control's (MOVCON) warehouse. I thought it would take only about two hours and I would be done by noon. The plan was to meet Ben at 9am in his office to pick up the paperwork. First, Ben changed and asked me to stop by the CPRS warehouse first to make sure everything was assembled and ready. My chauffeur for the day was my new found friend, Albert. He agreed to take me were I needed to go for today. He arrived shortly after 9am to take me to the warehouse. The items were ok. Then we headed downtown to Ben's office for the paperwork needed at MOVCON. In the meantime, the items would be loaded onto a truck for transport. We made it to Ben's office through the morning rush traffic into downtown. On the way downtown, we passed the MOVCON location. After some delay, we picked up the paperwork and printed our own shipping list. Then we headed back out to the CPRS warehouse and pass the MOVCON to meet the truck. Upon our arrival at CPRS, we were told that the truck had already gone to MOVCON. We headed again toward downtown in the morning rush traffic to MOVCON. At the gate, we saw the truck. I get out and go into the gate security office. I call the MOVCON office to announce we are at the gate. Who? With what? Finally, the guy agrees to come to get us from the gate. When he arrives, I show him the paperwork. It is foreign to him. He calls Mary at Civil Affairs who fills him in. Then Mary fills me in but in a different way. She said we were supposed to be at the MOVCON warehouse at 8am. What? They may not do it today. However, he agrees to take us to the warehouse. We arrive at MOVCON warehouse at about 10:15. The person in charge is not there at the moment. We talk to an Egyptian officer in charge. He is unaware, too. He calls the boss and she knows about it and had agreed. For once, everything appears on track. Progress! Not so fast. We open the truck and they see all the boxes (about 85 to be exact). Where are your pallets? What pallets? We need to have our own pallets. After a few minutes of discussion, the guys in the truck say they know were we can get pallets. It would take them about 30 minutes. Now it is 10:30am. My goal to be done by noon is vanishing before my eyes. After an hour and 15 minutes, the truck returns with the pallets. They start to unload and palletize the boxes. It takes much longer again they I thought it estimated again. Everything is palletized onto 6 pallets. The MOVCON start their processing. Each pallet is tied down and then wrapped in plastic. Done! Not quite so fast. Each pallet now needs to be weighed individually. Each pallet is taken by the forklift to the next building across the lot to be weighed individually. They weigh a total of 1,140 kilograms. Done! Not quite so fast. The MOVCON shipping clerk needs to make labels for each pallet. He labels them as a pallet of materials. Done! Not quite so fast. The boss says that each pallet needs an itemized shipping list. What? She says just look through the plastic wrapping and do a reasonable job. I complete the job in about 30 minutes. I even cross checked this itemized shipping list by pallet to the overall shipping list that we printed this morning. Done at last! But it is now 4:20pm. We walk back to the car at the gate to leave. What a day! Good things do not come easy in Congo even with MONUC. But we just saved over $2,000 in shipping cost.

In Honor of My Fallen Comrades (Day 58, September 18, Thursday)

It's flying time, again! In spite of its tarnished record, flying is a necessary evil in Congo. Otherwise, it would take months versus days to get to and from Kananga. This week again, Kananga is serviced by three airlines. There is almost a daily flight into and out of Kananga. My flight is scheduled for 11:4a departure. So we decide to be at the airport by 9:45a to fight through the inefficiency. Jim drives his vehicle with the airport decal. The airport decal costs $400 a year. It entitles the owner to parking inside the airport grounds, entrance to VIP lounge, and access to the tarmac to escort your guests to and from the plane. Other patrons have to park outside the airport gate and walk with their luggage about a quarter of a mile to the terminal. Of course, porters are available for hire to carry your luggage. In previous times, you could paid a small fee to enter and drop off passengers. But now it costs almost $50 to do the same. Upon arriving at the gate to the airport ground, a car is parked at entrance. Jim says it is the director at one of the town's two banks. He is frantic and animated. Obviously, we does not want to pay the legalized highway robbery. He pointing his finger and shouting to the airport official. After about five minutes, he becomes more agitated and walks around the car from the passenger's side of the car to other side of vehicle nearest the official. Then, outruns his wife and daughter after him. They are crying and screaming while trying to refrain him. I am preparing to duck for protection or at least see a fight. The women are finally able to calm the situation with their loud crying and screaming. The policeman manning the gate panics and lets the car through gate. Now, the airport official is shouting at the policeman for letting him through the gate without paying. We drive through the gate without any of the drama. Eventually, I prepare to board the Hewa Bora flight to Kinshasa via stop in Mbuyi Mayi. It's 25 minute flight over to Mbuyi Mayi, the provincial capital of diamond-rich Kasai Oriental, the richer side of the Kasai twins. Before walking out the plane on the tarmac, I see about 12 or more humanitarian workers get off an Air Serv plane. Just two weeks ago, one of their planes crashed after taking off from the airport in Bukavu in eastern Congo, killing all 17 passengers and crew. I say a prayer for my fallen comrades, and for my flight.

