Amazing Soccer Day in Congo

Joe (in the crowd with Jenny Kremer a teacher at TASOK and co-founder of the organization Balls for All) and I went out to the way outskirts of Kinshasa today to witness an amazing event. The non-profit soccer program provides balls and uniforms for girls in underpriviledged schools. The area we went to today is very impoverished and 8 schools brought their girls to have a little tournament between each other. Thepicture below is great cuz it catches the great action of competition. Make sure you check out their feet...most had no shoes...some shared shoes (one on one girl another on her sister or friend), some wore socks or just 1 sock.....it was really amazing to me.It was great to see the teams compete and play their hearts out. The picture here shows one of the 8 teams....they used rented uniforms (2000 francs per team....about $4 a team)....and they were so proud of the way they looked!This girl below had a penalty shot which she made and you should have seen the girls rejoice and celebrate!!!!! It was worth the sweat from a super hot and humid day in the Congo. It was also worth the beating the TASOK car took attempting to get to this place. We definitely NEEDED a 4 wheel drive vehicle but made it in a little 4 cylinder Toyota corolla using my expert driving skills. Lots of times I didn't think we were going to....going thru some little creeks , almost high-centering on sandy roads, and over huge bumps created by rain and runoff. It was an awesome day spent with about 400 young Congolese students. By the way, if you look behind the goalie and to the right side of the picture you'll see Brad Kremer (Jenny's husband...with a camera up to his face) who is also a teacher at TASOK and co-founder of the program.

We're Alright here on the Homefront

Many of you have been wondering how it is going here in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo after the 3 days of fighting. All is very quiet right now and no problems seem eminent on the horizon. I have heard that now that Mr. Bemba's personal troops (Bemba was the presidential candidate who lost but still had a small militia of troops, about 600 strong, loyal to him and 'protecting' him) have been taking care of peace will reign. All of the Congolese people around school tell me...."no problem, no problem".

It was very weird and felt quite surreal to hear tanks moving around us and to hear huge gun fire from them and smaller gunfire from the soldiers that we see daily carrying small-arms around town. For 3 days we heard the fighting persist and we wondered how much damage was created by the gunfire. When I passed thru the city to get Joe on Thursday I was surprised to see that not much damage was sustained...at least not as much as I imagined from the sounds of the battle. Kids from school did bring bullets and shell casings from the arms. Here is one of the bullets a student found and gave to me....Jimin found this right in front of his houses wall which protected he and his family.

Cabalka Preachin' at IPCK!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!

Two Sunday's ago I preached at our church service at the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (IPCK). I was asked to fill in for our Pastor Walt Shepard who was in the middle of the Congo teaching at a conference for Pastors. I haven't any idea if it was a good sermon or not but I did manage to keep people awake!!!! Grace said I did 'real good' but heck, she's my wife and duh, what is she gonna say???? I don't know how Pastor's and Bible teacher's (like Grace) do it every week!!???!! It is hard work, and I know I got way more out of God's Word than the congregation did. But He promised us that His word will not come back to Him void and I know His Word was preached.....cuz' I preached it!

This is a picture of 3 of the 5 young men in my small group. They are Jonathan Niles (next to me), to his left is Matthew Lowery (he and his folks....Mike and Jill...are from Bakersfield) , and to Matt's left is Theo Shepard . They are great kids and I had them do a couple things in the service to help me out. They read the scriptures that I referred to in my sermon, they did a little skit to help illustrate a point, and they walked out with me and greeted the congregation with me at the end of the service. That's something that our Pastor does every week and I was sort of dreading. But with those guys next to me it was really fun greeting each person in attendance (like 200 people). The congregation is so cool because it has nations from all around the world represented. Looking out at the people that Sunday morning I got a little glimpse of what it might be like in heaven as people gather from every tribe and tongue around the throne of God honoring Jesus as Lord and Savior!!! It's very cool each week to be in that fellowship.

