DR Congo day #4

This morning we arrived at Church early to set up a time lapse camera in order to capture all the saints arriving. We met many that had walked 25 miles to get there and were eager to get a seat up front so they could have a good environment for learning. They have totally outgrown their rented church building and 2/3 of them are outside the building under blue tarps listening on speakers. It's on the main street so there are so many distractions it is not the best for learning. In fact, in many places you couldn't even hear the speakers, but the saints came anyway in order to be obedient and attend their Church meetings.

We were thrilled afterwards when talking with the Mission President to hear him say he is going to push for a new building within the year. It will be such a blessing for them!

Because we are in a remote place where few white people have been seen we can't go anywhere without a mob of kids and people following us. We didn't want to sit inside the church building and take away seats from those who have walked so far, but when we sat outside people would stop walking down the street and just stare at us. Kids would go grab other kids and pretty soon I would have 20 kids feet away from me, wanting to talk and practice their English, ask me for money, and observe the white man in their midst. We had to go in a totally different building behind the church so we wouldn't distract District Conference. Sure enough kids followed us back there and just sat in the doorway and watched us talk. I ask Elder and Sister Moody if they ever felt like a zoo animal being observed?

 

The Chief of Luputa also came and gave us a gift of gratitude. A live dove and a leopard skin. We had the mission president receive it and it was comical to see his expression of, "Great... what do I do with this???" The District President said he will take care of it, which probably means they will have it for dinner tomorrow.

The translator we are using bought a goat today and it is tied up outside our rooms. She is so excited because she will have it killed Wednesday morning (just outside our rooms) skinned and cut into pieces so she can take it back with her. That means we get to ride with it for hours in a hot vehicle and then watch her pack it on the plane. It's so common place here that although all of our mouths dropped when she told us what she was going to do, that we had to adjust our mindset and be excited for her. Yeah...

We also interviewed a young man who represents all the upcoming missionaries in the area. They are asked to earn a "sacrificial offering" which is $200 for a passport in order to qualify for a mission. They do this by hauling bananas or charcoal to the distant city of Mwene Ditu, 25 miles away. They load up their bikes and start walking. Often times it takes them 2 years to earn enough money to pay for their passport. Sometimes it takes over a year just to get their mission call because their is no mail service. The letter arrives in the mission home and they have to wait until someone is going to the area and then they take the letter with them. Sometimes they are missing information and then have to complete the information and then the paperwork makes the round trip again.

Perhaps my age compared with my traveling companions, full head of soft straight hair, very white skin, or hairy arms, or playful disposition seems to attract extra attention to me. Howard calls me a "Rockstar" because I literally will always have a crowd of kids following me. I don't have any barriers and allow them to touch me, hold my hands, and I love playing with them, so perhaps they can see that I'm approachable. After church they had 3 film cameras that you have to advance manually. They took pictures of each other and would get them printed later and distribute. Members wanted their pictures taken with us and I literally stood outside taking pictures with people one after another for about an hour and a half.

Tonight we went to the market in order to film general city/village life. We saw dogs and cats in the butcher shop, large termites for sale that people love to eat, and of course more kids to follow us around. As we walked into the back part of the market a woman was speaking loudly with a surprised look on her face and almost looked like she was going to cry. Not understanding her I put my hand on her shoulder and wished her the best in French and continued to walk on, but our translator said she was so excited to see white men again in the market and that it had been 50 years since they had seen a white man in that part of the market. The last white men that spent a lot of time in Luputa were Catholic Priests from Belgium.

I'm getting a little worried because with each additional day we are here our freeze dried food is tasting better and better. The most ordinary stuff tastes so gourmet and the warm powdered milk in the morning is something I actually look forward to having.

I love you all and of course miss you!

I forgot to also mention a neat thing that happened while we were driving to the market. As we were driving away I saw Howard come out of his room and wave to us, so we stopped and picked him up. We continued down the dirt bumpy road and he was telling me about an idea he had to run a small story in the Church News or Ensign on the various members we had met. One of the stories he was excited to share was the Branch President who walked 25 miles to District Conference, but Howard was disappointed that we didn't have a good picture of the brother for the article. Just at that time we saw some members walking down the back road we were driving on and I recognized one of them as being this exact brother. I quickly brought that to everyone's attention and we stopped and was able to get some nice pictures of him walking down the street with his wife and baby.

We were amazed that in a city of roughly 190,000 people and on a back street, at the exact time Howard was wishing he had a better picture to tell the story, we run into each other and everything works out just perfect. I'm sure the story will help motivate others around the world so some spiritual time management was put into place so we would meet at the right time.

Thanks,

Matt