Mangosteen fruit

One morning as we went to breakfast we were amazed to see a bowl of Mangosteen fruit. We had heard of this tropical fruit but did not know it was available in Kinshasa. Very high in antioxidants, it is also acclaimed for its delicate, sweet taste.

Ron and I promptly ate two Mangosteen each. We were pleasantly surprised and highly endorse this exquisite fruit.

The deep purple outer rind is firm in texture and feels like a pomegranate, but easier to peal like an orange. The delicate white fruit inside is formed into slippery segments similar to a mandarin orange with the consistency of a peeled grape. One of the segments contains a pit reminiscent of a small peach pit. The white center is truly a delight--light, sweet and luscious.

A blend of the purple rind and white fruit of the Mangosteen is marketed in the U.S. as Xango health beverage.

Relief Society Sisters

Living in simple settings, Congolese women carry themselves with poise and grace. They wear beautiful print skirts and dresses from fabrics marketed in Western Africa and not available in South African fabric shops.

One day our driver took as down two adjoining streets referred to as "the beach." In reality they snug up to a wall which borders industrial areas along the Congo River. Aggressive saleswomen surrounded our vehicle and shoved 6 yard lengths of rolled fabrics through the driver's window hoping for us to purchase. Their price: USD10.00/6 yards. Most of the rolls were pushed back out the window to the shopkeepers as others attempted to insert their fabrics. Our driver had prewarned us to keep our windows up as she negotiated our looking and purchasing.

It was about 20 minutes of the most intense shopping we have ever experienced. Interestingly, it was the men (Ron and our SLC Security Manager) who made the first choices on fabrics. As we drove away we realized we had been so immersed in the hectic shopping experience that not one of the four of us had taken a photo!



As we toured selected meetinghouses we came upon two groups of Relief Society women, representing a span of ages, enjoying each other's company. This first group had met on the grassy inner courtyard to launder their husband's Church ties and dry them in the sunshine. They then made popcorn on a charcoal brasier (cooker). They warmly welcomed us to their activity and were delightful in sharing smiles for photos.






At another building we happened upon a second group of women just concluding a meeting. They too were gracious in smiling for photos and chatting with us. With our limited French and their limited English we were able to communicate with simple phrases and hugs.

Maximizing transport

Taxi vans on Kinshasa's streets have been modified to carry the greatest number of passengers and their packages as possible. Bench seats are removed and replaced with wooden seats which can hold four people. With 4-6 benches in a vehicle and three people on the front seat, some of these taxis carry up to 27 people (depending on the taxi's length and the passengers' parcels).



Trucks transport bags of goods from outlying areas into the city and large loads within it.



Motorcycles and bicycles provide easy access and less expensive transportation, especially in the villages (suburbs), around the city.



On major streets people cross anywhere that is convenient to their route. The man with the bicycle and many people around him are watching for openings in the traffic to cross. This is a main street and an especially busy area for foot traffic. The regular two lanes each way have been expanded by drivers to accommodate three lanes of vehicles in each direction. This seems to be a common practice.



Nearly all the photos were taken from inside our vehicle at the scenes around us. Notice anything unusual about the truck driving in our lane? It decided to pass the line of traffic it was in and didn't seem to mind that we were driving there. Our driver just slowed and drove between the truck and the cars in the lane to our left.

Life on Kinshasa streets

Life along Kinshasa's streets begins early each day and is an amazing display of activity. People walking and carrying goods, pushing carts and waiting for transport in taxi vans mingle alongside trucks making their way on the streets. Notice the yellow school buses. These were purchased from school districts across the U.S. (many with the names still clearly discernable) and brought to Kinshasa as a Congolese family business.




Many of the streets are lined with massive trees which have become a liability. With shallow root systems and advancing age, they are prone to falling and causing injury to passing citizens. Trees are being cut along main avenues to accommodate the widening of streets and increased commerce. We came upon this recent wreck involving two trucks.



This well cared for community garden is in the midst of dense traffic.



The many faces of industry are captured in this photo of people providing for their families. Much of the work accomplished is by manual labor.

Streetside merchants

People in Kinshasa are entrepreneurs, selling a wide range of items at streetside. Here can be seen a variety of baked goods, fresh fruits, shoes, display of charcoal brasiers (cookers), and household goods including a pick axe on the tree trunk.

