Off to See the Crocodiles

Tomorrow I leave Isiro and spend the last few days in Epulu, where there are apparently lots of wild animals. I knew there are okapis there, but I didn't now there would be more... Papa Yapisa, who works for Bettina, told me in Lingala yesterday, "Big sister, don't fall in the water!" "What water? Why?" I said. "The water in Epulu. There are crocodiles! With huge teeth!" So it looks like there is a bit of an adventure ahead!
But I am really sad to leave Isiro. I love the people here. I have made such amazing friendships, and it will be so hard to leave them. But knowing I am leaving makes me appreciate every little thing so much more. The papaya trees. The mud huts and thatched roofs. The sound the night rain makes on our tin roof. The roosters crowing in the morning. The way you can see a storm coming because lightning lights up the whole sky. The amazing butterflies. The glorious clouds and beautiful sunsets. But mostly the people. I will miss everyone so much, but I treasure the moments I had with them and what the Lord has taught me here.

The Wedding Feast

Wow. The past week has been totally crazy!
Last Thursday 15 people arrived from Germany for the wedding of Bettina and Pastor Modibale, and their arrival marked the beginning of the festivities. Every day we are over at Bettina's place cooking meals to feed everyone, usually about 30 for lunch and 40 or more for dinner. That makes doing dishes quite exciting when there is no running water! But it is really fun, and I love serving everyone.
In the Bible they talk about Jesus going to a seven day wedding feast. I never really realized that there actually are such things until now. On Tuesday Beate, Bettina's sister, arrived from Boston. On Wednesday we had a big meat roast for the family of Pastor Modibale and all of the visitors and close friends of Bettina. It was really fun, roasting freshly killed goat over a fire...
Then on Thursday there was a Dote (I don't know how to spell that...) the Bride-price ceremony. That was a very traditional ceremony, with the leaders of Pastor Modibale's family presenting gifts to the family and church of Bettina. Beate and I accepted the gifts... we will have to see what customs says when I bring home a tribal hand dagger, normally carried by the chiefs of the tribe and curved specifically for cutting necks... But the ceremony was really amazing.
On Friday the civil wedding took place. I thought it would just be the couple going to see a government official and signing papers. Nope. Their signing of the legal documents was preceded by a ceremony lasting about two hours with at least 300 people watching. Wow.
And Saturday was the wedding. Thousands of people were there. Literally. It was amazing. There was a clearing where they set up bamboo poles and covered them with a canopy of palm leaves to be a covering from the sun. As we drove over there from Bettina's house we had all the bridesmaids in the back of the pickup and Bettina sitting inside. Everyone we passed on the street cheered and cheered for her. We passed all these people on the street carrying their chairs on their heads (that is what you do here, if you are not a VIP there will be no chair for you so you must bring your own)
We stopped a ways away from the alter, just on the edge of the crowd. Then we all piled out and the 8 dancing girls lead the way, followed by Anna and I throwing paper confetti into the air in front of Bettina. Michelle and Julia followed her, holding her veil and dress out of the mud.
Coming from the other direction was the groom. He was surrounded by people of his tribe, the Zande. They were dancing and singing as well.
Then the two groups merged, and Pastor Modibale fell in behind Anna and I, next to Bettina. Then we walked together through the crowed of people to the alter.
The ceremony lasted hours. I don't know how many, maybe four or five, I am not sure. There were prayers, and introduction of all the important people there (lots), and then many choirs sang from all over northern Congo. There was about an hour of preaching, a few more choirs, and then the vows. They were in Lingala, so I didn't fully understand them all, but it was really neat to stand up there. After the vows there was so much cheering my ears rang. Then the couple exchanged rings and sat down. After that different people and tribes came forward to present their gifts to the couple. Then more choirs sang (among them the choir from the music seminar, so I had to sing and dance as well :) ) Then the Germans sang a song and Maaike, Joanna, Sarah and I played a flute and violin quartet.
Then we all loaded up into the pickup again for a parade around Isiro. The parade was led by 50 motorbikes, followed by ten cars (our pickup with the bride and groom of course) and then more motorbikes and bicycles. Everyone was honking their horns and all the people came out of their homes and shops to wave and cheer. (Although there weren't too many people considering most of the town was at the wedding)
Then we returned for the celebration. There was sooo much food. All this wonderful meat and rive and mpondu and beans, as well as songo chips (almost like potato chips) and a special treat... soda. My first soda in 5 weeks, it was strange. We had it only because one of the tribes came with gifts of a few cases of soda.
Then there was tribal dancing led by the Zande people. They had tribal drums and a wooden sort of marimba thing. They also had a Talking Drum, a huge drum that is used to pass messages to other tribes through the jungle.
As I walked by taking a picture Mannu, one of Bettina's sons, pulled me into the circle and made me dance. It was REALLY fin! All the older woman tried to teach me the dance, I laughed so hard. It was really amazing. To me the day was a little picture of what Heaven will look like, with all people of different languages and colors singing and dancing together, praising our great God.

