Kinshasa Highlights

After our wonderful weeks in Vanga, it was difficult to return to a complex, crowded, traffic-congested city. But we have had some very beneficial and meaningful experiences here. This is what we have been up to- the highlights.

Monday we worked at the Compassion Clinic in a very poor neighborhood in Kinshasa. Someone quoted ~80% of Kinshasa functions as a village within the city. Certainly, walking along the road with the graywater running along the side as children play there, looking down over the immense Congo River and realizing there are "houses" crammed along the edge, or realizing a drainage ditch is a large village market makes me realize that most of Kinshasa is not like the Art Market or the downtown avenue with stoplights and wealthy residents. The clinic was started in conjunction with New City Fellowship (in St. Louis). There is a small church on the same property, and this church definitely has an outreach to the orphans in the area. Each church we visited took orphans into their own homes or cared for them in some way. The nurses at Compassion Clinic seem like they are doing a good job for the most part. Our role while we were there was to supervise the clinic process and do some minor education of the nurses and give suggestions. Of all the conversations or patient encounters we had this week, we realized that one of the most important was with our interpreter while we worked. Briefly, it was a very meaningful conversation regarding eternity, and the good news that Jesus does not ask for more "religion," but He loves us as we are and wants a real relationship; He does not care as much about the rules as He cares about our heart. The actions necessarily follow in response, not vice versa.

Yesterday and today, we taught in one of the medical schools. Fortunately, they all speak some English, so we were able to have meaningful presentations and dialogs with the students. We had lectures and practical hands-on teaching about proper presentations, complete physical examination, labor and delivery, ob and gyn emergencies, and differentiating between rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. Paul did an excellent job as my pregnant patient, and I acted out various neurological disorders for Paul. Tim was the master at the opthalmoscope. Our hope is that our small contribution will help them to become better physicians for the future of Congo. This medical school is the same that is in charge of the residency program we were involved with in Vanga, so there is continuity of relationship. The Dean of the medical school is very active and has good vision of the future. They will graduate their first medical school class next year I believe.

We walked through part of Kinshasa to find a place to eat several days this week. Yesterday, we (as in Tim) decided to be adventurous and try to find a shortcut back. It was getting dark quickly, but we felt we had one shot to make it. Otherwise, we could go by the main road which, although full of diesel fumes, is also better lit. We turned down a side road, and another, and another, and finally came to a dead end... we thought. There was a wall to our left, a wall in front, and a large gully with village housing to our right. But there was a sentinel at the gate in front of us who pointed us down into the front yard of the village house. In short, we went through several "front yards" with children playing, down a very steep drop, over a wall, across a small stream, turned right, went past the tent someone was living in under a tree, took a sharp left and went straight up the other side, then through a few fields and finally over a (large) wall to get back to the road in front of our hostel. On second thought, guess that wasn't so short... my description nor our journey. At any rate, it was good to see once again, the village within the metro area which is Kinshasa.

We visited the oldest functioning church in Kinshasa. It was sobering to see the grave site of a 38 yr old missionary who died after only 3 yrs in Congo. Perhaps it was malaria or a snake bite. Whatever the reason, this underscores the major differences between the older generation and ours. They came to Congo prepared to die. We come for 4 weeks (some years), but most of us can retain contact with loved ones and return to our home country to die.

We connected with several other ex-pats here in Kinshasa. The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK)  is literally across the street from our hostel. Saturday afternoon we were able to play softball with several Canadians/Americans who work for MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship- our pilots!) and Korean and Congolese. It was a grand time, even if Tim's team did win. We walked through the campus of TASOK which is quite large and has the largest portion of rain forest left in Kinshasa. 50 foot bamboo, a thick thick forest, canopy trees over 100 feet tall, mango trees, papaya and avocado: it was beautiful.

Our week in Kinshasa is coming to a close, as is our time in Congo. We leave tomorrow evening on our long journey home to waiting spouses and families. I think it is safe to say that we are all anxious to be reunited with our families but are immensely grateful to God for the experiences we have had here in Congo.