Beautiful Kananga

Kananga is in the central part of the DRC, pretty much in between Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. We have no missionaries there, but we have a district with seven branches. We weren’t sure what to expect. As we packed for the trip (the night before) I seemed to remember that it might have been one of the places where we needed our freeze-dried meals and other “camping” equipment. I searched and found the documentation that confirmed that fact, so I then packed up food and ready-made freeze dried meals, paper products, flashlights, knives, etc. We took this trip with Elder Kola and his wife, the area seventy from Congo.

[caption id="attachment_114" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Waiting for a taxi with the Kolas"][/caption]

The adventure began … as we landed on a very small airfield I realized that Kananga was a fairly rural area, with LOTS of people. The internet says 1.5 million, but the people that live here say it is about 5 million people. (Not sure who to believe!) It was easy to see that 40 years ago this had been a very beautiful city, with fountains and large grassy areas between lovely boulevards.

The district president drove up to greet us on a motor scooter… then I saw how most people were leaving the airport. I thought this would be a little tricky to fit all 4 of us with all our luggage on motorbikes…





This seems to be the way to commute in Kananga...

After waiting a while we did get a “taxi” of sorts…

[caption id="attachment_117" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This is how we felt INSIDE this car!"][/caption]

This car looks much better than it really was…. And fortunately for you, smells do not cross through the internet! The most interesting part of this car was the gas tank… a gallon jug sitting in the trunk with a little hose running out of it. I am sure the gas tank rusted out long ago, but the real advantage to using a jug is that you can clearly see how much gas is left. They buy their gas along the road from vendors selling it pint or quart at a time. It was about $8/gallon.

We were taken to a motel…a new one, in fact. Usually the mission president stayed in a local brewery, but the inn was full so we tried out a new business. The main lodge was not quite finished, but it should be by our next visit.

[caption id="attachment_118" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="This motel is not quite finished..."][/caption]

So the motel was supposed to have air conditioning and water. Sounded good to us!  As it turns out, they have a generator that they run from 7 pm to 11 pm and indeed we did have air conditioning then. We just had to pay $10/room (Kolas and us) per hour for additional time with electricity. We opted for 2 more hours in the morning.

Here is the bathroom….

[caption id="attachment_119" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Ever heard of a "bucket shower?""][/caption]

They said WATER, not RUNNING WATER!  The 5 gallon bucket of water on the left was available for you to shower, wash and flush the toilet with.

If you got to sleep before 11, when the air conditioning went off, then you were okay until about 4 am, when you woke up in a sweat, suffocating with heat and humidity and tried to survive until the air conditioning came on at 6 am.

Are we spoiled, or what?  I remember in the good old days we didn’t have air conditioning and in upstate New York it was plenty hot and humid!

So once we dropped off our bags we proceeded to the branch building for a district auxiliary meeting. I thought with only seven branches that there might be just a handful of women. Imagine my surprise…

[caption id="attachment_120" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Kananga District and branch Auxiliary Leaders"][/caption]

What friendly wonderful women these were!  There was one who spoke some English so I was able to understand a little bit of what was said. Today’s discussion was what needs they had and how could the leaders help.

It was obvious that the branches were bursting out of their seams. They reported having between 25 and 70 children in their branches and there wasn’t enough room for them in Primary. They wanted sewing machines so they could learn how to sew and be productive. They wanted church pictures for the lessons. This was a humble growing group of sisters who believed in the Gospel and just needed more materials and space for learning.

That night we did walk to a local restaurant with the Kolas. It was a good thing that we brought our good flashlight because it was pitch black outside. Did I forget to mention that there is no public electricity in Kananga?  Only for those who have generators.

[caption id="attachment_121" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Kananga Church, formerly governor's home"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_122" align="alignright" width="500" caption="Back yard of church and baptismal font (rain water)"][/caption]

The next morning (and throughout the weekend) Mike had interviews… lots of them… with 13 prospective missionaries and another 17 for priesthood advancements, temple recommends and new district callings. (He is the ecclesiastical leader for this district.) I toured the town with the Kolas.

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In the afternoon we toured the town with the district president seeing the various branch locations, land owned by the church for future buildings and rentals. We were quite the attraction to young and old throughout the streets as we were the only white people in the whole city! Children flocked to see us and as I took pictures they all wanted to be sure they were in them.

We both spoke at the adult Saturday meeting after also speaking at the auxiliary training and priesthood leadership meetings that day.

The next morning we had the general session for the district conference in an old (1940’s) theatre in town. It quickly filled up and it appeared they were trying to get sound outside for those who couldn’t fit inside. We noticed that there were lots of people who didn’t raise their hands at the sustaining of the church leadership. As President Headlee started his talk he asked by a show of hands how many investigators were there… there were between 500 and 600!  The attendance was taken and it was 2162 people! The active members of the district is  about 1300. It is not hard to imagine that this area will be a stake or two before we are completed with our mission. We know that we need to send missionaries here within the next 6 months. They will be kept very busy!

