Can You Define Essential?

Today I’d like to tell you a bit about Centre Kimbilio, otherwise known as the Day Centre. Kimbilio currently cares for 24 children in their three homes (the two ‘Transits Houses’ & Maison Kimbilio, the long term home), but the journey for all of the children there began at the day centre.

 

The day centre is open three days a week (Wednesdays for girls only and Tuesdays & Thursdays for everyone) & on Tuesdays & Thursdays we see an average of 35 children aged from around 10-16. Most are at the younger end of that spectrum. Here the most basic of needs are met – food, safety, care & a place to wash.

Kimbilo Centre at the Anglican Cathedral

 

It is hard to explain the feeling you get when you spend time with these children. You can be doing ok, and then it will hit you that they have nothing but the clothes on their back and whatever small change they have managed to earn the previous day from finding jobs around the large market they call home. And a lot of the time these are not big kids, hardened & canny. They are small kids, frighteningly small in some cases, to the point where you wonder how they can even be as old as ten. And you wonder whether months or years on the street, not having regular food & nutrition has stunted their physical development. It wrenches at something deep with you.

 

Life on the street

 

I am not yet fully appreciative of all of the details of life on the streets for these children, but I can tell you a little. They will have left home or have been forced out for a multitude of reasons. One I have come across a few times is mothers re-marrying and the step-dad either outright disowning & evicting his new step-child(ren) because he already has his own children to care for and does not want the burden, or mistreating and abusing the child(ren) to the point where they felt they had no option but to run away.

 

Poverty of course plays a huge factor in all of this, with adequate healthcare not always available children can become orphaned or passed around various extended family members who do not want to take on the extra burden when they are struugling to make ends meet. There is also the spectre of witchcraft (something I will write about more when I learn more) – beneath the strong Christian culture here lurks more traditional beliefs in Animism, and this can lead to accusations against a child that they are a curse to the family or are bewitching them. In desperate times this can be enough to lead to a child being cast out of the family home.

 

It is worth remembering at this point that statistically DRC is the poorest nation in the World. It has suffered hideously & horrendously over hundreds of years, from colonial occupation, exploitation & slavery through to brutal wars & conflicts visited on it by neighbouring nations – just look up the history. And therefore we must be careful to understand all of the above reasons for children living on the streets in the light of this history. This is a nation of wonderful people, with huge potential very much trying to find its feet.

 

Simple is beautiful

 

So in this context, you understand what an amazing thing it is that the Kimbilio day centre does. On Tuesdays & Thursdays (which are almost exclusively boys), they arrive around 8am at the Anglican Cathedral (a big hall basically) for morning devotions with the Pastor, followed by bread & cold tea (that’s what they like here!). After this they either wash themselves (Tuesdays) or their clothes (Thursdays). They draw the water from a well next to the church and use it to either wash with in the outdoor cubicles that belong to the Pastor’s house (along with lotion we give out) or hand wash their clothes with soap powder we provide.

 

The children draw water from the small well (right of the shot) for washing their clothes

This all takes time & during the morning new children will go for an introductory interview with one of the team, there is also the opportunity for a child to speak confidentially with a staff member if needed. Other activities include games, singing songs & receiving talks on issues from personal hygiene to drugs.

 

At the end of the morning they are served a very large portion (too large for me!) of lunch, either rice & beans or Bukari & Sombe (apologies for the spelling to those who know these!). This will hopefully see them through the rest of the day & night.

 

A home

 

The most important mission goal for Kimbilio with these children is to get them back to their families, whether that be their original family that they left or extended family who will welcome them in. Trying to home all of them within Kimbilio, of which there are hundreds, would not be possible or a long term strategy. So instead the focus is re-integration, whether that be easy – a child who has come in through the door to say that they are ready to go home but need help getting there as they are from the other side of the city – or extremely difficult & complicated. The re-integration process is again something I will tell you more about as I learn more (well, you need to have something to come back to this blog for!).

 

In the short term the Transit Houses provide refuge for those children who are at greatest risk on the streets, while Maison Kimbilio houses those for whom the process will be much longer if possible at all.

 

Hoping to help

 

After watching & observing for the first month, I am now starting to approach the areas where I hope to be able to make a positive impact. At the day centre I am focusing on introducing small group sessions for the children that will help them to build up & work on their identity, personal qualities & decision making. The idea here is that in order for them to be ready to reintegrate they need to be emotionally ready for the changes from street life to being in a family unit. We will look at simple things like building & maintaining positive relationships, trust, communicating effectively & positively, being assertive rather than aggressive and really importantly how they view themselves. These qualities are not just key for re-integration but for street life too. And going back a step we can look at why it is a good thing to go back to family life and much more besides.

