The Story of Longtin

The latest news from Desi:

Did you know you can find real life heroes living in a slum? I tell you, you can, I met one today, a broken old man who has something to live for.

Twenty years ago the love of his life went blind suddenly & he has taken care of her ever since. Just over five years ago his son-in-law died of AIDS & he began taking care of his daughter & 3 children. Five years ago his daughter also died of AIDS leaving 3 orphans for him to care for, one born HIV positive. What is the life expectancy of a child born HIV positive? I tell you it cannot be much more than 5 years.

When we got to the house this evening Longtin was standing on the front porch coughing endlessly. She is a beautiful child, though you would never guess her to be 5 as she is so small. We heard stories of how she has fought so hard, with her grandfather encouraging her. She is finally old enough to go to school, has a uniform & everything. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the strength to make the trip. Sometimes when her grandfather is feeling strong he will carry her to school, otherwise she just puts on her uniform & sits on a bench at the front of the house. When she does make it to the school, which is sponsored by Hands at Work, the wonderful lady who is their teacher goes and gets a big comfy chair from her house for Longtin to sit in.

Her CD4 blood count gets checked whenever her grandfather is able to make the 2 hour journey with her to the hospital in Lubumbashi, on the bus. Her last test results said that she was finally healthy enough to begin taking the life saving anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Unfortunately, there are none available and her condition is worsening once again.

There we were all squished into the living room of their tiny 2 room shack. We gave them some food that we had brought, as they are a part of the Hands at Work orphan feeding program. Margaret then told them that we were from Westside Kings Church. She told them that Westside was the one that had been supporting their work here in DRCongo. She told them that we were the ones that had been supplying food, school fees & funds for health care to the family.

The grandfather began thanking us, thanking us for giving life to his family. This is one of those times I find extremely difficult. It becomes hard to put into words due to some sort of confusion. On one hand, I am honored to play a small role in what Westside & Hands at Work is doing in Africa. I am honored to be the individual who is able to receive this gratitude, from such an incredible man, for giving life to his family. On the other hand, it is hard to miss the fact that they are still barely surviving. You have to ask yourself, "is this enough, is this the best that I can do?" Or maybe even a better question, "is my being a part of this family barely surviving worth such gratitude from a man who labours every single day for their survival?"

Did you know you can find real life heroes living in a slum? I tell you, you can, I met one today, an incredible old man who has something to live for.

Ode to Ruth

Well, we have somewhat settled in. We are currently in the city of Likasi and have spent four nights in the same place, which makes this home. We are living in a great little house that less than a year ago was occupied by a German missionary lady who had spent something like 40 years here. She was forced to return to German due to cancer. Next door and sharing the same courtyard lives Ruth. Ruth, also from Germany has been living here for about 20 years now. She has been awesome and has more than taken care of us. Ruth had met us at the border in order to help us get across and 3 of us traveled with her from there to Lubumbashi eating her homemade banana bread all the way.

Once we got here, the following day, she let us know that there were homemade waffles in the freezer and that we should check it regularly for other surprises she might leave. I think she is happy to have some male company around as she is really spoiling us all. When the power is out she brings hot water for our morning coffees, when water is off (as it has been for the past two days) there are buckets filled all over the house. Tonight she had charcoal all set up outside in case we wanted to heat water for baths. She also let Margaret and Dominic know that she would like to have us over for supper for the next two nights. She sends her cleaning lady to our house every afternoon to clean up the house and do laundry. She said she will not have it any other way. So, I want to take up some special space here to say thanks to Ruth for making us feel so much at home.

Entering the Heart of Darkness

Update from Congo via texting from Desi:

"This is not okay" is all we could repeat as we drove through the town into Congo yesterday.

Two and a half years ago when I read an article by Stephanie Nolen on the DRC I broke. I don't ever remember crying so hard, especially not since childhood. I knew at that moment I could not have something affect me like this and do nothing about it. Now here I was in the DRC with eyes watering trying not to let it start.

Well, we've made it. It has been a long journey. I feel as though I am one of the privileged few. How many people feel the need to do something like this and actually get to do it. I am also privileged to be able to do it with four great guys. We left the farm in Zambia around 7:30 which put us too close to the border too soon. We were now to be meeting people there at 12:30 to assist in our crossing and so we stopped in a quiet little town close to the border to kill a couple of hours. Once the time got close we were off again. Within 10 minutes there were people everywhere. Big trucks lined both sides of the street leaving only one lane in the centre for both us and oncoming traffic.



Guys were running after our vehicle waiting for us to stop to try and sell us something or help us get across, for a fee, the first part of what seems to be an insane money grab but as we would soon enough find out was part of an elaborate economic system. It was all quite surreal.