Catching Water......Normal Part of life in Congo

Every once in a while (like tonight) we have trouble with our water system here in Kinshasa. Sometimes we have a trickle of water with no hot water at all....sometimes we have only cold water....and sometimes the water faucets seem dryer than the Mojave desert in August. Last week it was like that and lasted for nearly 3 days. When that happens Grace and I are taking our water jugs and going to school to fill them up and there we take cold showers so we can get clean too. The real problem is flushing the toilets...you need lots of water for that job and I have a tendency to need to flush toilets lots.....maybe too much info, sorry.......so we've acquired the use of big buckets that the chlorine came in for the school pool. We have two of them and they both were used up by the end of the 2nd day.....so on that 2nd night, it rained (thankfully), I caught the rain water out my front door and filled those babes up in order to keep our toilets flushed.....whew!!!!!!!

TASOK High School Men's Soccer Team Report

The picture above is so expressive (even with a messed up net)!!!! It's a great picture of one of our guy's scoring a goal. Look at the excitement on Quinton's face. Quinton is a very enjoyable young man from Kenya (his parents work in the Kenyan embassy, I think). The score was 4-2 and I think it surprised everyone that we could win. Even some of the parents of our players admitted that they didn't come to the game because TASOK mens teams ALWAYS lose. Well, I think that is going to change! I am now coaching the TASOK Men's soccer team. We had our first game last Friday and we won!!!! The guys played great and have been working very hard at practice. They deserved the win and our prospects look good for any future games. Right now we have 9 or 10 games scheduled. Everyone wants to play us here at TASOK because we may have the very nicest soccer field in the entire country.

I always love these shots of teams coming togther and putting hands up....team unity and all that! TASOK on three!!! One, two, three, TASOK!!!!

Hangin' At The Congo River

So last Sunday after church a group of us went to an outdoor restaurant and had a cool drink at a place overlooking the Congo River. Pictured above are my friends Todd Stone (from South Carolina) and Daniel Ligon (from Niger and Missouri....his folks are missionaries in Niger to this day) and Theo Shepard (his dad and mom are Walt and Val Shepard...the Pastor and his wife from our church, IPCK). This was a great outing as we were among lots of Congolese who were at the river swimming, bathing and playing in the water.


We sat at a table just like these below us. Most of the Congolese were not really at the restaurant but below on the rocks swimming and playing. It was so much fun to be near the huge rapids, that according to every source we're ever talked to, have never been run successfully. Many people have tried supposedly but all have ended their lives. I can totally believe that by the looks of these monster rapids.

As you can see I took a picture of a woman who just purchase this fish for about $6 ....we asked how much a fish would cost and they told us it would be about $10 - $12 . UUMMM doesn't it look good! Where 's the tail and its fins?????? Lookin' a little different than the bass I'm use to catching!

Above TASOK

These are pictures I took from this tower pictured on the right. It is our communications tower with our satellite dishes on top to catch our internet feed. I was scared climbing up but got some awesome shots of TASOK and beyond! You can see the main city buildings in the far background and if you look around you should be able to see the Congo river meandering through the picture. You can double click the picture and it will open in its own file....try to zoom in and see if you can see some of the city and the river! Cool, huh?












I also turned and took a picture of the soccer field...I am now coaching the High School Mens team and we have our 1st game this Friday.

Another Great Shot of Typical Congolese scene

Here is another picture of a very typical street side vendor. This woman is selling her fruits and vegetables to whoever....if it were a Congolese person that approached her to buy the food they would make a deal.....cheap for them. If Grace and I approached her she would totally jack the price up. The apples to Congolese would cost at the most 200 Francs ($.30) for 6 of them. For Grace and I they would try to charge us over 2000 Francs ($4.00 almost). Then we'd have to haggle them down and what a hassle that is...not being able to speak French or Lingala....tho' Grace is getting way good at the Lingala language (she'd never tell you that though). The big bags behind her to her right might be bags of charcoal or greens which they make as a staple called Pondu.

