Mark's Journal from Congo Part 2

I have been home for a few days now and I thought I had better finish off this journal.

I should start with just Monday, March 8 but I think I will give an abbreviated version and give you the whole week all mixed together. This last week I was busy trying to tie up loose ends. We decided to order a faucet for the kitchen sink from Kampala Uganda and see if it would make it here before I left. Well, wouldn’t you know, the next time I was in town I tried one last store to find the odd size kitchen faucet and I found one. Even though we had ordered one I went ahead and bought this one, you never know. When I went to install it of course there was a rusted pipe that had to be replaced (I hate plumbing).

I put new screens on the front door and one window on the porch. In the end I did not have time to finish 3 other windows but I will leave that to a carpenter guy we found. He came to help with the kitchen countertop. He measured the countertop on Monday and came back Thursday with the new one. I went to Nyankunde Thursday (more on that in a minute) so when he came back Friday morning we tried to put it on, but he measured wrong and it was a bit small. He took it back to his shop and returned about 3 hours later and we got it all installed. There is no Formica in Bunia so we had to order that from Kampala as well. The carpenter will come back some day to finish off the job.

As mentioned above, Thursday I took the better part of the day to go to Nyankunde. This is where Rich and Ruth Dix are working under Samaritan’s Purse at the hospital. Things at Nyankunde were really messed up during the unrest in Congo and the whole station is in disrepair. Rich’s part will be to build the new wing for the hospital after fixing up some of the housing. Ruth is an OB/GYN doctor and is spending a lot of time at the hospital seeing patents and working with nurses. The neat thing here is that Rich and Ruth had been in Nyankunde for years before returning to California for family reasons. God has opened up the door for them to return to Africa for a short time to help in this way (even though they are getting along in years).

Late Thursday after getting back from Nyankunde I finished up installing a voltage stabilizer on one of the circuits in the house (the one most used for lights and the refrigerator).

Thursday evening I was told that our AIM AIR plane only had permissions from the government to fly up to Friday, not Saturday. That meant we had to leave a day early, and have one less day to tie up the loose ends.

Friday morning I franticly tried to solve another electrical problem. I was checking the voltage at an electrical outlet and saw a spark on the inside of the socket and a circuit breaker blew. Now what? I found the wires were kind of corroded on the back of the socket so I cleaned them up and put the socket back in, but the circuit breaker was still popping. After a bit of checking I found the 2 wires going to the hot side of the socket were hooked up to different phases. Basically what that means is you have a short circuit. Glad for circuit breakers that do their jobs! I guess they had been shorted before and that is why the wires were corroded, my cleaning them up did not help any. Why they were like that I have no idea. I hope there are not too many more things like this in the house. I connected only one of the wires (and isolated the other one) and the problem went away. I was glad I was able to figure this one out. I was half thinking I was going to need to stay longer in Congo.

With all the electrical problems straightened out (well, as best as they can be with half the voltage there should be coming to the house) and most everything else done I was free to go home. I was glad to go, too. In the last 4½ weeks I had been home for less than 6 days.

With my returning early I had to change my flight from Uganda to Rwanda to a day earlier. I called Lisa to have her do this for me. What a fiasco she had, but thankfully she succeeded. One thing that was kind of interesting on my flight from DR Congo to Uganda on AIM AIR was that the pilot did not care if our cell phones were on so I was able to text Lisa while in flight to see how my ticket change was going. Sometimes there was no coverage but if I waited a few miles it came back.

Now that I am home I am catching up on all that was waiting for me. I think the lawyer has made good progress on getting RIET’s new legal status worked out. That means I can start looking towards construction some day, hopefully soon. I will keep you posted.

Until next time.

Love,

Mark

Mark's Journal from Congo Part 1

Many people seemed to enjoy my ramblings from my last trip to DR Congo so I, Mark, thought I would give it another try for this trip. There were once many AIM missionaries in DR Congo (then Zaire) but today, due to the potential for unrest, only five. The areas where we have AIM missionaries today are relatively calm, but could blow up any time. This Congo trip brought me to Bunia, about 100 miles from where we spent our first 9 years with AIM.

Monday, March 1

It took about 1 ½ hours to get to Bunia in one of our small AIM AIR airplanes from Entebbe, Uganda. Getting through customs and immigrations went a lot easier than I had anticipated. Driving through town things looked very similar to what it was when we evacuated because of the civil war in 1996. The big difference was the UN peacekeeping force’s presence. Many UN camps, compounds and vehicles, and there were people everywhere. I should get back into town soon and anticipate I will notice many more changes.

The reason I came here was to make some much needed repairs to a missionary house where 2 of our single missionary ladies live. Missionaries are quite resourceful but the work needed in this house was proving to be a bit much. The first order of business, and what could be the most time consuming, was to see what was going on with the electrical system in the house. There are 3 phases, or lines, of what is supposed to be 220v electricity in each phase coming to the house that is supplied by the utility company. The problem is the voltage is basically never 220v. I have measured it and found 2 of the phases vary between 130v and 175v. And those are the 2 good ones. The 3^rd phase only gets up to 85v. The idea is that you divide up the load on the house between the 3 phases. The power company came out and to rectify the problem they put the whole house on one phase. To complicate matters there is wiring to accommodate a generator (currently not working) that can power the house should the power not come in at all from the power company (as is the case as I type this). The problem is, whoever modified the wiring to connect the generator did not have the proper switches to switch between the power company and generator power. They used a rather ingenious method to do it but it makes for kind of a rat’s nest of wires and lots of connections and plugs.

