"Soup to Nuts" or "Restaurants to Bonobos"

This post may take awhile because we have had some excursions other than the grocery stores etc. and one of the groups with Jimmy Shafe went to several stations and then brought back pictures and tales. (This group is the one with Lilibet and Sara Gay so they know the stations and have been here before.)



Our Bill

Friday night we went out with some Ex-Pats to a Portuguese Club. It was technically on this side of town (Remembering Kinshasa has a population of 10 million). So Ken and I and 3 other MPH guests and four Ex-Pats - two of whom are the pastor and wife we met last week before church and Nancy and her nephew Neal who work here in Kinshasa. The club has a restaurant, bar, work out facility, Basketball courts, bowling alley, play area for children  lovely views and a beautiful dining patio where we ate. This place is up much higher than we are here at MPH so it was nice and cool. (I use that term loosely!) Orders ranged from Burgers to steaks and Pizza. Food was very good. Bills were brought to us in a carved wooden box and change returned likewise. Trip up and back was through crowded and narrow streets in  poorer sections of town and then into more "wealthy"areas. Took us about 30 minutes to get there. People are crazy to drive here - maybe that's the problem! Driving here amazes me everytime we get into tha car!! It was fun to visit and get to know more people.

Saturday we visited with the Shafe group and caught up on things from their perspective after visiting Luebo, Bibanga, Bulape and Kananga and Tshikashi. Lilibet was the most upset about Luebo where the graveyard had been torn up where her baby sister is buried. The other stations were still taking pride and keeping it pretty well.They brought us a picture of Betty Lou's grave.  Of course years of neglect has left many of the old home in different forms of disrepair. One of the men on the trip is Charlie Johnson from San Antonio.(These are his pictures from Bulape.) Last year when he visited he saw the hospital beds with just a mat on the springs. So he raised money for mattresses for the hospitals and went to see them after delivery. I'll include some pictures from Bulape. Their plane was welcomed by women waving branches and singing delightful songs as they swarmed the plane to greet them.
The chiefs also showed up. Their picture looks a lot like the one I sent you last week- except the kid in the Mickey Mouse T-shirt! ;) A lot of the Bulape folks still remembered the Vasses. So it was a great time for Lilibet.

                   Love the little faces!

Last time I saw a Bible this well used it belonged to my Grandmother, Bonka,( Irene French McCall) and I am lucky enough to have it!




Funny story of what we missionaries do and I am sure the folks back in the villages/ or in town die laughing at our expense each night! A single missionary lady was telling us at supper last night that she loves butterflies. She gets Congo cloth with them on it. As she visits other African countries she asks them their word for butterflies. " I just love Butterflies!" she tells them. Then after multiple countries of doing this a Congolese finally explained as she is telling them how many ways she can say " I just love butterflies!"and in how many countries she has said: " I  just love butterflies!" that is is a slang word in most countries for "prostitute." Oops!

Jimmy Shafe was telling us at dinner about their night at Bulape. The men were sleeping in one room and the ladies in another. Windows were open for any tiny breeze they could get. Into the night Jimmy work up to the heat. The windows were all closed. " So, I guess the Sentry wanted to keep us safe."  "NO, Jimmy it wasn't the sentry that closed the windows. The men from the village came and did it."said Mike......." Oh" says Jimmy. Then after a pause, Mike continues"because they could not sleep in the village with your snoring!" It brought the house down!!.

Later Saturday afternoon we went to the Symphonie Des Arts run by the Mennonites. Lots of pretty things- sort of like a World Market - only we could miss that mark up part-plus art and pottery. Also had an Orchid garden,(Thought of Uncle Mac a bunch with the  gorgeous flowers and then what did I spy but a tree of Spanish Moss!So I knew he was there with me!) peacocks- even an all white one, African Grey Parrots and those bright colored big Macaw parrots(all of those birds are a loud group and not a single one could carry a tune!!!). It is down from Mabutu's gardens that are still kept up and maybe two blocks from MPH. Lots of carvings, malachite, art work and masks. I actually found my Christmas ornaments for the girls for this year. YEA!!




Sunday we went to see the Bonobos. It's about a 30 mile trip but took over an hour. They are another type of Chimp type animal but different in many ways. They are more like humans than regular chimps. They can walk upright. They are also completely cut off from the rest of Africa since their jungle is surrounded on all sides by rivers. Their area is 4,785 square km (1,874 Sq, Miles) in size. They are vegetarians, Female dominated by the oldest female and conflicts are settled by sex among any sex that is having the issue. The Reserve guards have to check the levels of the rivers every day to be sure the Bonobos  can't get across. The Bonobos check it too. ;) They know their names to a certain degree. One male got tired of the guard pestering him so he picked up a handful of his own mess and threw it at him! Loved the whole trip. We walked through the jungle,  climbed dirt and bamboo steps - 48 of them up to go to the next valley and then down into that valley. Luckily a nice, young Congolese man took pity on Ken and me and he began to be Ken's hand rail up and down the bamboo and dirt steps. Very humid on this part of the trip. The Bonobos were fascinating to watch. Saw a snake- I went the other way, Army ants crossing our path, millions of loud frogs greeted us as we entered their lake "hood", huge ant hills, and birds letting us know they were there too!  Lots of plants, seed pods and flowers that Ken and I both recognized from long ago. After the tour we went to a restaurant along the river and water falls and under a grass roofed  picnic area for lunch. We had picked our spot and they had it all fixed up with table cloth and candles. Mayonnaise and hot sauce(Pelepele) is what folks here use for Ketchup. Safe drinks are beer, soda water, tonic water and water - all in bottles! We all ordered chicken- grilled or Mwamba. The grilled was WAY undercooked so we ate little of that. Just the fries. On the way back to the car I payed more attention to the little "Streams"- about 8" wide flowing into the river where people were swimming and fishing. Asked from where the water coming?  " The village restrooms." Thanks... that was TMI!! And people were swimming in it! GAG!




Had to put Ken and Bardot together!















Steps up and down  the valley. - LOOK in the background! And Ken made it-- well, so did I!! We Southern girls don't sweat we get "dewy" and I managed to do that quite well!
















Man in orange shirt in small picture was a God send to Ken and me! Helped him the whole way!

                                       

                                     







                                                                   Army Ants





 Jungle Canopy

The trip home took a lot longer because of three funerals. Caskets crammed into one of those taxi deals surrounded by fake flowers that make the ones at Walmart look pretty good! People then piled into all sorts of vehicles. We just dodged them as we headed on our way. Two sidewalk Preachers "screaming their wares!"The areas are so very filthy that I don't know if I can begin to describe it for you. Even all the stuff we leave after sporting events does not begin. Maybe if we left it there for years, added tons of drink boxes and smashed  plastic bottles, let the dust pile up on it and dumped more  and added food scraps and then burn little pieces of it and spread those ashes around too and added the smell of urine to it all ....Nope even then this is worse! Filth! Cars abandoned along the road. Ancient vehicles rusting adjacent to tin roof panels used to make one room shanties. Dishes and  laundry washed in the lake -next to where we ate lunch- YES that lake! ;-( were spread out on bushes to dry. People selling everything you can imagine from the boxes or large splatter wear enamel bowls balanced on their heads. Tried to get secret pictures but police were out in force and we were having to drive slowly. So dared not risk it.

So I will close for another entry. I will now go to battle. It is add pictures time! Gurrr! :)  If the captions jump again, you will have to figure it all out. I am beat! Have a great night ! Love ya! Me