St. Nicholas Day

Every evening over the past few weeks little girl has told me "Santa is coming." And every time it caught me off guard. You see, our family has not talked about Santa before and our kids have never received gifts from him. So each time little girl said he was coming, I played it off by talking about how yes he did come in her Peppa Pig book or yes we did see a statue of him in the grocery store. But I have never encouraged her imagination. So imagine my surprise when I was proven wrong!

On Friday (December 4th), it was my turn for carpool and I picked the kids up from school. When I got to sweet pea's classroom, she bounded out of the room and squealed that Santa came and brought her presents. I looked at the teacher for more information but she was busy speaking to another parent. So I gathered all the kids up, got them to the car, buckled them in, passed out snacks, and started plying the kids with questions.

Me: So, you saw Santa today

Girls: YES!

Me: What do they call him in French. Père Noël? (Father Christmas)

Elijah: No, St. Nicholas (Ni-cola...like Ricola the cough drops but with an n)

Girls: Oui! St. Nicholas donné-moi des bonbons (he gave me candies)

Elijah: St. Nicholas was big! I even measured him! He was so big!

Ruth: Il donné des bonbons à mes amis. (He gave candies to my friends)

*The kids proceeded to correct one another on their pronunciation on St. Nicolas (NEE-cola vs. NI-cola...I couldn't tell the difference but they could). This followed by the kids pulling out their bag filled with small taffies and a package of Speculoos cookies and caressing it with much relish.

After talking to some of the other moms, one was able to talk to a Belgian friend to get more information. December 6th is St. Nicholas Day, a day where the patron saint (Catholic) is celebrated. He comes to town mid-November and travels to churches, schools, and businesses delivering treats to all, usually special cinnamon biscuits (Speculoos). On December 5th, there is a feast in his honor at all households where he could show up as an honored guest if he wanted. That night, children place their shoes by the chimney or in the foyer by the door along with hay and carrots for his horse and beer or coffee for him. During the night, St. Nicholas will go door to door with his assistant Père Fouettard (Black Peter) who will place chocolate letter candies or small toys in the shoes for all good children. For the naughty children, they will wake up to see a birch branch stick for which their parents are to punish them or if they are especially naughty, Black Peter (either a black man or a man with soot covering his face, interpretations vary) will place the child in the sack and send him to Spain! Sometimes when St. Nicholas is in a hurry, he will leave a bag of gifts on the door step and will knock on the door as he is leaving.

St. Nicholas and Black Peter
What? You were expecting something a bit different, weren't you? 
He wears a Bishop's rope and red cape with a miter 

After learning more about the holiday and knowing that our girlie goes to a Belgium school, I now realize that she had been studying him over the past few weeks, even learning cute songs which I mistook for regular nursery rhymes (I had to look them up after paying attention to the lyrics). So, we decided to celebrate the holiday by making cookies and setting out our shoes for candies. Since girlie is only 3 and actually saw the character I felt kind of bad saying he wasn't real when in fact, he was very much real to her, I didn't mind playing along this year. Especially since it emphasizes that "Santa" has nothing to do with Christmas which is a celebration for Christ. So we can keep our Advent countdown traditions, birthday party, and Christian songs separate.

Cookies for the feast

Making cookies

Making cookies

St. Nicholas came!!!

Med Evac Flights

Kevin talking to Rita Chapman about the situation
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Last week, Kevin was able to do a Med Evac flight. It was for a 12-year-old girl (Masha) who had developed an infection on her left shin (tibia). Back in February, she noticed her leg had started to swell. Her family did what they could by treating her with indigenous medicine. Unfortunately, the medicines could not help the infection, which made it appear worse than before.  So her family took her to the local hospital in Kikongo. The hospital was now afraid to do anything because they feared the infection had spread into the bone. She was in a lot of pain and was no longer able to walk. The hospital in Kikongo was not able to do much for the young girl, so a local missionary family (the Chapmans) arranged for MAF to do a flight to bring the girl out.

Masha (in red) waiting to board the airplane
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Kevin flew the young girl and her mother out to the missionary hospital in Vanga where they were able to take X-rays of her leg (x-rays in the bush of Africa, how cool is that!). The x-rays confirmed that the infection had indeed spread throughout the entire bone, which was now also broken in multiple places as a result of the weakness from the infection. She was now at a high risk for losing her leg. The local missionary, Dr. Tim Rice, said they would try to do surgery this week on her leg to see if it can be saved.

