Day in the Life – "in the field"

That means "out of town".

Night before: spend 10 minutes packing because you’re never totally unpacked, so it’s easy to throw in a few pieces of clean clothing and be ready.

Wake up early for an early departure. Debate whether it’s worth it to drink coffee and have to hold it until you can find a public toilet along the journey. Choose coffee anyway because of that one time you got a caffeine withdrawal headache when you didn’t.

If you choose to travel by boat, get to the port by 6:45am.  It’s most fun to take a moto.

If you choose to take the Land Cruiser, leave the house at 7:30am.

Have I written about crossing the border yet? That’s such a fun part of life here! (*SARCASM!!!) If you’re heading south, travel through Rwanda, which requires leaving Congo (filling out a form, sweet talking immigration officer, hoping he’ll be nice and not try to delay you in hopes of getting something), entering Rwanda (waiting in line for awhile and getting a stamp), changing money into Rwandan Francs, driving 45 minutes on nice Rwandan roads then leaving Rwanda (line and stamp again), entering Congo (getting in line and waiting a long time while the immigration officer writes down all the details of your foreign passport while everyone behind you gets impatient). And I am leaving out all the details about how you have to walk through the pedestrian entry to the bridge or else you’ll get berated, even if there are no cars approaching from the car entrance; taking your bags to get searched when you enter Rwanda because they’re looking for smuggled plastic; and walking by a “health officer” who points a “thermometer gun” at you inevitably letting you through, even if you are really sick.

Okay, so three to six (to thirteen) hours later, you arrive at the destination. If you traveled by boat, you have to deal with immigration officers, even though you didn’t leave the country, but they’ll still try to find something wrong with your documents. First stop is almost always the hotel to drop off bags, clean up and maybe rest then find food.

We eat a lot of local food while we’re in the field, and I almost always love it. Except one time when I got a fish bone caught in my throat and was trying to swallow a half a banana without chewing to wash it down or chewing only three times peanut butter crackers (that I’d been hoarding since we arrived) and trying to swallow to wash it down. I love fish, cooked greens (any kind), cabbage, beans, goat, and fufu (called nshima in Zambia, it’s the maize meal cooked to a consistency where you eat a “lump” and make it into little balls to scoop up your other food.)

After that, I usually just hold onto my hat and follow Serge around because I’m a lot less helpful on the field. French is for administration and office work. Swahili is the language most used on field visits, and white people are mostly used to attract attention and requests for money. Occasionally we are also used to scare children when their mothers whisper things about mzungus in their ears as we walk by.

We meet with partners and Seeders and go see their projects. Serge and I always try to sit down with just the Seeder to give them an opportunity to tell us about anything that’s not working well or to deal with finances or talk other “Seed program” details.

Wherever we are, Serge knows people, so he usually goes out in the evening to socialize, and I stay in the hotel, trying to avoid attention and curiosity of other hotel guests or staff or people passing on the street.

Despite the sarcastic tone of this blog post, I really enjoy being on the field, getting to see our Seeders where they are in their element, and interacting with beneficiaries of some good projects. I don’t get to see the positive results of our programs often enough, so I like seeing, smiling, (not so much smelling). Sometimes I feel like a proud mama hen watching her chicks as they become all independent. We’re usually on the field a week or so of every month, if there is a usual.

Karen at GLI

A few days after our hike in Nyungwe, I went back to Uganda without Mark. I got to attend the Great Lakes Initiative Leadership Institute for Reconciliation in Kampala which is sponsored by MCC, Duke Divinity School, African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM), and World Vision.

It was a really neat experience to explore reconciliation with Christian leaders from around the region. There were some incredible speakers, one of whom was Emmanuel Katongole (author of The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology of Africa and Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda). Another inspiring speaker was Father Bernard Kinvi. The conference was in English and French, so it was good language practice for me, as well.

I attended a seminar on Christian Non-Violence response to Conflict, co-taught by an American man and a woman from South Sudan. It was really fun to watch them work together (made me think about what Serge and I look like in our co-facilitation), and we learned a lot about Jesus as our model for non-violence, as well as non-violent strategies.

It was an intensely social time for this little introvert, but I did my best and had some really neat conversations with old friends and new from around the region. Then I went to bed right after dinner.

I also ended up being in the middle of some conversations about Mark's job that were really hard and awkward for me. We appreciate your prayers for his work, and we hope to have an update soon.

We went on a "pilgrimage"to Lake Victoria. There, we prayed for each other. One country at a time, they were called to come to the middle of the big circle. It was humbling for me to join the 13 Congolese in the middle as they prayed for us.

It was two days of travel by road to get there and two days to get back to Bukavu. I arrived home last Sunday and was both very tired and very happy to be back with Mark!

Day in the life of Karen (version one: office in Bukavu)

A friend recently asked what a normal day in my life here is like. Here's my first attempt.

5:45 Wake up, listen to discern if the power is on, crawl out from under mosquito net.

Do Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred workout in the living room (M,W,F)

6:30am coffee and quiet time

7:30 shower then breakfast (oatmeal or yogurt and granola)

8am Domestic worker arrives (M, Th). Give him instructions for the day (laundry by hand, shopping in the market, what to make for dinner, any special cleaning needs)

8:25 leave for the office

8:30 arrive at office. Check emails, organize to-do list.

Whenever Serge arrives (varies greatly), compare lists of urgent tasks for the day and discuss communications we’ve received from any of our eight “seeders” or partner organizations, especially regarding finances or security.

