March 18, 2018
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| Waiting to cross the Semliki River from Uganda to DRC |
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| Refugee camp in Bunia with >100,000 people |
We are back in Eastern Congo from our three month home
leave. We had quite the eventful trip back
to Congo from Switzerland, totally 5 days, 4missed flights, 4 countries,
layovers, Turkish baths….finally arriving to the Semliki River where we crossed
into DRC where we collapsed under a tree awaiting our final flight into our
village. Warren said this was a great
adventure, whereas I might have said a major inconvenience. Anytime we had to transfer flights we missed
our connection due to bad weather in Europe.
All in all we were taken care of, beds to sleep in, and the means to
travel. It is good to be back and in
some ways feels like we never left.
For those of you following the news there have been recent
problems in our Ituri Province resulting in many refugees pouring into the city
of Bunia and over the border into western Uganda. Villages have been burned and populations
have fled certain areas. There is a lot
of confusion about why this is happening, ethnic and otherwise. I will refer you to some recent new articles
from the New York Times showing these areas:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/burned-villages-democratic-republic-congo.html
We visited a camp for internally displaced people in Bunia which
contained >100,000 people, from these areas mentioned. Food has been scarce and our MAF teammates
have been helping with food provisions. Have
you ever cooked for thousands of people on charcoal? We visited the camp briefly and were met with
a lot of blank looks and people standing around, some with tarps about a
tent-like structure others with only the skeleton of a structure. It is not an easy situation and we pray that
things stabilize soon without any further destruction. We feel safe where we are currently and are
staying informed about security of the area on a daily basis.
Perhaps due to all of this our hospital census has been extremely
low. I think the pediatric service has
about 10 patients! I suppose this gives
me time to do administrative and home-related things, Swahili learning. This may be a first!
Emmanuel has enjoyed being in his home again, sleeping in his
bed, holding his parrot, going to school, being with his nanny Maziga who he affectionately calls “ My Ziga” and playing with his friends.Yesterday we had fun on the slip and slide
with our friends from Isiro. Emmanuel advanced
in his English during our time in the US and is not speaking a lot of French,
but this will come back in no time. We
struggled with routines and discipline with all our traveling and changes, but
things seem to be settling down again.
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| Emmanuel and Miriam |
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| Slip and Slide time |
Rainy season has started and everything is becoming green
again! This is my favorite season of the
year…it is just so beautiful!
Back to cooking from scratch, pasteurizing milk, roasting coffee
and peanuts, walking to the hospital, sandals, lots of bugs, and hills to sweat
going up. I have started running again
which is always very humbling. Life is
beautiful in its simplicity, but other things are more complicated like
official documents, official mail, planting a garden by hand, etc…I am very
thankful for all the everyday help we have with cooking/shopping/cleaning. It makes it possible for us to work here and
minister to others.
We just wanted to keep you posted on our whereabouts and let you
know that we are doing fine. Keep us and
the people of Eastern Congo in your prayers.
Pray for security and that the current conflicts will stop. Pray for our hospital to have a strong
witness for Jesus in this needy place.
Blessings,
Lindsey for the Coopers
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