Being in our area of Minembwe is a bit surreal. Every day, or at least every other day, you hear of skirmishes or full-out battles happening in the outlying areas. There is a path which runs next to our dwelling that has a high volume of foot traffic; daily we see both students of all ages and soldiers coming and going, and many refugees coming. Yet, if you look out across the valley, things seem so peaceful. But, if you visit the nearby hospital, you are quickly dragged back into reality. We are at the local hospital nearly every day. Miles spends a lot of time there repairing or “innovating” things, and we are constantly encouraging people to go to the hospital. We often ask the locals, “That’s a really bad cough/sore/wound. Have you taken him to the hospital yet?” Their response typically is “No” or “We took him to the clinic or to the traditional doctor (in essence and for lack of a better title, a “witch doctor”).”
At the hospital, especially now with so many refugees, you’ll find sickness (dysentery, malnutrition, bacterial/viral chest infections, typhoid, malaria) and the many wounded combatants and civilians. My previous viewings of bullet wounds has been limited to movies and television, but in Minembwe I can reach out and touch victims. I could show you some gruesome photos of bullet entry and exit wounds in children, but I won’t. Now that so many people have fled as refugees, sadly the majority of more recent civilian injuries are from being confronted by the Congolese soldiers.
Another casualty of war is education. The local schools are flooded with refugees, and most teachers are going unpaid (or at least underpaid) because the student’s families, local or refugee, do not have any money to pay the school fees. For the state school, teachers’ salaries are partially paid for by charging tuition, but private schools are 100% funded by tuition and grants/donations. The villagers of Kivumu had to flee, but they have tried to settle their community close together so they could more easily continue to educate their children. Remarkedly, 80% of the students of Kivumu are still meeting for school.
The teachers and kids from Kivumu now meet in a church near us as their village was attacked and destroyed twice. It was strange to visit this school in this church because…
… it wasn’t too many months ago that Miles and I visited this school in Kivumu. Last summer, Miles was supposed to teach a course on electricity for interested students.
This might look pretty rough to you, but even this unfinished portion of the church is in better shape than the classrooms they formerly met in back in their village.
Although this is all a new and sad reality for me, this is business as usual in Minembwe. So, we just keep moving along with everyone else. Shortly after Patrick and I arrived, Patrick started dispensing the 100 pairs of eyeglasses (readers) that he and Thelma brought. On day one, from our front porch, Patrick passed out four pairs of glasses. Word of the glasses spread quickly, and on day two Patrick passed out another 50 pairs of glasses. On day three, the rest of the glasses found owners; since then we daily have to tell people that our supply of glasses has been exhausted.
It’s a joy to help people see well enough to read.
Our friend Bonnke joking around with his neighbor, our area’s token local Muslim.
By day two there was a line starting to form.
On day three…
…there was a non-stop stream of people…
…coming to see Patrick.
Two months ago, we hired a young man named Ntebutsi to manage the orphan home that we work with.What a wonderful difference this has made in the care of the children. Ntebutsi is 28 years old, married, and the father of a little boy he named Miles . Ntebutsi has worked alongside us for five years now, and a good portion of that time was spent helping the orphans develop their gardens. Ntebutsi is loved and respected by all of the kids; he has been and will continue to be a great role model and mentor. Ntebutsi comes from an amazing and hard-working family whom we adore, one and all.
Ntebutsi refers to our Miles as his “twin.”
The “twins” working on the home for the manager.
Where the home sits in relationship to the orphans’ home.
Patrick meeting Ntebutsi and Boonke’s grandfather at the soko (market).
Back in January, prior to our last three major conflicts, we were looking for a way to sustain the swelling food budget for the 27 orphans and 2 caretakers. Ntebutsi’s younger brother Bonnke came to us with an idea to grow large scale crops, something that, to our knowledge, isn’t done in Minembwe. We funded Bonnke, then watched the conflicts of March, June, and current conflict spiral out of control. We thought the project had failed several times, but Bonnke stuck with the project, planting and then replanting the fields when they were torn up by fleeing people and their wandering sheep and cows.
Visiting the project and taking a photo with all of Bonnke’s employees. You can bet that these people are thankful to have a paying job during the conflicts.
The area of the crops.
Bustani Amani… Garden of Peace
Last week, Bonnke began to market the African eggplant, the first of the crops to mature; other crops include bell peppers, cabbage, carrots, garlic, and onions. Ironically, Bonnke and Lisa named all of our fields Bustani Amani, or in English, the “Garden of Peace.”
Somehow,
Michael