Day 6: Lubumbashi

We are still more or less stranded here in the city. Today Mama Mary said to me, “Now you see why transportation is so difficult for us in this country. Now you understand.” It is. It is very difficult to get things and get places here. You can get almost anything, but it’s all at a price. (They even have a KFC—Katanga Fried Chicken). I think that my Congolese hosts feel very bad for “detaining” me here because they keep apologizing. I am anxious to get out of the city and on our way, but I try to reassure them also that I don’t think it’s their fault and I’m not upset. It is customary here to call pastors and elders “Mama” and “Papa”, but also I have come to think of Mary as a “Mama” to me in the American sense as well. When I came into this country a week ago (has it only been that long??) I trusted her with my care because I had no other choice. (I mean, Bob and Taylor knew she was trustworthy, so I never did not trust her, but at that point I didn’t know her.) Now I know her though, and have come to depend on her for so many things, and love her in a way that is unique to the way she has (and will) care for me. When we come into the world, we are bombarded with strangeness- everything is strange and overwhelming and unfamiliar. It is incomprehensible to us because we have no language. And it is our mothers who guide us through the world and teach us language and raise us until we can care for ourselves—coming into a new country is like that. You are again faced with the disorientation of being a “newborn”. Mama Mary has been my mother in this new world, my orienting figure, my north star. I don’t know if I will ever be able to communicate this to her fully—partially because of the language barrier (!!) but also partially because she views me as a gift to her, not the other way around! She thinks she’s lucky to have me here, but I’m not sure she knows that I would be lost without her! 

While we’re waiting to depart, I’ve just be reading, playing with the boys at the orphanage, and hanging out with Christina and Brittany. It has been nice to have company. Every day I see Brittany and Christiana, and then we go to the orphanage, and then Mama Mary and Douce (Rev. Maloba’s daughter) come to visit me. Each day has a nice rhythm. The only bad thing about staying in Lubumbashi is that it is TRES CHER. It is so expensive to live here and even just to stay here. The best way I can think of it is that it’s like when many young people I knew after college moved to New York to “make their fortunes”. Few ended up staying because before too long, they were so broke… It’s like a huge rat wheel, once you get on, you can’t get off—it drains your money. Some of my friends were even stuck there because they couldn’t afford to get home. It is the same way here, except ten times worse. Young people (like the man I mentioned in the early post, seeking work at the orphanage) move here thinking they can “make their fortunes” get sucked in, and can never get back home. They’re stuck here just barely scraping by. I am thinking that the cost of living here is similar to Indianapolis, but there’s no chance of a living wage. Imagine trying to pay $500 a month in rent with a job at which you might make $5/day. Or, worse, not being able to find a job at all. Lucky for me, I get to leave at the end of the day, but not everyone does. 

Some other interesting tidbits about traveling here: The Congolese Franc is the currency here, and today I had to exchange some money to get some francs. Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen such a huge stack of bills in my whole life. It is about 900 congolese francs to one dollar right now, and the bills(that I have anyway) are 500 francs each. So two bills is equal to one dollar American. So just imagine exchanging (for example) 50 dollars American and getting back a stack of 100 bills! It can be quite cumbersome to carry around!

I also felt like for the first time in my life I truly understood the significance of the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet—after being here only a week, I feel like my feet will never be clean again!! Everywhere is this fine, reddish brown dust that coats EVERYTHING. Your feet, your clothes, your hair, etc etc. And that’s in the dry season—in the wet season, it’s mud! But now I finally understand the washing of the feet—especially seeing most of the boys from the orphanage who don’t have shoes. Walking around here without shoes certainly makes for dirty feet!!

Day 4: Lubumbashi

I am SO tired. Even though I'm adjusted to the natural sleep/wake cycle here (I think...) I am still unbelievably exhausted. Part of it is jet-lag, and part of it is just being immersed in a new culture with a different language 24/7. The language piece can be really difficult because one is used to not really exerting any mental energy on listening, understanding, and responding, but now it takes most of my energy! So far I feel that this experiment in French immersion has resulted in a greater awareness of how badly I am butchering the language. :)

So, we are still hanging out here in Lubumbashi waiting for our car to be ready (ETD is Wednesday, now) but I don't mind at all, because I am getting a "taste" for the city and  enjoying the experience. Yesterday I got to see quite a bit of Lubumbashi-- Mama Mary introduced me to her friend Ilunga and we took a driving tour of the various neighborhoods of Lubumbashi in the evening. It was strange for me because in the afternoon I was back at the orphanage playing with the boys, and then in the evening I went to see that Grand Karavia Hotel which is a VERY nice hotel here. It was again, the emphasis on the contrast-- this is a place where there is so much and so little in the same city. Though I suppose the US is similar in a way-- there are major cities with elaborate and expensive hotels that also have large homeless populations. However my perception is that the "gap" is more extreme here. I don't know whether that is accurate, but it is what I have perceived.

