And the Training goes on and on and on . . . . . .

You all know about the Neonatal Resuscitation Training Program that the church sponsors throughout the world. We hosted the program last October here in Kinshasa and in Brazzaville. See our August 2007 blog.

While doing the follow-up to the program we realized that those physicians and nurses who had been trained were perpetuating the training far beyond their own centers. Many people had been trained but were without the resuscitation kits to practice their new found skills. We submitted an Area Project for 100 resuscitation kits to give to these newly trained centers.

The other day we met with Dr. Ngoy from St Joseph’s hospital. We wanted to give him 4 kits to share with any of the centers he had trained. He invited us to a session he was having the next week where he was training 35 people from 30 centers around Kinshasa. We told him we would bring him 31 more kits for his training session. He was elated and told us this was an answer to his prayer.

We went to the Dr. Ngoy’s training session and were delighted to see the teaching method being passed on to 35 birthing attendants, nurses and midwives. The instruction was being given by Dr. Ngoy and another doctor who had also been in the original training in August. The session was patterned after the training they had received from Dr. Preece and the team. This was confirmation that the NRT Program was truly successful. Perpetuation of the training is the key.
Well we submitted for a new NRT project for 2008 and we have approval. We have plans to take the training to Lubumbashi on the other side of the DRC. We have found a champion there who had never heard of the program and was very escited to get involved. He will help us set up the program and Dr. Preece will come and help us with the arrangements in June. While he is here we plan to have a special training session for the Kingasani hospital here in Kinshasa. Kingasani births more babies in a month than any other hospital. They give a large amount of charity care and have other centers besides their main hospital. This hospital has yet to participate in the NRT training but we hope by doing a special training for them we can guarantee that every person attending births in their system can be competent in the NRT program. Dr. Preece will conduct this training and use some of the doctors he trained last August who are carriny on the training.

Dr. Preece will return with a team to the DRC before we finish our mission so we can do the training in Lubumbashi. Got to love this program. In the words of Marie Josee, a nurse in Luputa who called us one Sunday morning very excited to tell us that because of the training she received on NRT, they were saving babies in Luputa.
WELL THE NRT PROGRAM IS SAVING BABIES IN THE DRC AND WE HOPE WE CAN MAKE SURE EVEN MORE BABIES GET SAVED.

Today Dr. Ngoy cancelled an appointment with us because he was busy training again. He was so excited. He said that this morning they were delivering babies and two babies were born who refused to breath. In the past they would have just pronounced them dead and moved on with heavy hearts but today they followed the algorythum set up by the NRT program and both babies started breathing. Their APGAR scores were good and they felt like they would be fine healthy babies. He praised the program and expressed his appreciation for the new skills he had learned that he felt were making such a difference in their maternal health practice. It seems to prove the theory that if you give people good training and the right equipment they can do their job, be proud of what they are doing and most of all love what tyou are doing.

Hooray for the NRT program!!!

Bishop Kuteka, A Spiritual Giant

Our Bishop, A Spiritual Giant

Bishop Kuteka is bishop of the Malueka Ward here in Kinshasa. This ward covers a population that is quite poor and has many needs.

Bishop Kuteka is a man who lives by the spirit. In 1994, President Howard W. Hunter advised all worthy Latter-day Saints to get a temple recommend, even if they lived far from a temple. Bishop Kuteka, living far from any temple was touched by these words and he asked his branch president for an interview so he could have a temple recommend. He says he did not realize then that Father in Heaven had a great blessing in store for him. It wasn’t long before he felt the Lord’s hand touching his life. Through his work he was given an opportunity to go to Korea for some meetings. He arranged to lay over in Switzerland on the way home and was able to attend the temple and receive his endowment. You can read his full account of this experience in the Liahona, Aug 1997 “From Zaire to the Lord’s House.”


Last week we witnessed a wonderful example of shepherding the flock when Bishop Kuteka again followed the Spirit.

We had been given a bag of clothing by the out going missionary office couple, the Thomas. We wanted to take it out to our ward to help the members but were unsure how it would be received. We took the clothing out and gave it to the bishop to use at his discretion.

