VIM-Congo

Dateline: February 8, 2010

 

Djambo Sana  (Greetings) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo! 

 

After unexpected flight delays in Rome and Addis Ababa, we finally arrived and have been hard at work supporting the United Methodist Aviation Program in the Congo. 

 

UMCOR has recently begun establishing aviation units to support missions in isolated areas of the world where other transportation is not available, and the huge but sparsely developed country of the Congo was the first. There are 3 UM Conferences with aircraft assigned, two operate from the southwest city of Lubumbashi (“L’shi“ from now on) and the third from the more central and remote town of Kananga.   There are three missionary pilots - Jacques, based in Kananga, Gaston from L’shi, and a third I haven’t met, who is currently in the US. These guys not only fly, but do all their own maintenance.

 

In June, the Kananga plane suffered an engine failure on takeoff with a team of visiting VIM missionaries. Miraculously all escaped without major injury, but the plane was totaled. 

 

The Kananga Conference acquired a replacement Cessna TU-206 that has been sitting (happily, hangared) in L’shi for 15 years, but it needs replacement of the engine and numerous parts. . .and a thorough inspection.

 

                To date Jacques and Mike (with Gaston in the rare times he isn’t flying) have performed a 1000 hour inspection and done most of the preparation metalwork for the engine installation, but the new engine and prop are still, at last report, in South Africa waiting for a “proper size truck” to bring them up here. Peggy’s job has also been to sort and inventory all the spare parts, pieces and tools for the three Conferences. 

 

                Once the plane is finished (and passes a test flight), we plan to fly it up to Kananga to do the inventory there and further plane repairs as needed, and then work on repairs to the aircraft hangar, which suffered major damage in the recent war.

 

The airfield here is quite an interesting place to work if you are an aviation buff. It is lined with abandoned (and many still operating) aircraft from the 50’s on. The runway is 9000 ft., (but the first 1000 are unusable because of potholes) so anything larger than a 737 is very hard to land. Although it is designated an “International Airport” it is run by the military. They operate from the adjoining hangar with an interesting assortment of Russian, US, and other aircraft. Their current project is repairing a DC-3 and they were excited to find there was a US expert (Mike) next door, so he has been consulted several time already. Photography is a little frowned on, but I’ll see what I can do for future letters. There is also another Cessna here operated by Mission Aviation Fellowship, a large commercial operation for cargo hauling for the local mining companies, and a very busy UN group.

 

Our daily routine is pretty set. Up, breakfast, to the hangar (about a half-hour away with traffic and frequent drenching thunderstorms), work until about 6, go home, eat, read (usually by flashlight), and go to sleep. Jacques, our pilot, lives with us in an incredibly beautiful guest house run by the Brethren. It is large, nicely furnished with all the “mod cons” except for electricity a good part of the time. But Rufus, the friendly Rhodesian Ridgeback makes up for a lot.

 

                Kigali, our house guy, is a world-class cook, who makes us delicious dinners with some of the best vegetables you can imagine. Restaurants are horribly expensive so eating out is for really special occasions. We either pack a sandwich or leftovers for lunch, or get an egg sandwich (the only choice) from the “pilot’s lounge” see below, which also has the only reliable internet service I have found.

 

                Kigali is also in charge of laundry, which concerned me at first because he ironed everything, including socks, (and I didn’t want Mike to get used to that) but I’ve found out it is needed because there is a local fly that lays eggs in your underwear while it is drying that hatch later at inopportune moments, and ironing kills them. I can live with that. Another great thing about life here is that, being a former Belgian (French influenced) country, there is daily fresh bread, croissants, brioche, etc. So much for losing weight... Cooked pumpkin greens make a great veggie too.

 

Although the city is large and spread out, most of the streets are dirt, and there is little shopping aside from a couple of medium sized groceries and innumerable small places that are mostly hair-dressers, bars, or tiny general-purpose shops.

 

L‘shi is in NO-WAY a tourist spot; it exists for the mining industry.

 I did order a Congolese dress like the ladies wear for everyday, you go to the fabric store and buy the cloth then have a dressmaker come by to measure, and pick out a picture of what you want. Nothing off the rack. Riotous colors, every style imaginable.

 

We attend church next door with the Brethren. Their hymnal has all our familiar hymns, only in Swahili, which is a very straightforward language to read and pronounce, so I am learning a lot of words there. They have 5 choirs and the services are very energetic. Last Sunday they did some sort of presentation of a new baby. The pastor started by holding the sleeping baby, and by the time he got wound up praying he was bobbing about and shouting his prayers, the baby was screaming and a good time was had by all (except the poor baby!)   We may get to the Methodist Church downtown next Sunday if we can find our way on their small van system – it seems very much like that in Guatemala, only without route numbers.

 

Well, I hope by the time you read this we have the engine and are on our way to Kananga, where the greatest need to work is, and, unfortunately where we will have to leave behind the luxury of our current life style. The aftereffects of the recent war are still very felt there, and I understand there is even less electricity! Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement. You can contact us at mle9493@gmail.com (Verizon doesn’t work here), but if I don’t answer, it’s because I can’t, but we appreciate any news anyway.

 

Love, Mike and Peggy Elliott