Today, Mary and Ilunga took me to get a phone, so that will be very useful here-- I can call home and call people within the country. But I haven't yet figured out how to buy "talk time" so I can't really use it yet, but hopefully that will be resolved tomorrow. Also, I went to the supermarche (grocery store) for my first shopping experience here. I'm happy to report it was painless! In all of my travels, I have found the the US is MOST different in terms of shopping-- mostly when I go to grocery stores in other countries, they resemble each other quite a lot-- the stores here are similar to the stores in the UK and Europe and the Caribbean, it's the US that tends to be the outlier with our big-box stores like Wal-Mart. Except in Canada, I haven't really ever seen a store like that in any of the other countries I've been to.

After the shopping, we went back to Ilunga's house where we prayed and talked and shared ideas-- it was really fantastic though somewhat difficult because of the language barrier. Mary told me about a lot of her ideas for improving conditions in Mulongo, increasing self-sufficiency among the women, etc. It was really good to hear her ideas because she speaks from her experience of living there, and her desire is truly to improve things long-term and help the residents to support themselves. For example, she said that it is really important for the women to be able to attend school and participate in education, but often they aren't able to do so because they are depended on to work the fields, which takes up a lot of hours without farming equipment. But, if they had only one tractor in their town, it would free up so many women to do other things, including education. So, these are the kind of ideas we hope to generate on our journey-- the goal is not to give people things or tell them what they need, but help them to generate ideas about how they can work towards self-sufficiency, etc.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now-- even though it's only quarter til eight here, I'm thinking of hitting the hay..... 

Day 2: Lubumbashi

Today is my SECOND day in the Congo so I suppose it is now time for a proper update. Traveling was a blur once I got outside the US. I got really homesick after I left Indiana, and cried my way through Indy and Atlanta, but once I got on the flight to London I fell asleep and the rest was a blur—I essentially slept for three days! I wanted to get out into London, but I didn’t have as much time as I thought, plus I was saddled with my luggage, so I ended up just napping at Heathrow for a few hours before hopping on KenyaAir. Which, by the way, I think KenyaAir is the probably the best airline I’ve ever flown on—very spacious and nice. The stewardesses were fantastic, despite the fact that I also slept through that flight. (In my defense, all of these flights are overnight, so I was actually supposed to be sleeping.) 

Beyond that, it’s hard to know where to begin… I’ve essentially only been on the ground here for a little over 24 hours, but it feels like much longer. The culture-shock and jet-lag have taken their toll, and I’ve been very tired. For the most part, though, I’ve been able to sleep when it’s night and be awake when it’s day, which is a really good sign from the standpoint of recovering from jet-lag. The culture-shock is another story, though! I don’t really know how to describe it, because “culture-shock” doesn’t really seem to explain it It’s not a case of being overwhelmed by being in a strange place with strange food and different customs (though I’m sure that’s part of it).

My entry into the as a first time American was abrupt—like diving into a cold pool—there is no other way. The airport was EASY. Which I am happy to report, because apparently it has changed a lot in recent years—used to be sort of a harrowing experience I hear. For me, customs was pleasant and easy, and Rev. Maloba was all smiles at the airport waiting to pick me up—as I was passing through customs I could see him beaming at me from the other side of the window. Though a note to the wise if coming into Lubumbashi—they are very strict about luggage collection. Which is strange as an American because when you get off a plane you’re pretty much on your own to locate and gather your own luggage. At Lubumbashi, you must show your baggage claim ticket for them to relinquish to you your luggage. Of course, being the fool-hearty American traveler that I am, I did not zealously guard my baggage claim ticket. The airline agent in Nairobi stuck it to my Nairobi to Lubumbashi ticket, and then the gate agent tore that half of the boarding ticket off, of course. So I didn’t have it when I landed, and the Lubumbashi airport staff were very leary about giving me my bags. Luckily some smooth-talking by my hosts convinced them to write up a “contract” which I signed saying that I would not claim my bags were lost!