 

There is also the area of drug use. A large number of street kids sniff glue to get them through the night (it can be cold for them as well as scary), and some will arrive at the centre still under the influence or even with the bottle on them. This is another challenge.

 

Lunch time!

There is much more I could say, and maybe will in future blogs, but I just wanted you to know a little of what happens here. It is unbearable to consider the life of a 10 year old boy sleeping rough in Kenya Market, Lubumbashi tonight, but it is something beautiful to be able to welcome them in & give them food, safety & a place to wash. So thank you for supporting me to support Kimbilio to support these children.

 

Ian

A Giant Cricket, 2 Hens & Some actual news on what I’m up to over here..

I don’t like Cricket, full stop.

I’ve always been a hospitable kind of guy, so when a giant cricket dropped by I naturally afforded him a two night stay in my room before killing him with insect spray – well, his cheque had bounced.

He woke me up at 3am on Thursday night with his chirping, which was genuinely deafening. Dazed & confused I staggered across to the small box room on the other side of the apartment & slept in there for the night. Friday night I was sitting on my bed listening to my French listening CD when I saw my new friend casually sat on the end of the bed. I skipped the CD on a bit to find an appropriate French swear word, but had to settle for a trusted English one.

 

An important note here – I have a serious dislike of bugs, so big flying black ones chilling about 6 inches from my foot is not my dream scenario.

Once I had composed myself (ran out of the room, closed the door..), I did the only sane thing & sprayed him with the bug spray. However this meant my room was now fumigated & Mr Cricket (definitely not Jiminy) once again had the room for the night.

Not a realistic impression of a Cricket

 

I would like to express my displeasure at this point with Disney for giving me an unrealistic impression of Crickets – green friendly & jovial they are not. I will also never listen to Dreadlock Holiday in the same way again.

 

Hen Pecked

As covered last time, getting around in L’shi is fun. The taxis are preferable to the taxi buses & quite often you get interesting travel buddies. Congolese are naturally chatty people & will often strike up conversation with each other & with you too of you can get them to speak French slowly enough!

 

Highlights this week included two Police officers casually taking a taxi with me & being sat next to a lady with two hens on her lap. What was brilliant about the lady with the hens is that I got in the taxi, looked across, saw the hens & then looked at the driver & the front passenger for a reaction & realised that this is not strange. When the taxi stopped to pick up our next passenger I realised I was going to have to squash up to the Hen lady! It was an anxious ride as one of the hens slowly, slowly began lowering & angling its head towards my shorts wearing legs..! We had a bit of a staring contest.. I lost & he kept edging.. I wondered what the medical treatment might be for actually being hen-pecked (I only know how to say ‘yes dear, I’ll do it in a minute)..

 

Thankfully the lady noticed my panicked expression & put a big bag between me & the cheeky clucker, phew!

 

Some Actual News

So I haven’t really told you a lot about the work I am involved in here as of yet. That’s been because for this first 4 weeks I have been very much focused on settling in & observing. The settling in has been full of challenges, good ones, but quite all consuming! So there has been language learning, meeting lots of new people, handing the heat, learning how to get around to the 5 different sites & becoming confident in getting about independently, and learning the customs & cultural norms around here from how to get currency, phone credit & internet!

 

And specifically with Kimbilio, this is a big operation with the Day Centre, boys & girls Transit Houses & the long term Maison Kimbilio home for 10 boys. In addition the long term girls’ home on the same site is now nearing completion.

 

So far I have been mainly spending Mondays & Fridays at Maison Kimbilio, Tuesdays & Thursdays at the Day Centre & Wednesdays at the two Transit Houses, but with a fair bit of flexibility. In this I have been observing, taking on board a lot of information, getting to know the team & starting to consider where I can really make a difference.

Playing football at the local park with the Day Centre street kids

 

So what is my role? Well as much as running games & playing football with the kids is great fun & really appreciated, my role is more to support the existing Kimbilio team & work with them to introduce new ideas & ways of working that will provide a genuine long lasting benefit.

 

I have just started mentoring/supervising two of the staff team on a fortnightly basis. The idea here is to provide support for them in their existing work with the children – especially the one-to-one time they spend with them – & help them to reflect on & develop their role.

 

In addition, working alongside Kimbilio Manager Jean Bosco, I will be meeting with the Day Centre team this week to look at bringing in new ideas & structures that will make the already fantastic work they do even better. Some of these ideas are based around improving the children’s self-esteem, identity, communication skills & relationships. The ultimate goal for Kimbilio is to re-integrate a child on the street with their family, whether that be the immediate family they left or willing aunts & uncles etc., & the whole work is geared towards this end. Therefore improving these personal qualities is key to them being ready for re-integration.

I taught them the Caterpillar relay game!