Tuesday, March 2

As mentioned, another problem here is that the generator is not working. After spending a bit of time on it I determined that there was very little compression in the cylinder causing it to not start. This trouble shooting process was a bit more difficult than it should have been because I basically brought tools for working on electrical and general housing repairs, not engine work. I found one thing that is a bit strange about this generator: it is labeled “Honda Type”. You have heard of counterfeit clothes and bootleg videos, it looks like they are trying to imitate Honda generators, too. I’m sure that parts (rings, piston, bearings etc.) for this thing would be next to impossible to find so it looks like this one will need to be retired.

After a bit of discussion we decided that rather than replace the expensive generator it would be better to add another battery to the existing 12v backup battery system they use to run the 2-way radio, power a few 12v lights around the house (like the one I am using in my room right now) and to power 12v inverters (gizmos that change 12v into 220v electricity). Currently there is only one battery in the system that is charged by a special battery charger that works even if it is plugged into a socket with low voltage. I think a larger battery charger and at least 2 batteries are in order so they can run the battery lights longer. Perhaps a larger inverter, too.

I spent a lot of time today climbing around the attic looking at the wiring (a combination of the regular 220v wires, 110v wires that run to a few rooms to accommodate the Americans, and the 12v wires for the 12v light system) trying to determine what wires at the circuit breaker box go where. First thing tomorrow I will remove the rat’s nest of wires at the circuit breaker box and put it all back together with new wire in an orderly and, I trust, safer fashion.

I think I am going to need to shut off my computer soon, its battery is about dead (remember no power tonight) and hope for power from the power company tomorrow night so I can continue this novel. Just as good that I go to bed early, I feel like I am getting a chest cold. Kind of hurts when I cough.

Wednesday, March 3

Feel a lot better today. Did me good to go to bed early last night. Today I took out all the bad wiring at the circuit breaker box and slowly got everything back together without any real hitches except I really did not have anything to connect all the neutral wires together that were coming back into the circuit breaker box. Usually there is some kind of bar inside the circuit breaker box that they are connected to. I was able to rig up something at the meter instead that should work. We’ll see when the power comes back on and I will test it.

There are 2 sets of wires that weren’t connected before. There is a chance they were for the outside lights so after everything else is up and running I will look into that.

While waiting for the power to come back on I decided to work on adding 2 more lights in the living room. There is only one there now and it is just not bright enough to see well at night. Why not just go out and buy a floor lamp you ask? Remember, this is DR Congo, no Wal-Mart here.

Dinner came and went and still no power. The battery was about dead on my laptop so I could not work on this novel yet and I did not feel like I should be using the precious battery power to read by (no telling how long until the power would come back on to recharge the 12v battery system) so I just sat and listened to the ipod. After about an hour the power came back on. I found no smoke coming from the circuit breaker box so I must have done something right. This is the first evening we have had power since I have been here. The biggest demand for power in the city is in the evening, and that is when the voltage is the lowest, too. I checked and what should have been 220v was 115v. Talk about dim lights, a candle is almost brighter.

You might ask (or not): how do you run things like refrigerators on the extremely low voltage”? Good question. What you do is plug the refrigerator into a voltage stabilizer, a gizmo that takes voltage that is too low or erratic and brings it up and stabilizes it at 220v. One problem is that you have to have at least 150v to make them work, so if the voltage is real low you still have problems.

Well, time for bed.

Thursday, March 4

Got to make a trip into town today to make some purchases. I first took an inventory of the supplies needed then got a ride with someone from the church office. I was kind of surprised by what I saw in town. If most of the stores downtown had been closed up and the ones that were open were almost empty I would not have been that surprised because of all the unrest that has been in the area for years. But then again the UN has been here in force for several years now and as a result many NGO’s (Non-governmental organizations) have started working here and bringing with them lots of outside money which could have resulted in lots of growth and an increase in the availability of goods. So, what I saw was a downtown that looks much like it did 20 years ago when we came here from Rethy to do our shopping. The differences were a few more stores are closed now than 20 years ago, more technology today, and the cell phone companies giving free paint to any store owner willing to paint his store bright pink and advertise for Zane (or for any other company ad with their color).

After visiting about 10 stores I was able to find the plumbing parts to completely redo the drain on the kitchen sink, purchase the wire I needed to run a separate line to the water heater and the light sockets and wall switches needed for the living room.

After getting back I ran the new wire for the water heater then took a look in a room in the lower part of the house. There was something funny in that room that I was shown a couple days ago: there was a spot in the cement wall that was getting warm. Well, today when I touched the spot it was down right HOT. The spot was close to a outlet so I was thinking there must have been a bad connection in a wire in the wall, but when I found it was so hot I really started to wonder. I shut off the electricity in the house and started to chisel into the cement wall. If this was a house in the US this would not have been a problem; the house would have gone up in smoke long before. I got down to some conduit (the metal pipes that hold the wires inside to protect them) and found that I was at a junction of two pipes. In poking at it I noticed a small spark. Wait a minute, I shut off the electricity in the house. How could this be? After standing there a bit wondering what could possibility be going on I noticed that that in the low light of the room I could see the pipe glowing. What have I gotten myself into?

After going back out to the circuit breaker box still in bewilderment and while I was checking a few things I realized something. Apparently several months ago a “technician” from the power company came out to the house to make a repair on a burnt wire coming in to the meter. He switched a few things around and called it good. Well, what he did was to take one of the hot wires from one of the 3 phases and connected it to the neutral side (what you might call the ground side) of the house’s electrical system. Sometimes, right or wrong, they connect the neutral to the metal conduit in the house. And sometimes to give it a better ground they connect the metal conduit to the plumbing (you can see where I am going with this). Hence the shock off the plumbing fixtures (I was going to get around to that in a day or two). But why the hot spot in the wall? Well, 220v (or so) going through the grounded conduit gets to ground (via the bathtub for example) and causes a flow of electricity. The joint in the conduit that was getting hot must have a bad connection and as a result, got hot, real hot. Tomorrow I will make sure nothing else is damaged there and put it back together.