He later told us of his experience. He took the clothing to welfare meeting as promted by the spirit in directed his welfare committee in how to use the clothing. He knew he had many members of the committee who needed the clothing for them selves and their own families but he asked them to think about the ward members and as a committee they should decide who was in most need. As he held up each article of clothing he asked the committee to think about the ward members and who that article of clothing could benefit. The committee assigned each piece to a member and then the bishop assigned two members of the committee to deliver the clothing. He said he witnessed the confirming of the spirit as the committee chose the same people he had in mind and who he knew were in great need. The bishop could have made the decision on his own or given the clothing to the Relief Society Pres. to disperse but instead he took the opportunity to teach his counsel in the welfare plan.

Here in the middle of Africa we have a wonderful bishop, living by the Spirit, shepherding his flock, teaching the principles of the gospel and training his ward officers in the true principles of welfare.

The Thomas will never know how many people benefited from their bag of clothing nor does it matter. The blessing of this clothing is the lessons learned from a bishop who listens to the spirit and then acts upon the spirit.

High Fashion in the DRC

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High fashion in the Market. We found this lady and her gorgeous outfit in the market in the little village of Luputa. She was selling plastic tubing and other hardware items. She was so elegant we had to take her picture.

Older people in the congo can remember when clothes were made out of raffia and bark. Today the Congo is the African center of fashion. Beautiful colorful textiles are produced from 100% cotton fabric wax dyed in brilliant, colors and patterns unique to the Congo. Women wear long dresses with detail work and then cover the skirt of their dress with a pagne, a piece of cloth wrapped around and tucked in the band to anchor it around the waste. The Pagne is a versital piece which is part of the the dress but can be removed and used as a shawl or worn over the head as a cover from the sun or rain. It can be wrapped around an infant and tied on the mothers back to carry the child and leave her hands free. We have been told that the pagne is suppose to only be worn by married women and is noted as an honor and sign prestige.

Dress designs are unique and dresses are decorated with machine embroidery, bias tape, lace and often the fabric itself is used in a way to create a unique design to the dress. Some parts of the dress may be cut on the diagonal or strip pieced with two coordinating fabrics. Much attention can be paid to detail making the dresses artful creations.

Men's shirts are made of the same fabrics as the womens and the design of the shirt is often adding borders or turning one piece of the shirt one way and the other side a different angle.

Fabric can be bought at the market where you will find women selling fabric in small stalls. The stalls often have similar fabrics as the women usually buy their fabrics from the same wholesaler. Fabric is sold in 6 yrd lengths for about $10. The dresses are fashioned so as to leave the salvage edge as the bottom of the dress and the salvage edge shows along with the fabric design label. Often the salvage edge is decorated with medallions or emblems (mark of the dyer) that add to the uniquness of the fabric. Fabric is labeled with glued on paper labels which have to be removed carefully or they become a permanent part of the fabric. It isn’t unusual to see these labels left in place after a dress is made.

Note the sewing machine being carried on top of the head.

Dressmakers and tailors are educated in technical universities and colleges. The skill is very detailed. Most sewing machines are the treddle Singer sewing machines because of the inconsistancy of electricity. It is not unusual to see seamstresses and tailors sewing outside under the mango tree and often they are teaching someone else how to sew.

The following women are all from small villages and what they are wearing is their everyday clothing.

Dressed alike for a funeral Momma and her baby I bought this same fabric -fishes

Sunday Dress in Luputa a small village in central Africa

Sunday dress for church Dressed up for announcement of water project



Dressed up for Sunday

These women are preparing a garden plot. These are their work clothes.

A Trip to the Grand Marche

Today was an interesting day. We started work on a new project. We are working to strengthen the handicap center’s Vocational School. This school is for the physically and mentally handicapped who are unable to function in a regular school and whose families are unable to afford special school. It’s curriculum is to prepare the students to become independent and have a way of earning some money. They teach French, reading and writing, health and hygiene, math, business skills, cooking and sewing. While we were doing our wheelchair project the instructors of the school invited us in to see their school which consisted of three rooms at the center. It was obvious they were working with very little materials but were giving help to many families by helping their handicapped family member be productive and more independent.

