What's In A Name?

Titles are very important to showing respect - Misses, Mister, Sir, Ma'am, Doctor, Professor, etc. This is very much true for the Congolese - our title is a sign of respect, importance, prestige, and sometimes value.

When you have children, your name is now given a title to represent your rite of passage - "Mama" Cele, "Papa" Pepe, "Mama" Georgine, "Tata" Oscar (Lingala for Papa), etc. When you have employees, they like to show their respect with many different names depending on how many people you employ - chef and patron are most frequent. A lot of times you are referred to by your job title - pilote (pilot), délégué (delegate), députée (member of parliment), judiciaire (judicial/police chief), etc. When you are married, some people will call you by your husband's name with Madame before it. Vendors like to call you "Mama" or "Papa" to get your attention. Closer friends or beloved employees may call you whatever your child calls you, like "Mommy" and "Daddy."

Now that you have a little background, I would like to present our many names given and used by locals, not our (always) children or family:

Kevin - Papa Kevin, Monsieur Kevin, Chef, Pilote, Pilote Kevin, Patron, Monsieur Spann, Pilote Matthew (Kevin is hard to say when French is you 3rd or 4th language), Matthew, and Daddy.

Tasha - Mama Tasha, Madame, Mama, Madame Kevin, Mommy, and Natasha (one of the national workers cannot say the hard "t" sound because French is his 5th language).

What would some of your titles be?

Our Little Girl's Clavicle

A little over a year ago (May 2015), sweet pea fell while getting out of the car. She managed to land on her shoulder in such a way that her (left) clavicle was fractured. We were so blessed at the time to know a visiting family (both husband and wife are doctors) who was living above the newest hospital/clinic. They personally escorted me through the whole process, including x-rays. With their help, we were able to find her fracture and sew up an adult sized sling to fit her.

The left side of the photo is normal and the right side
(G = gauche = left) shows the stress fracture.

Fast forward to October 2016 - sweet pea comes home from school crying. The driver told me that she fell at school (while playing with another child). I took one look at the way she was holding her arm and knew just what had happened. I left baby boy with my worker and drove sweet pea to the hospital/clinic I visited before with her the year prior. We got lucky. There was a nurse on call who spoke English and helped me to translate correctly to the pediatrician what I thought was wrong. He walked us down one floor to the x-ray room and helped us get set up for x-rays. As soon as the film pulled up, the doctor called me into x-ray technician room and pointed to the x-rays. Here is what I saw...

The left side of the screen shows a normal clavicle.
The right side clearly shows a clavicle that is broken.

When her arm is lifted, the two broken pieces overlap. 

Yep. Broken. The exact same side as before. After waiting 10 additional minutes, we walked around the corner and met a Middle Eastern orthopedist who also spoke English. We talked about the x-rays. Sweet pea definitely broke her clavicle and it will heal. The only concern is if it will manage to heal straight. Kids are resilient but also quite active. So we are to keep her arm immobilized in a sling while she heals. (Coincidentally, they only had an adult size small which I had to sew to fit just like the year prior). 

I was once again completely blown away by my medical experience here. I was able to walk into a hospital, speak to a pediatrician, get x-rays, speak to an orthopedist, get a sling, and be home within 2 hours all for less than $200. There are many things lacking in the health care system here, such as medication and appropriately sized slings for children. But since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I will say I'm thankful for the medical care and options that we do have!

Motherhood Moments #15

Sometimes motherhood is yucky business and it comes in the form of this...

This my friends is a mango fly. It somehow managed to attach to our little girl's leg as an egg, hatch, and burrow down under her skin. (Feel free to research the process on your own since I am going to remain vague on details, leaving you to explore or not explore details yourself).

Luckily the internet is full of all things disgusting including videos and tutorials on proper removal to avoid infection. I quickly smothered it in jelly (Aquafor) for 30 minutes to let it die. Then I popped it right out with minimal complaints. I sprayed it with Bactine and used a decorative plaster to encourage sweet pea to not touch it. She was a good camper and it has healed all up with no lingering traces.

Now that this rite-of-passage is in my book, I wonder what will happen next in my adventures in motherhood?