I promise to do a better job than they did here when we construct the theological college.

By the way, there is 90v coming into the house tonight. My laptop battery will charge at this voltage. Glad about that.

Friday, March 5

Today was a relatively boring day compared to yesterday wrapping up loose ends with the electrical side of the repairs I am doing. No smoke or fire in the house so must be OK.

Saturday, March 6

Plumbing, I hate plumbing. Even so it went sort of OK. I would like to post a picture of what the drain pipes for the kitchen sink looked like. Almost as bad as the wiring. They did not leak, but you would be surprised if you saw it. The pipes were sealed together with inner tube rubber, plastic bags and other things I could not identify. Fortunately I found a drain kit for a double sink in town the other day, and more fortunate, it fit. I was able to connect it to the old pipe taking the waste water away from the sink and outside. It went rather well for plumbing.

But then the cupboard needed some serious repairs. The old countertop let water through next to the sink and rotted some of the wood that supports the sink so the sink was falling out. Some of the wooden rails that the drawers slide on are broken/rotted so spent the rest of the day replacing the bad wood. I will finish the rails next week as well as see what I can do about replacing the countertop. One problem here is I have very limited woodworking tools. We will see. Somehow God always provides the means to do what needs to be done.

I have only 5 working days left. Besides the cupboard there is another water heater that needs to be replaced, the kitchen sink faucet (a real problem because I cannot get the correct size here), a few screens, and ….

Sunday, March 7

Went to the French service for Church today. It was much as I expected, even with the words to most of the songs projected in the wall. After Church we went to a restaurant called the “Greek Club” for lunch then went to see the Witmers, a missionary couple we know from way back that are here teaching at the theological college here in Bunia. Also saw the Stabells who are here for 6 weeks teaching at the college.

Tonight the voltage is down to about 75v. My laptop battery will not charge at that voltage.

One thing I did not mention about this house. There are some bullet holes in the front of it. During one of the periods of unrest in Bunia (I forget which one) there was some kind of gun battle out front. The lower holes have been repaired but the ones up high not yet.

Mark's Trip to DR Congo

October 2009

Dear Family and Friends

I, Mark, was asked to take a trip to Adi, Congo to help some missionary friends with some tractor, car, motorcycle, truck and ??? repairs. I thought it would be fun to tell you about it but it is a bit longer then usual so please bear with me.

Sunday Sept. 27

Fly from Kigali, Rwanda to Kampala, Uganda

Monday Sept. 28

Apply for Congo Visa at Congo Embassy. I could get one at the border when entering Congo but the one I can get there is only good for 9 days. I need at least a 15 day visa.

Go around town and look at used motorcycles to see if it would be worth importing one to Rwanda. I found they were not a bad price, but were in bad condition. I think I will pass.

Tuesday Sept. 29

Take care of a bit of business at the AIM office in Kampala then go to town to get my passport, and a 30 day visa (I don’t need that many days but it is better than 9).

Wednesday Sept. 30

Up at 5 am to catch 1 ½ hour flight to Arua, Uganda. Glenn Wilton was waiting for me at airport. We went into town to pick up supplies, market for food, fuel for car, mail etc. (took about 4 hours). Went to Uganda Immigration and got stamped out of Uganda. We drove for a bit on a dirt road then Glenn told me the section of road we were on was actually the border between Congo and Uganda. We took a smaller rougher road for a bit then stopped at a gate (a pole across the road) for Congo immigration and customs. A guy who works for Glenn took our passports and went into an office (with mud walls and grass roof). While we waited a guy came out and said Hi, then he went back into the office. Glenn said that was the guy doing the customs check. About 15 minutes later Glenn’s worker came back with our passports stamped into Congo and we were ready to go. That was like no other border crossing I have ever been through. Too easy for Congo. I guess the bigger crossings are a lot more hassle, that is why Glenn likes this one. One other thing about this crossing: no military. They are all up north providing security against the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). That war is a whole other story. After about another hour of driving (on roads that made me know I was back in Congo) we arrived at Adi.

Adi was looted during the war in Congo in 1996 (the same war we had to evacuate for). Because of the looting, there were a lot of parts missing from / problems with the tractor, motorcycle, truck as well as other things that needed fixing. After about a 10 year absence Glenn and his wife Sandy returned to Adi to continue their ministry. Glenn had purchased most of the missing parts, and had put some of them on the equipment, but most of the things still did not work for one reason or another.

Oct. 1 to Oct. 14: The work days.

Work days #1 to #3: The tractor & grass cutter

Installed a rebuilt injection pump, injectors, replaced missing fuel and injector lines, did some rewiring etc. etc.

There is also a big grass cutter that goes behind the tractor that had some leaking oil seals. Replaced the seals and sharpened the blades.

Now after 13 years Glenn can cut the grass on the airstrip with the tractor & grass cutter. Why is it so important to cut the grass on the airstrip? In Africa we have ant hills (actually termite hills). An ant hill hiding in even a foot of grass would really ruin a pilot’s day. So now with short grass comes the peace of mind knowing that the mission planes can safely land at Adi in case of emergency or the need for evacuation.

The air compressor in the shop stopped working today. Found that the capacitor was bad. Glenn just happened to have one that was a close enough fit to the bad one, replaced it and now we have compressed air again to help with the work.