They needed 6 sewing machines and a freezer to meet the needs of their sewing and cooking classes. We added a service component to the project by furnishing bolts of material for the sewing class to make surgical drapes and gowns for the handicap surgical center and we added copies of the church’s Family Health and Hygiene book to be used in their personal health and hygiene class.

Today we took the sewing instructor shopping for the goods. We rode in the back of a van (like The Luputa vans) and we went to the Congolese market area. I wish I could show you a panorama of this place. It is just unbelievable. It is just a two way street with businesses on both sides and parallel parking on both sides. Nothing to get excited about but add the Congolese to the mix and it becomes quite an adventure.


The one teacher that went with us worried about me and was afraid I was going to get robbed. She told Farrell, “The sister needs to be more careful there are robbers and mean people around here.” I kept walking out in front of her or lagging behind her so she finally came and grabbed my hand and drug me down the street. She would have been real nervous if she had known I was carrying $1000 in my purse to pay for all the things we bought. We had to go to 3 different stores to get the supplies. The store where we bought the sewing machines was just a little walk-in with a counter and boxes piled clear to the ceiling. We could barely fit three people in the store. The store where we bought the freezer was larger but had hardly any merchandise in the store. The fabric store was packefd with bolts of material for making drapes and hardly had any room to walk down the two isles. The fabric was cut on a table about 3 feet by 5 feet. Not big enough for a bolt of fabric and I was glad we were buying full bolts of cloth and not having to go through the chore of cutting fabric.

Our transport was unable to find a parking place so he circled the area while we shopped. We purchased everything and then hauled it all to the van. Several men helped us with the hauling and then each felt they should be paid for their service but we were not sure who had really helped and who just were the groupies. Farrell paid everyone something. Some were not happy saying it wasn’t enough and others were pleased to get 500 francs.

Although we had a large van the driver neglected to put the seats up and just laid the sewing machines on top of the benches. We were unable to get all the machines in the van so we ended up having to go back the next morning. The pictures of the streets are from the 8:00 AM traffic. By noon the congestion is complete but I was unable to take pictures at that time as many people do not like you taking pictures and get very angry and the police may confiscate your camera. Therefore you will need to use your imagination to visualize the true congestion we encountered.

There are so many people on this street. If I had to guess I would say at least 2000 in a 3 block stretch. Like Farrell says, it was pandemonium.

I wish I could have taken pictures of all that was happening, better yet a movie. This is a part of the Congo that is impossible to describe. I am sure there are placed like these elsewhere but I have never seen them nor do I think I will ever go anywhere that is quite the same.

When we were buying the sewing machines the instructor from the school that was with us admired some watches in the store. She Pointed to my watch and indicated that she really liked my watch and it was just like the ones in the store. When we were riding back to the handicapped center she again pointed to my watch and then to her own wrist. I thought she wanted my watch but finally I realized she had wanted me to buy her the watch in the store. I was turned off by this behavior when we were trying so hard to help the school and felt she was brazen to expect me to buy her a watch. After I had thought about it I realized, well, she didn’t have a watch and she is a teacher trying to run a school without a timepiece to help her know what time it is. She probably really needs a watch and really needs one. I wish I had had on a junk watch like the dozen or so I have at home (the USA) in my drawer but the one I had on was a memento from my IHC days and not one I wanted to give up. I will have to think about getting her a watch. Shucks, I should get each of the instructors a watch. Now if I can only get that passed Farrell. He continues to tell me I can’t feed everyone in the Congo.

Instructors for the Handicapped Vocational School (one on the right asked for the watch)

Everyday we are inundated by people wanting something. I can pass many up but I can’t handle those homeless boys who know when they see the red truck with the moondele lady they are sure to get a handout. Those with braces on get more than just the ragged little beggars and I am in tears when the little boy without an arm hits us up. This is the hardest part of this mission. Farrell talks tough but if I keep a firm upper lip and don’t give the handout he usually succumbs. Just part of life in the Congo.

One of "our" homeless boys.