 

The key, as I look to introduce these new ideas here at the Day Centre, & then potentially at the other sites, is to work with the team, let them take ownership of the ideas, share in their vision & see what this can look like here in DRC. I don’t profess to have all the ideas & I think by introducing what I do have to offer, the combination of that & the teams’ knowledge, experience & skills could prove exciting! And it’s exciting to see the potential here as Kimbilio grows & to think of the differences made to children’s lives.

 

So, thank you for reading & supporting, I’ll let you know how we go!

 

Ian

Four of the street kids who come to the Day Centre

Personal space is for losers

You know that moment when you are on the bus, or perhaps the train when you have your own double seat to yourself, and then someone else gets on & you realise there are no more double seats left & they might choose to sit next to YOU!

Perhaps you have your own unique techniques for ensuring they don’t choose your seat, anything from burping to ESP. And then that sinking feeling when you realise, you don’t look weird enough & they’re going to choose you.

Well here in L’shi we don’t consider personal space an appropriate use of space on public transport, ok? The taxi bus (think a cross between a VW campervan & a minibus) will only leave when they are full. No, actually, I tell a lie. They will only leave when they are beyond full, when every possible (& impossible) seating position has been tried. Like a sort of human game of Tetris.

 

Some examples of Taxi Buses off of Google as it’s not a great idea to get your camera out when getting on one!

If you weren’t friends before you jumped in, you are now! New friends with maybe 20-30 at times! It’s also pretty fab that it’s so hot here, as a nice bit of sweat helps you slide in & out of your seating position when required.

It’s also at this point that being a Mzungu (a, usually, affectionate term for a white person/westerner) adds to the fun. I discovered in Nairobi that we Mzungu tend to stick out a bit, well in L’shi we’re almost a tourist attraction. If you think about it, how many westerners are you going to see in L’shi? At least Nairobi is a big city & has tourists passing through on route to their safaris. Other than the odd missionaire, the only Mzungus here are business people & they are highly unlikely to jump in taxi bus.

So everywhere I go, people look, stare, smile, laugh or call out as they go by… I keep having to check I’ve not got my flies undone.

So when, as today, I got on the bus I instantly became the central attraction. Initially it was because I was being ushered into a very small space between 2 people & back to back with another. It was ambitious I’d say, & even though I barely speak any Swahili, even I could tell that the woman I was about to land next to was concerned that I may be a little large for that spot! (I now have a new motivation for losing some weight..)

But I made it & we laughed about it. Well I hope that was what we were laughing about…

I also learned the valuable lesson of not having your bus fare in your side pocket as once you are wedged in, prizing it out of your pocket becomes a sort of Crystal Maze/Krypton Factor challenge & the conductor can get a bit impatient. Once again, I’m proud to say I was mission accomplished without accidently touching the leg of the man next to me.

A simple journey is quite an experience at the moment as I get settled in & more independent. And I’m loving it (most of the time!), because it’s all part of what makes this such an amazing, colourful, vibrant, exciting place to live!

So next time you think you’re on a crowded train or bus, just think to yourself, ‘nah, you could easily get another 10 on here…’

Ian

My Church is better than your Church

A question.

If you went to church on Sunday, did you have to drive over a very large water pipe in the road that almost beached your car in order to get there?

Also, when you arrived, were there two seats set aside for you at the front making your own separate row?

Think about these, don’t rush your answers.

And while I’m on this, did you have choir who sang accapela, without any music sheets or words in front of them who did a really cool shoe shuffle & rhythmic clapping at the same time?

Did the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when the whole congregation sang?

Come to think of it, was there a door to your left, open to allow in a breeze, where local children ran over, looked in, saw a white man, giggled with amazement & then went & got their friends who did the same.. for the whole service?

In addition,  were you asked to stand up & introduce yourself to everyone with the help of an interpreter?

Oh yeah, & was the whole 2hrs 20mins service done in Swahili meaning you understood almost nothing, but yet found you concentrated possibly better than you do sometimes when it’s in English?

P.S. Were you asked to be in loads of photo’s afterwards & then have lunch with the Bishop?

If the answers are no (feel free to check back through & be sure) then I conclude that on Sunday, my church was better than yours.

My church on Sunday was called St Boniface & is set in the village of Ruashi, on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, & it was awesome.

As the Kimbilio project is part of the Anglican Church here in Lubumbashi, it is important that I am introduced to the members of the local Anglican churches.  There are eleven churches I believe.  So far I have been to two, so you know, a few more to go to yet!

There is something for getting picked up in the morning to head to church with no idea where you are going or what it will be like!  But as you can tell, it really touched me.  There is just so much to love, from the colour on the traditional African dresses & headwear of the ladies, to the warmth of the welcome & spontaneity of the congregation in worship.

