Got to make your own fun!

All children love to play and children in the Congo are no different but they are much more creative than the average child . . . . by necessity.


Anything tied to a stick can become a toy when combined with imagination.

While stopped at the bank (yes we have banks in the Congo but not like any bank you have ever been SERVICED by), this young boy asked for something to eat. I gave him a bag with melted Nerts packets and a toy from out of a box of cereal. The toy was just a pretend gameboy and you would have thought i had given him a million dollars. He loved pretending it worked.

Now I have seen sand paintings but these children make you feel like they have an open pallet as they draw pictures in the sand.

These children were playing a game that seemed like "Jacks" but without a ball. They were using bottle caps.

Often you will find children and adults playing well used board games.

Anything can be used as checkers or chessmen, buttons, washers, rocks, bottle caps etc.

At Camp Luka we watched these boys play a game that appeared to be much like gambling using gum wrappers or some type of folded up paper. Maybe it was a Congolese PoKyMon.

Fooseball is big here and you can play for 50 francs or sometimes for nothing if you have a friend with a game. Mom and Dad like to play also. The games are usually set on the side of the street for all to watch the fun.

The best toys are the homemade toys you see that the children have carefully crafted with much detail

These boys have made a train out of sardine cans and plastic bottle caps

A great creation made of card board boxes and tin cans.

This car is a unique design of cardboard and plastic bottle caps

A boat is fashioned out of bamboo and wire. Very unique!

Now this is clever. the car is made of wood, tincan lids and plastic.

But look closely. Did that plastic use to be a flipflop?

A little girl is fixing dinner for her friends using her kitchen set or is it tea and crumpets for the ladies?

Plastic cartons and small tin cans! It works!

A kite can be sticks and a piece of plastic from the garbage if you add a string to it.

Football or soccer is big in the DRC. Where ever there is a patch of dirt it won't be long and sticks will be stuck in the ground for goal posts and a game is under way. A cloud of dust and tangled bodies and then their appears a ball flying out of the dustcloud The soccer balls are often plastic bags wound up tightly and wrapped with string or ribs from large leaves. The games the same, the rules haven't changed, just the gear is a bit different. How much does it cost to play little league football in the USA?

The Village Junglegym is big enough for everyone to play on.

But Farrell's favorite has to be the home made guitars. We have seen many of them .

This one is made out of a plastic bottle.

This guitar is made out of a tin can.

Life is good when you have an imagination, and you can make your own fun.

The Value of One Small Pamphlet

We went out to Kimbwala for church today. When we arrived Bishop Haboko was standing in the parking lot. No one who goes to church in these two wards have cars so the parking lot is always empty. He was standing at the gate and opened it so we could drive in. We asked him why he was out in the parking lot when his ward had already started their meetings. He said he thought he must be out there to greet us.

Last week he got free to attend Sunday School which hardly ever happens and he said he was sitting there enjoying Sunday School and the Spirit told him to get up and go out to the parking lot. He didn’t want to leave Sunday School because he was really enjoying it and he so seldom got time to go. He said the spirit kept telling him to go out in the parking lot. He finally got up and went out into the parking lot where there was no one. About a minute after standing there by the gate a women he did not know walked up. Bishop Haboko welcomed her and asked if she was in the other ward. She said no, this was her first time. She had in her hand a Joseph Smith pamphlet. She said she had found this pamphlet and there was a phone number on it so she called and they told her where she could find the church. She had come to learn more about the church. The bishop said he welcomed her and walked her into the building and introduced her to the missionaries and left her in their capable hands and he went back to Sunday School. Got to love Bishop Haboko. He is a man of great faith and is obedient in all things.



