The manioc plant,
the most common plant in every garden here, produces the main ingredient for foufou and tapioca. We have tried foufou and it's hard to describe, but Mark calls it library paste.
Leaves of the manioc plant are cooked and eaten as greens like collard greens,
and the root is processed to make foufou. The root is "beaten" with a
wooden mallet until it is a fine mash and then they add maïs to make it
a tasteless dough. The locals prepare delicious sauces and the foufou is
like bread that is dipped in olive oil. It has the consistency of homemade Playdough. It may be that the orientals made a similar dough but turned it into
"pearls" that are dried and reconstituted in a liquid to make
fillings thick. Our tapioca was a bit thick, but with a little (a lot) of
whipped cream we were able to "smooth" it out a bit.
Saturday afternoon we joined other couples to attend
a dance concert called "Rhythm in Motion In Celebration of Black History
Month". Sister Ellsworth is the Director of a English Language Institute
in Kinshasa and invited us to attend their concert. All the dances were accompanied by drums,
even the dances that originated in the United States. There was a young woman
playing a violin, first instrument besides a guitar, recorder and keyboard I
have seen here - oops, I forgot the drum. The professional dance troupe
displayed great athleticism and performed for about an hour and were about as
energetic at the end as they were at the beginning. A couple of members were in
the intermission troupe.
After the show we were invited to a barbecue at Ryan Dain's
apartment. He is the Construction Manager for LDS chapel projects and the
Kinshasa Temple project. It looks like he is committed to work here for at
least five years, maybe more. He has had two short-term helpers that will be
returning to the states, giving us reason for having a social.
The food was great, the company was great and we were able to meet
Papa Norman, a Kinshasa legend. Papa is a native of Kinshasa and a member of the
Congress and was a very wealthy man when a coup toppled the dictator Mobutu and
put all those associated with him or his regime on a hit list. He was able to
get his wife and three children on a plane to South Africa. He had worked in
the airline business, so he had plenty of tickets. He was secreted aboard the
plane through the catering services where he had connections. He left South
Africa and went to Zambia, but had to flee when he was told that the
"new" government was demanding he be extradited back to the Congo to
face charges (and certain death). He then fled Zambia and flew to Washington DC
and started application for diplomatic immunity. It was a long process, but he
was able to live in the U.S. He is a big man with a booming voice so he sold
hot dogs and hamburgers on the street. Later, with another change in DRC leadership, the charges against him were
dropped and he was able to return and claim his property. While he was in DC he
met LDS missionaries while he was selling hotdogs. They asked him if he would
be interested in a message about Jesus Christ. The Congolese are accommodating,
so he said yes.
Like many Congolese, a message about angels and heavenly visitors
was believable to him. He agreed to go to church on Sunday which was a fast-day
meeting and they left very confused. They decided they would find and go to a
Baptist church instead. However, the missionaries did not give up on him and did service
for him like shoveling out his snow-covered car and a "Secret Santa"
Christmas. He and his family returned to the LDS Church.
The elders took the family to the Visitors Center and they walked
around the Temple. As they walked he heard words like, "This is the true
Church of Jesus Christ" and "Joseph Smith is a Prophet". He, his
wife and three children were baptized in 2000.
The CEO of Westland Construction, Stan Houghton, has a son who was the missionary that
taught Papa Norman the gospel. When Westland was discussing temple construction
with the Church Temple department, he told them about Papa Norman and he has been instrumental in getting
to the right people here in the Congo, making the process a little easier.
 |
| Dean Schick, Papa Norman, Stan Houghton, Larry Turley, and Ryan Dain of Westland Construction |
Sunday we had another great adventure. We attended the Conference
of the Ngaliema Stake. President Jean-Pierre Haboko works in the office next to
our PEF office and invited us to come.
 |
| President Haboko consults his iPad. |
We asked the Bybees if they would like
to go because they knew (sort of) where to go. President Cook was also invited,
so the three couples got in the President's SUV and headed out with Pascal, the
Mission Office Manager, guiding us in another vehicle. It was raining and didn't
seem too challenging for the first part, but closer to the chapel it became a
"typical" DRC duck and dodge game. President Cook said it was the
fastest time for him to make the same trip. He said it usually takes an hour
and a half; today we did it in twenty minutes. We were ushered to the front row, not our favorite, but
there were only six mundeles (whites) in the congregation of twelve hundred.
Great meeting, but hard to follow because they mix French and Lingala at will. But the choir was a special treat. Choirs here rarely sing up to tempo, but this was up-tempo.
After the meeting we rushed to another chapel and then another
chapel trying to find a baptismal service. President Cook had promised the
husband that he would personally attend so after a longer-than-twenty-minute trip
we arrived at the chapel to participate in the baptism of two women and one
man. President Cook had conducted the baptismal interview of one of the women
and had to say no because she said that she was not married. The husband and
three children were already baptized (about a year ago) and President Cook
wondered how that happened. The woman left in tears. Later the husband called
president and explained that his wife was embarrassed because they had been
married in a civil ceremony, not a big fancy public marriage. She didn't think she could call herself "married" officially. President Cook then wanted her to know that
she was worthy to be baptized, and he promised to be there personally.
These little girls were at the meetings with their families, and they could all be sisters.
We have had a quiet evening and are ready to call it a day.
Elder & Sister Smith
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