Dr. Rice praying with Masha
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Then two days later, MAF received another call for a 15 year old boy named Plamedie with another open ulcer on his leg. He had been living with an open sore on his leg for 3 years, but had been reasonably well looked after and wasn’t as serious as the little girl. He still required medical attention, so Kevin flew him and his father out to Vanga as well. Dr. Rice informed Plamedie that his x-rays looked good and that he expected him to make a full recovery without surgery.

Plamedie looking at his x-rays
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Please pray for these young children who risked losing their legs to infections that could have possibly been treated with over the counter products found in a local pharmacy, but are not available to those living in remote villages. I will post updates when we find out more information about Masha's situation and Plamedie's recovery. 

***Update 8 November 2015***
Plamedie is in his home village recovering quite well.
Masha's surgery went well but she is still at a risk of losing her leg. Prospects are looking better for her but she is not out of the woods yet. 

Motherhood Moments #16

Sometimes motherhood looks like this...

A morning filled with birthday party fun! I am grateful for the days of normalcy and I cherish the memories made with our friends here.

You Don't See That Everyday...

Here in the Congo, there are many days where one is a witness to something that just makes you scratch your head and ask yourself, "Did I really just see that?" I have compiled a small collection of photographs for your viewing pleasure so that you may catch a glimpse of the "not so normal" which is actually normal for here.

Photo #1

You are witnessing 7 pieces of machinery attempting to asphalt less than 50 yards of road. Obviously only one piece of equipment is being used but there are many non-workers standing in the way who are telling the workers how to do their jobs. In fact, we were just amazed that they were repairing the road. (It took us nearly 2 hours to through the traffic jam caused by this).

Photo #2

You are viewing a guy on a motorcycle who is wearing a thick, down ski jacket. What is wrong with that? It is 80 degrees outside and we are traveling about 15 mph.

Photo #3

A really neat bumper sticker that says "I am Born to WIN." Pretty ironic for a wrecked vehicle. This was in the junk yard/side of the road/empty parking space beside a few restaurants.

Photo #4

There is a man (on the left with a brown shirt) jumping off the back of this vehicle which he was riding. There is a kid (in the middle with a black shirt) jumping on the vehicle for fun (barefooted). And there is a man with roller blades holding on. This is the first guy I have ever seen here with roller blades and he only rides down this strip of road. This was also the only time I saw him "hitch a ride." But he is wearing a helmet, so score 1 for the roller skater!

Photo #5

You are looking at a stack of ice blocks. The building on the right is a "quincaillerie" (hardware store) and the building on the left is a "sec et nettoyer" (dry & wash/dry-cleaners). I am not sure why there is a stack of ice blocks outside of those buildings especially sitting on top of plywood which is covering a drainage ditch.

We have learned to not ask why (we do find ourselves saying "whhhaaaaaaaaaaat???" quite frequently) and just sit back and muse over our surroundings. 

This Is Why We Are Here

We have been back in Congo for almost a week. Nearly over jet lag, I returned to the hangar on Monday.  Our team gathered like normal on Monday morning for scripture, prayer, and time talking about the upcoming week. The Cessna 182 has quite a few flights coming up in the next few weeks and not enough pilots, so I was needed to hop back into the pilot’s seat immediately.  But because it had been 3 months since I had flown this airplane, and six months since my last flight review, I needed a flight review with one of our MAF instructor pilots. This is something all of our pilots do every six months (or more if we fly multiple airplanes). An instructor rides along with us, observing us during a normal flight. Then, after we drop our passengers off, we will go out and practice special maneuvers and simulate emergencies to make sure we are on top of our game. Because I had done quite a bit of flying while back in the States there wasn't much to it, just remembering some of the intricacies and quirks of this particular aircraft.

