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| Side view of MPH |
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| "Apartment Kitchen" |
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| Our bedroom |
Now it is time to show you where we are living for these few months. MPH has 2 apartments. We live in one. It is two bedrooms with a living room and office area, a TINY Kitchen - no cooking , just a sink area and a place for our huge jug of FILTERED water (trying not to get parasites- yea, right!! Have eaten out three times and no telling how Food For Thought would find their kitchens! MPH is very safe!), and a nice sized bath. The second bedroom is used for an area to secure tools. I will try to do a rough sketch of it and take a picture. It is not to scale- don't laugh brother architect, Dear! ;)
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| K en n his chair in the LR |
We also have Suites -which are a bedroom with a Queen bed, a sitting area in a separate room and a private bath.There are two of these. Next are Executive Suites. There are 8 of these but only two have Queen beds. The rest are twins. Last are Dorm Rooms with either two or three twin beds in them. One wing is for females and the other wing for males with a hall bath in each wing. There are 12 of these type rooms. So there are a total of 22 rooms to rent out. We also have a small conference room for 12 and a large one for 60. Also a library. And of course there is a laundry room, kitchen, maintenance man's shed, gardener's area, and mechanic area. Prices are rated by either Resident or Non-Resident and range from $92.00 a night for the apartment to $27.00 for a dorm room. Best prices in town. But basically only for our church folks -in one form or another. Most amazing in all of this is that there is only one- as in ONE -household sized washer and dryer and they do the laundry for all of this place! Takes all day to do it to say the least. Then on top of that they offer laundry service for guests and it has to get done too! Use to have a hotel sized dryer etc but they have been broken for years!
Corn Plant out our BR Window and Cement Shutters
Except for the Apartments, Suites and Executive suites - which are air conditioned- the whole place is pretty wide open except for screens or shutter type deals. Lower floors are screened or shuttered with screens and upper shutter areas are not screened. So halls in dorm areas stay warm and dusty and noisy from the traffic and bar across the street. All common areas are not able to be closed off. Just screens and screen doors. Screen and doors are basically rectangles from re-barb .Outside noise can come right in. So can creatures- thus the 2 cats- maintained by MPH/Cindy and now Lenore.
Burgers in Congo!! BBQ night on the patio.
Ken on way to BBQ. These Mother-In -Law plants are like tumbleweeds here. Will grow any where and in sun or shade and any other hardship you want to offer them. They are a "hedge" around the Patio. Grow really tall here.
Meals are served 24/7. Breakfast: 7-8 ( Saturdays/Sundays 7-9), Lunch: 12-13:00 and Supper: 18-19:00. Breakfast comes with the room and the other two meals are $8 each. Bell is rung for each unless there is a conference. Then we have to pay attention and come eat! ;) We all sit together and usually sit in the same chairs every meal. I have given up on these flimsy paper napkins and have gotten out two of our cloth napkins that I brought from Texas. Need to get Napkin rings for them. Think the deals I am going to get are really bracelets but they will work. All meals are hot meals.(Though we will leave out the makings for a continental B'fast if folks are leaving very early.)
Meals are selected by the cook from approved menus. Lots of carbs and fresh produce. Lunch today was Congolese because of the Conference. So today we had two different types of bedia (thick , solid,gruel rolled into the shape of a large baked potato for each person when serving a conference.)Funny- last week Helene, in the office, asked Papa Pierre if he could make some bedia for Ken and me. " How many?" he asks. She tells him just the two of us. " OK, but for no more. Making bedia is woman's work!" (Rumor is a woman makes the gruel and he freezes it here and defrosts it when he needs it!) Also had rice, and fried plantains- carbs # 4! Then baked chicken, baked fish, greens, gravy, and Pelepele. (HOT. No, I mean HOT pepper sauce!! Thought I'd try a little at lunch today. Well, it is hot and I took less than a pea size scoop and whoop! It is HOT! Get the idea? It is Hot! Breakfast this morning was pancakes, bananas and coffee and tea. Tonight is "sausage"= pork and gravy, Mashed potatoes and green beans. (Have I told you that Pelepele is HOT?) We get home made hamburger buns and sweet rolls . Yum! Yep- more carbs! I'd love a huge Chef Salad! Even Ken says he'd like a salad for a change! WOW!!