Work day #3: Land Cruiser

Spend a bit of time to see why the 4-wheel-drive was not working. It is electronically controlled. This is going to take some doing. I’ll save it for later in the week.

Work days #3 to #5: Motorcycle repair

Glenn has a motorcycle to help save on expensive fuel costs. It was stolen during the war and somehow they ran it out of oil. He had sent the engine to Kampala, Uganda for someone to rebuild. When he got it back and put it in the motorcycle, it would not start. It has been sitting now for about 2 years. After a bit of checking I found that the engine had no compression because the valve adjustment was too tight. I adjusted valves and got the engine running, sort of. After all the years of sitting, the carburetors were full of crud so I removed them and decrudded them (took them apart to clean them). Engine runs fine now.

Also found lots of little electrical problems and other little things wrong so spent part of a day fixing lights, broken choke cables, charging the battery, fabricating missing shift linkage, cleaning out the cooling system and checking the thermostat (yes, a water cooled engine), checking to see why the horn did not work, etc.

On day #3 it rained in the afternoon. Glenn has a 55 gallon drum of water that is painted black that is sitting on the roof of his house. It is plumbed into the shower in the house. Obviously, on a sunny day the water gets warm. And more obviously, on rainy days it does not. Had a cold shower tonight.

Sunday Oct. 4 went to a French service in Church. The guy spoke really softly so could not hear him too well. Too bad. Spent part of the afternoon on Google to see if we could find a wiring diagram for Glenn’s Land Cruiser to help us figure out why the 4wd is not working.

Work day #5: Land Cruiser

One of the back windows on Glenn’s Land Cruiser did no go down. Took off the door panel and found a gizmo had come loose. Put the gizmo back on and now it works.

Work day #6: Motorcycle

After a bit of fiddling around with the choke cable trying to make it work better I got to go on a motorcycle ride while Glenn cut the airstrip with the tractor. It was fun until the choke cable worked its way back out and made the engine stall. The battery is no good and this morning we needed to jump start it. This is a 500cc bike and only has an electric start (no kick start). We tried push starting it but it would not work. One of the workers came to the airstrip to keep the kids away from the tractor so he rode his bike back to the house to take the battery out of the Land Cruiser and bring it back with jumper cables. The motorcycle started right up. I decided to get it back to the house and park it. Will work on the choke cable another day.

Work day #6: Land Cruiser

Took another stab at the 4wd today. Found there was a short in the wiring at the motor on the automatic hub on the left side. I was able to remove the motor and reinstall the hub in the locked position. So for now we are leaving the auto locking hub button pushed in. This will lock the right hub. With both front hubs locked all you have to do is put the transfer case in 4 wd and voila, you have 4 wheel drive! Glenn will have to replace the auto locking hub motor some day so he can go back to having auto locking hubs again.

Work day #6: Big table saw

Glenn has this big table saw. He is helping make doors (no Home Depot around here) for the student housing units for the Adi Bible School. The saw helps cut the wood (obviously). A few weeks ago he was cutting away when the motor started to slow down all on its own, and then pop. Something blew and the motor stopped. Turns out the capacitor blew on this motor, too. Wouldn’t you know it, Glenn had another capacitor that was just right for the job. I am thinking maybe his generator is underpowered or something causing the capacitors to blow. Anyone have an idea???

On day #6 it rained again in the afternoon. Did not bother taking a shower (see above).

A little about Glenn and Sandy Wilton

Back in the day when Lisa and I first went to Zaire (now DR Congo) we were dorm parents for Glenn and Sandy’s daughter Karen when she was in 2nd and 3rd grades. Karen is now married and has a child.

Glenn and Sandy’s house was badly looted during the war, and then sat empty. When they got back to Adi they found all the windows were gone, holes in the ceiling, doors gone or locks broken, most everything was taken, and things were a real mess inside. Glenn has done an excellent job of putting things back together. There is no electricity at Adi so Glenn has installed 2 sets of solar panels and batteries, one set runs a small 12v. refrigerator and the other set is for the 12v. house lights and an inverter (a gizmo that converts 12v. to 120v.) The 120v. electricity charges laptop batteries and runs the modem for internet (which gets its signal from Uganda about 30 miles away). It also runs a duplicating machine where Glenn and Sandy print booklets in Bangala for the Bible School in Adi and for other Bible Schools. They also print Sunday School lessons, hymnals etc. for the church. There is very little in print in the Bangala language so this work is essential.

Rain water is collected by rain gutters and goes into an underground cistern. It is then pumped up to an over head storage tank by a 12v. water pump, and into the infamous black 55 gallon drum used for a water heater (rather, a water warmer that gets cold fast).

In addition to the Adi Bible School, there is a hospital here that Samaritans’ Purse has been heavily investing in. SP has installed a big generator and water system (a well I think) for the hospital. There are some SP guys coming soon to finish installing solar panels so they don’t have to run the generator as much.

Work day #7 Motorcycle & Ford

Got the choke connector set up a bit better. I think it will work now. I took a look at the old Ford Truck. It is a 1979 Ford truck that is really rusty and is missing a lot of stuff because of the looting during the war. Inside the cab is basically stripped bare. The seat, speedo and all the gauges and wires are gone. Under the hood it is not as bad but it does not look great. The front driveshaft and tires are gone, too. Glenn has new tires and a few of the missing parts. I kind of feel it would be like the “Junkyard Wars” I saw on TV to get it running again. It does not need a speedo etc. to run and we could rig up something for a seat, but I told some of Glenn’s workers here that we should dig a real big hole and bury it!

