BIG DAY! Leaving Downcountry, Congo!!

September 1, 2012, Saturday, 'BIG DAY,.Leaving downcountry, Congo!!


     I was awakened two times in the night by wind, thunder, lightning, & rain blowing in my room's window.  WOW,....we really needed to get going that day,...but God did provide.....

     Got up @ 5:30am, & breakfast @ 6am.  Guess what?  The sun is out now & drying the paths for us,..BUT, true to form (T I A),....a new problem surfaced.  Tom's piki piki's rear tire was flat as a pancake,..AGAIN!!  Our piki drivers went looking for an inner tube & gasoline.  (The piki drivers had not brought all the gasoline we needed from our stash @ Katshungu!!).  Why?...who knows?   The guys found gasoline, but no inner tube.  Well, we pumped up the tire,..prayed over it,...& waited an hour.  Praise God, the tire held!!  

Saying goodbye to SaSimon @ Station Katanti, Congo

     Started out @ about 10am, after emotional goodbyes to SaSimon & the other Africans.  I cried all the way down the Station Katanti hill,..on the back of my piki piki.  This time my driver was a really nice young man, & a good driver!  I think he knew 3 words of English,..'yes' & 'no' & 'ok'!!    As expected, the road was a mess, so we had to ride pikis very carefully, with many dismounts & pushing.  The rear tire on Tom's bike held until we were about 4km short of our first goal, - a place called Mapunga.  So, we stopped in that village to re-group.  Over the course of an hour and a half, the Africans took off the back wheel and tire,..and patched holes in two places.  (Now, why didn't these guys tell us they had patches & glue in their toolkits before we started out????!!!).

    The next phase of our journey was Mapunga to Lugungu,...this particular stretch of path is AMAZINGLY difficult passage.  Trees down, many,many rivers, many, many culverts, very overgrown,...you get the idea.  Very slow going,.....so we finally reached the crossroads @ Lugungu around 2:30pm.  We rested a bit, then headed out on the final leg, from Mapunga to Shabunda(regional center). 

     Just 6km short of the regional town of Shabunda,  Tom's piki tire went flat again!  Same tire,..new problems.  We negotiated with some villagers along the way to push Tom's piki to our destination,..& we would just walk.  Their price was so exorbitant,...& they wouldn't budge on price, so we went to 'plan B'.  Tom went ahead with one of the good piki pikis, while Kathy & I stayed behind with the broken down piki.  Plan B was for Tom to return, or send 2 piki piki back to pick us up BEFORE nightfall!!   Kathy & I sat under the thatched  roof covered village 'meeting place',..waiting & watching over Tom's bike. 

     While waiting, a plane flew right over our heads, on its way to Shabunda air strip.  We knew it was the last plane into/out of Shabunda for Saturday.  Our hopes of making it onto that plane that same day, Saturday,..were dwindling to zero & none!   Kept telling myself, Roger,- God is good all the time'!.......  Now our hope was to get a plane to Bukavu the next day, Sunday.  Meanwhile back at the village,.. a crowd gathered to watch the Bazungu(white folks) under the meeting roof.  A couple of them knew passable English,..& with Kathy's Swahili & my Kilega, we were able to converse.  Two of them said they were the local Catholic priests for the village.  However, one of them said, "If you will take me with you to America, & give me a job,..I'll gladly switch to your religion!"  The two men were drinking palm wine, or palm whiskey,..made locally from the fruit of palm trees,..the palm nuts.  They 'dared' me to taste it,...so I did.  Now I won't need an airplane to fly!!!!,.......

Kathy & I waiting with broken-down piki piki

     Kathy & I waited over 2 hours, & began to get a little nervous as the afternoon wore on toward darkness.  An old man, who claimed to be Protestant, came to see us too.  He couldn't keep his eyes off of Kathy, which grew to be an uncomfortable situation.  He had been drinking, & at one point asked Kathy to "go home with him!"  Of course, she refused.  This was met with more bravado & jabbering on his part.  Later, he asked Kathy to "go home & pray with him, & cook for him!"   In Congo, that last phrase means he wanted to make her his wife!   Uncomfortable, to say the least.  SO, we pushed the bad piki piki up the hill away from the meeting place, & thankfully the crowd,-including the man,-did not follow us!   PTL. Some 35 minutes later 2 piki pikis returned to pick us up.  We left Tom's piki piki with careful instructions to the Africans that someone would come the next day for the piki. 

     The 8km ride to Shabunda was uneventful,..UNTIL,...we approached a crowded crossroad, filled with people, including police/soldiers.   I noticed all of them were standing stock still,....& it looked menacing.  My driver stopped, & told me to get off the bike, and also to stand still.  My thought was,..'this can't be good,..and may not end well',..so I stood there praying & standing still.  After a time a whistle blew,..like a referee's whistle,...& everyone began to move again.  My driver told me to get on the bike,..& off we went, to our destination,...the Shabunda pastor's house.  (Upon passing the airstrip, we noticed the plane we had watched over our heads,-while we waited in the village.  It had broken down somehow,..and was needing repairs before it could fly back out!).  We found out later that every day at sundown they take down the Congo flag,....EVERYONE who happens to be at that place must stand at attention until the whistle blows for all clear!   WOW!!  Shabunda was teeming with people, & to me didn't feel completely safe!!  I couldn't help but flash back to 1960, when we fled this very area!  We also discovered that due to the erronious report on the radio regarding missionaries coming back to dig up buried treasure,..local pastors had put themselves at risk, & went on the radio to say that it was a hoax,....that we were missionaries who meant no harm. 

     The pastor's wife had boiled drinking water for us,...& we were able to spit bath our weary, tired bodies.  I was given a small room with a mat bed,...& Tom/Kathy had a larger room with the same things.  The bathroom,-a 'hole in the ground'  was 'down the path',.....AND, did I say,..it started pouring down rain AGAIN!  And, this is the "dry" season??????????? 

     Shortly after a meal of the same things we've been eating for two weeks or so,...I/we went to bed.  As for me,..I was BEAT!!!!!! & sleep came quickly.....First leg of our trip out of Downcountry was completed,..I could 'hardly wait' for what may happen the next day,...a Sunday,....

Rogers/Banuamazi