"Reign Over Me"

Everyone ought to be happy to know that I finally figured out how to get the pictures all in and in the correct order! It only took 4 and a half months...lol! Anyway. Lots has happened recently!

Awhile ago, I don't feel like this happened all that recently but my concept of time comes and goes so who knows, I was able to buy mosquito nets for the family I first lived with in Limete. That would be 13 mosquito nets! And then I went back later and made sure to take pictures so here is the boys' room equipped with brand new mosquito nets!


Since sometime in September I have been teaching at UCKIN - the Christian University of Kinshasa. I began by helping teach an Excel class that someone else was really teaching I just sort of watched and filled in when necessary. And about the same time I began teaching an English class. Now I teach a PowerPoint class and the English class. This picture is of this past week...we were studying the parts of the body because...

Most of my students are teachers of the Scolaire Bolingo that shares the UCKIN campus. Above is me teaching the human body (and if you zoom in you can see that the left is French and the right is English!). And below are the three women (probly my favorite ones) who come to my class diligently and teach in the Preschool-Kindergarten. They are the ones who asked to study the "corps humaine". So we did :-)

I had decided that I would do my best to save some of the money I get every month to donate to some cause or somehow do something big. So I saved. And the last few days Suzanne has been helping me coordinate a large shopping ordeal in which we would spend around $300 on food for an orphanage that has around 50 children! So we did...Here is me with the goods we bought at the store...then there were sacks of rice, beans, and the kinds of flour used to make another main grain dish in Congo - fufu! (on top is a REALLY large bag of sugar.....mmmm!)

Then today we went to the kids! This is their house. The left side is the boys' rooms and sitting rooms and bathrooms. Then on the right side is the preschool they have and the girls' rooms and sitting rooms and bathrooms. Its bigger in person! It seems to go on forever! The large green tanks are water tanks and there is an area out back where they are working on building a rain water catch system - with funds from partners in Canada and Germany.

This is the line of children that came up beside the car to wave "byo" when we were leaving...how cute!

So I've been busy teaching classes and continue the other work I (think) mentioned earlier. This week Pakisa comes! He and I will hopefully be taking care of some things together too.

I can't think of anything else...that seems strange!

Oo I know! This week, I had to take a taxi after teaching at UCKIN. So the guy who taxis with me and I left UCKIN and walked down to the taxi station. While we were standing there waiting...we watched a car run over a military policeman!!! NO JOKE! Right in front of us! It was crazy! The car wasn't going too fast (and it WAS ON PURPOSE) but I think the MP was ok. He was helped up by the crowd and the other police standing there went after the driver at fault and then Andre got us our taxi...Ask me about it sometime for details! Craziest thing I think I've ever seen in real life and not on a movie!

Life continues to be fun, exciting, challenging, and totally worth it here in Kinshasa, RD Congo! And anyone worried about the unrest being reported about Congo right now - don't worry about me it is all on the other side of the country, which is probly more than 5,000KM away with no through roads. But do keep everyone in prayer: leaders of Congo, Rwanda, EU, UN, rebel groups, people fleeing, civilians, everyone!

That's all for now! Hope life is going well where ever you are! Drop me an email and let me know.

Love and God bless,

Andrea the African (sort of...)