Who and what all was involved in making your Thanksgiving’s Day meal? Probably two, three, or four persons were involved, even if they just brought a dish to the feast. Probably you used all four cooking eyes on your stove including the conventional oven and microwave oven. Working in Congo is like cooking a great feast for Thanksgiving’s Day.
If you want to do good things in Congo, it takes many hands, many feet, and many ideas. Many hands are needed here and over there. Congo, a developing country in the middle of developing continent, requires many hands. Labor-saving machinery or equipment is just not available. Actually, labor-saving equipment is frowned upon due to a high underemployment rate of 82 percent. When introducing new ideas, procedures and technologies, you have to be considerate of the impact on the employment situation.
Pictured are the 15 Congolese men who manually loaded our Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) in the train for shipment to Mweka (close to Bulape).
You need many people on the ground (feet) doing things to accomplish a task or mission. There is no one-stop shopping or services available in the Congo. There are no Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart, or other large store to purchase needed items. You spend hours walking around and asking the same questions over and over again.
Finally, you need to be flexible and have numerous ideas and options to accomplish your task. Even if you check your list twice or three times, you are bound to forget something. And sometime, things just don’t go as planned. You learn to make do with you have.
I hope you appreciated your Thanksgiving’s Day feast. Please pray for God’s continued guidance as we help our brothers and sisters in Congo.
Blessings,
Woody M. Collins