Hair salons are abundant along African streets, providing gorgeous braiding in the hair of girls and women and haircuts for the men.




In this photo live ducks are being sold by their owner. Also available along many streets are live chickens in baskets and cages. Notice the window glass on display for sale.



At street intersections hawkers sell their wares. In Kinshasa the items are of a practical nature, such as bottles of water, snack foods, packets of tissue, matches, locks with keys, and DRC flags.



As we opened our hotel curtains each of three mornings at 6 a.m. we observed these women selling golden loaves of bread on the corner. By 7 a.m. their baskets were empty. Bread is fresh and delicious, being baked throughout the day and available nearly everywhere. Most street merchants are at their stands by 5 a.m. maximizing their contact with potential customers and remain until after 6 p.m.

Balanced on heads

Much of commerce in Kinshasa is transported on the heads of women and men. Fabric is crafted into a doughnut shaped circle and set on the head as a base on which to settle items. We observed the assistance of 2-3 people lifting an item up onto this base for a person to carry.

People walk tall with grace and seemingly ease while transporting unbelievable amounts of products. Fruits and vegetables in baskets and tubs, displays of snack foods, flats of cartons with fresh eggs, cardboard boxes, foam mattress pads and building materials are common sights carried on heads. Some of the most surprising loads we saw were boards, pipes and corrugated tin.

The most amazing example we witnessed was a woman with three boards, each 2" x 10" and 12' long, balanced on her head and carrying a 25 lb. bag of maize flour to her chest. With these she maneuvered safely across four lanes of traffic, two each way, in the middle of a street and disappeared through a wooden fence into an adjoining field.






We are always in awe at the capability and tenacity of women. Notice in the last photo the woman in red is not only carrying a large container of bread baguettes on her head but also has her baby securely fastened to her back.

Transport by carts

Wonderful examples of ingenuity on the streets of Kinshasa are homemade carts with sturdy vehicle tires and push/pull bars at the front and back. In these are transported across the city a wide range of items and containers. These carts are handled by one or two men, or a group of young boys--often they are barefooted.

In addition to these examples we also observed loads of rebar, furniture, car parts, scrap metal, cardboard cases of soda pop, bags of vegetables, cases of fruit, stoves and road sand.

Only one's imagination and determination limit the loads they carry.

Kinshasa on the Congo River

Our second trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo was a remarkable journey through the streets of Kinshasa along the Congo River. We spent 6-10 September 2010 traveling with our SLC manager and his wife assessing 8 of 24 meetinghouses in six stakes of the Kinshasa area. Our expert African drivers are employed in the Church Service Centre so we felt very safe and well cared for.

Our schedule also included a security presentation to the Service Centre Management Council, meeting with the Mission President and his wife (one of only two North American Senior Missionaries in the city of 7 million), and an interview with a security officer at the U.S. Embassy.

This was a view of the Congo River from our 11th floor hotel room. The small dark dots on the water are boats containing 1-3 fisherman. One evening we were invited to dinner at the apartment of our Service Centre host. He baked capitan, a fresh water fish from the Congo River similar to cod. In roadside stands we observed people selling whole salted fish or carrying small bags (similar to brown paper lunch sacks) in baskets on their heads with wrapped salted fish.




Our travel to the individual meetinghouses each took 15-45 minutes over unmaintained paved and dirt roads. From each paved driveway I took photos of people curious about our presence and life on the streets around us.



Kinshasa has excellent, delicious breads baked fresh daily and sold along the streets. People carrying baskets of golden loaves and rolls were seen everywhere we went.



Notice the woman selling waffles from the blue tub. Other similar stands sell fruits, vegetables and a wide range of household goods. A striking feature on all the streets are women attired in beautiful Congolese print skirts and intricately designed dresses sewn by expert seamstresses.



Many children attend school in the mornings and sell items (packets of tissues and soaps, snacks) along the streets in the afternoons. With a 60+ percent unemployment rate, many people spend each day attempting to provide food for their families.

High Overviews

A week after our first trip to Durban, Ron and I made a return seven hour drive across grazing range and rich farmland the first week of September 2010. We observed people gleaning in a maize field, a variety of antelope and ostriches searching for feed in open fields. This week we gave similar training regarding priesthood stewardship of meetinghouses to 16 stake and ward leaders in the second stake currently in Durban, the stake president conducting; and made a security survey of the stake centre.