The flight went great and we returned back to home base just before sunset. The following morning I had a trip carrying long time missionary Jim Smith (age 70) back to his home in Nkara from furlough in the States. Together, he and his wife Nancy run Laban Ministries which operates a bible training school and a Christian radio station which has more listeners than any other radio station in this area of the Congo.  We had to wait out some morning weather before departing on the nearly two hour flight, but just before we departed I noticed another cell forming just east of the area to which we would be flying. There were several alternate airstrips along the way, so I decided to continue but turn around if necessary. About 30 miles from our destination, we noticed the partly cloudy skies below us had turned to mostly overcast. I found a hole and circled down below the cloud deck. We passed over our refueling stop and continued onward. The clouds were about 2,000 feet above the ground and the visibility was dropping due to rain showers and haze, but still OK. About 5 minutes away from our destination the visibility had dropped to around 2 miles - if it continued to deteriorate, I would turn around. I was concerned that we were approaching the cell that was growing on the satellite image I saw in the morning. Finally, I saw the airstrip, radioed in, completed the checklist and made a non-eventful landing. Not wanting to stick around to see if the supposed cell would intensify, I quickly offloaded the baggage, said goodbye to the passenger, and proceeded to my refueling stop 23 miles away. Amazingly, the rain and the haze had disappeared in the time I was on the ground. I thought to myself, this is why we are here. Supporting and encouraging missionaries and providing them safe transportation.

After I made it to Vanga and refueled, I began loading the cargo for the return trip and was handed the manifest. I saw I had medical passengers, one whose weight suggested he was grown and one who would obviously be a child. Their destination was Kikongo, which happens to be one of our other frequent stops. Frequently we take medical patients to Vanga, which has one of the better hospitals in the region, despite the fact it is 200 miles into the interior. Rarely do we take patients from Vanga, as once they are healthy enough to leave, they typically return by a slower means to their village. I called for the passengers and saw that the child was the patient. She was small, only weighing around 30 pounds and couldn't speak well, so I guessed her to be 3 or 4 years old, and was carried by her father. She had no hair and had a large and bulky bandage over her right eye. As they were being buckled in, I spent some time talking to the father about my two kids and asking him some questions about his family too. I asked about the nature of the injury. He responded she was six and had a particularly nasty cancer that affects an astounding number of children in the area. The doctor had released them because there was nothing else that could be done. She didn't have much time left and they wanted to send the child back to her home. My heart broke and tears started to well up. I spent a little extra time praying with them before we took off, laying hands on both of them. The weather was fine, some small low clouds, but mostly clear. No rain, easy navigation and the trip was short, only about 40 minutes. Yet, it was the most difficult flight of my life. After we landed, I prayed with my precious cargo again and I thought to myself, now this is why we are here.

Vanga Vision Trip

Since I am not a pilot, I don't get to see all the neat things Kevin does. But MAF understands this and wants very much for the spouses to see the places their spouses fly into all the time. This is why they recommend a once a year "vision trip" so we can see MAF's vision for our home country for ourselves.

We chose to go to an old MAF base in Vanga, which is a little village of about 2,000 people. The slow pace of life was what I needed to see and felt at home. We visited the Vanga hospital, went down to the river, and made lots of new friends. I will do a blog post on the hospital another time, but for now, I wanted to show you some of my favorite trip photos.

The 10 Commandments of Driving in Kinshasa

1. Don’t hesitate…EVER: when you are dealing with thousands hundreds of thousands of cars (see #7), all of the traffic is stop and go. If you want to go, you have to take every open spot. In the states, we call that “cutting someone off.” Here, it is called driving.  Following distance here is also very important. In the states, they recommend to have at least a 3 second gap in between you and the car in front of you. Here, the gap is more like 2 to 3 inches. There are so many cars that there is never a guaranteed opening or a guaranteed person to stop and let you out. You must take advantage of every open space. You will see other drivers using the sidewalk, driving in the “wrong direction”, or even people driving cross ways. Your best bet, don’t hesitate!

2. Pull over for sirens: If you hear a siren, you move your car over as far to the side as possible, but these sirens aren’t for what you might think. The siren is a warning that they are escorting someone important and you must move out of their way. What will follow could possibly be a military convoy, the president, a high ranking UN official, etc.

3. Don’t stop for car accidents: in the States when there is an accident, the police are called to the scene. Here, it is a truck full of military men. Of course they mostly surround the vehicles to protect the people involved, but they still have a protocol. What is not required is your assistance unless you are a qualified trained medical professional who can aid. Other than that, you will not only be in the way and/or someone might mistake you for the perpetrator. For accidents, no scenes are recreated, no interviews are taken, and no tickets are issued (but a fine could be involved). What is important is the safety of each person involved and getting the traffic to flow again, and a white person would just be a distraction and in the way.

