CFM property

sorry it's not a better picture, but I'm in a hurry. You should be able to look up the coordinates in the bottom left of the picture to see where the property is.
We are all moved out to the property now.

Merry Christmas by the way... this has been a funny year: a sunny tropical Christmas, and I had a few days of snow in June.

2 rather full months

Sorry for not posting for so long.
I must have been busy the last couple months

We've mad a lot of progress at the property:
- the senior Mosier family moved out to their new house on the property
- Keith and Tammy move out tomorrow
- the duplex and the Mtenzie house are more than 1/2 done
- the second shop is almost done
- the water system is mostly done

At the time of my last post I think there was only one building beyond the foundation stage.

There were more than 60 locals, mostly brick masons and labourers, working for us - it was hard keeping them busy, but they sure got lots done. On Friday we layed a bunch of them off though, so we should be working at a more relaxed pace soon - hopefully...

This has been an axcellent learning experience for me: so far I've learned simple house wiring and plumbing, how to put up ceilings the African way, how to do concrete floors the African way (it's way different than the North American way) and a bunch of other little things. Two American "Jack of all trades" - or in this case Keith and Bob of all trades - were here for a month. I got to learn quite a bit from them.

Today I was doing plumbing: I learned why I like landscaping better than plumbing. I also helped a bit digging the well deeper - at least enough to say I did.

Please keep CFM in your prayers: there are lot of obstacles to overcome. For instance, some other people are claiming the CFM property as theirs - one man, a general's son, got his expired papers for the land renewed, and is doing his best to get money out of the Mosiers. The land officials - and the law - are on CFM's side, and they almost have the legal stuff taken care of, but the battle's not over yet. And there will surely be more struggles, but this is God's project, so He'll take care of it.

I should really hurry up and fix my laptop and get more pictures posted, but that's all for now

Stanley Falls Visit

Here's what happened recently:

We finally finished getting the roof of the shop up on thursday

We went to the zoo, which has 4 animals: a chimp, a baboon, another monkey, and a snake. It was neat: I met some animals that go as ape over bananas as I do. Then we went to the beach, played soccer with a couple of locals (got schooled), and swam

I spent friday in the skid-steer in the sand hole, pushed my limits lots
The workers killed 2 snakes on the property ...and ate them...

Relaxed, walked lots, tried to talk in french with some people

On sunday morning I laid out and pounded stakes for the senior Mosier's house

On sunday afternoon Nathan Friedrich, Dadi and I went to Stanley Falls:
Dadi is a good worker who knows some English, so we asked him to come
We crossed Congo river in a giant dug-out canoe (with a motor)
We took pedal-bike taxis to the falls area (I hate letting somone else pedal)
We stirred up quite a commotion - all the locals want money
The local chiefs demanded money, but said we could take pictures
As famous as Stanley falls is, it's really just some rapids. It was neat to see the local fishing methods, people canoeing up the falls, etc.

Today we make scaffolding for the bricklayers, got rained out for a while, and played soccer with the locals. It's nice they let me play: they think and act probably 4X faster than me... I'll have to play more often

Stanley Falls Pics

Wreath locals made for Keith & Tammy

Stanley Falls

Fishers

Skills

Fish Trap

Boyoman Kids

Dadi - our guide - and Nathan

Boyoman Flowers

8 days in 2 minutes

A little of what's been happening:
Last sunday: soccer in rain with some local kids
- D.R. Congo won the African cup last year - a huge achievement for Congo
The celebration for Keith + Tammy

monday: playing with bobcat in gooey pit

tuesday to friday: prep for and putting up frame for storage shed
- it's supposed to be a one-day structure: we'll take more than a week
= think anyone will want to give me work after they learn how slow I am here?
+ we're learning lots

Sabbath: after church, awesome hike with Nathan and Friedrich
- we got some locals to guide us to the Tschopo river
(that way we had permission to trespass)
= they led us on some back trails: even they got semi-lost
+ the guy I call "guide" in the pictures invited us to his house + gave us sugar cane

today: putting up some roofing on shed
- facing more curveballs, some uf which we threw at ourselves...