City of Hope

Camp by the River

When ever we would drive out of Kinshasa towards the airport we would pass an area that was very dilapidated. The river bank was covered with lean-tos covered with plastic and palm leaves. There were hundreds of people and everyone was dressed in rags. The area looked very desolate even compared to the poor areas of Kinshasa. We wondered who were those people and why were they all gathered on the river in such terrible conditions. We asked several people and were told that these were displaced persons, or refuges, who had come to Kinshasa from the eastern part of the Congo fleeing the violence of that area. Many were widows, orphans and people who had been injured in the wars.
There wasn’t much sympathy among the citizens we talked to and they said that the government was taking care of them. Each time we would drive by my heart went out and I wondered if they had any medical care, how were they avoiding cholera and malaria, were they working or earning any money or were they starving. This was not an area you could just stop in and ask questions as it is not safe to tread into these areas especially when you don’t know the circumstances or understand the language.
Then last Oct. 25th Kinshasa was hit with the heaviest rainstorm that the area had experienced since 1969. There was a lot of flooding and at least 30 lives were lost. We were unable to travel to our assigned ward in the suburbs as the roads were impassable and everyone was trying to dig their homes out which had been buried or undercut by the washing away of the sand. We worked at helping some of the areas such as Laloux where we have a water project. They needed sandbags but we were limited as to what we could do as travel to the areas was limited.
As we took the road passed the refuge camp we saw that the camp was gone. There was nothing there. Apparently the flooding had washed this whole area right on down the Kalamie river and out into the Congo river. We started asking about the refuges and found out that the government had came with trucks and forcibly removed the refuges and had taken them to an area east of the airport and quite a distance from Kinshasa proper. We tried to find someone that was monitoring this group or anyone who might be helping them but found no one. We read on the internet that the refuges were in great need as they did not have shelter or food or cooking utensils as everything had been washed away.
We felt this should qualify for some emergency relief but could not find any agency involved in offering any relief. We were approaching the holidays and all the Red Cross workers, Doctors without Borders etc. had gone to their home countries for the holidays and not scheduled to return till the first of the year.
Now we could just ignore this problem but it kept nagging and we decided to approach the church for advise. We were told to find a partner to work with and find out what the needs were. Easier said than done as we had no idea how to get to this new area and we again were concerned for safety and always the language is a problem.
We called our friends at IFESH, an NGO out of Arizona. We had worked with them in supplying some humanitarian containers for a project they were doing in the eastern part of the DRC supporting a program to rehabilitate child soldiers. They have native Congolese on their team and we felt they might could help us. Kinge and Jeanne of IFESH agreed to do some research and see what they could find out. We learned that the government had indeed moved this group of people to the new area and given each family a plot of ground 20X25 meters. They had provided some police for the group to keep order and were starting to build them some shelters from 2x2 boards and plastic sheeting. IFESH had arranged for us to have a meeting with the presidents of three different groups who had been moved to this new area.
What we found on our first trip to City of Hope

The trip to the area is difficult requiring us to travel through a maze of communities or suburbs of Kinshasa, a trip that took about one hour. As we crested a hill we could see off to our right a haze of orange. That Jean said was the New City of Hope, so named by the government because it was suppose to give these people a new chance and a new hope for a better life.

City of Hope across on the other hill.

Farrell with Kinge and Jeanne of IFESH

This “tent” city was heart wrenching as the area had hardly any shelter from the sun, only a few trees. The ground is very sandy and poor quality. The people were sitting in the dirt with just lean–tos made of palm frons as their only shelter. There were the plastic covered shelters being built but the people had so many needs.
We met with the presidents of the association and discussed their immediate needs. They told us that people were hungry, they did not have medicine or a health clinic although Doctors without Borders was coming twice a week to offer some health care to those who were sick. They had no cooking utensils, clothes or other basic necessities as everything had been washed away in the flood. We asked them for a prioritized list of needs which they had already prepared for us. The needs were great but it seemed difficult to determine the best way to help as we knew we couldn’t do everything on their list. This is a picture of all those we met with.