It is “strange” for lack of a better word, to be in a place where so much lack and so much excess exist simultaneously. This is one of the “richest” countries in Africa resource-wise, and the money flows—though generally, from what I hear, in one direction. The best way to put what I’ve discovered early on this trip is that everyone needs something. But this need is a paradox—often the ”need” is not well-defined or understood, either by the people that have the need or the people that desire to fill the need. How can one struggle to fill the opposing needs of so many people? This is my example: today I visited the United Methodist orphanage which I am staying right up the street from. At the time that we were going, there were two American girls there that were seeking to hire someone to tend to some business after they left. The “business” at hand was to make sure a young boy without legs was cared for and taken to all of his doctor’s appointments for the prosthetic limbs that were coming to him. Which is a more difficult task than one might think, because transportation and communication are daily barriers here. The right person for the job must be shrewd, resourceful, and determined, to make sure all of the boy’s appointments were coordinated and everything was taken care of. It’s hard to explain how this is a difficult job—but trust me, it is. 

So, the man that was being interviewed by these two girls for this position was very kind and seemed smart, but also he had lost everything in the war. He was from Goma and came to Lubumbashi to study but had never finished school and has never been able to return to Goma in 10 years to see his family. He just lost his job teaching English due to cutbacks at the English school, and struggles daily to make ends meet for himself, his wife, and his two children. So he was trying to get this job to survive. There is a lot of pressure to give someone like that a job-- to know that you can potentially change their standing in life by just giving him the job. But what if he's not the right person for the job? (I don't know if he is or not-- I'm just illustrating a point here.) And what if by giving this man the job, the boy without legs doesn't get his prosthetics? Or, what if not giving this man a job results in his child losing a limb due to inadequate medical care? Who is to say, and how can one "weigh" the welfare or needs of two different people?

I don’t know if he will get the job or not, but the point is that it is a struggle to meet the needs both of the kids at the orphanage and the people seeking the jobs—when a story like that is told, one feels compelled to help in any way—by giving this man a job. How could you turn him away? But for him, there are hundreds more people in the city that have stories just like his—and meanwhile, someone must be sure to care for the boy with no legs back at the orphanage. 

It is something to think about, to be certain… it highlights the complexity of every decision we make.

Traveling Mercies

It's been a week ( a month, a year...) of preparations. I am "ready" and "not ready" simultaneously, because, really, how can one every really be ready? I'll post a quick note about my itinerary at the end of this blog (so if you only want the "cold, hard info" rather than the "waxing poetic", scroll to the bottom.), but wanted to take a moment to reflect on the preparations for this trip. 

I've been making my rounds and saying my good-byes ("see you later"s, really: à toute à l'heure!) and it's been interesting and beautiful to receive the gifts of others, the things that they think I might need to carry me forward. Everyone speaks in their own language-- many have donated money (which let me state HOW MUCH I appreciate that), some people have given me books, traveling supplies, or conversations. These, I feel are truly sacraments, anointments, and traveling mercies. It reminds me so much of the words of the late, great Andre Dubus, "A sacrament is physical, and within it is God's love; as a sandwich is physical, and nutritious, and pleasurable, and within it is love, if someone makes it for you and gives it to you with love... Sacraments are myriad. It is good to be baptized, to confess and re reconciled, to receive Communion, to be confirmed, to be ordained as a priest, to marry, or to be anointed with the sacrament of healing. But it is limiting to believe that sacraments occur only in churches, or when someone comes to us in a hospital or at home and anoints our brows and eyes and ears, our noses and lips, hearts and hands and feet."  

Yesterday, I said "good-bye" to a group of kids I've worked with alllll year long. They are part of my "training" both for school and for life. It was a rag-tag group of kids that for the most part live in poverty, and are there to participate in programming because their parents are working to get out of poverty while I'm being with the kids. My task is to provide some sort of psychologically-based programming that will be more therapeutic than babysitting. So sometimes, I planned things, but mostly, we played-- because play is therapeutic, and it's how kids communicate. To understand this story you must understand that kids don't communicate like adults do-- not always in words and sentences and stories like I'm talking to you now. Rather they speak through play. And if you are quiet and careful and (sometimes) have some training, you can "listen" to their language. 

Anyway, last night was my last night there, which the kids knew was coming but were told again over dinner. So none of the kids verbally said anything to me about leaving really, but I was moved by a few interactions I had-- because I knew that they knew that I was leaving, and that they wanted to "anoint" me for my journey. The last few weeks I've played with a little boy who is mostly always in trouble in school and in life for being "hyperactive" and bouncing off the walls. But a few weeks ago, he was one of the only kids with me, and the two of us played for hours, and he was calm and sweet and wonderful. This week, he pulled me aside and I was a player in many of his games and constructions, but many of them focused around him protecting or saving me. This is powerful stuff for a kid!  Had this been a true therapy client of mine (and I weren't leaving), this is probably something that would come up and been explored in therapy. But sometimes, when you are trained to listen to children and their play with a "third ear", they will know it and "speak" to you outside a therapy context-- I accept it as a gift. He continued to play, and to tell me about all the dangerous things I might encounter on the other side of the playground, and then he wanted to pour dirt on me. He was so insistent. The dirt became a magic potion.  And as he poured dirt on my skin, "baptized" me with playground sand, he said, "This will keep you safe. This will protect you." 

