Back to Congo

Ed and I have been in the US speaking and touching bases with people, and are on our way home to Congo now. Do you know that it takes two days travel between Congo and the US? Two full days to the West Coast, where our homebase is. That's partly because there are almost no direct flights to Africa from the US. Except to South Africa, getting to any other destination in Africa requires going to Europe first (or South Africa - almost as far from some destinations).

So we were going to Brussels, Belgium to catch our 8 hour flight to Congo, but ran into airline glitches that made that impossible. So, a day later, we're looking forward to our flight to Paris to catch their 9 hour flight to Congo. Then we have to board a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight Friday to get back to Vanga and Lusekele and back to work.

We'll take advantage of our several days in Kinshasa to talk with colleagues, missionary and national, about ongoing projects, and buy some food that's unavailable in Vanga to take back with us. Ed will be finding out from our colleague Wayne Niles, what's happening with the pump which will complete Lusekele's new water system for irrigation in dry spells and for workers' families.

I will check in with our medical colleagues about some stuff that was done in the US, and find out from Rose Mayala, the coordinator of our adult literacy work, what's happening. We should have a literacy teacher training to set up for this month in Masi-Manimba, in Bandundu Province not too far from us. Maybe the road repairs for the main road in Bandundu will be completed, allowing relatively easy travel to Masi by transport truck!

Miriam