What we know of Kinshasa, Congo Missionary digs

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Dear family & friends:

            I've been collecting a few images that give us an idea of the circumstances we would be living in on our mission. These come from the blog that the mission president's wife has been writing. The first is the apartment building that our unit is in in Kinshasa. It's pricey because of security and European-style quarters. A few years ago, the Church capped apartment costs for couple missionaries because of situations like this. With rent and utilities and amortized furnishings and appliances, the capped amount is $1,400 a month.

            The Church has long-term leases on several units, so they put three-stage water filters in each one, and we are to change the cartridges once a month. The building is referred to as the U.S. Embassy apartment because their personnel live there. Parking is underneath, and there is a security check of your vehicle on the way in each evening. (Couple missionaries are required to be in their apartment by 6 p.m. each night, and I guess you stay there until 8 a.m. the next day.)

  

This is the view from one of the couple units to the plaza below, a sort of central plaza for the city of Kinshasa. The Chinese embassy is directly across the street from the apartment, though I don't know which building it is yet.

             

You can see the Congo River from the apartments.

      

The main boulevard of Kinshasa goes past the building, as seen from one of the couple apartments.

            This is the place where the Perpetual Education Fund office is located, in a Church-built Education System building in another part of town. The drive to this site is said to be 10 minutes with no traffic, or 25 in traffic.

            

 This is the front of the building, situated next to a stake center of the Church. This land is where the Church plans to build the Kinshasa Temple, announced last year. It looks like there are two couple vehicles in this picture. The vehicles I understand to be Toyota trucks with four-wheel drive.

 

            This is a picture of the couples serving in the mission as of this year. About half of the couples serve in Kinshasa. Several couples are assigned to other areas and came to Kinshasa by plane for this occasion, a couples conference. Elaine and I would not be traveling to outlying areas like Cameroon and Central African Republic; our assignment is in Kinshasa.

 

            The apartments, workplace and transportation are established and functioning, which is a good thing. There are grocery stores and a Belgian bakery near the apartment, that are European-oriented, we understand, so they have a selection of (pricey) foods. One thing that my tutor from the DR Congo tells me is that fish is plentiful, though not beef. We will be bringing the protein powder we use at home. Elaine is a resourceful cook; that would come in handy.

This is what I have so far...

Mark