[caption id="attachment_161" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="District Conference"][/caption]

We left from the theatre straight to the airport and then home. We brought some delicious fresh pineapple with us and some great memories.

Dedication of Cameroon

We were privileged to be able to witness the dedication of the country of Cameroon to the preaching of the Gospel. Cameroon is the northern-most part of our mission. Our North American missionaries serve here. We also have two senior couples here.  The four local branch presidents all attended this ceremony along with our area president, Elder Paul Koelliker and his wife.

A Special Houseguest

We just concluded our week with Elder Jeffrey Holland. What a thrill it was to witness his dedication of the country of Cameroon and then bring him back to Kinshasa where he stayed with us for 4 days!

An apostle visits Cameroon

After the dedication we visited the home of President Bala, a local branch president. There, his son played a hymn he learned while taking piano lessons from Sister Edith Baker.  We were all touched by this tiny sweet home which was filled with the spirit of the Lord.



We also visited a site proposed for the first chapel to be built in the country of Cameroon. There are four branches in the city of Yaounde, one missionary couple and 8 North American missionaries.



There was a member meeting that afternoon. Around 400 church members came to hear Elder Holland address them. They had a chance to shake his hand after the meeting.

The Streets of Kinshasa

A visit to St. Joseph's Hospital

The Moody's took me to St. Joseph's Hospital where I met Dr. Ngoie. He is a local OB doctor who has learn neonatal infant resuscitation through the Church's humanitarian program.It teaches doctors and nurses how to save infants lives as they are being born. (Through the proper techniques of clearing out the mucas in their throats, etc.) Dr. Ngoie has in turn taught this technique throughout the DRC and has reported back that literally thousands of babies have been saved that would have previously been considered dead.



This baby was resuscitated minutes before we toured this facility.



This baby was a minute old....now being weighed as 7 of us parade through the delivery room. They offered to have us watch the delivery if we had wanted to!



This autoclave unit was repaired by our own Elder Moon and they now are able to sterilize their instruments. (That is a very good thing to do in a hospital! What did they do before it was repaired????)

Camp Luca Baptism

A new area was opened about 8 weeks ago in one of our Kinshasa stakes. The existing ward was too large and the boundaries so vast that many of the members had difficulty getting transport to the chapel. At the suggestion of the stake president and concurrence of the local bishop, a small branch began to meet in the great room of our missionaries' residence. Their repeated requests for chairs caught my attention. Now, some 6 weeks later there are over 120 people meeting under the direction of the local ward. The four missionaries have had 68 baptisms in the first 6 weeks of their new assignment. I attended this baptism on August 9 where 25 souls were received into the fold. Here is their photo.

LUBUMBASHI

It just rolls off your tongue!  ....lube ume bosh ee... It is at the southeast end of the Congo. It is about 1000 miles from Kinshasa. There are two LDS stakes here and they are growing very fast.  It is possible that we could see 2 more stakes here before we leave.  It felt a lot like being in Zambia...possibly because it is only 40 miles from the Zambian border. We came to Lubumbashi to have a zone conference and meet the missionaries.  There is a couples' home here, which is vacant right now because our couple assigned here doesn't arrive until Sept 7th or 8th. We came down one day and President Headlee met with the 2 stake presidents, had a zone conference the next day, the following day we drove to Likasi (about 2 hours drive away) for a small zone conference and then drove back the same day. We left the following morning. I was thinking that all this travel would be a drag, but actually it is really nice to get out of Kinshasa and visit some these pleasant (and rural) areas away from the big city.

It is pretty amazing to see LDS chapels in the middle of Africa...and in the back of this one a bunch of Young Women were playing basketball!

How big is Africa?

God Bless America!

Here we are just after arriving 3 days ago...invited to a Fourth of July picnic at the US Ambassador's residence.



The Moon's, Bill and Annette. They are our office couple and we couldn't MOVE without them!  They do the work of 3 other couples... just amazing. We love them so much and are sorry they will be leaving as soon as a replacement for them is found.



The Moody's, Les and Joan, are the humanitarian couple. They have their office in our Mission Office and we see them constantly. They are not involved in our mission business, but they pursue humanitarian projects in our mission area. We socialize with the Moody's and the Moon's 2 to 3 times a week...movie night, game night, Sunday dinners and Family Home Evening.



This is the Congo River located just behind most of the embassy residences in Kinshasa. This area is deemed safe, so everyone does their walking for exercise along this route.



This is a local fruit market on the street where I get most of my produce.



This is the most we have ever seen of the sun. We came here in the dry season....absolutely no rain at all until September or October. With the burning of trash that they all do here we seem to have a combination of smog and haze. Gray skies all day and around sunset you see a bit of the sun before it sets. No shadows here ever!