Welcome to the Jungle!

Mbote, hello! Here in Congo it is very important that you greet every person that you pass on the street, even more so if you know them. And when you greet them you grasp hands (always the right hand). In the past 4 days I have probably shaken the hands of at least 100 people, probably more. Everything is amazing here, I have been going basically nonstop since my plane touched town in Isiro on Thursday. The people are so welcoming!

On Friday I had my first Lingala lesson, which was interesting because my teacher is a girl a bit younger than me, and I don't speak Lingala or French and she doesn't speak English. It was quite fun trying to communicate! Then on Friday afternoon I went with Bettina to meet her family, her fiance and his six children. Every Friday afternoon they have an english lesson because they want to learn, so we had fun trying to discuss hobbies and what careers they are interested in. Her family is absolutely wonderful, they are extremely loving and joyful all the time, and I don't think I have laughed so hard in a while.

Yesterday we drove 57 kilometers (three hours) through the jungle to get to this big market. While we were there a family of the church in that town took us into their home twice and fed us two meals, just because we were from so far away. The food here is good. yes, there are sometimes when you don't ask what you are eating because you really don't want to know, but usually the food is good. Driving to the market yesterday we fit 8 people into a little land rover and drove on this little dirt road (apparently not really in too bad of a condition) but there were times when the road was so bad that we had to get out and walk while the driver tried to get the car through. coming home we had all eight of us plus everything we had bought, which included three huge sacks of peanuts as big as me) two sack of rice and one sack of beans. Then we also had three clumps of bananas (not clumps like you find in the grocery store at home, but clumps straight off the tree with at least 25 bananas on each) two chickens (they were alive, we named one dinner and one dessert), a bag of tomatoes, a bag of pili pili (really hot peppers), a dead antelope, and a basket of grubs. Yes, the grubs were live, crawling things about the size of one of those pink erasers. Just to show off, one of Bettina's sons ate one right then and there, alive and whole. Some things I can handle but that was a little much!

And then last night we had all the other missionaries in the area over for volleyball, apparently a Saturday night tradition. I was not that great, but it was extremely fun. And this morning we just got back from going to church, where Bettina's fiance preached. It was in French and Lingala, so Bettina translated for me. He is a fabulous teacher. But before we could leave we were swept into one of the houses nearby for tea and bread with one of the other pastors. It has been quite an adventurous few days!

Every night I crawl under my mosquito net and fall asleep to the sound of the jungle birds, and I am woken up bright and early in the morning by the roosters.