"Not remembering that we are always receiving sacraments is an isolation the leaves do not have to endure: they receive and give, and they are green. Not remembering this is an isolation only the human soul has to endure. But the isolation of a human soul may be the cause of not remembering this. Between isolation and harmony, there is a vast distance. Sometimes it is a distance that can be traversed in a moment, by choosing to focus on the essence of what is occurring, rather than on it's exterior." 

He poured "magic potion" on my skin and said, "This will keep you safe." And I heard and was grateful. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the "itinerary": 
I leave next Wednesday night, arrive in London the following morning (Thursday)
8-hour layover in London for the day (Thursday)
Leave Thursday night, fly over night
Land in Kenya the next morning (Friday) 
Hop on a quick flight down to Lubumbashi Friday morning, and ARRIVE around 10:30 Friday morning. 
 Then the real fun begins!! :) 

A la prochaine fois, 
 Emily 

A Night for Congo: Celebrating Independence, Interdependence, and Global Healing

Contact: Emily Johnson
Phone: 317-340-8023


A NIGHT FOR CONGO: CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE,
INTERDEPENDENCE AND GLOBAL HEALING

WHAT:

Just as Americans will soon celebrate the independence of our nation, so
to are the people of Congo. Join us for this free event on the eve of
Congo’s independence day as we examine ties between the people of
Indiana and Congo. Enjoy authentic Congolese food prepared by Jose
Lusende and "State of Mind", a film provided by MIO about post-war trauma recovery in the Congo using a therapy training program. Attendees will also have a chance
to interact Friendly Planet Missiology representatives preparing to traveling to the Democratic
Republic of Congo to equip local leaders and raise funds for town
initiatives. No ticket necessary but RSVP’s are encouraged via
eventbrite.com

WHY: Though thousands of miles apart in terms of geography, Congo and Indiana are
linked in many ways. The U.S. has a long and mixed involvement in
Congo. Hoosiers have chosen to be in community with the people of
Congo and many people from Congo have moved to Indiana adding to our
state’s cultural richness

WHO: Friendly Planet Missiology's mission is to support the work of United Methodist
leaders serving in the heart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lockerbie Central United Methodist Justice Team serves as the voice
for the congregation when it comes to standing up and organizing for
issues affecting our church, our faith and our world.

My Global Voice is working hard to bring together people who are united
by a set of shared values: that every person has a stake in meeting the
world’s challenges and that the United States should be a global leader in
meeting those challenges through responsible international cooperation.

WHEN:

Wednesday June 29, 2011 from 6 p.m.- 8:15 p.m.
6 p.m. food and hors d'oeuvre
7 p.m. brief program
7:15 p.m. Movie
8:15 p.m. conclusion and conversation

WHERE:

Earth House Collective, 237 N. East Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204

(317) 636-4060

Lockerbie Central United Methodist Justice Team serves as the voice for
the congregation when it comes to standing up and organizing for issues
affecting our church, our faith and our world. For more information please visit
www.lockerbiecentral.com.

Friendly Planet News: On the Lualaba

Friendly Planet News: On the Lualaba

Raising funds and upcoming DRC event

Hi all!
Know you haven't heard much out of me lately, but I'm still here! Finished my spring semester and got my Master's Degree, so that was exciting!! Now I'm just making final plans for my departure and trying to raise the rest of the money I need for my trip. I'm trying to raise about another $1000. I know that sounds like A LOT, but I really have supported the majority of the trip out of pocket. This is your opportunity to support an amazing community that really needs you, directly through me. You'll get to see pictures and hear stories of what your money actually did-- not an experience you get a lot when donating money. :) I know that times are tough right now and not everyone has the money to give to other causes, but please prayerfully consider it-- if you have means and feel moved, please donate! Just click on the donate link above to donate securely through PayPal.


Second, stay tuned for an upcoming DRC event in Indy!! The details aren't firmed up yet, but it looks like we're going to be hosting a movie/possible food night at Lockerbie/Earth House toward the end of June. You better believe I'll be shouting this one from the rooftops-- so trust me, when I get more details, you all will be the first to know. :)