Everybody! Everybody!

Hi all,

Have you seen Lake Kivu lately? It's changing colors! Par example:

Compare the two photos, taken of nearly the same spot of the lake (from a plane window). The first is from January, the second was last Sunday.

And here's my favorite: 

            

Looks like some tropical paradise with a bunch of coral, huh? But no, that water is 1000 ft deep. Sure looks beautiful!

Also, here's a nice sunset from last night:

And also, a picture of something that I noticed while at 10,000 ft. Welcome to domestic airlines in DRC. 

Today and yesterday I got to meet with an expert from MONUSCO to help me try to think through how to do the monitoring that I'm being assigned to do. I'll spend the rest of this week in conversations with another colleague trying to hammer this stuff out. This is VERY good for me, as I've actually felt lost and overwhelmed by the idea of doing election monitoring by myself. I'm hopeful that some good focus and narrowing of my duties will result from this!

And, finally, 10,000 points to "Everybody!" who recognized the title to this blog post. Email me at markjadawson@gmail.com to tell me where it's from and to receive your points.  

Hanging in there

It seems impossible that it's been only ten months since my newest nephew was born. I feel like I have lived lifetimes since then. We're approaching six months since arrival in Congo. Again, LIFETIMES...

I also feel like it will take lifetimes to get this program off the ground. Except, as someone helpfully pointed out, it is off the ground! It's like we're building a plane while we are flying it, and we are already above the trees. Now, just to keep it from crashing!

I had a mini-crash myself earlier this week after a difficult meeting with our supervisors in which we all realized that none of us have the answers for how to make this program work. It's just a really big task in a really difficult context, and there are no easy answers, and I'm finding out that there's no one else to help us figure out how to move forward. It feels like it's Serge and me (and our super-supportive spouses) against the world. Thankfully, we have prayer support, and I was very encouraged when all of the country Reps from our region took time out of their meetings to pray over us.

This is God's program, and I've got to let go of how it reflects on me if it's not perfect. And it's a far cry from perfection. But the Lord led us in our selection of participants, and we have some great Seeders who are flexible and willing to work hard and learn what's in front of them. We've already left four of them to start at their organizations! Even though we don't have all of the formalities set up nicely.

It's almost exactly two months since our participants arrived, and we've been running at such a hectic pace the whole time. This is not ideal, that's for sure. But, by God's grace, we will carry on and trust him to take care of each of us, as we trust that he is also taking care of each of you loved ones who are far away from us. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. It's amazing to have the privilege to work in this beautiful, broken place. 

Thoughts from a hotel room in which I'm quite happy as an introvert

Today is the day the team begins to disburse! I’m on my way to Goma with four of the participants to introduce them to the organizations they will work with for the next (almost) two years. Sadly, Serge’s sister-in-law passed away, so I am the sole leader of this crew for a few days. Interestingly, for me, the two North Americans will both begin in Bukavu, so I find myself as the only mzungu (white person) on board the board of around 300 passengers. The countryside is so astoundingly beautiful. We have many pictures already, but I am always inclined to take more, and I’m not even a good photographer! Also, I’m really happy because they’re playing sermons and soccer games on the tv instead of really violent movies.

(Oops, wrote that too soon. They started playing the same violent "white men come rescue Good Africans from Bad Africans" movie that they played on one of the other trips. I went out on the deck and ended up reading Psalm 121 in both English and Swahili with one of the boat's captains. What a life!)

Reflections from the last week of orientation:

-          In discussion with a visitor, she said “You don’t really think about the rule of law until it’s not there”. DR Congo does not have strong rule of law, to say the least. The government is not responsible to the citizens because their funding comes from the outside. This is a problem!

-          I had my first visit to the medical clinic here. After three days of stomach cramps and diarrhea, I decided I might have an amoeba and that requires lab work to confirm. So Mark accompanied me to a sweaty-hot tin shed where they took my vitals, using an old rusty scale and a thermometer that had been wiped with an alcohol swab recently. Thankfully, there are a lot of cognates between French and English, such as “cramps” and “diarrhea”. There were four people doing nothing in the lab and they returned results to the doctor within 20 minutes while Mark and I waited outside. The doc said I had some kind of gastro-infection, not amoeba, and gave me the name of the medicine to buy. I just needed the name, not a prescription for it. Now I’m feeling mostly better! And happy to know that they can handle that kind of thing easily. And it all cost less than $20.

-          On Saturday, I successfully communicated with a parking attendant, and as I left the place on foot, I kept talking to myself in French, saying things like: “I can communicate a little in French! I can speak French! Yes, it’s elementary, but it’s French! I have thought I can speak English and Spanish, but I never thought I would learn French.” And I was very proud of myself. That’s a rare and good feeling for sure! My French has suffered the past month, as I have had zero capacity to focus on language-learning.

-          Saturday afternoon, we played ultimate Frisbee 6 on 6 at one point! Two Seeders who will be based in Bukavu played, as did two Congolese! That’s such a good thing for Mark and me because we can forget about work and everything else. And it’s a great thing to have people other than expats playing because expats are in and out SO much here! The average term with an organization is probably around 6 months, and that would include leaving the country or at least Bukavu a number of times. So it’s really exciting to feel like we’re building a base of consistent players.