But Glenn would like to have a work truck around, and especially this one because it has a dump truck bed on it. I told Glenn that we should remove the cab, engine, transmission, front axle etc. cut the frame in half and turn the truck into a trailer that he can pull with his tractor. I also told him we can mount the PTO (Power Take Off) driven winch to the front of the trailer and connect it to the PTO on the back of the tractor. That way the dump bed will work / go up. We’ll see if he buys the idea.

Work Day #7: Had a fight with a steering wheel

Glenn had not quite finished cutting the airstrip the other day so he went out this morning to finish it up. It started to rain while he was out but he really wanted to get the whole thing cut so he stayed out and finished in the rain. When he got back he said he wanted to look at the loose steering on the tractor. Long story, but to fix it we needed to remove the steering wheel. After about 2 hours we got it off – we won! (normally it takes about 4 minutes). I think we have the problem figured out with the loose steering, but in doing so we opened up a can of worms. Will try to finish it up in the morning.

Glenn said he likes my idea of turning the old Ford truck into a trailer. We will see how it works.

Work Day #8: Can of Worms in the Tractor Steering and the Truck

After putting the worms back in the can and fixing the problem with the tractor’s steering we started in on the Ford truck. With the help of some of Glenn’s workers we had the truck’s cab ready to take off by the end of the day. We will pull it off tomorrow.

Work Day #9: Reincarnation of a Ford Truck

After getting everyone in position we picked up the cab and put 2 long poles under it to raise it up off the frame. Then we just pushed it off to the side. Rather easy actually. Then it was time to remove the engine, transmission and everything else that was not needed. The idea here is to use just the rear axle, dump bed, the rear half of the frame, weld a hitch on it and then put on some new tires to make a trailer. Glenn has an old trailer tongue / hitch that we will weld to the frame so it can be attached behind the tractor. The last thing to set up will be to relocate the truck’s shaft driven winch so it can be powered by the tractor’s PTO. The winch is what is used to raise the dump bed to dump it. Next week is going to be a lot of fun.

It rained again this afternoon so since we have Church tomorrow Glenn fired up the generator to power the electric water heater so we could have a hot shower.

Sunday Oct. 11 went to the French service again. This time I could hear the preacher a bit better. After lunch had a nap and worked on this letter a bit.

Work Day #10 to #13: Truck into Trailer

The bulk of the work these 3 days involved taking a bunch of measurements to properly mount the hitch, the PTO driven winch, reinforcements, make up a new drive shaft for the PTO etc. etc. By 3PM on my last work day at Adi we pulled the “new” dump trailer out into the middle of the yard and gave it a try. It worked beautifully. I thought these last few days was going to be a lot of fun. It was but it was also a lot of work. Time to clean up and get ready to go home.

Thursday Oct. 15

Get up at 4 AM and drive from DR Congo into Uganda. Catch a 1 1/2 hr. flight to Kampala, Uganda then another 1 hr. flight down to Kigali, Rwanda. I have been away for almost 3 weeks. It is good to be home. We basically got everything done we set out to do during my time at Adi. I was last in Adi about 15 years ago when I did a lot of the same kind of work. Perhaps I will do this trip again in another 15 years.

Thanks for your prayers!

Mark Sudman (for all of us)

Prayer Letter - September 26, 2009

September 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your prayers over the last month. We have now had 3 weeks of classes at Kigali International Community School (KICS) and while there were a few small bumps, things are going great. PTL! The teacher who was delayed because of the illness of her mom was able to arrive on time. Her mother made a much quicker than expected recovery. We have a great God! While most of the textbooks have made it, there are still a few we are waiting for. PRAY for their quick arrival.

We are now looking at what we will be doing next as our original commitment to help at KICS as the Transition Administrators is about to end. On Sunday, Sept. 27, Mark will be leaving for a several week trip to Adi in DR Congo to help our AIM colleagues, Glenn and Sandy Wilton, with some car, truck, tractor, motorcycle and ??? repairs. Please PRAY for a safe and effective trip and that he will be a blessing to those he helps there. PRAY, too, that he can get a Congo visa in good time and all the flight connections work well. PRAY for Lisa as she stays in Kigali—for safety at home and as she drives to and from KICS. Also PRAY as she considers continuing on at KICS to help coordinate their accreditation process.

The wives and children of the two AIM AIR staff who were killed in the airplane crash have returned to the US to seek God’s will for their futures. Please PRAY that they will be acutely aware of God’s comfort and guidance.

Please continue to PRAY about the delay in construction of the theological college (FATER/Rwanda Institute of Evangelical Theology). PRAY for details to come together so that we will be able to start construction soon.

Emily has been at RVA for a month now and is adjusting well to 11th grade, a new dorm mom, and a new roommate. We are thankful for her good health and positive attitude. PRAY that her mid-term weekend with friends in Nairobi (Oct 9-13) will be pleasant and restful.

Thank you again for your prayers! You are a blessing to us!

Mark and Lisa and Emily Sudman
BP 1299
Kigali, Rwanda
Mark-lisa.sudman@aimint.net

Emily arrived at RVA

Well, Emily made it to RVA and is getting settled in. Her flight was supposed to leave at 11 am on Friday so we were going to leave at 8ish to get there early (We can see the airport up on the hill from our house – it’s only a 15 minute drive). There is a new “Bourbon Coffee” place at the airport by the main entrance and they sell really good French style Chocolate Croissants so we thought we’d get one for a breakfast treat before she got on her plane. I decided to check my email one last time before getting ready to go and discovered one from RVA saying that the flight was changed to 3 in the afternoon! I was just starting to call one of the other families who would be putting a child on the plane when Mark’s phone rang and another dad was calling to let us know the same information. That dad went to airline office to verify and get the kids’ tickets confirmed for the new flight.

