Safety First
Safety: First, but not foremost, we wanted everyone to be aware that life could get a little crazy here in DR Congo with elections coming up on Dec 23. The problem with elections in DRC is that they have historically brought violence. If you follow any international news, you’re going to hear about DRC this week, and maybe for weeks to come. With Kinshasa, the nation’s capital, being on the opposite side of the country (1,000 miles/1,500 km – think Seattle to Los Angeles) from Minembwe, there’s quite a distance between us and most of the current violence.
Some of you might have heard that the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa was closed six days (Nov 26-Dec 4) due to a credible terrorist threat; U.S. citizens have been asked to keep a low profile. Ha… kind of hard for us to go “low-pro” in Minembwe. If we hear that things are going to get dicey here in Minembwe, we have a couple of plans in place to stay safe.
Where’s the Corn?: Foremost, but not first because you won’t see/hear this in the news, our region is facing a significant food shortage right now, which means that prices on everyone’s basic food staples, corn meal and beans, have skyrocketed. The crops were poor due to weather, and many people needing funds desperately sold a good portion of their bean supply a while ago trying to capitalize on what they thought were high prices. Now the prices have climbed higher and many can’t afford to buy more beans; we will join the university in educating the public to not fall prey to this again. This year, the corn meal and bean issue has been exasperated by the fact that we have a huge refugee population that relocated to our area this summer due to fighting in the outlying regions of Minembwe.
“Our” problem is that the orphanage has a gas-powered grinder that the boys use to grind the corn of others. Those who use this service then leave a portion of the corn meal with the orphans as payment for the grinding, which, along with beans, makes up the orphans’ diet. With the poor crops of corn comes a lack of customers for the orphanage’s corn-grinding business, which means no corn meal for the kids.
From the moment we arrived in September, we’ve been harvesting everything we already had in our fields to feed these kids, as well as to help fortify the school lunches for the children (250) at the school we work with. We’ve also been hard at work planting various crops in all of our fields with the hope that we’ll soon have more food to share. One of our goals here is to help to diversify and improve the diet of the orphans, as well as all who live in this area.
Some have sent funds to specifically help feed and care for the orphans; we have used those funds to buy enough beans and corn meal for this month and into the next. What a blessing to have a big international ‘family’ to help care for these precious children.
Ndayishimiye: We appreciate all of the prayer and concern that’s been shown for the now four-month old Ndayishimiye. We have had people offer to help with Ndayishimiye’s need for baby formula, as well as to help pay for the wages of an additional “mama” to care for him. God is good!
Big sister Furaha designed a pair of glasses for Ndayishimiye
After months of time spent in and out of the local hospital, Ndayishimiye is in much better health these days, and he seems to no longer have any issues with his left shoulder. Ndayishimiye’s new brothers and sisters adore him; he’s always in the arms or lap of one of his 25 brothers and sisters.
Visas for the Ostranders!: A few days ago, the Ostranders received their three-year visas. There was concern that with the election chaos, that the request would get shuffled into oblivion. Lisa and I received our three-year visas last February, so now we all can confidently carry out the work that we have planned, knowing that we have time to dig in and serve these people that we have come to love.