"Wednesday @ Station Katanti,..Great Times!!

August, 29, 2012: Wednesday @ Station Katanti, Congo,..my old home,..Great Times!"

     Up early for devotion & wash up a bit.  Nice morning.  Kasimbula (houseguard) said to me,.."It is so strange you don't remember how to speak our language, Kilega!.....you spoke it better as a child than WE did!"  Nice compliment,..& I wished it would return to my brain, too......

     We met 'Lutilitili's' son, who is middle aged.  He remembered us, & we had a good talk.  His dad, "Lutilitili' is deceased,...but, back in the day, he used to dress up like a witch doctor and scare the livin' daylights out of us missionary kids.  Good memories, with his son,.....

     Last night the Africans were sitting around the outdoor fire, watching a DVD of Tanzanian singers, on a Chinese battery operated player called "KOBY".  One of the non-government organizations had given them out last year.  The people here must keep it charged with the solar panel....

     We have had cool mornings,..and hot, sticky afternoons.  Today I'm going to leave the Seminar @ the first 'break', and walk the Station Katanti,..just letting the memories flood over me...

The book translated in 1953, my Dad helped to translate.. 

My parents driving into Interior of Congo, first time, 1950..

     First, I went down several jungle trails where I used to hunt/trap squirrels.  The gasoline electric generator & water pump pipes are long gone.  I found another car rusting in the jungle,..then sat with Elena(SaSimon's daughter) under some bamboo.  She showed me a book "Major Doctrines of the Bible",..that she's kept all these years,....it was translated in 1953 by my dad, Ernest L. Green, C. Neal VanderPloeg, & Sansago Jerome.  It was a wonderful moment to see & look thru the book.  Also, she showed me old, old pictures of the earliest & later missionaries.  She has kept these safely hidden from the wars/soldiers all these 50+ years!    She also had an album of pictures of my parent's first trip into Congo, in 1950!  I was able to get good pictures of her pictures,.....

    Trekking behind my house, I found 3 large healthy guava trees, which we had planted back in the day.  Back then, we kids would carve our initials in the bark, inside a carved heart,-with the initials of our current girlfriend at that time!  I wanted to do something extra special, so I carved a heart with RG+CG in it,..as a tribute to me & Carol Green, my wife of 45 years, who is now in Heaven.  Just a special moment for me & her memory,... the carving will be there for a long, long time,..-just as the older carvings are still there after all these years! 

Guava trees where I carved a heart with my initials & Carol's in the bark....

     I investigated the carpenter shop,  school house, baseball field, & even found the tennis court we kids had created out of a hillside 50+ years ago!   That is where I learned to play tennis in the '50's!, on a clay, homemade court!  The court itself has been taken over by the jungle now,....

Carpenter shop, and baseball field..

    A huge rainstorm, with thunder, wind, & lightning came thru during the night.  We sat on the front porch & watched it for a long time,...We've made decisions to end the Seminar on Thursday, & hope to get going out of the Interior by Friday or Sat.  Friday is the day that most planes would have been going back to Bukavu,....so if we didn't make Friday it could begin to get a bit dicey with my scheduled flights back to USA... .......

     One pastor walked some 30 miles to the Seminar on crutches.  He asked if I had an English newspaper he could practice his English on!  I didn't, but I gave him a Reader's Digest. 

     We must be sure to lock our individual rooms @ my house,..as well as the doors to the house,..as things will 'disappear' if we don't.  Each of us has our own key,....we've also discovered rats in the house, & evidence of snakes.  Tom perfected a great way to get rid of rats crawling on one's bed, while one is in it!!,......He carefully slides his foot underneath the sheet, right under the rat,....then,  he gives it a mighty kick thru the sheet,-watching the rat fly against the wall!!!  Works for me,....

     I discovered that some missionaries actually lived at Station Katanti,-off & on,-until the early 90's.  However, they were in & out with evacuations,..& fleeing the uprisings/soldiers. When those come the soldiers kill any men who have not fled,...take the boys & make them soldiers,...take the young girls for sex slaves,....then, rape the women,-----followed by burning the village entirely.  Soldiers even have pulled out any/all wiring,..-they think the missionaries must be using wiring in the walls to get on the Internet and plot against them!   Crazy,.....

     During the storm we caught fresh rain water from the roof, for spit baths & cooking.  Bedtime,....so we wished each other well, with all the critters, snakes, & mosquitoes,........

Rogers/Banuamazi