Bonjour mes amis! Aujourd’hui c’est le anniversaire de moi! Today I turned 23 in the D.R Congo. What a day it was. Sigh. Want to know a random fact? In the past 7 years, I’ve only spent one birthday at home. But enough about my birthday, we can talk about that later. Let me update you all on what we’ve been up to the past few days.
We have been partnering with a ministry called leve toi. It’s a school for disabled children in Kinshasa. We joined them in building a new school for the upcoming year. It was a great experience because we came and joined them in THEIR work. We didn’t come in and pretend to know what to do and take charge. We were told what to do by the locals, and we just helped. I think it threw a lot of them for a loop because the mundelli never work. Jeff, Jared and I spent two days just moving rocks down the hill to the new school site. These rocks were heavy! All three of us are feeling the pain all over our bodies today. It hurts to move. Haha. But it felt great to get our hands dirty and hang out with the guys working. We took some great pictures. A personal shout out to my uncles and opa at Jakes Fancy Stairs! You should see how they build houses here! I thought of you guys these past few days.
Today was a perfect day. We had a ‘day off’. We spent the morning making French toast and homemade syrup over a coal pit. Priceless. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon house cleaning. We realized we actually haven’t cleaned once since moving in here. Let me tell you this, living here is hard. It takes so much more effort here to do anything. For example, you want to do dishes? Well, it’s laughable if you think we have a dishwasher, so scratch that assumption. You need water? O right, the water doesn’t work. But wait, it’s trickling from the bathtub faucet right now, so we fill buckets one at a time. We are always filling our water bucket with... water. Bathing is a luxury. You only do it if the water is running. I’ve fully showered 3 times since I’ve been here. I think jared only has once. Who think’s I’m joking...
Tonight we had a birthday celebration. We invited our host, Jean Baptiste, his wife, their 5 children, and our interpreter Eric. We set a table outside, put on music, blew up balloons, etc. It was a great evening. I think the highlight of the night were the words spoken by Jean and Eric. Jean told me that in Congolese culture, it is tradition that a man and his wife give a gift to their child. He went on to say that his wife had made me this gift, and asked me to accept it from them as their African son. Eric also told me that even though I may be sad that I cannot spend this day with my family, that I will always have this family to come to. It was such a good night. I did miss my family today, especially my dad, as we share the same birthday. I love you dad. I hope you had a great day. 51... wow... don’t forget to take your meds tonight. ZING!
The night concluded with a dance party, of course. Team Congo has made dancing a regular part of Kinshasa life. Don’t worry, we have a lot of this action on video. Get it? ACTION?! Eh eh eh? It’s more than a pastime. It’s a lifestyle choice. Jean Baptiste even busted a move on the patio. For those of you who know him, you are smiling right now, as you should be. Priceless.
We are all doing great!
Love,
Team Congo
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