I don't remember how many times I thought, "this is a first for me." I know I have done many "first" things, but this was one of those moments when all of your senses seem to be racing, trying to take in everything going on around you. I think that in times like this, because you realize you cannot grasp it all, an entirely new emotion gets created. You know how you can smell something and it takes you back to another moment in time or you hear something and you return to a feeling you once had. That is what this became in an instant, a place and time to return to. I don't really know how else to describe it.

I think it took us about 1 1/2 hours to make it through. First we had to check out of Zambia. After that we walked through "no mans land," a place filled with parked cars and trucks, people everywhere, garbage covering the ground and dust covering everything. We were almost there. We had to stop at a little shed in order to "check in." This was the second part of their economic system, although I am not sure how much this one cost us.

Next we filed into a packed hallway of people waiting to see a customs agent. Our passports and immunization records disappeared and we waited standing, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening in the offices. There were two people who had met us in order to ease the procedure who were in and out of an office, arguing amongst themselves while the guy who had been following us around, looking for a way to be of use, for a fee, was trying to keep busy by going into the office every once in a while only to be yelled at and kicked out. The entry fee was finally negotiated. 10USD each ($50 total). Not bad. Margaret turned over a $100 bill and we waited for change. There, of course, was none as the fee had suddenly jumped to $20 each. Ruth, the German missionary who had come to help us, caught wind of this and marched back into the office with $50 and a yell and came out with the $100 bill. It pays to have friends at times like this.

We were done and on our way. What I saw next was a town that God seemed to have forgotten about. I know that sounds sacrilegious, but I could not help but wonder where God is. You feel that if He knew what was going on here he would surely punish somebody somewhere for allowing such a thing. There was garbage everywhere and it stank. There were little shacks built mostly of plastic bags and torn tarps over sticks. Those with any walls were the lucky ones. Naked children playing in the dirt next to a river of free flowing sewage. I have never seen anything so appalling in my life. One sentence kept running through my head over and over, "This is not okay, "This is not okay", "This is not okay." There is no level where this is acceptable. No human should have to live the way that I saw them living today.... this is not okay. I don't really know what else to say about that...

They stayed in Lubumbashi last night in a guest house and Margaret took them to her favourite restaurant for Chinese food where she is a VIP and they even got the VIP room.(I can't wait to hear what that's like) Desi said it was really good. Today they drove on to Likasi and arrived at about 4PM. Thirty minutes after arriving to their house the power went out.

the Lovely Zambia

We love Zambia.
Four of our guys met back up in Johannesburg where they had split off a few days earlier and flew into Ndola, Zambia. Here, they will be awaiting the arrival of our 5th man while doing work around a place we call the Wakefield farm, even though the name changed recently. Desi and Brian had been at the farm in 2005 and were looking forward to returning. At that time they built the little houses found there now that are used for orphan camps and whatever else. They even outfitted them all with bunkbeds. But the farm has a larger house and also a large garden growing produce used for the orphan feeding programs. Pastor Jacob is in charge there for Hands At Work and is a really wonderful person.

This is Desi's update as texted from Zambia yesterday:

So, we made it to Zambia. All went well, except for one of my bags not showing up. Just so happens that it was the one containing 1/2 my clothes, my shoes, power convertors and toilettries bag. It's not like you really need deoderant here anyways, right guys? I think that being here in Zambia for a few days will be a good thing, a stopping point between where we were at and where we are heading. Sort of a chance to ease ourselves into the devbastation that we are about to live in for the coming weeks. The farm here has always felt like such a relaxing place for many of us who have had the privledge of spending time here in the past. It is still that place. We have all begun sleeping normally now and are getting caught up and on schedule.

There are a couple of guys that live here on the farm that Brian and I could not wait to see again, since meeting them here 3 years ago. Oswald and Mathews are as incredible as I had remembered. A couple of guys who if not laughing are smiling. I think they are laughing at us and smiling at the list of work that they have for us to help them with around the farm. An order for lumber is being placed tomorrow morning and then we are off and running. Bob has stated that he feels like he is in Zambia again and never realized how much he had missed it. Being the first one up this morning he grabbed Mathews and got the full 2 hour tour of the farm before the rest of us even got started. This is the Bob that I know and this place is where I most love hanging out with him. (Yes Bob, even more than the Bent Elbow)

Tonight we sat out by the pool (not operational) and discussed life in Africa. We do this often here, sit around and solve the problems. Friday we will be going to do Home-Based Care and Friday night instead of solving more of the problems here we will probably just be sitting silently realizing we don't know a whole lot about anything, except that we have become sad. Hopefully we will also all know that we cannot see these things and do nothing. Hopefully hope will follow, but more often than not that part takes a while. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Mission's Conference Update 2

I've gotten another update from Desi. This one a bit less emotional:

Today was more the vision casting for the church & a call to get to work. Hands is once again restructuring their methods of reaching the 100,000 by 2010. It is a lot of good information to bring back for the missions committee as we need to begin being much more focused & intentional with our teams.