Plastic tents built by government
Defining their space with stick fences and planting hedges

We received approval from church headquarters for the project 2 months after making the request. We knew we needed to reevaluate the situation as things may have changed and needs may be different. We met again with the committee at the City of Hope and found things improving. Many of the Tent houses had been constructed and people were starting to define their space. The needs were still the same and so we proceeded to get started on the hard part, getting the goods to the people. It would have been easy to have the church send us containers from humanitarian services in SLC but since we are unable to receive containers and the shipping is way out of site we have to find the supplies we need right here. We needed to find 1502 mattresses, 1502 tarps and 1502 blankets. I wish I could explain how difficult this is to do but we did have our IFESH partners who would help us and we set to work to arrange monies, transport, security, and the required amount of goods.

Barriers to success in the project.

1. The DRC is a cash society. The church finance department requires you to have a receipt before giving funds and prefer that you pay by check. Nobody accepts checks and this financial quagmire is a battle that Farrell worked on for 3 weeks. It alone is quite a story but too long to tell.
2. Difficult to get bulk items here in the Congo.
3. Transportation to the site is very difficult and impassible by large trucks.
4. We were naïve

Transportation was arranged well in advance and at the last minute fell through. The only road big enough for trucks to get through was impassible because a bridge had been taken out. A little miracle happened. We were directed to a member of the church who happens to have a trucking business and he wanted to help us by delivering the goods. He found a way to get the goods up to the city of hope by taking his trucks to the area of the bridge and unloading them, carrying the goods across the ravine and loading them on a smaller truck he was able to get through the back way. This required numerous trips by the trucks. We were receiving goods at the site all day during the distribution

The Minister of Humanitarian Services came and started the distribution by giving a speech and handing the supplies out to the community leaders.The community members danced and sang songs prior to the ceremony. They sang "Thank you Jesus for Papa Barlow and Mama Barlow" then they gave their tongue warbling shouts and danced some more.
IFESH spent four days at the site handed out vouchers to each family so that we would not have any problem distributing the goods on distribution day.
No Voucher – no goods. This proved to be very valuable as we had people from outside the area come in wanting to be part of the distribution and we had no problem identifying those we had come to help.
The day was hot and humid and where we were was very dirty. We loved being part of the distribution as we were able to show people that the church was serious about treating others with Christ like love. We met some wonderful people and saw many families blessed. We worked 12 hours on Monday and didn’t finish before dark so had to come back the next day to finish. Going home that first night was interesting trying to find our way through the craters and avoid all the holes and ditches along the narrow roads. Thank goodness we had a great guide.

Did we do any good ? We hope so. The ones that made you think so were the children who came with their voucher to get their blanket for their families and the mothers who had tears in their eyes and a great smile that would warm any heart. One mother, with a baby on her back and one in her arms told us, “Tonight me and my babies will sleep warm.”

This beautiful woman expressed her thanks and gave me the Congolese kiss on the cheek three times. she had dressed up for the occasion and was very grateful for the help.


An exhausting experience but one of great satisfaction. We continue to be overwhelmed with the generosity of the people who donate to the Church Humanitarian Services and the ability of those in charge to determine where these sacred funds should be used.
Someone got a little too much sun today!

A couple of days after the distribution we had members of the church coming to the office and calling on the phone to tell us they had seen us on the DR Congo National television showing us handing out the blankets and tarps and a great explanation of the church’s humanitarian program. Farrell had been interviewed by the TV and newspaper reporters at the ceremony. They asked him if the church was doing this service to get new members and he told them no that we believed that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and should actively be helping each other.

A man , a recipient of the supplies came by the day after distribution and told us he had been to our church before. He had wanted to play his guitar and sing with his wife for the congregation at Sacrament meeting but was told we didn’t have that type of music in our Sunday meetings but he was welcome to come and be a part of the congregation. He said he was somewhat offended and left feeling like he had a gift he wanted to share and praise the Lord and our church would not allow him to do that. He said when he saw us handing out the supplies he wondered, are they imbeciles, coming out in the heat and the dirt and personally handing out these goods or are they showing the love of Christ. He watched us and felt a wonderful feeling of peace and knew it was the Savior’s love. When he was handed his blanket, tarp and mattress he again felt that wonderful feeling and knew we believed we were truly volunteers for Christ.

He told us he was going to swallow his pride and go back to the church and listen this time because he felt he was missing something very important. We were so touched. This was important enough for him to come tell us that he had walked (no money for transport) all the way from the city of hope to our office to tell of his experience.