Entrance to Our Building

Emmanuel, Sean, Mbuyi, at the entrance to our parking area. In the background you can see two guards, the  steel pylons marking the entry driveway, at an angle. Behind Emmanuel, in the wall the grey, steel, sliding door through which we enter is visible. Inside there is a steel lift barrier similar to a railroad bar. We stop, turn off the engine, release the hood, and wait while security guards use a mirror on a handle to survey under the car, then lift the hood to inspect for bombs. When they are done, they blow a whistle or sometimes clap their hands, then the metal bar similar to a railroad crossing bar, except this one is coiled with razor wire, is raised so we can proceed. Leaving the compound through a separate steel door is preceded by a lift barrier bar, from the other side of the compound.

The mission truck leaves revealing the Banyan at the entrance to our compound. I show it because all day there are people gathered under the banyan on the stools, and on handicap tricycles, cooking, selling, talking, who knows what they do all day. The tree serves as a urinal, place to hang things, sometimes a waste basket.

Below, Sean getting ready to board the Jeffery Travels shuttle for the airport.

This is the entrance to the Catholic School compound to the right.

Meeting with three Stake Presidents on the lawn at the Seminary and Institute  building. Temple site in the background.  Brother Otterson and Brother Von Rosen and Sean Donnelly listening to the Stake Presidents to learn about their needs in Kinshasa so that the Public Affairs organization can better serve their needs.

Our four National Directors. Brothers Kubangila from Kinshasa, Mbidi from Lubumbashi, Tehe-Job from Caneroon, and Yengo from Brazzaville. All are amazingly well informed and enthusiastic. All but Tehe-Job are long-time members. Tehe-Job has been a member about 11 months. He joined after a vision of an ancient personnage which he later recognized when he saw a picture in the Book of Mormon.

Brother Otterson, foreground, and Brother Donnelly.

Our friend Crispin, custodian at the S and I building.

Our training group with the Seminary and Institute building behind.

Visiting the Camp Luka Chapel construction site. Brother Billings talking to Brother Von Rosen and Emmanuel,  Sisdter Moon on the right.

The children sit on the porch of the rented building during Sacrament Meeting. 

After Church everyone socialized outside and the children love to stare at us and we take their pictures.

Brother Billings with one of his construction students. The students are returned missionaries who qualify for participation in a very structured education program with on-the-job experience and classroom training, accredited through LDS Business College. They are tested quarterly for three levels of achievement before receiving a completion certificate. Then they get jobs with local contractors. The goal is to encourage them to become contractors, hire, and train others, and pay them justly.

The Branch Choir made up of young people who sing before and after Church, very enthusiastically.

The children help put away the outside chairs after the meeting.

Brother Otterson and a little girls with beaded cornrow extensions.

Example of an elaborate extension/wig. The variety is endless. They last about a year before having to be replaced, we are told.

Kids have to be cajoled to smile. Very serious children after church.

This little boy is like others we see here and there. He appears to have had some sort of accident, and I couldn't get him to smile.

After Church we drove into the village and then walked to a well site constructed with Church funds. On the way I noticed this corn mill operating at the side of the path.

The well and our visitors.

The Pentecostal meeting behind the fabric partitions. The Preacher was really haranguing the  members of his flock, before they broke into glorious song, accompanied by some sort of clicking rhythm instruments. They kept peeking over the fabric to see who we were.

This little girl was carrying her little sibling on her back along the path as we returned to our vehicles.

Here is the path walked from our trucks, on our return.

We encountered this contrasting little girl in Sunday Best, using a cell phone and I had to take the picture.  Look at that  hair piece and dress.

Boys playing in the stream we crossed on a bridge on foot.

Our after-dinner portrait at President Jameson's apartment. You should know who these people are after viewing the other images.

Thursday 21 March 2013

The lizard appeared on our roof top balcony, hunting insects. I watched it during breakfast. It disappeared after awhile. When I went out on the patio to inspect the plants, it had hidden among the pots. When I passed it dashed through the open door into the apartment. It was comical trying to get traction on the smooth limestone tile floors and slid around during evasive maneuvers. We cornered it and released it back onto the roof.

Our new friend whom we met, from Cameroon, Tehe-Job Emmanuel, national  Public Affairs Director, here for training  Saturday. He is well spoken and energetic and has done wonderful things in Cameroon.

Brother Emmanuel was very impressed with the physical facilities in Kinshasa. Here he is standing before the  Kinshasa  Stake Center panel, at the temple site. The Church in Cameroon is much less developed.

This car appeared in our apartment parking lot. Not typical by any means of  the automobiles in Kinshasa.  We thought it humorous.

Johannesburg Public Affairs Conference

Sunnyside Hotel grounds where we stayed in Johannesburg. They have a great buffet.

The hotel grounds are decorated with numerous stone sculptures.

The sitting room of the original home built in 1854 for wealthy industrialists.

During the training we met the very talented  LDS National Directors from several African Nations, and  the couple missionaries from those areas. They came from Angola, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and many more.

The "White House" where the Area Presidency and Legal Council live. It is adjacent to the temple and the Church Offices for Temporal Affairs. Part of our conference was conducted here. Michael von Rosen from SLC, is the assistant to the world Public Affairs Director, Michael Otterson.

Walkway behind the Temporal Affairs offices which are build on a large stone outcropping below the temple site.

I am not sure what these birds were, but they were on the lawn of the White House when we first arrived. They have a piercing cry as they fly. About as big as a wild turkey.

We met the Cookes. Brother Cooke is part of the Area Presidency. They know my sister and brother-in-law who were in the New Zealand Mission when Brother Cooke was mission president.

I got a hair cut while Sue was having her hair done.

Sue's stylist cutting her hair.

The new Sue...Sister Bybee.

I bought a hat for the bush when we go to Luputa, in the middle of nowhere.

The "Nauvoo" chapel, constructed on a very small lot, so it is three stories, with the chapel on the top. It is on the road near the airport in Kinshasa. Note all the transports. There are thousands of them, all battered and barely running, that serve as public transportation in Kinshasa.

This fellow is here every time we pass on the way to the airport. This is his home. He survives on the berm between the paved and un-paved, soon to be paved,  portions of the road, amid the dust and exhaust of passing vehicles.

Johannesburg South Africa LDS Temple

Entrance to Johannesburg Temple

Elder and Sister Bybee

Sister Bybee and Public Affairs National Director from Angola. They speak Portuguese. Sue and She struck up a friendship.

Grounds at the back of the temple.

View over Johannesburg from the back of the temple. Note the electric fence in evidence at almost every place we saw. South Africa has an extremely high crime rate.