Im stretching FB to its limits! From my letter of March 1993 from Mbuji-Mayi, Zaire (DR Congo): Saturday was a typical full day. I had school with Ben (4 1/2) and David (2) early and then they stayed with Mamu Musuamba. I drove up to Mamu Kabedi’s (the one who I work with on the income-generation projects). She was on the last day of a one week funeral at her house for her 37 year old sister-in-law who died, leaving six children. The last day of a funeral is a bad time to go because no one bathes during the week. On the other hand, it’s a good time to visit and pay respects even if you didn’t know the dead person. I stayed late that morning because I knew my refugee committee meeting was bound to start late. Over an hour late, I was the first to arrive. A panicked member of the Distribution Commission met me, saying that the refugees were surging at the gates and no one had brought the flour and since I had a vehicle, could I please go to the MIBA warehouse and load up a half ton of flour? THAT’S where I get muscles! Actually I took two young men along to help. The refugee committee meeting lasted 4 ½ excruciating hours with pointless discussions and few decisions. I rushed home at 2:30 to get the boys. We’d been invited to an anniversary celebration of a choir at my favorite CEM church. It was supposed to start at 1:30. Mamu Musuamba bathed Ben and David while I showered off the corn flour. We were going to go with Claassens but finally at 3:30 Jarna called on the CB and said that Gordon wasn’t home yet and she was too embarrassed to go so late. I’d promised to go, so we went. We got there at 3:45 and they hadn’t even started yet! It was great. That particular church has a real outreach to young men with their choirs. They have three choirs with about 42 young men involved. They write their own music and sing with rich, full harmonies. Ben loves it. He’s learned some of their sons and sings along. He asked Kabongo (a choir member who works with me in stock keeping for the refugees) if he got a matching shirt, could he join the choir, too? They talked me into going back to their parish again the next morning. I was really pleased to see that Kabongo’s choir had expanded to include two refugees he’s met through the committee. I wish the churches would get more excited about outreach to the refugees. There’s a Protestant committee, but I haven’t seen it function. Maybe what happened scared them off…One church group went to take food to the camp and have a worship service there. They’d told our committee they also had money they wanted to give through the committee. We’d assumed that they’d give it through us. But- at the end of their service they started handing out money to the refugees. They got mobbed and everything was taken, including their microphones and portable P.A. system! Anyway, back to the choir festivities, they fed us all and sang some more. We got home by bedtime with the boys staying fairly clean. Oh yes, we took Pastor Kayemba (the fat pastor) home on the way.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 23:58:21 +0000
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