Home Sweet Home

The trip home was quite uneventful so I didn't take very many photos. The highlight was that I found Kindereggs in a store at Heathrow that I bought for my kids (and wife). Other than that, it was a lot of reading, a little bit of sleeping, a couple of movies, and a little bit more reading. My wife was happy to have me back. Everyone enjoyed the souveniers I brought. It was a nice place to come home from and I'm glad I went.

I hope you have enjoyed my adventure. I'll be closing down the blog soon.

Carrying Things Around

So, when your primary method of getting from here to there is walking, how do you carry stuff? On your head, of course. I saw a lot of people carrying all kinds of things on their heads. I didn't get a lot of photos, but here are few. Once a saw a man carrying two 20-foot long 3" PVC pipes on his head. I hope he was careful when he made those turns. I saw several ladies carrying big baskets of bananas, but wasn't able to get any pictures of them. I think one of the most interesting things I saw being carried on the head was this young man carrying a barrel. I hope it wasn't full.

Weather

One of the questions that I was asked was - What is the weather like over there? Well, it is Fall. But Lubumbashi is quite close to the equator and also at a pretty high altitude. The weather is great. They tell me that year-round the weather is really nice. Most days that I was there it was sunny almost all day long but it wasn't blazing hot like it gets in Arizona. I took some photos of some wild sunflowers. There are sunflowers growing all over and since they are Valeries favorite, I took some photos.

There is a rainy season...and it's not rainy season right now. But, on Saturday afternoon, it began to rain really hard. I'm not sure if you will be able see the rain in the attached video, but is was really coming down hard. The ground here seems to absorb the water quickly so the puddles in the streets didn't stay around very long.

Going to Church

They tell me that there are two LDS Church buildings in Lumbumbashi. I found one of them right next to the brewery where they make the beer. I went to meetings on Sunday, which was a very interesting experience. One that I think I will always remember. When I arrived, I was greeted by a young man named "Andy" that could speak English quite well. There were very few that could speak English. I'm sure I looked out of place, being the only lightskinned person in the whole building, but I felt quite comfortable and they were very gracious. They asked me to stand up and introduce myself and tell them why I was there. Then the Bishop asked Andy to sit next to me and translate for all three meetings. It was really interresting. Prior to the last meeting (Sacrament Meeting) the Bishopric member conducting asked me (through Andy) if I would give the opening prayer. I really wanted to say no, but I remembered that had decided long ago to not say no to anything the Bishopric asked me to do. So I told him I would, but it would have to be in English or Spanish. They asked me to say it in English. I'm not sure why they wanted someone to say the prayer in a language that hardly any of them understood. I guess I reminded them of visiting authories from Salt Lake City or something. Anyway, I really did not enjoy the extra attention. The meeting was very good. I could understand quite a bit of the French that was spoken. Then this older lady got up and started speaking and I didn't understand anything she said. Any later explained that she was speaking Swahili. Everyone knows Swahili and French and at least one other tribal language.

I asked about the Church in Lubumbashi. Thay have about 5,000 members. There are two Stakes and I think they said 15 wards. The people are very freindly and welcoming. They all dressed in their Sunday best. Most all of the men had white shirts and ties, some in suits. The women all wore very colorful dresses. It was a great experience to hear them bear testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and how grateful they are to be members of the Church and have the restored gospel in their lives.

What do they eat over there?

A question that I have been asked several time is what they eat here. Let me say, what they eat and what I have been eating are two different questions. I can't speak much on what they eat. The fields that I've seen have planted with corn and peanuts. They use corn meal a lot. When I was at base camp, there was this food that looked like dumplings...you know, kind of like balls of something white. I asked what it was called and they told me. Something like Toto or Fofo. Anyway, a think that was made of corn flour. I saw a lot of peanut farms on the concession. Here are a couple of photos of the peanut farms in the valleys and on the hills. I was in a grocery store yesterday for the first time and I noticed eggplant for sale. They do eat vegatables, like squash and peas and corn. They also have a lot of fish here. I'm not exactly sure where the fish com from. I suspect it is imported since the DRC is basically landlocked. At the store I noticed that a one-litre box of milk was about $1.00. I decided to find some cookies to take home to my family and it ended up that the cookies were made in Brazil. I'm sure that means that they are really fresh. The poeple do not upear to be underfed or malnourished. There isn't any obesity though.

Now, what I eat is a different story. There are a few restaraunts in town that I'm told have safe food. I've only been to two...Bush Camp (see my prior blog) and the Belgian Club. At the Belgian club I had a T-bone steak, well done. It was ok. Most of my meals are taken in the diner of the hotels I'm staying at. The Vagabond Hotel is actually reserved entirely for the mining company. They pay the cook and hotel manager. Anyway, we eat really well. For breakfast there is alway a selection of cold cereal. There are also several hot items in the buffet line. Hash browns, some type of scrambled egg dish, ham and cheese, etc. You can order an omlet also. There's toast with butter and jelly also. The milk is whole. There is always a juice...usually apple.
For lunch, there are several salads. There is always a tomato based salad and a lettuce salad. I think all the food at the hotel is probably safe, but I have chosen not to eat the lettuce and tomatoes or any fruit that you don't peel that aren't cooked. The water supply is not safe here and I figure that those foods might make me sick. There is also always a selection of hot plates. Alot of cooked potatoes in various dishes. There is usually a beef dish and always a fish dish. The fish is a white fish. I'm not sure what it is except that it tastes good...but I don't eat fish every day. There is also almost always rice...just plain rice. Dinner is about the same food as we had for lunch with another dish added. We've had speghetti and pizza and different types of pasta. There are a lot of cooked vegtables like brocolli, corn, onions, mushrooms (vegtable?), carrots, etc. So, I've been eating quite well.
Desert is offered at lunch and dinner. They have all kinds of pastries that are really good. Also, if you want, you can have a bowl of ice cream with either caramel or chocolate syrup. I have to admit that I usually indulge at one meal a day.
They have several soft drinks. Most go for the Coke or Diet Coke (no Pepsi). I have found some Sprite, but I usually go for the Fanta Orange or water. The bottle does not actually say Fanta... the brand here is D'Jino. I think there is D'Jino Orange, D'jino Cola, and D'Jino grapefruit. When I drink water it is always bottled water with no ice. They stock my fridge with several bootles of water and a Fanta and a Coke. The favorite beer here is Simba - which means lion in Swahili - you know like the Lion King. Anyway it comes in large bottles and some of the folks here are know to down a few, especially on a weekend. On some evenings wine is available.