Another story of the Joesph Smith Pamphlet


In January a new family, Bro. MBUYI-MARCEL and Sis. META-BERTINE and their 7 children started attending the Malueka ward. They were soon baptized. The family had been attending the Apostolic Protestant Church. Bro Marcel had many questions and went to his pastor for answers. He wanted to know about apostles and prophets and why there weren't any today. He also wondered why there was no longer Revelation coming from God to his children here on earth. The minister did not have the answers for him but handed him a pamphlet and told him he didn't know how to answer those questions but this pamphlet talked about apostles and prophets and revelation. Maybe it would be of some help. It was a Joseph Smith's Testimony pamphlet. Bro. Marcel was intrigued and started looking for this church. It took him a while to locate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the pamphlet did not have a phone number or any information about where the church was located. Once the missionaries started to teach the family it wasn't difficult for Bro. Marcel and Sis. Bertine to accept this story of a young boy and angels and prophets who receives revelation from Heavenly Father. Mom and Dad were baptized one week and the following week the children were baptized. They are a strong family and a wonderful addition to the Malueka Ward. Sis. Bertine is the Young Women's President in the ward. Bro. Marcel is a Sunday School teacher.

This is a precious family that were just waiting for the gospel to enter their lives.

If you would like to know more about this pamphlet or find the answers to your questions visit http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

How important is a bathroom to a school of 500 Children?

When we first came to Kinshasa the first humanitarian project we submitted for approval was to improve a school in the community of Camp Luka.

The ASAMI Primary school was missing roofing in many places,

holes in the walls and no windows,

steps leading into the class rooms and

It had a partially finished latrine that was falling down

None the less they were holding school in the building but would have to cancel school if it rained. We had just completed the final pieces of the Camp Luka water project and it was such a wonderful addition to this neighborhood and here were all those children with no school to attend in their neighborhood.

We had been told that schools were not a priority for the humanitarian funds as there are so many schools in need of help here in Africa and no regulations or standards for schools but, we had been told of a great organization, IFESH, that specialized in building and improving schools so we worked with them and wrote up a project for the ASAMI Primary school.

As we had been told would happen the project did not pass the criteria for an area initiative. We were very disappointed but moved on to other projects.

A few months ago we had the occasion to return to Camp Luka and follow up on the water project and saw that some improvements had been made in the primary school building but the school still had no usable latrine. IFESH had already evaluated the latrine situation and had a plan drawn up from our first efforts. We worked with the community and submitted a project to add a latrine to the school along with Family Health and Hygiene training which did pass criteria and we were on our way.

We went with Jeanne, from IFESH to tell the community and start the project. The meeting was choice in that Jeanne conducted an election among the community members and a project president, vice president, sec and treasurer were elected along with a committee for construction, and a committee for community outreach taking responsibility for the health and hygiene training. The election was very serious business and took 2 hours to complete. At the end everyone had a job to do and the project was officially underway.

One site visit found the footings and pit completed and the health and hygiene training was already underway.

The community was doing the work under the supervision of IFESH. A second visit found the walls nearly finished and a training for the community on conflict resolution ,being taught by IFESH. It was very rewarding to see the community work together for the common good.

Sister Moon took advantgage of all the children wanting to be a part and taught them some songs like the Hokey Pokey, Going on Safari.

They had a logt of fun. They then sang her some songs in Lingala.

The Closing Ceremony was soon at hand. The Latrine was officially turned over to the school and a dedication prayer and ceremony officially opened the latrine for business.

Eric our site manaager conducted the ceremony.

The Chef of the village and some of the elders offered a prayer and then drank Orange Fanta which they spit on each corner of the latrine as part of the dedication ( they were suppose to use Palm wine but settled for Fanta). We understand this was part of the ceremony to ward off any evil or harm to the latrine.

The official ribbon cutting(actually TP cutting)

Four latrines 2 for girls and 2 for boys

We then held graduation with certificates of participation for all the Health and Hygiene trainers that will be going out into the village to train the members of the community.

This was a pretty grand event for a latrine. It made us realize how important it was to the community to have this addition to their school.

The Moons came to lend their support and enjoy the festivities.

This project has accomplished several goals. A school of more than 500 students now has a latrine, where before they were using the outdoors. A community has received a training course in basic hygiene and now are better prepared to help themselves avoid disease and achieve better health. The community also has a better understanding of resolving conflicts and working together to complete community projects. The community now feels better about itself.
Working with good partners always makes for a better project. The good people at IFESH, along with the Camp Luka community members put forth the effort necessary to make this project a winner.