It honestly feels like a little piece of Heaven is touch Earth when everyone around you is singing & dancing in harmony, with joy & shouting!  They don’t have service sheets or projectors with words, or someone on the piano, they know the songs, the words etched in their hearts & it’s a beautiful sound.

The awesome choir!

So, next Sunday morning when you are in church or bed (tut, tut), think of me, I’ll be on my way to another new adventure at another church!  Maybe the Bishop will be there again, maybe I’ll remember to say my name when I introduce myself this time, but most definitely I know I’ll meet God there amongst & because of everything I’ll encounter.

Ian

PS.

To be fair I don’t think the Bishop was there for me by the way or that all the photo taking was for me either!  It was apparently a special presentation in the service for some people who’d completed a sort of Alpha course

Week One “Pole Pole”

Hello intrepid reader, thanks for stopping by. So I have been here almost one week now & there is much to tell..

So the basics first.. I am staying in a self-catering apartment within a missionary compound. My neighbours, who are awesome, include MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) pilots & their families as well as an American family here adopting 2 Congolese orphans.

It’s really nice, a little bit of sanity away from the loveable craziness of Lubumbashi (from now on I’ll call it L’shi)! I have my own space but I’m also not on my own, with the other families living next door.

So I’m English & I realised we tend to want to just plough straight in & get going, but in hot countries like DRC that’s not how it goes, here we go ‘pole, pole’ (slowly, slowly) and that takes getting used to!

I say pole, pole, but that doesn’t apply to driving, but that’s a story for another blog entry..

One way of slowing down to African pace by the way is to sprain your ankle hoping over a small wall. I did that on day two. Tick !

So having got used to that I have now visited all different sites that make up Kimbilio. There are five. They’ll be a test at the end so pay attention..

There is the day centre, based in the Anglican Cathedral (think less St Paul’s, more bigger version of Emmanuel, Woodley without the wooden floors (apologies if that means nothing)). This is the open door where kids come in off the streets for food, comfort & support. There were 30+ there when I visited.

Next there are two Transit houses. These are small flats where vulnerable children from the day centre can stay for up to 6 months while Kimbilio staff attempt to reintegrate them with their families. Currently 4 in the girls house & 11 in the boys.

Next is Maison Kimbilio, a permanent home for 10 boys currently & in 2 months time they will have finished building the girls home on the same site. The kids here are those whose families are unknown or cannot be found.

And finally there is Jean Bosco’s office next to the Bishops residence (like Lambeth palace, possibly). Jean is the boss, he overseas all of the sites and all of the work Kimbilio does. He’s also been looking after me & showing me around everywhere.

Now, did you get that all?

It’s not been the easiest week ever, with so many adjustments, changes, challenges (I don’t have my own internet currently btw) & culture shocks. But I’m really glad I’m here & just starting to get a feel for life here, the amazing work of Kimbilio & my own role within this.

I really appreciate all your support, it means a lot being all the way out here & knowing people are thinking of me and praying for me, so thank you!

Also, do message me, it’s so great to hear from people!

Some ups and downs from this last week to finish..

I went to a party at a brewery, it was well organised.

Being white here means everyone notices you & will casually shout out of passing cars at you, it’s fun you know.

I upset a lady cleaning the floor in the supermarket, I stepped on her wet floor & she shouted ‘Regarde!'(look!), I said ‘Pole!’ (Sorry), she scowled, I left.

I met a Congolese man called Derrick, he works for Kimbilio. He’s from Rotherham & misses Yorkshire puddings.

More to follow soonish!

Ian

Hello from Nairobi airport!

I’ve found internet & coffee shop here at Nairobi airport, so life is good!

I’ve been here since 6.30am local time & am now halfway through my 6hr stop-over! Next is a 90min flight to Lubumbashi where Jean Bosco willill meet me at the airport hopefully!

So far so good! And Kenyan Airways were very good, with a great selection of films, swoop! (I watched Big Hero 6 cos I’m cool) I was also served the spiciest meal I’ve ever had on a plane, lamb curry, very nice

I am also taking with me a beautiful book of photo’s, letters & drawings from St Elphins primary school in Warrington. I’ll be delivering it to the kids at Kimbilio as the start of an exciting new relationship!

I’ll hopefully write again when I get to Lubumbashi!

Love
Ian

Hello!

Thank you for stopping by!  This is where I will be posting updates from Lubumbashi, DR Congo.  You can leave comments below, so please do!  I also have a Facebook Page & a page where you can donate to support me & my work while I am away.

I fly out on Monday 20th April & will try & keep in touch with posts & photos as much as possible.  Meanwhile if you want to find out more about what I’m doing then please do find me on Facebook or email me ianmullens@Hotmail.com

Ian