Great Photo of Typical Congolese Scene

Grace and I were out driving around Kinshasa, DRC last weekend and as we passed by these gals Grace got a good shot of what is very typical around this city of nearly 10 million people. The people have this special cloth that they wrap up and encircle on the top of their heads in order to carry all their 'stuff' on their heads. We've seen some amazing things being carried.....a huge stack of 2 X 4's, sinks, wooden doors, stacks of firewood, heavy packages of food, etc. It's never ceased to amaze us what they carry and how heavy the loads are. We buy fruit and vegetables from a woman who travels around TASOK selling food to the teachers. She makes a good living off of what she makes but I help her place the big tub back on her head after we buy her products and most of the time the tub weighs 75 pounds....sometimes more. I can only imagine the headache Grace would have after toting our vegetable lady's tub for a few minutes.....let alone for hours and for miles which our gal surely walks from the market to TASOK! I will take a picture and add it to the blog in the near future.....you'll be amazed!

Keys........More Than You Can Imagine

Do they do KEYS here in the Congo or what????? They have a problem with keys here......actually its a problem with LOCKS.....they only manufacture one lock per key. I figured this out the first day I got here. In the States, one key may open up 3, 8, 20 different doors cuz they all have the same locking mechanism inside. BUT NOT HERE!!!!! No way! So I have on my key chain 10 keys that open up the most essential doors in my life.....my 2 house keys, my office key, the 2 locker rooms, 3 equipment rooms, 2 keys that open up the PE room...and that's just the beginning! I have a total of 28 keys (most are in a desk somewhere) that open doors all around campus...some doors I have never been thru. I hate carrying my keys....they are heavy and make my shorts sag....I guess the positive is I fit in better with the saggers on campus.....
The key issue isn't only my problem....its everyone's dilemma. This is a picture of my friend John Gorenflo and some of his keys. He and his family went to South Africa with us (I teach his 3 beautiful girls...Rachel, Sarah, and Christiana) and John has lots of keys. He is a really an important guy...he flies planes for MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship)....so you'd think, he needs lots of keys!! But Me........I am not that important. I shouldn't be responsible for so many keys and so many rooms to go into and out of. I'm only a PE teacher and coach......heck...hard to believe they even entrust 1 key to me.....just keep my office open....why not??? Daily its invaded by kids anyway who think its really their office! Maybe I should let them carry my keys.....why not, they're pants are already saggin'........

We're Baackkkkkk! Had Some Mid-Winter Doldrums!

Hey....We took a couple weeks break to lay low and do some reflection on what's happening to us hee in the Congo....BUT...we've SNAPPED out of it and we are ready to proceed on our last leg of the 2006-2007 journey in the Congo.All's well with us and we've got a few things that might be of interest to you all....first we took time for a little........PICNIC along the Congo river. Yes...we found a cozy little spot overlooking the river and had a great time enjoying the sunset in 85 degree weather (with about 85% humidity). We had fun!


Pictured here are our good friends the Stones (Todd and Shannon) who both work at TASOK. Todd teaches Middle School Social Studies and Shannon was first the Nurse, then the Librarian, then taught 2nd grade for a month, and NOW she is the Administrative Secretary.....she runs the show! Great people from South Carolina who love the Lord and the kids.


After our trip to the river Todd and I thought it'd be great if we could become.....SUPERHERO'S.....I mean even in Congo you need to have some type of imagination. So Todd sent away for a Batman outfit and I sent away for a Zorro outfit and look!!!!!! It was beautiful...we wore them for about a week before the smell acted like Kryptonite to Superman....it about killed us.....

No Really....Todd and I were invited to a 4 year olds Superhero Birthday Party to deliver the cake to all the Superhero guests and birthday boy...Aidan. It was fun until one of the Superhero guests took their laser wand and smacked both of us in....our private parts......party was over at that point....cake delivered and Aidan (Bear) loved the Special Delivery.......mommy, why are those men acting like they're in so much pain?????

That may have been the blow that knocked me out of my Doldrum!

More to come......wait til you see the keys!