The Sauna

Quick note…the violence that some have referenced is not affecting us. It is quite a ways away – equivalent to a conflict in Canada from Florida. However, we are and will stay vigilant as the social climate here can change quickly. We have the emergency assistance numbers from the embassy and we’re 20 min. from the airport. We’re good.

Also, would some of you sign your comment entry with your name so we can identify you? Some of the usernames are difficult to figure out. It’s always good to put a face with the comments.

And yes, Beth has been fine…unfortunately, since we were looking forward to some good material.

It would help if you guys would stop talking about the things like Gelato, Hot tubs, cool weather, Shaner’s, etc! :-)

April, Ash wants to know what the count was.

George (our pilot friend from Chicago airport), good to see you on the blog. Your words made our day!

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I’ve forgotten to mention that we’re awakened every morning to the sound of beautiful African singing, performed during the morning mass. It truly is a treat. Some mornings are better than others dependant entirely on the weather the night before and whether or not people can traverse the streets in the morning; rain equals small attendance.

We got an early start this morning going first to the paint store – I mean paint closet – to pick out paint for the new building. Zach and Shannin were the color-maestros and picked four colors from the one page of choices: green for the boy’s rooms, pink for the girl’s rooms, beige for the multi-purpose room, and yellow for the outside. Once again we started out with a $3K estimate and somehow it turned into $650. We’re pretty sure that the color consistency is going to be poor as the paint and dye was mixed by hand…yes, literally by hand. No computer color matching here.

While the paint was being mixed, we left for a soda and to get some money changed. We’ve noticed that if we stop moving for any period of time, we are quickly surrounded by curious onlookers. The money changers were gawking at Elivia and Corrinne and were asking to court them. We’ve learned to create a circle with the boys and put the girls in the middle to prevent them from getting rubbed, pinched, squeezed, etc. Strangely enough, people here like dollars as the Congolese Franc has the worst appreciation rate in the world (>1,000,000%). The highest denomination of the Congolese Franc is 500 and it is worth less than a dollar. What is bizarre is that the money changers won’t take the 1 dollar bills and they also don’t like creased bills. We changed two $20 bills and ended up with 69 500CF bills. It’s comical to pull up to a gas station and see the gas station attendants carrying stacks of Congolese Francs wrapped in rubber bands large enough to look like a stacks of magazines.

From the changers we grabbed a quick soda at an upscale soda shop and left to buy some drums.

The drums were located at a street side market along the only “maintained” highway in Kinshasa. We stopped among a mass of people and were immediately swarmed with street vendors peddling wares; from potato chip cans that had been turned into TV antennas to fans, goats, fruits, etc. Since Kinshasa is not a stop on the European Tourist Circuit it was a working market for the locals.

The drums were amazing. It’s amazing how many different sounds they can get out of just two drums; while they don’t put Gordan to shame, it would make for a nice drum off. The kids all bought smaller drums that we can take back on the plane, and brought them to the orphanage. The kids went nuts and didn’t stop drumming until we left 3 hours later. Ashton went to go play soccer with the boys again and asked if it was okay to leave his drum with the others. Shannin said yes and the Ashton replied, “clearly they handle them better than we do.” Paul and Zach had a migraine so it was a little tough for them…we called the whaambulance.

There is a neat little guy at the orphanage that “raps.” Not really our kind of rapping, but he dances and makes up songs on the fly. His name is Bati, but his stage name is Tiko. The other kids love to hear him rap and always ask him for more. We’re going to work on a music video for him.

Now the wedding…oh my goodness! The wedding took place in the evening, but normally a Congolese wedding would take place in the morning. Since it was at night, and they needed a generator to power the lights in the church, they cut the service short to only 3 hours; normally it’s five. The church is a tin roofed building with no fans and it was hot. I would have liked to weigh ourselves before and after to see how much water weight we lost, but it had to have been a lot – even though it was evening time. It was not cool.

