The way the rain comes

Standing out on our balcony this morning, I got to watch a rain storm arrive. Literally, it came from Rwanda, a massive wave of water rushing across the lake. I was inside making some Amazon purchases when I noticed that the sunny morning had suddenly become dark. With a glance outside, I grabbed my camera and ran out to the balcony. The sky had turned grey and dark blue clouds were approaching from the NE (i.e. Rwanda). At first the islands across the water were visible against the horizon, but after a few minutes of gathering winds and choppy waves, the wave of water had obscured their green outline.

Pretty soon rain was cascading diagonally to water the earth. Sometimes almost hurricane force winds blow huge walls of water sideways through the town. The streets empty and cars pull off the road as everyone waits out the storm. Those kind of rains don’t usually last very long, and are often accompanied with huge claps of thunder and lightning, taking out internet and tv satellite capacities with them.

It’s amazing to see the forces of nature in action, and especially with such quick and forceful change. I’m almost positive that it will be sunny and warm in a few hours, even though it seems like it could stay drizzly all afternoon.

People don’t really like to go anywhere when it’s raining or has rained, because for the most part, they walk to their destination. Degenerated dirt roads make it hard to stay clean until your destination after rain water has turned them into mud! Being clean and well dressed, and especially having clean shoes, is something very important to people in Bukavu, and Congo in general. Appearances are what count at first glance, and muzungus get funny looks at the dirty used tennis shoes and dilapidated flip-flops they wear outside the house. It’s pretty funny, really. Michael was talking one time about how he had to make sure and keep his running shoes away so that they wouldn’t get washed with soap and water every day!

Sunday evening musings

This picture shows how nice and straight and paved our roads are....I mean can't you tell by the way the car is tipped to the right that the road is flat? :P When our visitors were here last week, we went up to one of the more periphery areas called Kadutu to do some Focus Group discussions with mothers of young children and the Community Health Workers supposed to be serving them (obviously not in the same group...).


(As I think of things to write about, here's what's coming to mind...let's see where it goes)

Things I like:
- Singing and dancing to praise and worship at church (even when I really don't know the words)
- Learning new languages (still getting the hang of Swahili and starting to work on Lingala)
- Reflecting on heart issues and discussing God's work in us with best friends
- Watching movies while/and eating dinner with housemates
- Walking home through Bukavu on a nice clear afternoon
- Studying God's Word and seeking Him with our women's group
- New music with a good beat
- Cool fresh air coming through the windows at night
- Singing along to Caedmon's Call
- When new potential projects seem to be working out and getting God's favor!

Michael and Tom (our Director of Health Programming in DC) have been in Kinshasa for the past few days getting meetings with Ministry of Health and other somewhat big personalities, which is so God working since we weren't able to plan things well before they left. Nothing in Congo works out according to plan, so a lot of times we wonder why we even try...not really, we definitely need plans. But still, they're never ever set in stone! Anyway, I'm thankful for the way God is working even when we're not so sure.

Politically things are still calm here, but we really don't know what's going to happen. It looks like Nkunda's going and the Interhamwe that have been going back to Rwanda have kept things from blowing up. (Nkunda got arrested, but has anyone actually heard from him?? We're all sure he's watching the news from Kagame's couch...) We're praying that things don't get tense again, and hopefully no news really is good news.

Singing praise music on Sundays at church is not enough for me, so I thought maybe I'd join the choir at church. But my friend Elie, who also leads praise and worship at our church thought it would be even better if a few of us got together to sing...maybe we'll go around and sing for various churches. Imagine. I don't have a great voice, but everyone says I'll do fine :P So more on that later; we're planning to get together this Saturday evening on our balcony to sing!

Here are our three kittens that Mama Kristee is taking care of. Ok, we all love them, but she actually feeds them with a syringe and is teaching them to use the litter box....Sooooo cute though!
(as some of you may notice, there's a Mwafrika, a Muzungu, and a Metis ama Pointy :) )
From the left we have Dr. J, Simba, and Quinton. We weren't sure they were all going to live, but so far they're doing great!

His mercy endures forever!

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue.
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast.

Without Thy sweet mercy, I could not live here.
Sin would reduce me to utter despair,
But through Thy free goodness, my spirit's revived
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart.
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground
And weep for the praise of the mercy I've found.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own
In the covenant love of Thy crucified Son.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.

Well, Hallelujah
Hallelujah (Hallelujah)
Well, Hallelujah

(Caedmon's Call, Thy Mercy)

So the news around town is that Nkunda was captured by Rwandan troops, who are now deciding whether they are going to give in and extradite him to the Congolese government. There is a lot of joy and relief, but we are left wondering what 5,000 Rwandan troops are up to on the Congo side of the border. Apparently there are rumors (from IRC staff, for example) of FARDC (Congolese military) sending their wives and children away from their interior SK camps, which usually means offensive or defensive preparations. It's impossible to know whom to trust and who's actually trying to help people, mostly because everyone in power is going after something for their own benefit. Anyway, we'll wait and see and keep praying for peace!

