The following post is taken from a letter regarding recent repair activity at Mangungu. Four men made a trek there this summer. Part 1 of the letter from Clement (Bud) Kroeker follows:

July 12, 2017

Dear Friends,
First day in Mangungu. Our trip here took 5 hours with a one hour stop because of rain. Mangungu covers a vast area and the road coming in is barely visible among the tall grass and trees.

When we arrived in the evening, we were welcomed by a huge crowd of children singing and calling welcome. By then it was dark, but all the folks gathered for a big welcoming ceremony. The Pastor Mushifele Degaule had emptied his house to let us use it for our living quarters. But in the black of the night, inside and outside of the house, it’s very difficult to find anything at all. We just had to wait until the cock started crowing about 4:00 a.m. to have the light of day. People began strolling by to visit us at 5:00 a.m. and there was a constant gathering around our house all the time!

Women cooked on an open fire outdoors in a tiny hut at the side of our house to provide us with meals. They cut the wood, boiled the water, and did everything from scratch. Down on the other side, the chickens walked around our court yard, looking for crumbs falling from our table or drinking the water from the basin on the ground where we washed our hands.

We started the day with a guided tour around the mission. The Pastor, our tour guide, explained each thing. The men who came with us from Matende were very astonished and touched to see the sad state of the buildings here. They didn’t realize it was so bad.

The Health Center is in ruins and can no longer even be called a Health Center. The Secondary School, which used to be a Bible Institute, has had a few tin roof panels stuck on, but the entire roof is open to the sky. The Church building consists of a few adobe bricks still standing that haven’t given in to the rain.

Finally we walked by the stone house we had come to rescue. After 60 years without a roof, the walls are still in better condition than all the other former buildings, at least they have fewer cracks in the walls. The folks here at Mangungu have emptied out all the trees and grass growing inside and around this stone house.

__________________

Join us next week for part 2 of their adventure. All repairs in Congo are an adventure in ingenuity.

Clement Kroeker’s website: http://congoopenheart.org/projects/

© 2017 Hope4Congo