The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

In this case we'll start with the ugly.  This building is on our "30 Juin Blvd" that we use to commute to the Mission Office every weekday, go shopping on Saturday and to Church on Sunday.  It is supposed to be a post office.  But there is just one problem... there is NO delivery mail system in the Congo, mostly because there are no ADDRESSES. (Whoops... I just realized this is NOT the post office, which is a huge building further down and is STILL a joke because, as I said, there is no mail delivery).  This picture is just a VERY grimy, ugly building right on what is supposed to be the "showcase" eight-lane boulevard of the city.

This is the view of a new building from one side of our roof  (we think it will be both business and residential).  It's being built by the Chinese, who do a lot of business in Kinshasa.  The manual labor is done by the Congolese with very primitive methods and few modern tools or machines.  The Chinese mostly "supervise".

The "Grand Hotel" is near Embassy Row and LOOKS nice from the outside, but all adjectives are relative in the Congo.  We have heard it's not so "grand" once inside.

The following pictures were taken on March 3rd from the 9th floor roof.  This shows the wharf area just a block away.  This is also where you can rent space on an ancient, cramped boat with a motor which may or may NOT get you across to Brazzaville without conking out.  If the worst happens and you begin to drift down the river to "The Falls", you pray very hard and hope that someone comes to your rescue in time. 

This is a view across the Congo River which shows Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo... not to be confused with our city, Kinshasa, which is the capital of the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC of the CONGO... This was taken the evening before the half-dozen ammo dump explosions the next morning and, when I heard that a Catholic church had been flattened, I hoped it wasn't the lovely looking church with the steeple next to the large building.  (It wasn't)

Nothing special here.. just a view of the Congo & buildings to northeast of us.

The taller brown building is nicknamed "New York, New York" by all of us.  The short brown building is the Jewish "Super Marche", which DOES sell pork, as opposed to the Lebanese-Christian grocery store a couple blocks away that DOESN'T.  The blue building is right next to us and was Election Headquarters during the unrest last Nov-Dec.  It was also the site for some rioting and demonstrations, along with tanks in the street and the location of at least one assassination.  The U.S. Embassy is just a block or so to the right.  All of this is why, when the explosions began the very next day after hearing these stories, I thought they were either in our building or right next door.  Since we are right on the Congo River and the amount of ammunition was so huge, the sound and impact of the blasts came across the water powerfully and made it all sound and feel very close.

The view northeast of us of an area called Masina.

I just like this view of the Congo with the little islands out in the river.

Here is a somewhat fun situation captured with the camera.  The "transit" system could probably be considered a minor miracle.  When I visited my daughter, Joanne, in NYC in 2002, they stated that Manhatten had 14 M people and on any given day 7 M used the transit system, which included well-equipped trains, subways, ferries, buses & taxis.  Here, we have the same number of population and it's all moved from one place to another with old, battered buses & half-dead taxis.  These persistent would-be passengers were chasing the bus to try and squeeze in after he took off.  they sometime stand on the bumper and hang on to the roof! The one guy you see was successful.

This picture does almost nothing to SHOW you what I saw, but I will tell you the story.  A man came from the far left, crossed the street to our side and moved rapidly across my field of vision on the sidewalk toward the taxi area to our right.  What made this scene so unusual and heart-breaking was that the man had no legs, but used his arms to swing his body forward toward his destination.  When he reached the white van, he SOMEHOW lifted himself up without anyone's help.  I took the picture, even though you can barely see his disappearing back, to remind me of the many things in our lives which are taken for granted and not appreciated.

A Day of Fear and Trembling!

This picture was taken from our wrap-around roof after the second explosion and gives some perspective as to the massiveness of this event.  Part of the first cloud can be seen to the right and the Congo River is right beyond the trees.  This mushroom cloud is tens of thousands of feet high.  Imagine the power it would take to push matter up that far.  There were five or six blasts which were very strong.  Each of the first three major blasts were progressively louder and more powerful.  The building shook quite hard & swayed with each explosion and the windows rattled and bulged so much I was sure they would break any second.  The U.S. Embassy was sending out alerts for all Americans to stay in their quarters until it could be determined what had happened.  But, when we felt calm about doing so, we drove to Church with the Staggs, arriving just a couple minutes before start time.  Once we felt safe, my heart turned to the loss of life which I knew must surely have accompanied this terrible event.  During Church, for the next three hours, we could still hear and feel smaller explosions.  Here is a report on the tragedy. 

