Weekend Events

Friday afternoon following school I headed over to Adam and Sarah's to begin preparing dinner for an MCC couple working here in Kinshasa. Sharon Kniss, a friend of mine who had been working in London met John and Anicka at the London Mennonite Peace Centre and informed me that they had moved to Kinshasa to serve with MCC. Ironically the night before Sharon sent me their contact information I met John at our weekly ultimate frisbee game, but I didn't piece together who he was until the next day when I was browsing his blog and stumbled across his picture. After a delicious dinner and lovely conversation I hit the town with several TASOK neighbors. First stop: Bo Marche, a packed street lined with tables for indulging in local specialties, and vendors for purchasing fresh goat, fufu, fish and of course little packs of tissues. After observing local night life we crammed into the tiny blue Jimmy Suzuki to visit several dance clubs and dance to exhaustion.

Saturday one of the Congolese teachers at TASOK led a group out to "Mbuti Nature," a small nature reserve along the Congo River to watch the sunset and feast on chicken, fries and plantains. We all climbed along the rocky bank of the river which remains exposed and functions as a quarry during the dry season. While dangling our feet in the river, snapping photos and listening to the chisels pound we soaked in the beautiful sunset. The park is located 8 km away from TASOK and the drive only took us 1.5 hours one way...ahhh! Traffic in and around Kinshasa is horrendous and the condition of the roads don't help the matter. Enroute to the park we crossed over a part in the road that had a hole large enough in it to swallow a vehicle and in fact one of the cars caravaning with us witnessed a car that had succombed to such a death. Most of the hour and a half was spent in stand still traffic which doesn't tend to be a pleasant experience as all the passersby want to check out the mendele (white people) by staring, banging on the car and shouting. The trip was quite and adventure and we all made it safely back to campus with no damage to any vehicles despite what one of our friends would say the following day while pulling a heart stopping practical joke on some of us who had borrowed his car...

Following church on Sunday the campus filled with students and their families for the annual welcome back picnic. I was on nurse duty and set up my station conveniently at the pool, just in case of injuries of course, and enjoyed meeting parents of some of my "regulars" and watching families, teachers and children interact.