The service was beautiful, the music…off the hook, the processional danced down the aisle, and nothing like any catholic service we’ve seen in the US. Gabi wanted us to film it and take lots of pictures which turned out to be tough since there was little to no light. Taking pictures of dark skinned people in dark areas is proving a technical challenge for Paul and Zach, but they are learning – over exposure and long shutter times. Flash photography is not working the best. They took 800 photos between them and will probably get a few good ones.

I forgot to mention that Shannin and Beth had to go to the potty (the easy number) right before the wedding ceremony started. Au Francine (Gabi’s sister who is also a nun and doesn’t speak any English) took them out to the bathroom…well, rather the stink closet. It was so bad that Au Francine wouldn’t let them go in as it was below her standards as well and pointed at some grass alongside the stink closet. There was a bit of an awkward pause as the reality of the suggestion set in. Shannin just kind of stood there not sure what to do and told Elisabeth, “I think she’s telling me to go in the bush.” Since Shannin hesitated, Au Francine pushed her into the bush and made a motion to hike up her skirt! Bladder relieved, they went back to the church. Beth pretended that she didn’t have to go and was just there for moral support.

From the main service we went to a private reception area where we captured a beautiful photo of the bride and flower girl – the only light was a single candle.



From there we went to the reception. On the way out, we noticed that the getaway car’s lights were very dim. Evidently the hired driver had his lights and radio on the whole time during the ceremony not knowing that it would run down the battery??? We were the only car around and Paul told Gabi that they better try and start the getaway car before we left otherwise the bride and groom would be stuck – the Jeep Limited was dead! Since any metal in this country is a luxury and something to be traded for food, there were no jumper cables. Doug went foraging for any kind of wire in the trash heaps and we managed to scrounge up two 3 foot sections of 14 gauge wire; hardly thick enough to jump start a car. Paul told them that if they held the wire between the two batteries for about 10 mins that it would charge up the car enough to start. Doug and Paul held the wires with the hands while Zach, Christian, and Ash decided to start reporting on the incident with the cameras. Since there are no street lights it had to be shot with the night vision.

Miscommunication ensued and while Paul and Doug were holding the wires they tried to start the car which made the wire heat up…10 min. later the car started, everyone cheered, and the locals took notes and pictures on how to get a dead car started with spare wire. They were very grateful, and if things don’t work out for Paul at Microsemi, I think someone has a future in the DRC.

The reception was somewhat typical just with different music, slightly different customs, and a very unique menu. Some of the food we didn’t get identified, but there was a steaming pile of herbed grubs, fish heads, an aged form of Cassava famous for backing you up, fries, chicken, and something they called spaghetti. So Zach put a grub in his mouth and starting chewing, but couldn’t swallow. He also put the fish head in his mouth, but immediately took it out and heaved. Paul called him a baby and ate a spoonful of grubs and ate the fish head eye saying, “here’s to Karina.” He said the grubs tasted like Pesto and weren’t bad, but the eye was a burst of the fishiest tasting liquid he’d had with a hard chewy center. I think he had a tough time keeping a straight face.

We met a neat guy at the wedding who was the groom’s brother and spoke great English. He started off saying his English was terrible and then proceeded to have a lengthy conversation with Zach about who he was, what he does, what his likes and dislikes are…Zach couldn’t get a work in edge-wise. We gave him the microphone and he started doing interviews with the family.

They were treating us like the guests of honor and got a kick out of Shannin and Beth dancing with the rest of the ladies – the men and women don’t dance together and when Doug got on the dance floor they kept telling him no.

They kept giving the boot to some of the families’ guests so we could have better tables. While we appreciated the honor they were giving us, we noticed that some of the displaced individuals were getting their feelings hurt. We made it right by grabbing a table in the corner and celebrated till 2A - the reception went on until 7A this morning.

We’re extremely tired today, but wouldn’t have missed the wonderful experience we were honored to be a part of. We’re headed to the orphanage this morning.

More later.