First week in Africa!

Well, I do believe this is it, my first week in the DRC (Dominican Republic of the Congo) From the start of the trip Keith and I have seen God working miracle after miracle. We met up in Washington DC last Monday afternoon. As we were getting ready to get onto the plain we were baffled to come to the knowledge that our carry on luggage could not weigh more then 20lbs! how ridiculous is that!?! Keith and I both packed our carry ons VERY heavy, and very full of books, oh did I mention that it costed $50 extra for over 20lbs and $80 for more then 30 (all four of them were over 30lbs…whoopsie) we waited, and waited in eager anticipation to for the time to come that we would have to deplete a lot of our wallet weight, but the time for us to weigh our baggage come! Every last one of the people getting on the airplane had to weigh their stuff but us! PTL.

We had a good trip to Kinshasa, we stopped in Rome (sadly we couldn’t get off the plane, very anger inducing! Second time I should have been in Rome and missed out!! GRR!!) After that we went to Ethiopia and spent the night in a hotel about 15 minutes away from the airport. That was so much fun! Ethiopia is a pretty place I would have loved to spend more time there then the night. Ahwell, someday, yes, someday. Then we flew some more and some more and some more. And alas… we arrive in the Congo! Now my friends, this is when my trip started getting interesting! A little side note, there’s this little evidently very important yellow card by the name of “yellow fever vaccination” that I didn’t get before I left the states. Now I could make the excuse that I didn’t have time to get the vaccination, which is true yes, but I honestly didn’t try all that hard to get it :p Ironically I actually really enjoy getting shots, I’m not however fond of getting mysterious “medicine” injected into my rear end! So I didn’t get it thinking (rather foolishly I might add) that “oh I’ll just tell them I didn’t want it,” Yah right! Like that worked. They didn’t even speak anything that I spoke. So I get through the immigration line and there’s a guard there asking for my yellow fever card, it went down something like this. “moment of truth Wezley, here we go” I think to myself. The guard says something in French, I don’t understand, he say’s something else in French evidently not understanding the English fraze “Me no speaka French!” so he proceeded to take my arm and guide me to the back of the airport to a small room with three rather doubtful looking “doctors”. And I proceed to sit while a group of guards with big guns start gathering around the room, my thoughts were “ Wezley, how in the world do you get yourself into these situations?!?!?” Now I must inform those of you that may not know me as well as others that this sort of stuff happens to me fairly often, things that just seem like they could never happen and are just absurd… yet they some how happen to me! Anywhoo back to the story. So there are a room full of people yelling at me in French and me just sitting there every few minutes repeating in a more annoyed tone each time I had to say it “NO SPEAKA FRENCH!!!!” finally after what seemed like and hour but more then likely was about 15 minutes there came a man who spoke poor English (much better then none) and after briefly speaking to the “doctors” proceeded to ask me “you have $100?” and me not sure if this is a country that bargaining is allowed figured, “couldn’t get any worse, why not try?” so I put on my best poker face, and said in the most sincere tone I could muster considering my situation “I have $30” which wins me a look of complete disgust from all in the room, but I stood my ground, so he said “$40” to which I quickly excepted… obviously! They gave me a receipt and told me to come back in a few days and they would right me the vaccination card. Well a few days later Keith and I are told that we could just go to the hospital and get it much easier. So he and I looked found the local hospital only to find out that its not a hospital but a “hospital”. We go to a run down part of town (most of the country) to the clinique which is just a small dirty old undoubtedly very germ infested room that looks like it came out of a horror movie with just a desk and a curtain, so we proceed to let them know what we want. They say “yellow fever? $40.” To which I begrudgingly pay. To which she begins to get what I could only imagine a big rusty needle full of I could only imagine what! I quickly say “NO SHOT! NO SHOT” which confuses her I’m sure, but anywhoo after a long time of trying to explain “I want the card only, no shot!” We got out of there $40 short and one yellow fever card! Praise the Lord we got that taken care of!

Anyway that was the highlight of my week, God has blessed us so much so far, we are about done getting all the logistics taken care of and are about ready to get out of the city and go to where the mission point is that we will spend the rest of my time while here ( in Kisingani about 2 hour flight) we stayed at a ridiculous hotel for about 4 days (which BTW if you ever stay in the Congo NEVER EVER get corn flakes at a hotel, they unknown to us charged us $24 for a box!!!) but were out of there now and are currently staying at a British ambassadors house! It’s a VERY nice house, while were in the house it doesn’t feel like were in the Congo any more but back in the states, they have a swimming pool and all! But all to soon (or not soon enough!) we’ll we be gone (tomorrow morning) to be back in the Congo ruffing it more then what we have been. Keep us in you prayers; there is a lot of work to do in this country and very few workers here to do it. But we have faith that God is going to do mighty miracles while we are here! I hope you’re all having an amazing time serving God wherever you may be, always remember, God is good!
Blessings
-Wezley