Long time, no blog entries…

I have some very interesting developments to share, but first I would like to go back and recap the past few months. The last time I wrote, eMi was coming to help with the Makana Village Housing Project. I will pick up from there.

EMI came. They were such a blessing and an encouragement to all of us here. The trip was God ordained like nothing I could ever imagine. 1. The trip happened over a holiday weekend in Congo, so I was able to spend more time working with the team than originally expected (awesome timing). 2. I was not sure how I was going to provide all the meals for the team, but they were provided. Many of the missionary families and some of the Embassy guys volunteered to host the team for dinners. There were also many pot luck dinners, including one for Easter Sunday. For lunch, I was given an allowance to buy food from Fuller Center. The team ate all this food in 3 days. I supplemented with some of my own savings, but this wasn’t enough. Out of the blue (and my distressful prayers) one of the mission families gave me money. What is wrong/right with this picture? 3. I already told you about the housing that was provided because of the family that was on a retreat in South Africa. 4. I think I also mentioned about the transportation that was provided because of a colleague who was on vacation during this period. Also in regards to transportation, the team evaded several disasters as God put people in the right place at the right time. For example, my car had a flat tire on the way to the village and so Gebran pulled over into a gas station. He called his work driver to come pick up the team. The driver (with the large van) said “Chief, why are you calling me? I am standing right behind you.” 5. This trip was planned during rainy season. During rainy season, it RAINS like every day. The team was here for 10 days with no rain during working hours. It did not start raining until after they had finished their final presentation. This is very important because the teams main objective was a site survey. 6. The team was able to accomplish every task set out for them, which in the beginning seemed impossible and overwhelming. 7. The shipment of supplies for the orphanage showed up in a container the day before the team was scheduled to visit the orphanage. We were able to use the team to deliver all of the items. The orphanage mother was in tears when she saw everything we brought (thanks to my work people in Birmingham!).

While the team was here, we visited a CMA church where a friend of mine is the pastor. It was so much fun. The church was full of life. It was the first time I introduced myself in French. I was excited that they actually understood what I said. After church, I ate my first real Congolese meal. It was pretty good.

The Makana project is still moving forward, although not with the same momentum as after the team had just left. We broke ground on the first house a few weeks ago. More and more construction materials are being delivered to the village. However, we are waiting on some plan revisions to be approved by the Minister of Construction. Once we get this, we will be back in full force again.

Part of the dulled momentum was due to my recent, much needed vacation. I was able to meet my parents in Spain for a week. We had a blast. Spending time with them was great. Plus, I love Spanish food. I did a lot of shopping, too. After my parents left, a friend from home met me in Spain (after some major drama with her train tickets leaving us to believe she was abducted). We traveled up the Mediterranean coast to Italy. We met so many interesting people and experienced so much culture in the span of a week. Italy was the best. I will always favor Cinque Terra and the Portofino coast over the rest of Europe. We extended our stay in Italy and skipped the majority of Paris. Although, we had to make it back to Paris in order to catch our flights out. Well, all the trains were booked from Milan to Paris on the day we needed to travel because we ended up having to travel on a holiday weekend. It was horrible. We had to train hop (starting at 7am) all the way from Italy to Paris. We were very scared that we would not make it in time to catch my flight out. We ended up making it to our hotel in Paris at about 9pm at night, so I was able to catch my flight the following day back to Congo with plenty of time. It was such a fast trip. Oh, I bought a new cell phone because mine got stolen in Congo. It is such a neat phone. It can hold (and utilize) two sim cards at one time. It is perfect for my situation. Although, all my numbers are gone. So don’t be surprised if I don’t call you when I am home in August. I have no numbers.

Wow, so when I got back from vacation I met this young couple at the Bill’s house. I went to introduce myself, but they already knew me. Apparently, my blog is being read. Who knew? They are here working for the outreach part of CMA. Turns out they had read about the Bill’s on my site. How crazy they were coming to actually work with them.

Their arrival was also very timely. We found out that the orphanage we donated all of our stuff to was sold. A group of us who are involved with the orphanage got together to decide what we should do. The new owner wants the orphanage to move, but is allowing them to stay temporarily. We decided that we are going to build a new orphanage for these kids. However, we were struggling as to how we were going to raise tax deductible funds and who was going to manage the accountability of the funds. Then, BAM, these people showed up. Perfect timing. I will have to update more about this project later.

In other random news:

Gebran and I lead our Sunday night service a couple weeks ago. It was fun. I lead music and Gebran gave the message. This is the first time we have lead in a year of going to the service. Guess we haven’t really been pulling our weight. Oh well.

Two of our friends are in an African choir. We went to see them in concert. It was packed out. They were really good, but they blew out the power after the first song. Thankfully, there was an electrical engineer in the house to save the day.

Our main grocery store in town got bought out by the Casino chain. It is so exciting. The meat and cheese counter looks a little less sketchy now. And they have real dog food. Charlie is a happy dog. And they have feta cheese. Enough said.

I bought an African dress a while back, but have not had any chance to wear it. So, I hosted an “African Queen Party”. Well, my gas on my stove went out and I had to cook on two side by side electric grills. It was hilarious. I had 10 people at my house and had to cook on a little electric grill. It took me 2 hours to stir fry one bowl full of chicken and veggies. We didn’t eat until 9pm. We had the best intentions of watching the movie, but didn’t quite make it. Also, I made a cake but could not cook it. I ended up cooking it later in the microwave. Never would have thought that was possible, but desperate times…

I have been reading a really good book by CS Lewis called Mere Christianity. It is not really “mere” in any way, but definitely worth reading. The idea is that he is describing the basics of Christianity. Although, it is actually very deep and thought provoking. It is also interesting because it was a series of radio shows done during WWII.

On the health front, I am feeling much better. My vision is still blurry at times, but my eyes are no longer read or swollen. For those who don’t know, I had pink eye for 3 weeks straight. My eyes were swollen shut for many of those days. I couldn’t work because I couldn’t see my computer screen. I wore my big sunglasses everyday and our site superintendent called me “Hollywood”.

This week is the 4th of July, so there are many parties. We have a VIP party on the 3rd at a nice hotel in town. I finally get to wear another of those fancy dresses I brought. On the 4th we are having a BBQ with all the Americans in town. Should be a fun week overall.

In a couple weeks, my brother and his girlfriend are coming to visit. We are going to try to make trips to the gorilla reserve and the rainforest. Should be action packed. I think they are both a little nervous about coming.

I guess some pretty big news is that I am coming home on August 6th. I was expecting to come home for a bit after this job, but wasn’t expecting any thing this sudden. I am going back to the home office work on a new project start-up. MORAL OF THE STORY IS THAT I WILL SEE YOU ALL SOON.

Thanks for reading and putting up with my long periods of silence. I will try to write at least one more time from Congo.

Love to all,
Allie