So, we went off to KICS instead to do a bit of work and Mark ran off to the immigration office to drop off stuff for the latest visas. Unfortunately, immigration is being very picky about the photos we are trying to use and they still didn’t accept them. Bother. We ate lunch with the teachers at KICS and then took Emily off to the airport. All 7 of the RVA kids were there and ready to go. They got on with no problem. Emily said that this time the plane had assigned seating – it’s a smaller plane with about 30 seats so up till now it’s been open seating. She ended up not sitting with an RVA kid but next to a gentleman. It’s only an hour flight so it’s not a big deal. She also ended up in the emergency exit row (we thought minors weren’t supposed to placed there). She said it was a little “freaky” when the attendant came and gave instructions on how and when to open the door. She was told she could change seats if she didn’t want the responsibility but since the gentleman was also in the row with her, she stayed put. You always go on faith that you won’t need the emergency door anyway.

Emily said her new dorm mom is nice. She doesn’t know yet how strict she’ll be. Hopefully strict enough without being a tyrant. She is still in the dorm building called “Kedong”. Kedong is divided into 5 sections, each with it’s own dorm mom’s apartment and it’s own entrance. Last year she was in Kedong Upper East. This year she is in Kedong Middle West. She was assigned a roommate – someone either new or returning after a furlough – but she isn’t back yet so Emily has her own room for now. She thinks maybe she’ll be alone the whole semester. She said that’s not a bad thing.

Emily got her class schedule and got into all the classes she wanted. She has American history, PE/Bible (alternating every 6 weeks), English, Pre-Calculus, French 3 and Chemistry. She thinks French and Chemistry will be the hardest and unfortunately, they are the last two periods of the day. She doesn’t like that but there’s not much she can do about it.

Saturday at KICS we had a “Meet and Greet” in the afternoon. It was kind of like an open house only the classrooms weren’t open. The teachers were set up around the courtyard and the parents and families came to them and introduced themselves. There was a food table with sodas, cookies and samosas. There was also a table with samples of the school supplies which the kids are to bring with them. I haven’t counted up the names of who signed in but we guess there were about 150 people there – about ½ of the families represented. We were pleased with the turnout and with the general atmosphere and attitudes of everyone. Some parents noted there was a “different spirit” at this gathering.

Sunday we hosted an informal afternoon gathering of our AIM team. Bonvallats and Rossingtons had been gone for the summer and are now back so we wanted to welcome them. Also, I wanted the Maxwell family (new principal at KICS) to get to meet the AIM folks so I invited them. The Bonvallats had visitors from Congo who we also invited. We were 23 total! I made a birthday cake for Mark (chocolate cake with banana cream filling and fudge frosting!) and others brought fruit, popcorn, carrot sticks and muffins. It was fun. There were 9 kids who thought it was fun to try to catch and hold the kittens. When the kids were distracted with eating, I caught the kittens and hid them in Emily’s room. The kids then had a game of “hide and seek” with the kittens but the kids never did find them! After they left, I found the kittens snuggled up, sound asleep on Emily’s bed, none too worse for the extra excitement!

Well, I guess that’s it for now. It’s time to get ready for school and a new week. The first grade teacher arrives Thursday, (I think) with his wife and 1 year old. I think they will be staying with us for a few days. Should be fun!

Another busy week!!

Don’t have much time but thought I’d send a quick update.

I cut my last letter short on Sunday because I thought we were going to have the boys back here but it turned out they stayed at their new place after all. We’ve been without guests now for a few days! We’ll probably have the first grade teacher with his wife and 1 year old stay with us next week for a few days until we can get them into permanent housing. Guess God knew we needed a big house!

Speaking of the house, we skyped for 45 minutes with the family whose house we’re staying in. They had been planning on returning in January but due to medical complications they’ve decided to stay in Canada for recuperation and to let their boys have a full year in the same school. So, that means we can stay in this house until June if we want!

The work at school is continuing – things are kind of a blur. We are still incredibly busy trying to get teachers settled and everything ready for the first day, 1 September. Now we have to just ask – “Is this required for the 1st day?” Not everything will get done. Crazy thing is, we still have applications coming in from new families! We have just about reached our limit of students that we can handle for this year. Some classes are bursting at the seams to be sure!! God is blessing!

Last night Mark, Emily and I went to an Indian restaurant for dinner to celebrate Mark’s birthday (a bit early but Emily’s classes begin on his birthday). The food was good, service great, atmosphere fun, prices a little steep but okay for a celebration. The highlight was that Emily had heard that this place would sing happy birthday so we told them, without Mark knowing, that we were celebrating. After the meal was cleared away, the lights went out (there were candles on the tables) and we heard some banging in the distance. Soon there were about 10 employees banging on trays like drums and singing “Happy Birthday” – first in English, then in French. Then they sang the “Jambo” welcome song in Swahili and a little bit in English. It carried on for quite awhile as they all danced around the table making a lot of noise and having Mark stand up and be thoroughly embarrassed! Great fun! He said it wasn’t as bad as Johnny Rebs or Joe’s Crab Shack, though! They brought out some ice cream topped with bananas and apples. I wish I had remembered to grab my camera.

We are taking the staff to Lake Muhazi today for their staff meeting just to have new venue. Kind of sick of being around the school! Hopefully we’ll be able to have lunch out there – we’ve had a hard time getting ahold of the restaurant to ask about it. Also, we wanted to take Emily out there so she is coming with us.

Emily leaves tomorrow morning for RVA. Won’t see her again until Thanksgiving Day! She’ll have a new dorm, new dorm mom, new roommate, and most of the same dorm mates. Some of her old friends are coming this year who she hasn’t seen since 3rd grade! Some of them were kids I taught in Kindergarten! How did they all grow up so fast?? My baby is going into 11th grade!!!