 http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/congo-brazzaville-arms-depot-explosions?cat=world&type=article
and another article that explains why the we and the Staggs felt the power of these blasts more than most of the rest of Kinshasa....
http://www.africareview.com/News/Panic+in+Kinshasa+over+Brazzaville+blasts/-/979180/1359844/-/dk5cwpz/-/

♫ Up On the Roof! ♫

As some of you know, Elder Smith and I got locked out of our apartment on our first Saturday because he wanted me to go out onto the wrap-around roof to see some sights.  Unfortunately, he closed the sliding doors a little more forcefully than usual & it tripped the lock, which we discovered when we tried to get back in about an hour later.  We were keyless and phoneless (but I DID have my camera) and were only rescued from the roof when I saw a UN worker arriving home and called down to her.  Luckily, she called a co-worker who just happened to live next door to our upstairs mission couple, the Staggs.  The had access to a locked entry to the roof and came and got us after we'd been stranded three hours.  The good news is that it was an unusually mild day with a gentle breeze and I got to take a LOT of pictures.

First of all, this is NOT our apartment building.  It is a very lovely structure right across the street from us.  We are on the 3rd floor of a tall apartment building owned by the US Embassy.  It houses mostly U.N. and USAID employees.  We have never seen the man who lives across the hall from us because he is fighting in "the east", as they say here... part of the small contingent of US military trying to root out a cruel and vicious rebel leader.

This, on the other hand is a view of the building right next to the pretty one above.  Did you think it was being constructed?  Au contraire!  It, like many buildings in Kinshasa, is being "de-constructed".  The city is full of huge construction projects which were discontinued due to lack of funds and left abandoned.  In this case, they are actually tearing it down.

This is a large Catholic school on the southeast side of our apartment.  Since it was Saturday, the children weren't there, but I've seen them during the week... the boys dressed in dark pants with a white shirt & tie and the girls in the traditional plaid jumper & white blouse.  They are neat & clean and are quite cute.

The fountain is part of a plaza which we overlook from our northwest side.  It marks the beginning of The Boulevard Du 30 Juin, the eight lane road which is the pride of Kinshasa and celebrates the 30 June 1960 independence from Belgium. We take this route every morning to the Mission Office about 1 1/2 miles away.  Before we got here, I thought it would be an incredibly close & easy ride.  Now, I realize that having several "near-death" experiences every morning & every afternoon makes for a very long commute.

  The Congo River bends around us, so it's just beyond the taller buildings in this picture, but much closer on the other side of our building.

I zoomed in on the little Congolese family just to get a picture of the oft-seen way the people carry things.  I can assure you that I've seen hundreds with far bigger & heavier loads when I was in the car and couldn't get my camera set quick enough.

This is an example of what you see a hundred times a day.  All of the "transportation" buses, cars, taxis (whatever else might be called a vehicle) are very old and badly beat up... no surprise when you see how they drive in the Congo.  The drivers use two methods of communication... a horn, preferably leaned on about every five seconds, and a man (volunteer?) who leans out of the vehicle making various hand signals (which we haven't been able to interpret).  As soon as possible, I am going to learn how to use Elder Smith's pocket cam and capture the experience of Kinshasa traffic, though I'm told that even video doesn't do it justice.  After all, the viewer is looking at it in the safety of his comfortable home and does not have to worry about his proximity to death or injury.

The U.N. has a huge presence here, but the general opinion is that they have not contributed much to the betterment of the country.  To the right, you see another common sight... a "pus-pus", which is used for every conceivable type, size & weight load.  This in turn might also have a person or two sitting atop.

I loved the elegant look of this Congolese woman walking across the plaza.

Security is big business in Kinshasa.  Every government building and most large company/apartment buildings have concrete walls & steel doors to be opened.You see uniforms everywhere and have to learn which ones are actually police.  Those are the guys to be avoided.  They get very little (if any) pay, but rely on stopping people and getting a bribe.  Congolese citizens MUST stop.  We are advised NOT to stop (and ALWAYS have our car doors locked). But if we are blocked, we are to keep the window within an inch of the top, smile & show our papers through the window, politely refuse to pay a fine & NEVER pull over, even if angrily commanded to do so by an armed man.

