A special month

February has been a rather special month for us all at Katoka becaue of the visit of some of the Rew family from Scotland and England. I worked with Cathie and William Rew for over 40yrs here in DRCongo and still miss them very much, so it was lovely to have their daughter Elspeth and son Billy come out to visit and sort out their parents affairs.

They had a fairly hair raising trip from Lubumbashi to Katoka the journey taking 3 days by land cruiser but they received a very warm welcome when they arrived for Billy it was 34 yrs since he had left "Zaire" and so it was quite an emotional return.

Talking of gifts

I was just amazed last week ....one afternoon one of the workers came to say that there was a visitor from Divuma ( a little town about 45 km away ) and he wanted to see me....... I went to see him and I discovered this gentleman bearing gifts, 2 pigeons and a cock. Apparently he had been near to death in 1995 and I had treated him and God had healed him. Recently his sons who meet at a catholic church in Divuma had been having a thanksgiving service and they had given thanks that God had spared their father all those years ago. After the service they went to their father and said now you need to take a gift to Mlle Maria at Katoka !! So he did just that and rode on his bike to bring me the gifts and then set off straight away to journey home again....wasn't that amazing!

Catching up

Did I really not do any blogging in December and January.....???? I can hardly believe how the time flies but what with the festive season and fun and vsitors coupled with poor connections due to atmostpheric problems I suppose I just gave up for a wee while. Anyway I am back and will try to do better in the next few months...meanwhiloe just a few photos to fill you in on what has been going on around here. First of all Christmas......and giving gifts...... and receiving gifts too....Oh well so much for my evening catching up... it is almost midnight and pouring with rain and I have just been called to the Maternity so I am going to have to leave it here for tonight and hopefully get back to it soon.

The mango season is well and truly with us at Katoka....

This is just to give a visual picture of our free mango supply which is such a help for the nutrition centre and for the old ladies on the church list. We have plenty of willing helpers to do the picking pealing and preparing too.

Brightening up around hospital.......

We have been doing various practical jobs around hospital lots of painting in the

semi -private rooms, I hope you like the lilac shade! Mwandaji and his helper Kayombo have made a good job of the rooms.
We have also been doing some repair jobs

and reroofing of some of the small houses on the hospital camp.

Prize giving.

We had a good time on Sunday morning when the ladies Bible School took over at church and we had singing, recitations and presentations of the certificats for the Sept 2009 to July 2010 sessions. The top three canditates also recieved telephones as well as their certificates so they were very happy. The No 3 spot went to one of my midwives who unfortunately is on holiday at present and so couldn't be with us, however, her husband had telephoned her to tell her and so she rang me in the evening to say thank you!!

I also heard from one of the elders who had been encouraged by finding out something about the Bible School programme and teaching so that was good.

Parcels

We had an SOS from Sakeji school in Zambia asking us to arrange urgently to collect our mail which was filling and over flowing their radio room.

I was able to arrange with our ex chauffeur to do a special trip in the land cruiser. They left 6am one day and returned 2 days later at about 6pm with a car loaded with parcels and swahili bibles and French new testaments so it was a very worthwhile trip for us and we are grateful to all the friends who have continued to send to us even though we no longer have a container service for DRCongo these days.

INAUGURATION DAY

Saturday 16th October was a special day for us here at Katoka because finally the 2ndry school administration and IT building, from our point of view was finished and opening day had arrived. There is still much to be done as far as fitting out the various rooms but we had a lovely time and we were able to Praise God for His goodness to us through His many children who have supported this project since the very beginning. Here you see the school Prefet (in the red shirt ) and the representative of the chief cutting the ribbon and declaring the building open. We then enjoyed a feast very nicely set out in the large assembly room.

Progress with the secondary school admin and computer studies building.

We were aiming to have the school building up and running for the start of the new school year so we are not too far behind shedule. We finished all the painting last week and installed the new desk in the prefets office so he was very delighted.

Hanneke our short term worker from New Zealand had bought some maps and other teaching aids too for the school as they really dont have a lot of equipment.

However the things which have caused the most excitement are the computers. This will be the only school in the area to offer this facility and so the prefet has been inundated with phone calls and requests for details about what is to be offered. hanneke is still working on the syllubus. The yound man who was doing the translation into French has been away for 3 weeks so that put things back a bit but hopefully they will soon have that completed.

We do need to find more computers hoever even laptops so that the school will really be able to function well. Of the 4 shown in the photo 2 work well and are completely set up and ready to go and the other 2 work well but need to be reprogrammed...not a thing that I know anything about!

So if any of you readers know of a supply of 2ndhand but working laptops please do get in touch!!

More on sponsorship

Here are some of the children being supported on this years programme. 2010 -2011. They range from the very small to the young "men" of the 6th form 2ndry school. All of them though have one thing in common they are relieved that having had their school fees paid they are assured of their place in the education system for another year.

We trust that they will work hard and make good use of the opportunities given.

at school for another year

September and the start of the new school year

We have been busy getting the sponsorship scheme under way again. Last Monday morning it looked as though all the school children were at my door so selecting 50 wasn't an easy task. Most of those on the scheme are orphans or certainly in some way disadvantaged.

