"LOGISTICS-Only, We Don't Have UPS" Or "Just 'a Packin' !! "

Howdy, Still in Texas!

Whew! Getting ready to be a  a substitute missionary is no easier than being a substitute teacher!! It takes a bunch to get ready to do it and the main ingredient is "patient panties!!" Five months is a long time to be gone. Three granddaughters, one son, and one daughter-in-law will all be a year older when we return! One pair - not panties- but son-   will celebrate another anniversary. Wow!!

We will celebrate our 45th Anniversary while in Congo in June. Just goes to show you how lucky I have been to be married to a man with the Patience of Job. Talk about "Patient Panties!!" 

Getting a letter of invitation from the Congo government was facilitated by a missionary already living there in Kinshasa, Larry Sthreshley!  THANKS!!  One can not go to the country without an official government invitation.Of course it is all in French. I could read it!! So maybe my language skills will return when we get there and I hear it all the time! Hope so!!! Visas and shots and tickets. And each can't be done until the preceding is done. A Type A Personality assignment.

Next had to think of clothes. We will be there for some of rainy and dry seasons. Up country ladies can't wear pants- I mean slacks etc. ;) They -have to wear skirts or dresses. In Kinshasa, where we will be most of the time, ladies can wear slacks and Capri's. So I am set. Ken is set with slacks, jeans and shorts. So, Possum Kingdom Lake summer clothes are a go for the most part. The most challenging was the battle in my brain over how much to take. Of course, Ken was helping so much with, "just take two slacks, two tops and give them to the house boy to wash and iron and wear them  again!!" Men!

Then I had to think of the personal items. Have no idea what we will be able to get at the Congo "market" stores. So am headed out with some personal hygiene stuff for each of us. Then we will "punt" and learn to use Congo stuff.  I next did the "do they have..." routine. Dramamine, Migraine meds, band aids, Eternity perfume of course, Neosporin, Dial soap,Charmin "toilet tissue"(doubt it!!) and the list goes on. I'll let you know- especially what I miss the most. I was told they have Pringles and Oreos. Hey, what more could a girl need in the middle of Congo!! Marcia wrote last week to tell us to be sure to pack and bring flash lights to watch for snakes at night. So I asked-" For your place up country, right?" " No,", she tells me, "They are also for MPH. They have killed snakes inside there to!"  Ohhh!! I remember! Look up and down!! Hope the other survival skills return too!! ;)

Medicines for five months almost took an act of Congress. Insurance companies easily give a one month vacation over-ride a year. Five months of over-rides sent them into cardiac arrest. I called the insurance company to be proactive so it would go smoothly. Ha!! A young girl answered the phone, I told her I needed to speak to a manager. " Oh," she said in her cute little voice ," I can help you!" "OK," I told her and proceeded to tell her what I would need. "Can you hold, please, while I transfer you to a manager?" she says. So I repeat my story. " Can you hold please, I have to transfer you to my Manager." Then you know what happened. I got cut off. SO it all started over- they never call back- even though they have my number!! For four and a half hours I deal with this. Final person, after putting me on hold multiple times,said that this was a huge request and Nathan would call me back in 48-72 hours. Two weeks later I call back to the 1-800 number. Tell my story again and that I need Nathan. "Oh," says the young man from the SOUTH, "I am reading the notes here on your other calls and he was supposed to call you back." "No, that is why I am calling."(DUH!!) So Nathan gets on the line and we have a great visit- a 3 1/2 hour visit. He gets all the information- AGAIN!!!- and tells me it is all set for when I get home to Texas and will be a piece of cake due to my pre-plannning. Yep, you guessed it! NOT! But luckily Nathan had given me his secret number and I gave it to the pharmacists!! They then got it all done -but it took ten days to get our various meds ordered and ready for five months! (Ken just walked by and said I might as well say that he takes 99% of these meds! ;-0 - I wasn't going to tell!) I'd always said we would not be one of those Senior Citizens who goes to see their doctor with that huge zip lock baggie of bottles of drugs. (So I have a nice neat list that we each keep in our wallets. Nurses love it-  they scan a copy into our records and hand it right back!!) But it took three grocery sized paper bags to get us and our five months of  meds out of the pharmacy!!!  But it is done! This job about wore out my patient panties!!