The plan now is to begin focusing on 3 essential services being education, food & basic health care. Each of these were broken down into 4 levels. Hands is going to begin focusing the majority of their time & resources on the first 2 levels of these 3 items.

What I feel this means for Westside is that our teams will need to be specific & intentional within these 3 items. I believe this means that we will have to make a more conscience effort to stay away from "pet" projects & one of projects.

It must be understood that this information is all being presented as such due to the fact that Hands is wanting to move from an 80:20 model (80% outside agencies : 20 % church & individual) to a 20:80 model, as George believes this work needs to be driven by the church & committed individuals. People & churches who in essence have bought into the Hands model/philosophy of caring for the widows & orphans.

We also had the opportunity to sit with the country representatives of our choosing in order to have a little more intimate small group discussion time with them. Kind of a chance to hear what is on their hearts, what are their dreams & needs for the next year & what each of them envisions themselves doing to reach 100,000 OVC's (orphans & vulnerable children). Of course Brian & I sat in on the Malawi conversation....just kidding. We went DRC all the way. It was another awesome time to spend an hour with what can only be refered to as giants.

The DRC has a population of 55 million people with a rapidly increasing orphan population of 4,200,000. There are also 3.5 million children lacking access to primary school. The work that Margaret & Dominic have been doing there is still somewhat in it's beginning stages. The biggest reason for this is due to the state of affairs plagueing the country. The DRC has become internationally known for it's devastating civil conflicts, the most recent lasting since 1998 & claiming more that 4 million lives, making it the deadliest conflict since WW II. This has lead to a system run on bribery & corruption in an attemt to survive. Understandably this has made things extremely difficult for this couple & yet they are now caring for 565 OVC's & 347 patients with 35 committed volunteers. I cannot remember their targets for next year(I will send them tomorrow) but could use as much support as possible.
As you can see it is a worthy effort that we have been priveleged to be a part of.

On another note Brian & I have the greatest of intentions to be up for 6 tomorrow morning in order to go on a game drive. I will update more tomorrow.

Dez

Mission's Conference Update

Desi sent an update of his time at the Hands At Work Missions Conference:

So we are at Hanna Lodge.
At about 2 this afternoon we left for the retreat. Brian, Lynn & I traveled together. It was a good chance for us to get caught up. We made a quick stop in Grasskopf to buy Brian some biltong as I told him it was a must while he was in South Africa. We got lost for a bit of course & got here between 4:30 & 5.

It's a beautiful place of little thatched roof houses built all along the side of a hill. Even the drive in to the lodge was exciting as it was filled with all sorts of wildlife like kudu, antelope, warthogs & impala. The reserve is more of a savanna, not a lot of the big wild animals except for a few of the very elusive leopard.

This evening we were given a challenging message by George, where he picked on the evangelicals & their "5 step prayers for salvation". After we were thoroughly vision-ized we ate a great supper.

Following supper we heard from all of the country leaders. We heard all sorts of incredible stories of people whom they work with & a lot of sad stories that almost bring you to tears & leave you asking the question "what am I doing?" Once again I am in the presence of giants. People doing incredible things in the lives of others as though there were no thought that there might be something else to do with their lives. It becomes very humbling very quickly.

As this was going on a thought crossed my mind. "Do you wonder the shade of red that flowed from Christ as he was crucified? Look into the blood filled eyes of a child dying of AIDS, it's the same. Be there when a father is coughing to death from TB, it's the same shade of red. Hold the hand of a woman covered with bed sores because she hasn't had the strength to get up for months & has nobody to care for her, you will see the same colour. Jesus said 'in as much as you have done it to the least of these....you have done it to me', there is no difference".

It has been awesome to be around Margaret, she is so life giving. She so often seems to be smiling or laughing. It begs the question of how she does it. She has seen so much death during her time in the DRC & yet she longs to do more. She is now looking at starting work in 3 new places, one of them being the Goma region, which borders Rwanda, because "there is so much to be done", she says. It personifies what George said earlier tonight, "I will not be satisfied until I have gone into the darkest corner of this continent & been able to care for the sickest person there". Wow! Then you ask yourself again, "what am I doing?" & you wonder why you even came.

The worst part is that Margaret & Dominic are so honored that we are coming. They are running around telling all of the other project leaders "Westside is coming to Congo", with so much pride. How backwards is that? She was even apologizing because one of the beds that we will be using is "very small" & she is embarrassed to do that to us. Are you kidding me? I am in the presence of giants. This woman is responsible for saving hundreds of lives, just working out a deal to provide ARV's to 300 people, including her adopted daughter, & she is concerned that one of us might have a poor sleep on a bed that is "very small".

If I go on any longer I will feel completely demoralized :) & yet wouldn't change a thing about this opportunity. Being around such people feels so close to God himself.

Dez