Good Byes and Well Wishes (Day 57, September 17, Wednesday)

After a real night's sleep, it's time to get some last minute things done. Dr. Joseph arrives on time to go down to the PNMLS Office with Dr. Dominique. We drive down to his office. It's a well past after 9am. The electricity is scheduled to start at 9am. So we wait and see if the electricity is coming today. In the meantime, we exchange files (forms and pictures). The doctors complain and chat alternately. Finally, the electricity is on. Now things can be started like the internet connection. After about an hour and a half, the office needs to use their laser printer The power requirements of the printer sucks nearly all the power. There goes the internet connection. At least, they warn you to finish any work. In time, they will find a better solution. But I think this is their first month of electricity. I decide to leave and met James near downtown. He is downloading some Google Earth maps of a section of Kananga. The clarity and resolution is great. I forget to ask why he needed the maps. But probably he is working on some project where a distance and route needs to be identified. Oops, it's noon and the electricity shuts off. Save that file! I take off to the bank to cash a check from James. I had some money wired to him. Unbelievably, I was in and out of bank with dollars in less than 15 minutes. That's a record, I believe. I walk over to the Presbyterian Church office. Dr Mulumba in still out of town. Next stop, I walk over to Beltexco store to purchase some prepaid cell phone cards. They sell them at a discount. Next stop, Jim's house to pick up a package for a friend who is stopping by my office this afternoon. It's just after 1pm and I arrive at my office, Restaurant Mutanda. I start to work while my lunch order of chicken and fries are prepared. The afternoon and evening turns to good byes and well wishes. Visitors include Mustafa, Queen Elizabeth, Msgr. Kalumbu, the Belgium Army groups (Jaklien's PAO group and CIMIC group), and of Jim and James. That's my last day in Kananga for a while.

Recovering from the trip (Day 56, September 16, Tuesday)

Upon arriving at Jim's house about 5:30am, I decided to go to sleep.  A stable place to lay my head at last. 

I slept to noon. The day was half gone. I updated Jim and James on my trip to Bulape.

Then we watched the Monday Night Football Game (rebroadcasted). As you may remember, it was high scoring first half. At first, I thought I was periodically going to sleep. The scores just kept climbing with each blink of my eyes. Then, I finally realized that many plays including kickoffs were edited out.

The day ended with me recapping (retelling) stories from the past week in Bulape at the Restaurant Mutanda.

The Journey Out of Congo (Day 55, September 15, Monday)

It's a travel day! I am officially on my way home. I will back in Indianapolis on next Monday afternoon with God's help. Typically, it takes a week to leave Congo. Why? You have leave safety margins in your travel plans. My flight to Kinshasa is Thursday morning. So we gave ourselves a two day margin. My flight to the US is Sunday. So I gave myself a three day margin and another flight to Kinshasa on Sunday. Dr. Joseph obviously like to travel a night. We left a few minutes before 7pm (ahead of schedule). At night, it is cooler and almost no traffic (walking people, pushed bicycles, and other vehicles). Even during the day, we may only meet one other vehicle. We only was stuck once but had a number of outside the vehicle consultants on the better way to proceed. We even travel down the active train track for 30 yards to avoid a bad bad bad bad piece of road. It sounds and looks dangerous but it is not. The train only runs about twice a week. We drove almost non-stop (planned stops) and arrived outside of Kananga about 4 am. We waited until almost sunrise before going into town. The doctor and two other passengers in the cab slept periodically. I watched the driver dodge and negotiate the holes, bumps, crevasses, and smal ravines in the road.