The next exciting chore is to get our home ready to leave for five months. Our boys and their families and friends will be using the Condo over the summer. There's a Triathlon here in September and they are using it again. Thank goodness they all will be checking on it and using it. I have asked our maid to do a walk through when she is here cleaning other condos. She will also take care of my inside and outside plants etc. Thank goodness for Charlotte! She has done it for us as we have gallivanted all over the USA in the RV and by car and now the world.

Next chore is mail for five months! Have you ever tried to stop getting junk mail? (It'll weigh a million pounds when we get home!) Doesn't work. I left Lubbock and gave NONE of them my forwarding address. They found me! Marcia left Lubbock for Congo and uses our address as hers. So now we get her junk mail too!! Mother Murray gave me Texas Highways for years!! So after her death Marcia continued it. So I get junk mail for Mother Murray too and she has been dead for over 5 years!! Postmaster sent me a note asking to please list the people that get mail at this condo!! ;))))  Bless her heart! I finally told her if it says Murray give it to us!! There's mail for Ken with his real name James Glenn!! WHEE!! Then Clint and Lee Ann bought the Condo next to ours and they get junk mail! The first time we went on the four monthish RV trip through the South, I had the mail held. WELLLL, that was not good! The box next to ours is Bobby Martin's Villa Marina here at Possum Kingdom Lake. They kept sending folks late notices on boat slip fees. Folks insisted they had paid. Yep- some of their mail was in my held mail. So now sweet Jackie, at the Marina, volunteered to get our mail too. So this time she is going to throw out and tear up all junk mail and only save first class mail. Otherwise their building may sag!! Everything else is drafted or I pay on line. So hopefully all is set and I won't have over a ton of mail to go through when we get back to the USA. Family Birthday and anniversary cards etc.with money etc. have been hand delivered. For the rest of you--Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Fourth of July, Happy Labor Day, Happy First Day of School, Happy First Report Cards are Due Day and any Happy Days I forgot. ;)

Some of you have written Ken or me on our emails. Ir's been interesting. Several of you want me to really tell what I see etc . Well, I can tell you have not been around me in a long time. If you don't want to know don't ask. However, others of you want to remember it all the way it was- especially in pictures and want a warning if I am posting certain places. That I understand. Ken wants to see everything and everywhere. I'm still not sure I even want to see Lubondai-the station where I lived-  the way so many of you have described it. My memories of it are so special. So we'll see how it all plays out!

  So here we are a day or so from departure. We have had our multiple fixes of Mexican food and Texas Brisket BBQ -hopefully enough to last us.  Doubt it! If it's not done - Oh Well! If it isn't packed - we will do without or "go native"- oops not literally!  Bad visual! ;) 

Email works fine in Congo- most of the time. That is how you will hear from us. Basically there is no mail system in the country.Our Emails are:murray.lenore@yahoo.com.  ken.murray@ttu.edu. Our Phones and Texting will not work. We will have them turned off.  So Facebook ,The Blog and email is it!!  I will probably do more checking of the blog than Facebook- especially here at first as we settle into this new "retirement job." So write me in the comment area of the blog.

SOOOO Logistics?? Patient panties? Check! Duct tape to keep my facial expressions under control when hassled or asked for bribes? Check! ( Two rolls!) Knowing we are being Blessed with Prayers from Graham, TX. UMC! Check! Kleenex for tears of joy - OK and toilet paper? Check! Knowing that Ken is beyond thrilled? CHECK!!!!

Take care. Have a great summer and fall! See ya later! Keep us posted on your doings! Love Ya!!