OPERATION SMILE

We volunteered for Operation Smile at Ngaliema Hospital 7-8 June. We walked to the back of the grounds where patients were checked in, examined and accepted or rejected for the free operation to correct cleft palate and hare lip.

View of some of the hospital grounds.

On the way to the reception area.

Some or our LDS member volunteers at Operation Smile.

Children are entertained by staff with toys and health instruction. This is an electric whirlygig toy.

Sister Moon speaking with one of the staff members who was in charge of instructing the children.

A large staff of volunteers accompanies the project which conducts operations around the globe. Equipment is packed in large trunks. This one was packed with electronic medical testing equipment, thermometers, blood pressure, pulse monitors, cords and computers.

Sue and Sister Moon in the intake area.

Intake personnel interviewed applicants, filled out medical history, and passed them to a reviewer, then a photo of the candidate with the case number for future identification. Sue and I took the photos the first day. We saw each individual which was a very touching experience.

Children are entertained with games that help them learn about cleanliness while having fun.

Parents with children being interviewed at the intake table.

Sister Chantal Van Hauvermat, left, Sue, Sister Grana, right, Sister Van Hauvermat's mother, also volunteered. The Granas and the Van Hauvermats are Church employees for Finance and Construction respectively.

Fleet of hospital Toyotas parked in rows, apparently never driven.

children being instructed, the second day.

Woman washing clothes at a station near the intake area.

Patients waiting in the hall outside the intake area.

Following intake and photograph, patients meet with doctors for assessment at this row of desks.

Patients wait to see doctors following photos.

Brother and Sister Van Hauvermat  waiting to photograph a patient. The adult is the patient.

Patients waiting in the hall just outside the entrance to the intake area.

Mother with sleeping child next in line. The wait can be long.

Patients being interviewed and forms completed.

Some patients have facial deformities not related to hare lip or cleft palate, which the doctors will treat if they are able, or they may be funded to fly to other countries for treatment.

Saturday we were not needed so we went to ShopRite for groceries.

Later in the day we helped Eddie move into his new home, including dinner in the plastic bag.

Eddie, his wife, and two children on their couch in their new rented home near his hardware stand. 

The entry area to Eddie's apartment which abuts other apartments, forming a common entry patio paved with a mosaic of broken tiles.

African Grey Parrot, somebody's pet in the garden by Eddie's apartment.

Eddie's hardware stall.

Quincaillerie means hardware. Elder Moon buying something at the store.

A view of the Quincaillerie in the African equivalent of a "strip mall". 

That evening the condensation train from air conditioner in our kitchen became clogged and dripped onto the controller which I disassembled, dried out, and it resumed working.

FRIENDS

Olivier Tshimanga and his family. His wife far left, his mother, two relatives, Olivier, and two children.

Olivier's son.

Olivier's daughter.

Frank Cuyper who gave me his insect collecting equipment. The net is to the left, the bags contain killing jars, an ultra violet lamp, some metal and wooden boxes and mothballs, and a cardboard museum box the size of a cigar box full of butterflies and beetles, and some butterfly envelopes. He lectured me on not having a pair of tweezers, but didn't give me any. He made the net. Frank has collected thousands of specimens in Africa for over thirty years. He retires the end of July after twenty-seven years of dentistry here in Kinshasa. He began in Rwanda many years ago. We met on the walking trail by the river. His sixth floor apartment overlooks the river and across to Brazzaville, and lovely tree filled grounds below, and a new villa under construction for a high government official. His wife was away on errands.

BILLING'S DEPARTURE

Farewell dinner for the Billings.

Bronze on the Jameson's bookshelf.

Statuette.

Candid dinner shot, Billing's farewell dinner.

Setting out refreshments.

Serving refreshments after Billings graduation for his students.

One cookie and one banana per person, or they would have all been gone with the first 20 people.

Attendees and graduates.

All that is left, and it didn't last long.

Family of graduate and Billings.

When most others were gone Brother Billing's earlier graduates, and those who organized their own building buisness, had a special farewell. They prepared a favorite Congolese dish, pumpkin seed mashed with shrimp and cooked in a charcoal fired oven. Yes, they at it. It smelled delicious.

The students commissioned a portrait of the Billings to give them as a memento.

Love the shirt. I don't know his name, but we are in demand for snap shots.

I did not taste the treat, but wish that I had. Another day I am sure.

The Billings each took a turn at the farewell dinner with the couples, to tell one thing that they have learned during their stay in Kinshasa.

NEIGHBORHOOD

This corner has been the place of choice of drug users and mendicants, The "furniture" belongs to a man whom the guards say is insane. He sleeps here and has furnished his home with cast off items gathered who knows where. One night the floor lamp was on and a string of colored lights hung down the pole. It is to be removed and paved like the sidewalk that was recently pave, and a place reserved for the police to lounge around.

The banyan biffy, and waste basket, hopefully will be cleaned up too.

The view from our entrance toward the Catholic church in the School grounds and church offices compound.

Posting the Operation Smile Poster. Man on the left is our shoe shine friend, Didier.

Our friend Didier.

View across the street toward the Gare Centrale, the green building to the left.

Another view of the area under the banyan to be cleaned and paved.

Outside our parking area, the razor wire clothes line.

Posting more Operation Smile posters on the bus station wall.

View across the plaza toward the unfinished building. Work has ceased here.

New buss stops because the city has purchased new busses -- there are currently no city busses -- that we think will begin to circulate sometime soon. We have seen and heard them parading around the streets 25 or 30 at a time horns blaring, empty. Small building in the background houses public restrooms, recently opened.

What the finished building would look like if ever finished.

Tree trunk base by the shoe shine stand, depository for personal effects.

Closeup of the sleeping indigent. It is very surprising how few we see living on the streets in the open. There are more now that the dry season is here, because they don't worry about the rain drenching them.