Back in Nyankunde!

We’ve now been back in Nyankunde for 3 weeks after nearly 8 months back in the states. Our time in the states was wonderfully full. Extensive time with family, visits to old friends all over the US,

Luke with a sand shark he caught in Sarasota Bay

Our family with Luke and Miriam's great-grandparents

exploring Great Sand Dunes, Yellowstone and Zion, looking for sharks teeth and shells in Topsail and Sarasota, becoming part of a new organization, Serge, which we love. Not least, we were able to share with so many friends and family about our two years in Nyankunde and our calling to go back. And with the help of so many of you…Here we are! Thanks to all of you who have made it possible for us once again to serve in Nyankunde.

How do you get to Nyankunde? Well…it depends on whether you have more time or more money. After flying from Atlanta to London, London to Abu Dhabi, and Abu Dhabi to Kampala, Uganda, we had a choice. We could spend $250/person for a one hour flight from Kampala to Bunia followed by an 8 minute flight from Bunia to Nyankunde—or we could take the long way. We chose the latter. We took the Link bus for less than $10/person across Uganda from Kampala to Fort Portal in 

Miriam eating muchomo (grilled kebabs) on the Link bus

Uganda’s beautiful western highlands. We stayed one night at the wonderful Rwenzori View Guesthouse with its memorable family style dinners and then 3 nights at the Kluge Guest Farm, where we enjoyed good food, a pool, forest walks where we saw several snakes, black and white casqued hornbills and black and white colobus monkeys, and beautiful grounds (small parts of which are now in our garden in Nyankunde thanks to the generosity of the owner!). On the morning of the 15^th, we took a taxi from Fort Portal to Rebisengo on the border with the DRC, about a 1.5 hour drive. We then crossed the Semliki river on a little wooden boat propelled by a man with a pole. A 

Crossing the Semliki River

moto picked up Anna and the kids and then the bags on the other side of the river and drove them about 1 km to the Barasi airstrip. I walked and bird-watched. When we got to the Barasi airstrip, which is barely visible from the air, our friend and MAF pilot Chad Dimon was there to pick us up. 

On the Barasi airstrip with friend and pilot Chad Dimon

From there we took the familiar but spectacular flight over the Semliki valley near a huge waterfall, then over the mountains to Nyankunde. The only surprise was a huge expanse of dirt right outside of Nyankunde, courtesy of Chinese earth moving equipment in search of gold. Sad.

Flying over the Semliki valley with view of the Semliki River

A new gold mine right outside of Nyankunde

Nyankunde from the air

Waiting for us at the MAF hangar in Nyankunde was a crowd of friends, both missionary and Congolese. Our MAF friends, the Cadds, the Dimons, the Striezels and the Petersons were there, as was one of our gardeners, the Cooper’s night watchman, Edmond, and a number of others. Nearby, a

A warm welcome at the MAF hangar in Nyankunde

Luke and Miriam back with friends

crowd of Luke’s friends were waiting to greet him. It’s rare to see Luke acting shy. This was one of those times. Luke had forgotten all of his French and didn’t know how to communicate with them. Thankfully by the end of the afternoon he was playing soccer with them, wrestling, a communicating via roughhousing.

Our transition back to Nyankunde life has gone well. We stayed in a MAF house for several days while we unpacked and arranged our house. I had to learn how to ground our inverter the African way (with charcoal and salt mixed into the dirt around the grounding rod for better conduction). Luke and Miriam quickly started playing with their old (and many new) friends. I’ve counted over 20 kids in our yard on several occasions. 20 is too many…but it is complicated knowing how and when and who to send home, particularly when they speak Swahili and not French. One enormous blessing is that Denise, the the kids' wonderful nanny, has decided to come work for us again. Not only does this save us the trouble of finding a new one but it will help the kids transition and relearn French and it will free us both up to work at the hospital. 

We expected the inevitable onslaught of requests for financial help, but it is always surprisingly exhausting and frustrating when it comes. Most of our friends are in tougher financial straights than when we left them. The dry season has been a long one; the hospital is paying about 40% salary right now due to low income; many peoples’ kids are getting sent home from school due to delinquent school dues. We much prefer to give to something that is sustainable, that doesn’t encourage dependence. But what about when you’re surrounded by people in desperate financial situations? How do you pay for your kid to go to school when you’re not getting paid? Here’s some of the requests that have been made:

·      An orphan who lives with his grandfather asked for us to pay for him to go to school (about $5 - 7/month)

·      The brother of one my patients who died after a long illness asked to work for us to pay for his schooling. His family spent everything on his sister’s medical bills. We’ve paid for Benjamin’s schooling in the past and I’d much prefer that he work to earn this…but we already have 3 nursing students gardening for us.

·      Another boy named David came to our house because he was “chassé” (chased) from school due to inability to pay. He is one of 9 kids; his dad works for the Red Cross but doesn’t get paid and butchers animals and hunts for gold to make a living. David is obviously intelligent and it would be a huge loss for him not to go to school. But should we pay for him?

·      One of my doctor colleagues has asked for us to fund him to go to residency, which would likely cost around $5000/year

·      A local health insurance cooperative connected to our hospital asked us for $13,600—yes, I wrote that right—to help them pay salaries and expand their operations to get more community buy-in

·      The head of a health center asked us to pay for his wife to finish nursing school. They apparently take care of 4 orphans from their extended family in addition to their own kids and he is only getting a fraction of his normal salary

·      Another nursing student asked us for work to pay for her to finish nursing school

·      One of the hospital nurses would like for us to pay for him to get continuing nursing education (university level)

·      One of the hospital chaplains asked us for $600 to go to a hospital chaplaincy conference in Goma for 6 weeks

·      The local radio, which does wonderful work, has asked us to pay for their internet expenses

That’s all the requests I can think of for now, but there will likely be more. How do we live generously with open hands and enter into the messy reality of this place while at the same time being wise stewards of the funds entrusted to us? We try to be thoughtful and prayerful about every request and to show the person we care about them—and we try to always live in the murky middle ground where it is rarely easy to say a quick no or yes. We don’t want to be gullible givers or to enable irresponsibility…but we also don’t want to have so many criteria and so much rigidity that we cut ourselves off from this community that we have been called to serve.

Luke with his 2 chameleons