We're quite happy to be back in Congo, and the adjustments have been pretty easy, praise God. We were really blessed to have both water and power on Monday night when we got back to our apartment Congo home (after a 6 hour bus ride during which we sat above a sack of dried fish that "don't smell as bad as they could"). One of our Seed participants had thoughtfully prepared a meal and bought us some essential food items (like milk for my Tuesday morning coffee! Yay!), and we felt very loved.
Since then, it's been jumping headfirst back into work for both of us. In French. We're both feeling so content with the improvements that we've made, and it's really good to feel pretty confident speaking French, even though I know I still make a lot of mistakes, but I'm essentially understood. And I have the guts to speak in French. So that's a great answer to prayer, too!
Mark also feels very happy about the fruit of our French school. He really feels a difference in how much he understands what people are saying. He's been doing a lot of work to try and figure out what his future work will look like, especially considering that everyone pretty much agrees that elections won't be happening here anytime soon. He's heading to Kinshasa for 10 days, leaving Sunday, and he's excited to show off his new French skills there, too.
Another difference I wasn't anticipating coming back is that I feel reinvigorated for the work of peacebuilding here on a systemic level. I'm preparing some sessions for our Seed retreat next week (Development, Non-Violence, Women in Conflict, and Issues in Conflict Transformation), and our program really uses a good approach by building relationships with locals who are agents of change and encouraging them, while at the same time developing our participants and challenging them to be reflective peacebuilders who can use these experiences in their future, wherever they are! I'm getting to use some of my strengths as I organize this information into presentations and collect educational resources that will help our participants be more effective in what they're doing. And I'm looking forward to being on the lakeshore again.
And the temperature here is still pretty perfect.
And Mark has a new hand drum "ndjembe" from Senegal that he's crazy about.
And I start an online course in Restorative Justice in a week and a half!
And if you're interested in the political situation here, we just finished three days of national mourning for a massacre of around 45 people in Beni territory (far north of Bukavu and Goma). The main thing I noticed was the 5 minutes of mourning, starting at 12 noon, during which everyone makes a lot of noise. (African mourning is very different from North American mourning.) Here's an interesting article a friend posted regarding the events. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/drc-pope-francis-slams-shameful-silence-international-community-light-beni-massacres-1576261
Since then, it's been jumping headfirst back into work for both of us. In French. We're both feeling so content with the improvements that we've made, and it's really good to feel pretty confident speaking French, even though I know I still make a lot of mistakes, but I'm essentially understood. And I have the guts to speak in French. So that's a great answer to prayer, too!
Mark also feels very happy about the fruit of our French school. He really feels a difference in how much he understands what people are saying. He's been doing a lot of work to try and figure out what his future work will look like, especially considering that everyone pretty much agrees that elections won't be happening here anytime soon. He's heading to Kinshasa for 10 days, leaving Sunday, and he's excited to show off his new French skills there, too.
Another difference I wasn't anticipating coming back is that I feel reinvigorated for the work of peacebuilding here on a systemic level. I'm preparing some sessions for our Seed retreat next week (Development, Non-Violence, Women in Conflict, and Issues in Conflict Transformation), and our program really uses a good approach by building relationships with locals who are agents of change and encouraging them, while at the same time developing our participants and challenging them to be reflective peacebuilders who can use these experiences in their future, wherever they are! I'm getting to use some of my strengths as I organize this information into presentations and collect educational resources that will help our participants be more effective in what they're doing. And I'm looking forward to being on the lakeshore again.
And the temperature here is still pretty perfect.
And Mark has a new hand drum "ndjembe" from Senegal that he's crazy about.
And I start an online course in Restorative Justice in a week and a half!
And if you're interested in the political situation here, we just finished three days of national mourning for a massacre of around 45 people in Beni territory (far north of Bukavu and Goma). The main thing I noticed was the 5 minutes of mourning, starting at 12 noon, during which everyone makes a lot of noise. (African mourning is very different from North American mourning.) Here's an interesting article a friend posted regarding the events. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/drc-pope-francis-slams-shameful-silence-international-community-light-beni-massacres-1576261
Sounds great! Glad you had a soft landing! :)
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