Papa Pierre came out to be sure Ken and I knew what all was on the buffet line at lunch. When he got to the last dish - "gravy" he said in English with a twinkle in his eye. I told him to say it in "Texas English" it would be "Graaavyeee", He repeated it, grinned and walked into the kitchen saying "graaavyee, graayvee, graayvee"and giggling! They are beginning to figure out my sense of humor in several languages. Isn't life fun!
We have been given our names. I am Mama LeeOnore and Ken is Muambi Mikobe( his Dad's last name at Bulape! Sweet!!). They are written on a sign in the Kitchen- the hub of MPH- for the workers. Some of you have asked me if there is a pecking order and from what I have seen so far there is some but it is an undercurrent. Helene, here in the office with me, lets it rip if she thinks they are trying to take advantage of me or slacking off. It's funny to hear her and boy can she talk loud and fast when she is ticked!! Today I asked her that since the office was always locked at night when did it get cleaned. She told me who to ask and when- weekends. So will get it dusted, mopped and vacuumed this weekend. With dry season and the place all but wide open dust- dark dust is everywhere. It's unreal. Not like west Texas dust and not like dust bunnies. It turns my hands black when I run them across anything in the public areas! I keep Wet Wipes with me all the time because I still touch to many things! (I'll either build up an immunity or .... oops! Hardest thing I am having to remember is not to use the water in the sink to rinse my toothbrush! All has to be done with water from my cup. We keep a pitcher of filtered water in the bath.)
In the last two days I have had to make decisions and hope I am not being taken for a ride. But they do have to pay it back so it comes out of their salary. Baba- maintenance guy came in yesterday. He had just had a call that his wife- who I knew was sick- had been taken to the hospital. He needed $50 or they would not look at her. So gave him the money and he left for the day. He speaks Tshiluba and lots of English. Then today the young man who welcomed us here as the night sentry - when we arrived- with Tshiluba- also needed money. His malaria medicine is out and they won't refill it till he goes to the hospital and pays them. So he too needed $50. It is all done at St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital. Guess they like to deal in even numbers!? ;) When Helene got here I asked her and she said I had done correctly. Whew!
Because my office is air conditioned we have to keep the wooden door closed. So everyone has to knock, After constant knocking all day, I feel like I have been in a tree with an over
wrought woodpecker! Then they enter with" M'excuse, Mama".... and either approach Helene or me. Then comes the rest of the story. Very humble and polite to a fault!
Today Helene got on a cleaning jag. In several places in the office were bags, boxes and laundry baskets overflowing with stuff left by guests. We save it all and just before school starts we divide it and all the tips left by guests and give it to the workers. (Oh! I just realized I will have to manhandle that !) They then sell it and use the money to get their kids "way"to school paid. They have "free" public school here in the Congo. Only to go to the next grade you have to take the exam and it costs a lot of money. But school is free !t Ain't life a kick in the pants!!
What I miss- ICED tea!! SWEEEET ICED TEA!! Made some instant Crystal Lite Peach tea this afternoon and it was so good! No ice-just room temp. Will have to ration. Only brought one little container of that, Lemonade and Mojito lemonade. I may save some hot tea from Breakfast and drink it later. The raw sugar gives everything a different taste. Almost brown sugary.
The garden here is great. They use all the techniques they are trying to teach here.(Composting, rotation etc) I've never seen such tall tomato plants! Have lettuce, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, manioc and matamba/a green SORT of like turnip green but not! Well, what you see is what you get. This picture stuff is driving me crazy. Takes hours to get them to go in. So I am going to limit them some. Just wanted you to get a feel for where we live. Take care! Love Ya! ME
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