Cauliflower

Cauliflower does not grow well here. The climate is much too hot. Cauliflower is available for purchase, imported all the way from South Africa. Thus, the cost is astronomical! We are talking about $25 for a small head that requires a lot of preparation and not a lot of yield. Kevin recently traveled to Lubumbashi (southeastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo) for work and was able to purchase a bunch of cauliflower for much cheaper than we could purchase it here. So I decided to show you what it requires to prepare "organic" cauliflower and why it is NOT worth $25 a head.

Here is our lovely cauliflower. This head it in great shape.

First, you cut it down into manageable pieces.

Then, you must shave off the damaged pieces that have mold.

Next, you must carefully spread apart the florets so that you can remove any cabbage worms.

Now you are ready to soak them in a vinegar bath for about 20 minutes to kill any lingering germs/amoebas.

You now have two options for consumption. You can eat them raw or if you have too many to eat, you can cook them to store in the freezer for later. We chose both options. We had a yummy salad for dinner and we steamed the rest for freezer storage.

After cooking, you strain and bag. Here is the final product ready to freeze for later.

In total, we had one grocery bag filled with 5 heads. It took roughly 2 hours of work.

"New" Family Welcome

Last Sunday afternoon, all MAF families in Kinshasa got together for a mini BBQ to welcome the newest addition to our clan (minus one family who is in the USA on furlough). The Lind family has returned! They were here roughly two years ago as short term missionaries and fell in love with the Congo. So when their term was up, they went back home to fund-raise so they could return and completed their time in language school. We feel so blessed to have them back here, including all of their kiddos! It felt wonderful to all be together again and see all the little kids that are around to play together. Here are some photos of the day and lots of links to the other families and their blogs or MAF pages. Also note that I did not take all of the photos seen, but another MAF mama helped to pick up my slack!

Lisa and her three kids (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Elijah (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Baby boy just chilling on the porch

Lovely Nancy (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Miss Emily holding baby Joel (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Little Axel (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Waiting on the local charcoal to heat up

Some of the kids playing in the "sand" box (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

Rod and Valerie (Source: Jocelyn Frey)

The whole crew, silly faces and all! (12 kids & 12 adults)

The Flag

Patriotism runs high here, but that is a good thing. You want people to love their country and be proud. The people here have such respect for their nation that the raising and lowering of the flag is cause for a commotion...or lack thereof.

Around 7:30 AM, each military camp/base/headquarters/office will go outside and raise their flag. Around 6 PM, they will lower the flag. If you are in the vicinity of the flags, you must stop everything. If you are working, you stop. If you are crossing the street, you stop. If you are eating, you stop. If you are driving, you stop. It is quite eerie to look around and see everyone standing completely still, some even in mid-stride, almost like the beginning of a scary movie. But at the same time, the people have such a respect for their nation that they stand motionless and wait for the procession to be over.

Some locations have a fanfare with militia men and women marching and a bugle playing. We got stopped right in front of such a location one morning and Adah loved the bugle. Every time we drive by, Adah asks to hear it "one more time." One morning when I am braver, I might walk down there and watch the flag raise while they play the bugle. Until then, you will have to settle for some photos of people in mid-motion. Although the photos will never give you such a strong impression as would the sudden silence that occurs around you.

The crowd "pauses." All of them stood in
that exact pose for the entire event.

"Pause" from making concrete blocks

Bowing his head while he takes a work "pause."

PC-12 Dedication

Three months ago, the DRC-West base received a much awaited donation - a new (to us) airplane! A generous person donated the monies to purchase and refurbish this needed plane.

Source: Jocelyn Frey

The Pilatus PC-12 is an incredibly well-designed airplane manufactured in Switzerland. It is pressurized and fast. It is capable of flying at nearly 30,000 feet and roughly 300 miles per hour. It can also carry more than 2,000 pounds of cargo or 10 passengers.

The DRC is over 905,000 sq. miles
(the same size as the U.S.A. east of the Mississippi River) 

These statistics are nice, but what it really means is more opportunity and capability to advance the Church in Congo. Having an airplane that can hold such a large amount of people and/or supplies is very important, especially when travelling long distances with medical supplies. Before, if someone wanted to take our largest aircraft - the Caravan -  across the country, it would take 8 hours each way, meaning a multiple day trip to go over and back. Now with the Pilatus, we can do it in less than half the time, 4 hours each way!

So, welcome to the newest aircraft in our fleet. It has already proven very useful during the Ebola outbreak. We praise God for this awesome tool and look forward to seeing the adventures we are able to take it on!