THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST CONTINUED

BUT BEAUTY CAN BE FOUND - I have only seen flowers
in two places - the church and our apartment (owned by
a member of the church)  Flowers grow beautifully here but
nobody plants them.



Christmas has come to the beautiful mission home living room
with the little tree that I had much joy decorating.



How is this for beauty?  Doesn't get much better than this.



They work magic with hair!



Love those sister missionaries.

So the conclusion that I have come to is that there are two different Africas here.  The best thing that we can do for these wonderful people is to give them the gospel.  It truly changes lives in such a dramatic way.  The church members seem to take pride (the righteous kind) in their homes, children, and how they look.  They don't have cars or cameras but they always look super nice.

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST





The following pictures are everyday sights that we see
as we drive to work.  Beautifying their city is not high on
their priority list. 

  



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We constantly see this.  The two men are carrying stones
in their cart.  It is so heavy that they strain with every step.
The man on the bike is carrying a load of "charbon" which is
charcoal that they make from wood and they sell to the people
for cooking their food in little hibache (about 1 foot square)
barbecues.  We pass dozens of these bikes carrying charbon
in a two mile drive.

Fixing a bike.  We see lots of bike flat tires being fixed.



It is difficult to find beauty here because things are dirty and rundown, however, this is a picture of women planting along the main road.  DR Congo received a grant from the world bank and they are using it to beautify their main road.  I think it will be gorgeous.  They are planting palm trees and their type of grass.  The reason these are women is because five years ago they passed a law that emancipated women (those are the words) and now you see them doing jobs they would never have been able to do before.  There are about a hundred of these women (men too) in these blue jumpsuits planting and digging in this hot climate.  (by-the-way,the rain stopped this week.)  We also see a few women police directing traffic.  I wish I had a better picture because this is not flattering to these Congolese women but at least it shows the backbreaking job they do.

TO BE CONTINUED WHEN I RETURN IN A FEW HOURS.



IT'S RAINING....IT'S POURING









The weather here has been paradise - shirt sleeves, not too hot, not too cold - until 3 days ago.  We hit the rainy season and it lives up to its name.  The average here is 1 inch of water PER DAY for the next two months.  It just pours.  But the good part is that it pours and then it clears up quickly and is gorgeous for awhile and then it rains again but much of the rain is at night so I like it - but it is hard to see so many people having to walk and work in the rain.  We have a car so it doesn't hurt us like it does them.



Our first downpour - buckets are at the base
of our apartment stairs.



  









Our apartment - the stove is next to a black barrel full of water
to be used when the water goes off.  We use this water for
cleaning and cooking but not drinking unless we boil it first. 
The three white towers on the sink are the three stages of the
water filter for our drinking water.





This kitchen cabinet holds all our dishes and
all our food.  If it looks small that is because
it is!!!



 

Another barrel of water for flushing the
toilet when the water is off.  Not much
counter space.





Our mission home - connected to the mission office



Greg sharpens his pencil as he wonders where
his green visor and arm band might be.  Soon
he will get out the cash tray and distribute cash
to all the vendors and missionaries - wall
street it is not.

  

Hello mission office.  What adventure
will we have today?





Life In the Mission

The public transportation is vans.  This one is nice but most of them are rattle traps.  They take all the seats out and put bench seats on both sides running lengthwise and they pack 15-20 people in one van.  A guy hangs out the side door as they drive along and then he hops out and lifts the back hatch for people to swarm in and out of the van.  My friend took this picture and I love it because it is hard to capture the transportation when it is crowded on the streets - which is always.

I love to see the women carrying their loads on their heads.  Many wear beautiful African print dresses - many dress more western (USA)

This is the apartment where we live.  It is really very nice and comfortable.  The power goes off several times a day but we have a big generator so NO PROBLEM.  Also, we can't drink the water but we have a nice 3 stage filter that the church provides for all the missionaries so NO PROBLEM.  It is a dangerous country here but we have a locked gate and a full time guard at our apartment and at the mission office so NO PROBLEM.  Can you guess the motto of this place - NO PROBLEM - akunamatada (did you know that is a swahili word which means:  you guessed it - NO PROBLEM

We live above the ENOS Cyber Cafe.  It is an internet cafe owned by a member of our church.  Here is our view.

Hooray! We finally have internet so let me DROP YOU A LINE FROM THE CONGO

Goodbye beautiful Utah.  This picture was taken the day we left, Nov. 22nd, from our backyard

Hello Lubumbashi, DR Congo