Kids

I come across the last corner before Diel’s house. Diel is a 4 year old boy who goes to our church in Shituru. When he first met me like most of the kids here he screamed bloody murder. These days though that has changed drastically. As I rounded the corner Diel, who was waiting for me, began to cry out Da Sheri Da Sheri and ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him towards me. After his impressive 10 yard dash I scoop him up and he gives me a crazy bear hug. He is covered in dirt and now I am too. I ask him about his mom and dad and brothers and sisters and he says they are all fine. Then looks me in the eyes and says “can we go to church now?” “Yes Diel, we’ll go right now.” I reply with a big smile on my face.

While we are waiting for church to start Victoire grabs my hand and asks if we can play chicken chicken turkey. He means duck duck goose but there are no geese here so I changed it to chicken chicken turkey. We get organized into groups according to age and make circles. The kids have so much fun playing. Then out of no where Divine jumps up and declares “I don’t wanna be a chicken or a turkey. I wanna be a dog!” and hops down on all fours in imitation of one.

Church is over and I’m now on a bus to go about 2 miles closer to my house. We are crowded in at about twice the maximum capacity and a lady boards with 3 kids. She is trying to look in her purse to get the 25 cents the ride is costing us. After the first bump when multiplied by the van not having decent shocks throws us in all sorts of directions she hands her kids off to the women sitting in our section. She still can’t search her purse because she has a baby on her lap. The lady was out of women to hand her baby off to so she looked at me and asked if I’d hold him. I said sure and took the baby luckily he wasn’t old enough to figure out I’m white so I didn’t have to worry about him screaming. I was however facing 3 other kids on laps who were staring at me in horror. I just knew they were thinking “if she makes one sudden movement towards me I’ll scream my head off.” I was cautious to spare the other 20 people in the van from the screaming match.

Africa is not homogeneous

I spent 2 glorious weeks in Zambia. It’s always hard to readjust to life in Congo. I find myself not knowing whether to laugh or scream. Everything is so backwards and wrong here in Congo and I think if Zambia your neighbor with some of the same tribes and similar geography etc can be successful what is the problem? Of course it is easy to identify what the problems are it is just difficult to find a remedy people are willing to accept.

The electricity has been off for 3 days straight. I haven’t experienced this in over a year and I’m not prepared. I thank God for friends. I emptied my freezer into theirs and show up everyday to charge my computer and phone. It makes the transition that much harder.

The language barrier is also hard to get used to. I hate not being able to express what I want to or knowing that I am articulating it like a 5 year old and so much of my meaning isn’t getting across (this is most frustrating when I am preaching).

It’s also hard to adjust to the culture. People don’t listen and they don’t keep a respectful distance. There are just more white people in Zambia and way more white people who interact with the people whether missionaries or aid workers. You are less of a freak of nature and more of a human being.