The smaller ones were so cute when they got their exercise books and a bic for the first time!

A significant birthday celebration in July!

We left Katoka on the 28th June for a shopping trip and to meet up with 2 friends of Sandy's who will be with us for a month DV and also to celebrate my 70th birthday. Never in all my imaginings do I quess what kind of a celebration it would turn out to be....the biggest surprise of all which had been a carefully guarded secret for several months was to find my sister and brother in law Annie and Tony already in Lbshi and at Rest a while when we arrived in on the Tuesday late afternoon....it was just amazing and I was literally speechless !

Rachel and Ian between them had made an amazing programme and it was wonderful. First of all the 30th June was the 50yrs celebration of Independance so they had arranged a BBQ for that and to say Good bye to a missionary family Sandra and Eric with their 2 children.

Some missionary colleaques were not free for the atual birthday the 5th July so partying started on the Saturday with an absolutely hilarious visit to the zoo. Photos of this event to follow because you had to pay for each camera to be used on the premises and therefore Ginny offered to be official photographer and to make some discs of the event. Saturday evening about 22 of us went to a restaurant called "The Bush Camp " and again it was a great surprise I had never been there before and we had a lovely time..the programme included a "drama" by the Missionary Drama Group...Rachel, Ian, Carol, Ginny, Annie, Tony, Sandy and Hanneka it was so funny..then a huge ice cream cake was brought in ...definitely delicious!

Monday morning started with the work people coming to sing Happy Birthday and then I had been told to be ready to go out at at 10.45 in my glad rags so off we went and this time it turned out to be a trip to the Karavia hotel for coffee. This was always the poshest hotel in town but it has been closed for a couple of years for refurbishment and only recently reopened....it has been beautifully done and we sat outside overlooking the swimming pool and the lake, it was fantastic. Just nearby is a place called La Plage or the Beach which is like an shopping arcade but very exclusive and has apparently been done by the Governor of the Province, again it is only recently opened so most of us had not yet been there, so it was fun to see the facilities before heading back to Rest a While for a lovely lunch to which the Legal Representative Papa Wahenga and his wife had been invited also Pastor Mazau and his wife who does so much for us all here in Lbshi.

A very memorable indeed unforgettable weekend .................

Photos:-

1 Legal Representative and his wife

2 Pastor Mazau and his wife

3 Bush Camp

4 La plage
5 3rd Birthday Cake !

6 Ian and Annie and Tony

7 Rest a while workers singing Happy Birthday

8 The Big Surprise Annie and Tony and Mary in Lubumbashi !

Bush Conference Katoka June 2010

This year the elders of our churches had invited 2 full time workers from Zambia to come to DRCongo to do the teaching at our bush conference. As the name suggests the confernce is held in the open air and this year was in a lovely shady area not far from Katoka itself. Stephen and Charles seen on the left of the picture arrived safely on motor bikes having had a very interesting 4 day trip to get to us !

Their teaching was challenging and their enthusiasm infectious and their inclusion of the children in thevarious sessions was much appreciated . The estimated numbers were for over 1200 but at least 500 of these were children and so it was appropriate that their last day was a children's rally with banners and balloons and a march past they caused quite a stir in the nearby village so it was great.

We are grateful to them both for coming and grateful to God for safety in travel and for blessing their time with us so abundantly.

Kalene North West Province Zambia

I found this beautiful spot on a recent visit to Zambia. I had heard about the hydro electric scheme which had been installed in that area and so took the opportunity to visit while also visiting the CMML Hospital there. The natural beauty of the place is quite unspoiled despite this huge undertaking of providing power for the hopital and mission station and surrounding area.
A lovely peaceful place for a picnic and a swim and we certainly enjoyed the visit.

visit of my two Harvey nephews....Ian and Graeme

We have had a really great week with Ian and Graeme but sad really that Graeme only has 2 weeks in DR Congo and therefore is now off to spend the rest of this week with Ian his brother in Lubumbashi. Still I am really pleased that he was able to come and we have had a lot of laughs ! He arrived in time to celebrate Sandys birthday on the 25th May and this week in Lubumbashi will celebrate Ians birthday on the 3rd June so we had a pre birthday celebration for their last meal here which was also fun. Any excuse for another celebration and a special meal...it can't be bad !

Trip to Zambia

We have just got back from a very interesting trip to Zambia's North West Province. We did discover that the roads which used to be the envy of the folk on our side of the border are in fact beginning to resemble the ones here !!!

For those who know the district we entered at M'sha crossed the renovated Mukelweji bridge and spent the weekend at Sakeji School because Sandy's friend Hanneke arrived in from South

Africa( New Zealand) on the Saturday. She has come to help us at Katoka for 6mths all being well.It didn't take her long to get aquainted with some of the locals !

While we were in the area we visited the Kalene Turbo scheme which was opened about 2-3 yrs ago. The area has retained its natural beauty and the rapids are quite an amazing sight. Also a perfect spot for a swim.

On Monday we went on to Solwezi a town on the way to the copper belt. The attraction for us was its well stocked super market called Shoprite.....we had fun !!