The Future, The Present, and The Past (Day 54, September 14, Sunday)

While walking to and from church, we saw two sick children being carried to the hospital. They were lying lifeless in their parent arms. They had fevers which generally meant a case of malaria said Justin. Earlier, Dr Joseph stated that malaria is BIG problem in the health zone. We plan to distribute 2500 mosquito nets to pregnant women and children under five. We had decided to visit the Luebo Church for Sunday service. It is located on the other side of the village. It had been a few years since I was there. Plus, the assistant pastor had stopped by to greet me on Tuesday morning And subsequently, Pastor Jacqui had stopped over for a more former visit to discuss her future plans. Pastor Jacqui is one of the few female pastors in the Presbyterian Church of Congo (CPC). She had a copy of the picture we had taken in 2006 of her along with ten other seminary students from the Bulape area. Pastor Jacqui is said to be the only female pastor working as a minister in a CPC church. Pastor Jacqui preached the sermon to a packed church. She was well received by the reaction of the congregation. Also, Justin stopped translating during the sermon which meant he was more interested in the sermon than me. It was all in her native tongue. Pastor Bope, the head pastor was away today. Pastor Jacqui and her husband have five living children. The oldest child is a girl of 14 years old. One child died while they were at the seminary. Her husband is the assistant accountant at the hospital. They live in a typical mud and stick house with a thatched roof. After church, we were invited to her house for some refreshments of bananas, peanuts, fried bananas and plantains, palm wine and water. We discussed equality (emancipation) of women in Congo, and our upcoming elections. Also, Pastor Jacqui submitted her idea of starting an orphanage for children who parents died from Aids. After leaving Pastor Jacqui's house, we walked over to the cemetery near the nursing school and hospital. I had been asked by a former missionary kid, Ken, to visit his sister's grave. The headstones still clearly identify six graves of missionaries or their children. At least, three graves do not have headstones but are still visibly outlined. After a prayer, some time of reflection, and a few pictures we made our way back to the guest house. Another great day in Bulape!

The Formal Opening of a New Village Health Center (Day 53, September 13, Saturday)

I was invited by Dr Joseph to attend the formal opening of a new village health center in Mpath . The village is about 5 miles down the hill from Bulape on the road to Mweka. I was given a new Project AXxes T-shirt and hat to wear. The T-shirt and hat were promotional items from Project AXxes funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). We loaded up the Landcruiser, two motorbikes, and the BUV with key staff members of Bulape hospital, nursing school, and health zone. In total, it was about 13 persons including one female health staff member. We left Bulape around 11:30 or so. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the village. We were greeted by hundreds of children and an equal amount of adults. The village chiefs were assembled and waiting on us. We all were seated in two rows of chairs across the health center. The health center faces the west. So we had the shade of the narrow porch. It was crowded but were out of the sun. Unfortunately, more than half of everyone else were out in the afternoon sun and heat. The new boom box was taken out of carton and setup. It provided some festive music while the final village dignitaries arrived. Also, it serviced as a loudspeaker for the ceremony. The ceremony started with a short announcement. It was all in their native language. So I just sat back and looked attentive. A pastor was called forward. I thought he was just going to pray and be seated. He did the prayer, then read some scripture. That's unusual I thought to myself until he started his sermon. After a short 20 minutes sermon, it was time for some traditional dancing. The dancing lasted about 20 minutes. Our shaded area was disappearing as the time went on. Dr Joseph started to address the group. He spoke for 10 minutes or so. Then he introduced all health officials including me which required at least a short hello and wave. Finally, the doctor introduced Justin, the headmaster of the Bulape girls school. A nice gesture I thought. Justin walks up and takes the mike from the doctor. He goes on for about five minutes. We had more dancing as the shaded continued to disappear. Finally, it was time for the official ribbon (cloth) cutting. Dr Joseph invites me up to do the ribbon cutting. What?! Some warning would have been nice. As I walk up to the ribbon across the door, I was given some surgical scissors. Then, a man brings a glass and a pitch of palm wine. OK, this is getting complicated. Next, Dr Patrick says to me don't drink it and just put it to your mouth. I put the glass to my lips. But Dr Patrick says now, no, put it out on the floor across the ribbon. What?! I just poured half the palm wine in the glass on the floor. Still that's not right, Dr Patrick says put it in your mouth and spit it out! OK, I finally did it hesitantly. The actual cutting of cloth was nothing compared to the plam wine ritual. Now, that's a custom and ceremony to be remembered for a long time. We did a quick tour of the building. It was a brick linear building with a tin roof. It consisted of a lab room with just few test tubes and without a microscope. There were a consultation and an examination room. Then a maternity room with just two mattresses on the floor and no birthing table. Finally, there was reception room. The price tag of the health center was just $1500 and funded by Project AXxes. We has some food and drink in one of the rooms. The dancing and singing continued. We went back to the seating area after eating. By this time, the sun had captured our front row seats. So we joined the chiefs in the very back against the wall. Shortly after 4pm, we departed for Bulape.