Frame going up

some local flora

palm: used for oil

the local rocky mountain: our gravel pile

at guide's place

guide + some family at his house

tschopo river

CFM property

A worksite

Dorms

Brick crew

Hauling Sand

Getting truck un-stuck

my role-models

Kisanagani Life

Kisangani life: the workers that CFM hires start at 1500 Francs per day, and average about 1800 Fcs/day. They also get lunch provided. And that's not bad wages for here. You get about 850 Fcs per $US, so that's about $2 per day. Of course, they can live off that here, but the difference is crazy.
Now get this: the workers, church planters, and pastors wanted to throw a special due for Keith and Tammy, so they each gave 2000 or 3000 Fcs to throw them a party. And many of them also gave a day of their time to decorate. I know I've got something to learn about generosity from them. They definitely know how to make celebrations worth-while: they're not quite as conservative as North Americans...I say that in a good way.

Most people here live in adobe houses. Many have high-centered, old-school pedal bikes. They haul huge loads on them - often they just to push them, because the bike is loaded about as high as they are tall. The old ladies are tiny but tough. They make backpacks out of palm branches that are as tall as they are, and use them to haul pineapples several miles into town.

Things are looking up for the younger generation here: they dress up in uniforms and go to school at about 7:00 weekday mornings. Some of them like learning language on the side too. They just might be the people we look up to 20 years down the road... as long as they don't have any more wars thrown at them.

Addis Ababa

Here's a couple Ethiopian shots:

What's more important? Satelite or house?

Typical building method for this part of the world

Hi from Congo

I’m at the Western Congo Union office in Kinshasa. Here’s a bit of what the trip’s been like so far:

Tuesday, Sept. 22: Left Kelowna on a perfect Okanagan September day. The mountains between Kelowna and Seattle are amazing – I’ll be due for some backpacking when I get back.

Wednesday & Thursday: These day sort of merged together in the travel. Spent the time in the air and touring Washington/Dulles airport, where I met up with the rest of the group I travelled with. They are Tim, Nathan, Melody and Friedrich Rittenour, and Keith and Tammy Mosier. We flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a stop at Rome. From there Tim and Melody went to Chad, and the rest of us got hotel vouchers to spend the night in Addis Ababa. But before we could go to the hotel, we had to spend hours in line and trying to arrange for baggage sent in the wrong direction to be sent the right way.

Friday: Got a tiny glimpse of Ethiopia, then flew to Kinshasa with a stop at Brazaville, capital of the other Congo. Then the Kinshasa zoo (aka airport). I don’t like experiences that test my patience, so I didn’t enjoy my time waiting for bags there. The baggage carriers there will not let you carry your own baggage. Then if you do manage to fight them off and carry your bags, they’ll still try to make you pay for the assistance they tried to force on you. Poor guys, I’d hate having that job.
Then some guys from Galaxy transport, an Adventist company, helped us make a mad dash to the UN to get tickets to Kisangani, then to get groceries, then to a hotel. Traffic gets really backed up because of road conditions and driving styles, and I’m glad I never (quite) fell asleep on top of all the luggage in the truck.

Sabbath: Went a little church at an Adventist clinic down the road. The preacher preached in English for us, so the rest had to listen to a Lingala translation. Then we got invited to the home of a Filipino couple for an excellent lunch. If you’ve seen or heard the story “Finding Grace in Congo”, this is the couple you heard about. Then I went swimming with Friedrich in the hotel pool.

Sunday: Shopping at a market, more swimming, and spending time watching the hotel’s monkeys, birds and snakes – that’s about all worth mentioning.

Monday: getting up at 3:45 for Nathan and Friedrich to catch a ride to the airport, then finding out it was actually 2:45, made a great start for the day. If you find that this update is putting you to sleep, you now know why. Then getting up after a quick dream of trying to go biking, having a quick breakfast, and coming to the Union office.

And…
Nathan and Friedrich never got on the flight today (flying UN, you’re on low-priority standby, but the price is right), so there’ll be more crazy hours tomorrow as we try again.

Knowing French would definitely come in handy here.

There are lots of similarities between Africa, India and South America: the way things are built, the way there are too many people for too few, or seemingly meaningless, jobs. For instance, a common job here is breaking large rocks into small rocks by hand. I’m very thankful for the opportunities I’ve had in Canada. Whole wheat is alien food here – hopefully I’ll be able to get some oats and corn meal though. At least there are lots of beans.

The first time I ever drank, or heard of, “Canadian Pure” water was here in Africa. And it’s a UK company. I have no clue where the water itself is from.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get here or get what I needed for here.