Gotta go get breakfast and ready to head out!

Another crazy week!!

We have had a busy week with late nights but things are getting done.

After writing last week I made some soup which we enjoyed. We all (Mark, Emily, Chris (the teacher from MN) and I decided we’d go to the airport early (four more teachers were due on a flight that evening) and get an ice cream cone at the Bourbon Coffee shop there. As we were clearing the dinner table, Mark got a phone call from Bryan, the school board chairman who we’ve been working with closely this summer. “Where are you?” Bryan asked. “The teachers are here and cleared through customs already!” Come to find out, we were given the wrong ETA for their flight. So much for getting ice cream.

So we dashed to the airport and sure enough the teachers and those who went to meet them were all standing around outside in the parking lot waiting for us and the other family who was hosting one of them. We stood around for a bit chatting and getting to know one another.

We took another guy teacher, Jack Beach from Tennessee, with us to stay at our house. The others each went to different houses. Jack will be teaching HS math, physics and PE. Jack and Chris have been staying with us all week. They are nice guys and will be good additions to the teaching staff. We’ve been calling them the “boys”.

Monday to Friday have been long days at the school office for me with meeting parents, filling Trevor Maxwell (principal) in on details he needs to know, receiving payments, answering questions for the new staff, trying to help figure out the schedule of classes for HS and MS with Trevor and Holly (a returning teacher), writing and answering emails, etc.

Mark ran around all week with the teachers (or for them) – setting up bank accounts, looking for housing, dropping off visa paperwork at immigration, going back the next day with copies of the signed contracts for the visas (the letters of appointment he’d dropped off the day before weren’t good enough), trying to work with landlords to get leases signed and working on getting the houses in shape, shopping, etc, etc.

A couple days we didn’t get back to our house until 8 or 8:30 at night! I am extremely thankful for Musengimana who works for us right now. I would give her a list in the morning of food we needed at market, a meal we needed to have ready for us in the evening, and laundry or other household tasks. When we got home, the house was clean, dishes washed and put away, laundry washed and ironed, fruits and veggies in the fridge, and dinner ready! I would never have survived this week without her!!!

Emily has been going in with us to school and helping out a lot. She has basically been a go-fer (you know: go for this and go for that). She has made copies, run around delivering supplies to classrooms, sorted out the new books that have arrived, helped teachers find things, babysat for the Maxwells while they went house hunting, etc, etc. She’s gotten to know the new teachers pretty well and enjoys hanging out with them. She said it’s been better than sitting around the house with nothing to do.

To add to the excitement of the week, Trevor hired 2 more teachers: A first grade teacher who hopes to leave the US September 2 or 3 and another middle school teacher who will fill some gaps. She hopes to arrive the 2nd or 3rd week of September. We start school on September 1 so someone will have to substitute for a bit while we wait for these to come but at least they are coming!! God has been blessing the school in tremendous ways!

Saturday I wanted to take Emily to a large market to look for some clothes. She has worn through some of her shorts and capris. The boys wanted to go along as well so we all went together, although Mark and the boys walked around together while Emily and I hit the clothing area. This market is really huge – Fruits and vegetables of all types, dried beans of many colors, shapes and sizes, dry goods like flour, sugar, etc, meat and fish – fresh, frozen and dried, hardware supplies, kitchen supplies, baskets, buckets, luggage, shoes, bed linens, towels, - well, I suppose this market is Kigali’s equivalent to Wal-Mart only it’s more like a swap meet/farmer’s market. Most of the clothes are used (I saw one with the Goodwill price tag still on it). Emily and I just wandered around the different stalls until we saw something we thought might fit her. In the end she got a couple pairs of PE shorts, a couple pairs of capris and a pair of track pants. She did all the bargaining herself – in French! I was impressed! The merchants all seemed to think she was cute and gave her reasonable prices. More than Goodwill but way cheaper than new. The boys didn’t buy anything – just looked around.

In the afternoon, Mark and the boys went to the “girls’” house to help hang up mosquito nets and other things. They tried to get things settled with the boys’ landlord so they could move in soon but that is going slowly. Emily went swimming with the Bonvallat family who just got back from their summer travels to the US (for work) and Switzerland (for medical checks and visit family). She is not pleased with the pool – said it is getting too green.

Saturday evening Mark, Emily, our friend Melissa, and I went out to dinner to a nice restaurant (décor was beautiful; food okay; price way too expensive) just for fun. The “boys” met the “girls” at an Indian restaurant which we haven’t tried yet. Said it was quite good.

Well, I will have to tell you about today’s church service later. We thought the boys were moving out into their own place today but I just got a message from Mark that they are coming back and sleeping at our house. No problem – except I sent one of their blankets and comforter to loan to another new teacher flying in tonight. I need to go see what I can find in Finnerty’s things and figure out supper…..

Things never quite go as planned here. At least we have plenty of water and electricity!

Saturday events

Well, the city was replacing valves or something for our water main pipes up the road from us and on Friday afternoon we got word that the work was finished and our tank was filling up! That was very good news.

For the last several weeks it has been very dry and dusty here – no rain at all which is in stark contrast to all the rain we had in Jan – Apr! The last couple of weeks it even became quite hot – not humid, thankfully – but hot. Friday late afternoon we noticed a change in the weather. A wind came up and clouds (not dusty haze) appeared. In the evening we watched a fantastic lightening storm (we live on a hill overlooking the city). Then, the power went off… but a few hours later, it was back on again.