Our country director, and my boss, Michael, got back to Bukavu today (yay!!), and I went to pick him up at the border around 7am (too early for me on a Sunday!). It's great to have him back as I have been really involved in some difficult administration issues on top of my own normal tasks. As I said before, we have some exciting new opportunities for as well as some other smaller (but more complicated) projects financed by UNDP Pooled Fund, so my work life is definitely going to stay busy.

Lately I have been learning about goodbyes. I think about my sister, for whom it is essential to let know when you are leaving, and though sometimes it seems silly, she does have a point. It's definitely always possible that someone won't return...(morbid I know). Anyway, I realized last week that parallel to making sure to greet everyone when you walk into a room, it is important to show people you care about them by letting them know when you're leaving and saying goodbye. I am not quite sure what is "culturally appropriate" in the States, but I've been trying to remember. It's important to me that my close friends feel loved in ways they understand, which means adapting myself to some of the cultural norms. This is why I feel like I should greet everyone with a handshake everytime I walk into a room--even in the States :)

This weekend we have added some new members to our household! Joel and I were joking that if the three new kittens are girls then it will be just him and his harem of six girls...but then all three kittens appear to be boys! (The parrot is a girl though.) On Friday afternoon, after hearing mewing sounds for awhile, I found a box contaning three tiny baby kitties! They are reeeeallllly cute, so when I told Kristee about them, she ran up the stairs and became instantly attached. We think the mom is the cat that runs around the office all the time, but we're not sure. So after (very hesitantly) leaving them on Friday night, Kristee brought them home and has been feeding them a home-made formula from a syringe since Saturday morning. They're supposed to eat every few hours, so it's a big job. Though I like having them around, I prefer not being responsible for feedings all night long. There's one light colored one that I wanted to be a girl and to call blondie, a grey one that looks just like Sophie, and then a black one that is the runt and struggles the most to eat. Somebody made a comment about there being a Muzungu, an African, and a Metis (mixed) cat, and we're still working on names. Tomorrow we'll take them back to the office and see if we can get mom to take them back for awhile until they're more weaned and spend less time crying.

Today at church, we had a reeeeally nice worship time. There are two choirs for the francophone service I usually go to, and then a kind of praise band as well. There are always songs that touch the heart more than others, and today they played one I hadn't heard in a very long time -- since I was in West Africa in 2006! It says: car il est glorieux, et digne de reigner, l'Agneau est souverain. Nous elevons nos voix pour l'adorer, l'Agneau est souverain. Which in English is: for he is glorious and worthy to reign, the Lamb is soverign. We lift up our voices to praise him, the Lamb is sovereign. It's always the songs that God uses to speak to our hearts that continue to hold special meaning later. We sing a lot of songs in Lingala and Swahili as well, and there were some nice ones today that I am starting to recognize. I count it such a great privilege to be able to worship the Lord in various languages, even during the same church service. He truly is Lord of All and has shown Himself to all peoples!

Yay for another day "off"! Though we don't have to be in the office today, there is definitely a lot to do. But working from the couch on the balcony next to Joel and Kristee is much more appealing than being at my desk! This Saturday was apparently the day that Congolese remember the assassination of President Lumumba, and Friday was for Kabila Sr. We have sure enjoyed the time to relax and enjoy this beautiful place with friends. Volleyball at Bill and Sue's on Saturday afternoon was a great way to move around and be outside, and Liverpool Rummy (our traditional card game) is always a fun Friday night activity.

This past week was quite stressful because of the added responsibilities I incurred while acting as Program Director in Pascal's absence. I definitely felt overwhelmed, considering I am also helping coordinate information gathering for a new project we are developing to respond to the USAID 2009 Child Survival RFA. I clearly don't have much background in health projects and interventions, and I am still getting my legs under me in the whole project development, so I will probably be quite busy and stressed until 17 February when the proposal is due.

In the meantime, the Über Shelter could be a nicely compact solution to overcrowding in refugee/displaced camps developed by a Purdue undergrad student. At first glance, the shelter sounds like a great idea (and really cool!), but considering the normal situation of the average non-displacedCongolese family will cause you to wonder what kind of effect the Über shelter would have on both camps and surrounding communities. People living in towns and villages in North Kivu do not have houses nearly as nice, and usually made out of mud with tin roofs. You think people will want to go back to their homes when the war is over if they are getting such nice houses in camps? Interesting discussions anyway.

Ok, back to planning discussions for a compost heap and key-hole gardens in the backyard...I mean, back to work...

The beginning of the Middle

So I've been in Congo for about 8 months now and finally decided that I should be blogging about my experiences. I mean, everyone else I know who lives somewhere besides where they come from shares their life online with the rest of the world. I think partly why I haven't started writing before now is that after the initial awkwardness, everything started to feel so strangely familiar...

If I start talking about everything from the beginning, I think it will take forever, so I'll tell stories as they come to mind, probably very out of chronological order. (But if you've ever heard me tell a story, you know that I can never tell them in order!) This is just an introduction, so I won't write much for now. I want to get some pictures up and everything organized first.

So, enjoy, feel free to make comments, and ask questions!

Oh, and my title comes from a Caedmon's Call song, which says, "My faith is like shifting sand, so I stand on grace." And truly, God’s grace is the only reason I’m still standing at all.