One week in

We are now well into our initial trip and I believe a comprehensive update is in order, comparable in length to an Encyclopaedia Brittanica entry but with better pictures.

We arrived last Friday night and spent Saturday unpacking and resting. On Sunday we attended a church service which Michelle detailed in an earlier entry.

The real work began on Monday, when we began our Lingala classes. Sam and I are learning from our teacher, Guylien, while Michelle and Sarah are learning from another teacher, Nicole. The idea is to have the guys learn how to talk Lingala like real men and the girls how to talk Lingala like proper Congolese ladies. We'll see how that works out. Everything has been going well so far and we have been able to supplement our lessons in the morning with "extracurricular" activities such as a field trip to Guylien's garden, a visit to the river and the palm plantation here at Elikya and conversations with the widows and the orphans. And if not conversations (that may be a little too generous) then worthy attempts at least. The primary purpose of this initial trip is to learn Lingala.

The days here are rather predictable at this point. We wake up around 6:30 AM and have breakfast at 8. Guylien and Nicole arrive shortly after and we have class until noon. After lunch we take a brief siesta and then we do something in the afternoon that is oriented around language, Congolese culture or both. For instance we went to the outdoor market and the stores here on two separate occasions (we got rained out the first time) to get an idea of necessities (and some extras) that are available and where and how they can be bought.

Our living arrangements are constantly being improved. For example, today we have graduated from bucket showers to a barrel on a stand outside the house with a pipe that runs through the wall to a shower head. That's right, a shower head. The solar panels were also set up this week and our porch was enclosed somewhat. It really is amazing to consider the thought and the effort that has gone into this place to make it a home for us. We are extremely blessed by this "apartment" and the work that has gone into it.

This weekend we took an overnight trip to a neighboring town, Tandala. This used to be the big Free Church mission station in Congo and is the site of the hospital. It is also the childhood home of both Sam and myself so we were pretty excited to be there. We took a walk around the station and were able to see our old homes and the homes of our friends from almost 20 years ago. Everything seems smaller now- it's funny how that is. We met the doctors at the hospital (there are 4 right now), visited the dentist's office and the new wireless internet site as well. We returned to the Elikya Center today and our journey somewhat typifies travel here in the DRC: 10 of us in a Landcruiser, a chicken tied up on the roof with some other luggage, we were stopped once by the police at a checkpoint (they wanted a ride because their truck had broken down but we were already full), we were stopped once at a village (by a mob of men waving sticks and yelling during a tribal ritual), we were stopped once by a truck picking up a load of sand in the middle of the road (we ended up driving through a yard and over a couple banana trees to get around) and we stopped four times of our own accord to buy plantains, sugarcane, 2 laundry baskets and palm oil.

Now we are preparing for week number two. More Lingala and of course more mistakes, more people to meet, more relationships to build and more who-knows-what-else to come. We are extremely grateful for the chance to be here and to serve the Lord at the Elikya Center. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray that

• We will be quick learners of Lingala and would make the most of the remaining weeks of language training
  
• Jim Snyder will have a safe trip back to the US as he leaves here Wednesday morning. Jim is a former missionary to the Congo (then Zaire) and is the director of Touch Global, which has several projects in this part of the Congo. He is also Sam's father.
  
• We would have a healthy humility and a Christ-like attitude as we continue to work through our own inadequacies, mistakes and frustrations in making these adjustments, particularly in language-learning.