Too often, we have to go to the bank to take care of some unresolved issue (password isn’t working, transfer didn’t go through correctly, they need us to sign something, etc.)

On Mondays we try to have a staff meeting with all MCCers with a short devo and discuss urgent and/or strategic matters.

In the past six weeks, we’ve had many planned and unplanned meetings with our new Eastern Congo Program Coordinator, as he gets to know and understand how things work and also tries to sort through the messes that have been waiting for him to fix.

Squeeze in an hour or so of French practice when it works.

12:15 Take lunch break – go home for leftovers, out for roasted goat and maize meal (fufu),

or over to a neighbor’s office if her domestic helper has prepared extra.

1:15pm Keep doing whatever is on the day’s agenda. Seeders may be coming by with

questions or financial needs. Ask Serge a bunch of questions. Scan receipts when there’s electricity, write emails, etc.

4:30pm  sign off work. Maybe skype/facetime with someone at home. Tues/Thurs go to

Bible study at pastor’s house (in French). Maybe go to the nice hotel in town to exercise and take a hot shower.

6:30ish Dinner. (Power’s almost always out from 3:30pm-8:06pm, sometimes longer) I’ve

been making fried rice a lot. Our domestic helper usually cooks on the days he’s working. Mark makes soup, fajitas. We try to take turns doing the dishes.

Evening dishes, coursework, reading, sometimes games or reading aloud in French.

Between 8-9pm Head to bed under the mosquito net

Day in the Life of Karen version 2: "field visits" to come...

Nyungwe National Park: Mountain Rainforest

The backpacking trip we went on was so hard. I wouldn’t do it again. To get things started, the park  told us to be there before 10, and we were, but they weren’t ready for us at all. I should have called a few days beforehand, and again the day beforehand; it’s just better to check on things here. Calling only 3 weeks ahead of time was too much. It turns out that the guy I had spoken to was not really the guy in charge, and he essentially did nothing. Once we had arrived at the park I was able to talk to the real guy in charge (whose English was fantastic) and he sorted things out quite quickly. Unfortunately, his office isn’t at the office where we were, so we had to call him with cell phones, which didn’t go through for about an hour and a half. And then they sent someone to be our guide, and that person didn’t show up for about 2 hours either. We ended up starting the hike 4 hours late.

I do have one great thing to say, though, and that is that God answered my prayer: he helped me out of my trouble with my boots. After all the planning I did for that trip, I forgot my hiking boots. So frustrating. I was cussing and hitting things and crying. I just felt like nothing I ever try to do over here works. Even when I try to get away from the stress, to do something to de-stress, I can’t. It was also frustrating because I could have gone back and gotten them if I’d know that the park was going to be so disorganized as to delay 4 hours!

I ended up renting galoshes from the park (just under $4 a day), and switching between them and the trail-sandals (with a toe strap but no back) that I bought in Uvira 8 weeks ago. I walked 26 miles in them, and it was ok! I did get a small blister on one foot, but not bad, and I was able to finish the hike. In fact, Karen had the biggest blister problem, and she was wearing the nicest boots. Although hers are like 8 years old and totally falling apart, so they only look nice. She should throw them away, actually.

But anyway, being able to finish the hike without my boots was a blessing. But man, the hike was so hard. Since we started 4 hours late the first day we had to do like 4-6 extra miles the second day, and it was insane. Most of the hike was between 7500-9500 ft. above sea level, and we felt the elevation. It was all hills, up and down, and up and down. And also there were these HUGE worms all over. Like, picture an earthworm, but an inch thick, and 18 inches long. Completely insane.

We were hiking in for real rainforest (80 inches of rain a year) and, true to form, it rained on us several times. But, thankfully it never really got that cold. Maybe it was in the 50’s, but nothing very serious. Our porters (we had 2, plus a guide) would make a fire, and they’d set up the tarp I brought about 7 feet above the fire, so we could all gather under there and be warm and also not afraid the tarp was going to catch fire. 

But the sleeping bag… man. We borrowed sleeping bags from a friend, and one of them was like, moldy, or something. Karen’s nostrils froze up when she tried to sleep in it the first night, which meant she basically didn’t sleep. Which is NOT how your want your first night on the trail to go. She was warm, she was lying on a soft, flat surface, but she just couldn’t breathe. So we switched on the second night and it kinda happened to me too. We were aware of it though, so I took some anti-histamine and that helped me. But I woke up a lot just breathing through my mouth. 

We didn’t see hardly any wildlife on this trail. That’s basically ok with me though, because this park doesn’t have much that interests me. Lots of kinds of chimps and monkeys, which are just trouble if you ask me. And like a thousand birds, but they’re so hard to see anyway. I did see a small creature that looked like a rat that got run over by a greasy tire and has no tail and no head. The highlight was definitely the giant worms. Completely blew my mind. I had no idea that worms could get that big.

Also, we didn’t get any of the nice views when we hiked over the second highest mountain of the park. It was completely cloudy/rainy. Oh well. The park DID successfully prevent anyone from asking me for money for about 72 hours straight, and that’s a very nice thing here. Maybe the best part of the hike was the wonderfully fresh air. It just smelt so earth and forest-like, and was—wait for it—a breath of fresh air in comparison with Bukavu, or the random village-filled countryside that I traveled through to Uganda. 

But oh my gosh, the hiking was exhausting. Karen summed it up well when she said “I stopped having fun the second day after lunch”. If we hadn’t lost 4 hours the first day it would have made a BIG difference on our enjoyment of the trip. But TIA.