Congo

Everything is absolutely beautiful here. The sky is so big. When it thunders the whole sky echoes. Lighting lights up walls of clouds. The rain comes down like the clouds need to empty all their rain in the next two minutes. Palm trees stretch higher than four story buildings. Chickens run around everywhere. There are beautiful birds and butterflies that I have never seen before. Sometimes before it is about to rain everything turns orange. The sky is orange, the light is orange, everything outside looks orange. In the morning there is mist everywhere. In the distance there are small mountains. The whole horizon is filled with palm and eucalyptus trees. And the people are always laughing, always smiling. In Lingala they use the same word for smiling and laughing. I like to think it is because they hardly ever smile without laughter following it.

The Road to Nebubongo

What an adventure!
We did not leave for our bike trip on Friday as planned because Thursday night it rained like it was Noah's flood all over again. There were two inches of water sitting on the front yard because the ground couldn't soak it up fast enough. Some of the mud huts in the valley near the water had two feet of water all around and inside) them.
So on Friday I spent the morning at one tailor to be fitted for my bridesmaid dress for the wedding, and the afternoon at another tailor to have some Congolese clothes made. Then we left bright and early Saturday morning for our adventure to Nebo!
And whew, it was hard! I am not sure how far it was exactly, I would guess about 70 kilometers or so. I could have bikes that fine at home, so I figures it wouldn't be that terrible here. Well, in America you tend to bike on paved roads, or at least roads without huge bumps and ditches in them. So when you get tired of peddling you can coast for a while and the bike will keep going. Not so here, the roads are so bumpy that you stop peddling, the bike stops. It was quite a workout! And the gearshift didn't work on my bike so I just walked it up every hill :)
But it was sooo much fun. There were these huge puddles everywhere for the first half of the trip, puddles sometimes two or more feet deep. We were all covered in mud up to our knees, the bottom of my skirt looked like I had just gotten off of the Oregon Trail or something. We were a huge attraction for the villagers we passed. They would all shout, in Lingala, "White person! White person! Oh look, another one, and another!" Then they would all ask "Where are you coming from?" because of how awful we looked, and "Where are you going?" because everyone just always wants to know that. They would also ask where our car was. A white person going by on that road by bicycle is very very unusual!
We also had more bike brakedowns than I knew were physically possible. One of the bikes, the chain would fall off every half hour or so. Two bikes had tires blow. One of the bikes had the chain break in half. Another had the fender crumble in on itself so we cut it off with a pocket knife. One bike had a chain that was two long so we shortened it. One bike had the seat (literally, the whole seat) fall off... that one took a little longer to fix! They (the boys) widdled a stick so it would fit in place of the broken bolt and then held the whole thing together with rubber rope. And one bike had the brakes break. What a trip! But we made it and it was wonderful.
The forest was so beautiful. We saw gorgeous birds and towering palm trees and just so much green!
In Nebo we stayed with a German missionary couple and I got to see some of the hospital there which was amazing. We also took a walk into the forest to visit a village, the one where Bettina first lived and where she learned Budu, the language she helped translate. It was beautiful! But with so many broken bikes we had someone come with a car and drive us home :)
Life here is getting crazy with visitors starting to arrive for the wedding! It is incredibly exciting!