I woke up to a steady rain on the roof – what an amazing sound! Normally I go back to sleep but I couldn’t stop wondering if the kittens were okay. They are just over 6 weeks old now and we can no longer contain them easily so we decided to let them roam the yard with their mom. (They are not inside cats.) Since I couldn’t sleep I decided to get up and check email and stuff that I hadn’t been able to do that evening with the power off. The kittens were fine – they and Mom have a nice hiding place. They could have gone into the outside kitchen where they have been for the last 6 weeks but that would have been too easy! While checking email, there were some really close, loud, bright claps of thunder and lightening. Mark woke up then and came in to unplug the internet and computers just in case we got hit by lightening they wouldn’t get zapped. So, I went back to bed and slept.

The rain continued steadily for most of the morning. I was hoping to do a couple loads of laundry, since we had water, but with the rain, I wouldn’t be able to dry the clothes. About the time it quit raining and I decided that laundry might still be a possibility, the power went off again. Musengimana, who works for us, told us she noticed the wires on the pole in the street by our house crackling. The ended any hopes of getting laundry done…

Around 8 pm we had guys from the electric company come by to check out our problem. They said it was indeed a problem at the pole and they would have to come the next morning to climb the pole and fix it. Our landlord happens to work for the electric company so he is able to help us expedite these things. This morning during church, Mark got a text message from our landlord saying that there a guy who could climb the pole but Mark would have to go pick him and his ladder up. So after we got home, Mark went off to collect the fellow and his ladder. About an hour later, (29 hours after it went off) we had electricity again! So, tomorrow, (I don’t do laundry on Sundays) I hope to get some laundry done!

To add to our Saturday evening fun –

We had invited a another family over to play games for the evening but they cancelled because mom wasn’t feeling well. Okay, a restaurant in town was advertising live music – acoustic guitar, saxophone and clarinet. Sounds good – we decided to check it out. But we needed to wait for the electricity guys to come and they arrived too late to go to the concert. So, we called Melissa to see what she was doing – after chatting with her family on the phone, she was going to watch a movie and we could come up and join her. Emily and I walked up to her place and were just getting settled into a movie when Mark called – the teacher who we were expecting to arrive Sunday at noon (he will stay with us for a week or so) actually was due to arrive SATURDAY at noon but his plane had mechanical problems and he was delayed! His new ETA was 9 pm Saturday. We hadn’t made his bed yet! Mark and Trevor went to the airport to meet him and sure enough, he was on that flight! Mark let us know that he had indeed arrived so Emily and I rushed home and made the two guest beds and got candles ready, etc for him. Whew! I’m glad we had a little warning! We told him he could take a cold shower or a warm bucket bath. He opted for warm bucket bath. I’m looking forward to a warm shower soon!!

He is a nice guy. Came to teach MS/HS French and Maths. He is from the Twin Cities in MN. His accent makes me homesick for the Schendel family!!

Well, I better go work on supper and getting ready for the other new teacher who is staying here.

Water situation

We are officially out of water in our storage tank. The city water that usually comes in to fill the tank has not come in for a 2 or 3 weeks but we have seen guys down the road working on a water main pipe. Yesterday it looked like they were getting closer to being finished so we are hopeful that water will come in a couple of days.

But we still have access to water – it’s just not convenient. This is where our camping experience comes in handy!! There is a community water tap down the hill from us, near the market. This is where the folks who do not have plumbed water go on a daily basis to collect water in their plastic jugs. It is a very common site to see children and adults carrying water jugs (from 5 liters – 20 liters / 1+ - 5 gallons) down the street. I am constantly amazed to see them carrying full 20 liter jugs on their heads!! When we need to buy water, we have one of our workers get a water guy to bring us some. There are young men who go up and down the streets all day with a wheel barrow full of water jugs – I’ve seen them pushing up to 5 or 6 jugs of water at a time. We have a large drum we put outside our kitchen door that the guys fill for us and then we have buckets in each bathroom that fill for washing up. Our worker, Musengimana, will hand wash some clothes for us today (the machine we have is a European front loading machine which is hard to use without plumbed water – I miss my simpler twin-tub machine we had in Nairobi.) These guys are super strong from pushing their wheelbarrows of water jugs up the hill – especially our dirt road that is full of deep ruts. We pay 250 rwf per 20 liters which is 44 cents. The water itself costs (if we were to go down and get our own jug filled) 100 rwf per 20 liters so these guys are making 26 cents per jug or about
$1.50 per wheelbarrow, if they can handle 6 jugs at a time. My guess would be that from our street to the water tap plus waiting in line, round trip would take them 45 minutes to an hour. We hear their wheelbarrows starting around 5 am and they keep going all day until dark (6 pm or so). I’d say they might make $8 - 10 a day hauling water!

The kittens we have are getting big and harder to contain in a safe place. We gave up last night and let them be free – figuring they were more apt to get hurt trying to get out than being out. They are so cute running around in the garden. I just hope they don’t find a small hole somewhere and get stuck! They are trying to figure out if they should be friends with the dog. Their mom is very friendly with the dog so I think they’ll warm up to her soon enough. The African gray parrot may be a harder friendship to create – I don’t know – but again the mom cat and the bird get along ok. (I’ve even seen them “kiss” – very funny!)

Well, I’m off to get breakfast and then to work. It looks like we’ve got a 1st grade teacher now. He won’t get here until a month or so after school starts but at least he’s coming. The other big hole is Kindergarten and we are realizing we could use another middle school teacher – we have full classes which we weren’t expecting. We had planned on doubling up a couple classes (like soc. Studies or Bible) but now with the larger classes we can’t do that so we need to have more teachers to cover each class. I think it will work out – the teachers will just be stretched.