We next met with security officers at the U.S. Consulate to exchange contact information and interview them regarding the current political environment and their recommendations for the safety of our missionaries serving in this area.

As we drove into Durban they were receiving their first rainstorm in 6 months which made the air clean and fresh the next morning. We took a tram ride to the top of the Moses Mabhiba Stadium, completed for the world cup soccer games, for a breathtaking panoramic view of Durban's coastline, downtown and surrounding area. While we were on the observation platform, a young man proposed and she said yes. We caught about five photos of them during this joyous event which Ron emailed to him. In visiting with them we learned he is a Lutheran youth minister--a wonderful couple.




Another remarkable event opened suddenly as the tram returned and through its doors came 37 preschool children and their one teacher accompanying them! Receiving her permission to photo the children, she confirmed they ranged in ages 2 1/2 to 5. When I remarked that she was an amazing teacher, she hugged me. The children were very attentive to their teacher, respectful and followed her instructions--darling beyond description. Notice the newly engaged couple at the left in the picture SMSing their exciting news to family and friends.



Taking an alternate route home we drove north then westward to view the majestic Drakensburg mountain range. Within the park we stopped to admire women weaving grass baskets. This woman is representative of many who sit for hours on the ground creating beautiful handicrafts across Africa. Nearby three other women were seated in the shade weaving, their products available for sale in the sunshine.

Durban in Springtime

The last week of August 2010 Ron and I rode from Johannesburg seven hours south across open countryside with our Salt Lake Security Manager and his wife to Durban, South Africa. Ron and I presented the mission president and office staff security training regarding missionaries and made assessments on the mission home and mission office for building security. In the afternoon the physical facilities manager of the Durban area guided us on a tour of a recently burned meetinghouse. As the men (Ron, SLC manager, physical facilities manager and contractor) discussed the evidence and possible causes, I took photos of the surrounding neighborhood. Their investigation concluded the cause was electrical rather than arson. We also presented a security briefing to two recently arrived Senior Missionary couples who are serving in Employment and at the Mission Office. That evening we presented training regarding priesthood stewardship of meetinghouses to 18 stake and ward brethren in one of the two stakes in Durban, the stake president conducting.

Across the street from the burned meetinghouse were two neighborhood gardens with women watering the individual plants by hand from buckets of water. This women then harvested a cabbage which is a staple for many people.



These four elders were serving in the mission office and attended our training. The two on the left we met at our security presentation in the MTC. It is always a treat to see "our" elders again, visit and have them assist us in training by sharing what they have experienced previous to and while on their missions regarding personal security.



On our return trip we drove north from Durban up the Indian Ocean coastline and stayed at St. Lucia. This is a quaint town about six blocks wide and long nestled between the ocean and an estuary which leads to an inland salt lake. In this tropical setting there are two notable inhabitants--crocodiles and hippos. At the mouth of the estuary we watched crocodiles close to shore. As evening set in we marveled at a daily sight of hippos grazing throughout the town! We waited at a four way stop sign for a hippo to meander across the road ahead of us, another crossed the road in front of us, and a third we watched from the lawn of our B&B with only a 2 1/2 foot high masonary wall and 10 yards of grass separating us. We learned hippos cannot step higher than 16 inches and can walk up to 30 km (about 15 miles) a night grazing. It was amazing seeing these mammoth animals up close. We have been told hippos kill more humans in Africa than any other animal so were careful to just quietly watch.

The next morning we took a tour boat up the estuary similar to the one pictured behind us along with hippos and a crocodile in the water--awesome. Along the shoreline we saw 12 crocodiles mostly by themselves, 64 hippos in pods of 3-20, a variety of African birds, Water Monitor lizards and Vervet monkeys scampering in the trees.



Leaving the wetlands for the dry mountains our next stop was iMfolozi Hluhluwe Nature Reserve. Here we saw warthogs, zebra, Nyala, Impala, Wildebeest, 21 rhinos, elephant herd on the hillside, 25 giraffe and over 100 Cape Buffalo. Being springtime, many babies were seen with their mothers. We thought the fuzzy tufts on this baby giraffe were charming. A Cape Buffalo poised right next to the road for us. Notice the bird on his face which we watched groom the buffalo's ears, nose and head. This was an awesome sighting.