Part 2 - What a way to end the year

Two days after Christmas we went out to do some shopping. We had a few stores we wanted to go to for specific items that we needed. American Eagle is a Lowe's type store with only a hundredth of the inventory but nice Muslim brothers raised in Detroit with ties to New Jersey. They have been very helpful to their "fellow Americans" with special discounts and other things. When you drive up in front of their store there is usually a greeter to open your car door and another one to open the door to the store. That didn't happen this time and when we asked one of the "family" he gave a terse answer then turned around and busied himself without the usual help. We didn't find what we wanted so we left the store and again no one to help you get back into the flow of traffic. (The traffic is often two or three lanes and no movement, these workers usually stop the traffic and help create a space.) 

We needed to stop at a shop that deals in wireless modems but the traffic was too heavy and nowhere to park, so we decided to stop at City Market for a few items on our way back. The traffic was heavy and chaotic, nothing new. The cars and motorbikes were coming from every direction. We tried to park in front of the store, but the space was too narrow. Mark tried to back up to get a better angle and the "police" waved him to back up. He did but the policeman didn't stop us before we bumped a car. All Hell broke loose. A crowd gathered yelling that we had "killed the sacred cow". The "police" motioned us to pull up to a different space and get out of the truck. There was no way Mark was going to get out of the truck. He made a sharp left and went down a road. What a sight, the gang came running after us. Mark's language skills made it possible for him to explain that we knew the "fix was in" between the "police" and the car driver. They demanded money and when the other groupies gathered he took $20 out of his wallet, truly the only bill he had in his wallet. No, they wanted more. Mark said to take or it leave it but that was all there was. They accepted the money and left a big enough space that Mark was able to slip between two cars and escape. The "police" are scammers that help create a situation where they can demand money from the "white" guys. We may have been targeted because we were missionaries. We shop there often and they know us. We decided then that the holidays are scam time so keep a low profile.

We were treated to Family Home Evening with the Collins family. Sister Collins went to Provo High and lived in Grandview. Her husband works for USAID. She and her children, two girls and one boy, spent days preparing treats for the senior missionaries and for other couples that are in the Congo on work assignments. She had her dining table covered with every wonderful treat you can imagine. The next day the Grana family invited the senior missionaries to dinner. He is a Church employee in the finance office. She is Portuguese, he is Spanish and they met in England. Eduardo was working for the Church in the area office and Filzy his wife was working on a masters degree. They married and lived in England until this assignment. They have two girls and they sound like real Brits. They speak Spanish, Portuguese, English and French. 

 Christmas caroling at the Collins just two nights before Christmas.

Collins table loaded with homemade treats gave us a taste of Christmases past.

  

Elder and Sister Gates serve as Construction Missionaries. They are being transferred to Kananga where two chapels are waiting to be built with all of the permits in place. They will be going in a week to their new assignment. There are fewer couples coming so we have spent the last three days clearing out one apartment and redistributing items to the other apartments. We will miss the Gates. We now have two small refrigerators which together approximate one full-size fridge.

We attend the Gombé Ward in Kinshasa. The chapel is on the same property as the S&I building where we work. Saturday December 28th the Christmas Party was held. They had the nativity play, the youth performed an interesting story of three trees and how each tree was part of the life of Christ, one in his cradle, one in the cross and one in the boat Christ was in on the Sea of Galilee when the tempest tossed. It was followed with a "catered African Meal". It was African - rice, foufou, beans, chicken and fish. Glad there wasn't goat. After the meal they cleared the floor (just one observation, much of the food ended up on the floor. One ten or eleven year old took an open bottle of pop and did his African hip rotation move and shook the pop all over the tile floor. Being a former schoolteacher I went to correct the young man, told him to pick up the bottle he had thrown to the floor which he did, then threw it farther along the floor and dumped the garbage can I was suggesting he use and then left. The only words I could think of were English cuss words so I went back to my seat.) The music started and the "moves" began from youngest to oldest, so we decided it was time to "retire". 

Nativity

Collins' children sing in the ward Primary choir.

Monday we were going to do some of those items we had to abandon because of the "police" encounter but got advisories that there had been gun battles going on in three areas of Kinshasa, the airport, a military base near the chapel and the communications center where the state TV programs originate. We were told to stay in. President Cook and Sister Cook evacuated their apartment to come to ours because our compound is more secure. Elder Gates had gone to a construction site and was told to come back, no stay where you are, no come back depending on who was calling him. President Cook said he should stay for now. Elder Gates told his students if we stay we work. You decide. Most of them left. When more information was available he was told to return. He brought some of his students with him and they directed him to go a different route than the usual Blvd. Trente Juin, the major street in Kinshasa. He saw police assault vehicles riding in formation on the way home.

We learned latter it was some radical group unhappy about something so they tried to take over the airport, attack a military base and take over the TV station and broadcast their own grievances. it was reported that forty of the rebels had been killed. We had some of the pizzas in a community freezer chest so we made dinner for all the couples. The moving of furniture from the one apartment that was being closed continued during the afternoon. President and Sister Cook returned to their compound that evening. 

The pizzas were gifted to us, which is good, because they were marked $12 apiece.

The next morning at six, it looked like the town was still on "lockdown". There wasn't the usual honking of horns, the clacking of vendor's attention getters and the plaza music. The train that makes a run once a day didn't come again that morning. Later the traffic picked up with the usual packed transports, the honking and the music blaring outside our building. The the denizens were standing in lines trying to get transportation home on buses, taxis or transports. We were told not to go out wearing white shirts, so we chose to stay in. We were going to a buffet dinner that evening but it had to be postponed until noon the day after because we are not to be out after dark. The news reports that day said that one hundred and one rebels had been killed in this attack. Still not sure what it was all about, but with the quality of news reporting we may never know.

Did some internet searches to find out what was going on early Monday morning. The early reports said the group responsible for the attacks were supporters of a televangelist claiming to be God's chosen on the earth. One report said it had nothing to do with religion but was a political move. The evangelist used the "pulpit" to whip up his followers to overthrow the current President of DRC because he lost to him in 2006. His main complaint that causes the "tribe" mentality to go ballistic was the preacher's claim that President Kabila is not Congolese, but Rwandan. Then the reports stated that 40 attackers with machetes and some guns were killed. The authorities were incredulous because the attackers we not organized, had crude weapons and their numbers were so small. They attribute the attack to a desire to make trouble just before the big celebration of a new year and sort of an act of "dying for the prophet" mentality.