MT Forge

6/30/06 -- Still working on his pictures and trying to get it all together...

6/26/06 -- Mark is back. Flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:40 PM, so I left for the airport at 4:00. Due to storms in D.C. and lightening striking the airplane they were to take, their flight was delayed several times. It was finally decided that the stricken plane could not be fixed, and another one was brought in. Unfortunately, the flight was overbooked and not everyone could fit on the plane, so Mark came in on the original flight and Rob & his wife came in on the flight after that one. WHEW! So it was a bit after midnight when Mark finally arrived and Rob & his wife arrived around 2:30 AM. (Woody and his daughter separated from them in Brussels and are on vacation in Europe.)

At left is a picture of the group who went to the Congo. From left to right: Woody, Terese (Rob's wife), LaToya (Woody's daughter), Rob, & Mark. This was taken in the home of one of the Congolese people.

6/25/06 -- 8:30 AM -- I've been checking flights. Providing they didn't miss the planes, they should now be in the air on their way from Brussels, Belgium to Washington D.C.

This will be my last one from Congo. The power just came back on so I'll make it quick before it goes out again. We're getting an early supper and will head to the airport right after that. It's 5:05and we will be gone in 10 min

6/23/06 -- Mark's emails dated today.

I keep telling Woody that he has his hands full. It's a balancing act to give as much help as he can without creating a welfare state. The people need a helping hand not a handout, but sometimes they need that too. Thus the name Congo Helping Hands. You won't believe what they have to go through just to get water. It's like living at a primitive campground with 20,000 people and the water is an hour away but down a steep cliff. But the people are very resourceful and most just need a better infrastructure. I think the government is starting to come back but it's been down/gone for so long (war and such) that's it's going to take a long time to recover. And the language/culture differences make it a challenge. I'm just starting to see them never mind understand them. If I come back I need to start to learn French now. We keep saying it's an adventure and that everything is fluid so we go along with many things (popup meetings or ones that don't happen) and don't worry about our American habits and ideas. Just wait for someone to tell us where to go or be ready when things pop up. We get a lot of requests to send the pictures back. So it'll be a challenge to see the best way to make hard copies and get them to Woody to get them back to Bulape. You'll like the pictures. Jose' our interpreter was with us every day even in the technical school where we set up at. I learned quickly that they like photo ops. I showed him how to run my camera and he took a lot of pictures that I wouldn't have been able to get (like of me).

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we will be leaving about 9:30 to take our trunks to the SN office (the airline we will use to go to Brussels) to check them in. Then come back to MPH to have lunch and then leave for the airport only having to check in our carry on. I think the flight is to leave about 6 or so. It'll be a night flight to Brussels then a day flight across to Dulles.

6/22/06 -- Email received from Mark today indicates that he is still alive and they are back in Kinshasa. He was glad to find his duffel bag there waiting for him, so he can start taking his medicine again. Very grateful to God for that. :o) He said he had lots of pictures. He said he'd write more later.

6/15/06 -- Mark called today. Yep, you read that right... CALLED. He said email service is down in Bulape, so Woody can't send the updates as he had planned. (I was wondering what had happened.) But he (Woody) and his daughter bought a couple of cell phones with cards (yeah... I know... seems odd they'd have a cell tower, but they do) and that gave everyone a chance to call family and let them know everything was ok. He said things are going great. Today they set up 3 forges in the building and tomorrow they will start working with the blacksmiths there. He sounded excited about it.

He said they wouldn't have email contact until next Thursday (22nd) when they arrive back in Kinshasa. I am thinking I probably won't hear anything from them until then, so if you check for updates and see none, that would be why.

I did lose some luggage. The trunks made it ok (we thought we might lose some) but my duffle bag which I carried on I gate checked it at the plane at Washington/Dulles and when when we got to Brussels no one knew anything about it. It's supposed to go on the plane with so you don't lose it but they did. It had all my personal stuff. Day bag, sandals, malaria medicine, blood pressure medicine, hat and so forth. I don't expect to ever see it again.

Another message received from Mark via email Mon. June 12th.

We went into Kinshasa today to register at the American Embassy, to buy some things and for Woody to check in with some people. The easiest I can describe downtown Kinshasa is:

1. as busy as Nashville, IN during fall colors

2. 20 years after a Mad Max movie with all the broken down cars and infrastructure and

3. pot holes that you literally have to drive down into and back out of.

And by the way there are no stop signs or traffic lights so it's whoever can get to the spot first. And they don't have taxis... people in cars pick others up and take them somewhere (for money of course). They stuff the cars, vans and such full and have them hanging out the back doors. I'm glad I wasn't driving.

The bag didn't come so I'm kinda without a lot of stuff. Since I don't have any malaria medicine Rob is giving me some of his extra that he brought so I should be all right. He also had an extra tooth brush, tooth paste set so I'll be using that. All my plans for my hat, sandals, blue jeans, jacket etc. that I put into the duffle bag went away with my bag.

We get picked up tomorrow at 6 in the morning for the flight to Bulape. Woody is going to see if we can come back (to Kinshasa) a day earlier so he can talk to someone on Friday.

He is hoping that since he won't be gone very long that he will be ok. All his meds being gone means he does not have his blood pressure medicine (without which in the past he has had a blood pressure in stroke range) and he does not have any migraine relief medicine and if his blood pressure goes up he will have bad migraines (at least he has in the past). Not having sandals means that he will either wear shoes when he bathes/showers or there is a chance of picking up parasites from the soil. No hat means no protection from the hot sun. Some might say that he can buy a hat there...to which I say "I hope so... but will they have one to fit his extra large head size?" He had a hard time finding one HERE that would fit him.) All those reading this PLEASE pray that Jesus will protect him while he is gone without these things. At this point, it will take God Almighty alone to keep him safe through the next two weeks. We really appreciate the prayers.

We're here and all the trunks made it. I had to check my duffle bag at the door in Indy so I did it again at Washington/Dulles but when I got to Brussels and asked for my bag at the door they didn't know what I was talking about. A United supervisor told me to go to a baggage claim gate because it probably went there. Woody left the others in the group on the international side of the airport and took me to go look for it. It wasn't at the baggage belt. After much hassle they said I would have to make a claim at Kinshasa (the final destination). But then we had to get back into the airport international side. By the time we got back with the others the plane was already boarding. We don't leave for Bulape till Tuesday so it might show up yet. Rob was detained at the airport in Kinshasa because his work boots looked like army boots. Took a long time and some cash for him to leave. But we're here in a place that's like a hotel. Showers, my own room and meals. Very nice. We go out Monday to register at the embassy and check on the flight at MAF.

Mark said he would only have email contact while in Kinshasa. After they leave Kinshasa, we will be dependent upon news sent via email by Woody.

6/10/06 -- After checking on the internet, I can tell you that all major flights have arrived safely. Providing they were on the plane, they arrived in Kinshasa at 7:15 PM (Congo time) to partly cloudy skies and a temperature of 87^o. Sunset is at about 6 PM, so it would have been dark upon their arrival, making it a hot night. My understanding is they still have a 1 hour flight on the missionaries' plane to get them close to Bulape. From this point on, my updates are dependent upon whether I receive emails from them.

Updates older than the one above have been moved to a separate page. This is so that those who have read all of them don't have to wait for all the pictures to load again. If you'd like to see the older stuff, simply view the archived page by clicking the ARCHIVES button. :o)