This is another example of the "pus-pus" (probably from the French for "push").

I wish you could see how many people cram into these transportation vehicles.  Often, the person in the very back almost falls out when the door is opened.

Can you imagine any Congolese woman having bad posture after a life time of walking like this?

Sometimes they "cheat" a little by reaching up to steady the load, but rarely.

It's so much cheaper to have an open truck, but there always has to be one or even two men in the back so that, when the truck slows or stops, no one grabs a crate & runs away with it.

It's a Jungle Out There!

How about this?  My office "Room With a View"!  It is so lush & beautiful outside the Mission Office, with banana and coconut palms and other greenery.  Of course it rains a lot to make it that way, but the added benefit of rain is that it tends to discourage all the various types of policemen from coming out and that is VERY good!   We have blue-uniformed, green-uniformed, khaki-uniformed, purple-uniformed & motorcycle riding police.  The latter are more to be feared because they tend to be a little nastier and can actually come after you if they decide you have done something for which they can extort money from you.  The others are on foot and less a threat.   

After we'd had a fun dinner at the Binghams (left) the night before, we all met at the Staggs (center right) for dinner and homemade ice cream (which Elder Smith was afraid he'd never get in the Congo).  It was a welcome for us and a farewell for the Hatches (center left), who left two days later.  These folks are already feeling like old friends.  I love to see the beautiful paintings, sculptures, dolls, drums and artifacts with which they have decorated their apartments.  Sister Hatch is wearing a Congolese dress made for her by one of the women at Church.

Our first day in the apartment!  It is customary for incoming Senior Missionaries to have 2 or 3 days to recover from jet lag and general fatigue, but Bishop Burton of the Presiding Bishopric & our Area Authority, Elder Renland, had come to Kinshasa to look at some prospective sites for the new temple, so we wanted to be able to be at the office.   Elder Smith (I'm still getting used to the fact that we are now 24/7 full-time missionaries) may look as if he is awake, but we were both pretty much in zombie-mode for several days!

What Happens When Your Internet Goes Down?

The answer is... "Nothing!"  We couldn't get an internet connection for the first couple days and then it was only for a brief period... just long enough for me to post several pictures to the blog, and then have all the work disappear before I could save it.  Such is life in the Congo!

Brussels to Kinshasa

This is a fleeting overview of Brussels as we took off.  It was the only chance I had to see it. Our flight out of Chicago was over an hour late taking off.  First, the repair crew took care of our plane, but signed the wrong paper.  Then they couldn't be found to come & correct it, so the plane had to be inspected again (labor unions at their best!)  When we got to Brussels. our connecting flight was about to leave.  With very heavy carry-ons in tow, we had to RUN to the far-off Brussels security, then race down a VERY long terminal to a carpeted circular ramp that went down a couple stories and finally (barely able to breathe) we lurched the last 100 yrds. to a bus which was just leaving and which we HAD to catch to transport us across to our Brussels Airline connection. After all that, it was worth the risk of a heart attack as we discovered what REAL service is like on an airline.  We had some beautiful French females & a handsome male bringing us all sorts of delicious treats, not to mention a hot meal that was better than some I've had in restaurants.  This picture doesn't really do the city justice, but I just had to get a photo of the homeland of my maternal Grandfather, Armand Meerte.

I know, you are thinking "mountains?"... but these aren't just ANY mountains.  These are the French Alps!

And, this is not just ANY coastline.  It's Casablanca!

The red desert sands of Algeria went on as far as the eye could see.  I wondered how anything or anyone (except maybe camels) could survive very long crossing that land.  

We arrived around 9pm UTC/GMT, so it was too dark to see around us then, but the next day we got our first look at the mighty Congo River from one side of the roof that wraps around our third story apartment.  We have a couple other views, but this is the prettiest.

Chicago! 1st Stop!

Always fun to see the big dinosaur.

Beautiful & busy Chicago O'Hare Int'l Airport.

George, leading the way toward the fun "Light & Sound" passageway that goes under one of the runways. 

These moving, colorful lights & soft sounds
make "getting there" to Terminal C delightful.