4. Use lights sparingly if at all: headlights are only to be used well after dusk. If you put your lights on too early, the police will ticket you. Only important officials are permitted to have their lights on during the day to let the police know they get to bypass all traffic (see #2)

5. Use your horn: horns are important here. In the states, you only use them to warn people or if you are really rude. Here, they are a necessity. You honk to let someone know you are going to pass them.  You honk to let someone know they can pass you. You honk to let someone know not to pull in front of you in traffic. You honk to let someone know they can pull in front of you in traffic. You honk to let someone know you are going to pull over to let more people in your car. You honk to let someone know you cannot stop to let more people into your car. You honk to let someone know it is safe to cross the road in front of you. You honk to let someone know it is not safe to cross the road in front of you. You honk to let someone who is selling things on the side of the road know you are interested. You honk to let someone who is selling things on the side of the road know you are not interested.  You honk to let someone know they are crossing into your traffic. You honk to let someone know you are skipping traffic by taking the sidewalk (no joke).  You honk to let someone know to move out of your way. You honk to let someone know you have space in front of you for one more. See! Horns are important!

6. NEVER splash anyone: as chaotic as life is here, with cars filling any void on the road, there is still a need for respect. But with the state of the roads this one is tough. We have seen potholes the size of a mid-size car, and over a foot deep. You show respect by never splashing someone with water from a puddle small lake. Why is this so offensive? When you go outside of your home, you are expected to dress your best, even if you are walking across the street (it’s amazing how people keep their white shirts so crisp and clean). Thus, everyone walking around is in their best clothing. If you ruin their nice clothing, that is definitely a tragedy! It would be like me spilling red Kool-Aid on a soon-to-be-bride’s dress right before her wedding. So, no matter how much it rained the night before, no matter how hectic traffic is, SLOW DOWN for each puddle  crater and be overly cautious!

7. Forget your personal space: we live in a big city with a stated population of over 10 million people and very few own cars (if only 1 in 20 own a car, that’s still a half a million cars driving around). Thus enters public transportation, but nothing nice like a city bus. Nope. We are talking 15 passenger vans. Vans that have had the seats removed. Vans that now have wooden benches screwed to the floor boards. Vans with roughly 35 already on board, but somehow always room for one more. Vans that keep their doors open to make room for one more jumping on or off, but rarely coming to a complete stop.  Vans with people standing on the bumper, hanging off the back in flip-flops.

8. Lock your doors: locking your doors is done for many reasons. Picture yourself driving down an unknown street in New York. You lock your doors for a security measure. In a place where traffic is always stop and go, it is best to be secure when you might forget what street you are on. You never know if the person trying the door handle is a pickpocket or just someone needing a ride home and notices you have an empty seat (See #7).

9. Stop for the flag: At 6 AM the military will raise the flag of the DRC on all their poles. At 6 PM the military will lower all Kinshasa flags for the night. If you are in the vicinity of the flags, you must stop everything. If you are driving, you stop. If you are crossing the street, you stop. If you are shopping, you stop. It is a little eerie to look around you and see everyone standing completely still, some even mid-stride, almost like the beginning of a scary movie. But at the same time, to know these people have such respect for their nation that they stand motionless and wait for the procession to be over.

10. Tipping is optional: there are always a plethora of people in small parking lots willing to help you pull out into traffic. Usually by standing in the middle of the road to stop cars or make them move out of the way. You don’t have to tip them, but it is still a very nice thing for them to do. (Also note, you don’t tip more than 500 Congolese Francs [roughly 50 cents]).  You can also “tip” them with food donations as well.

*Bonus rule – Motorcycles: motorcycles are a new phenomenon here. They were introduced roughly two years ago as a cheap alternative for those who could not afford cars. That sounds great, right?!? But when traffic is stop and go and you see an opening, HELLO MOTO (see #1)! Motorcycles are used for taxis and often hold three or four people (and sometimes farm animals, groceries, heavy things balanced on peoples’ heads, and everything including a kitchen sink [only wish we had a photo!]). Your best bet is to just be cautious and assume a motorcycle is nearby to cut you off drive around you as you are pulling out into the traffic.