Odds and Ends

Yesterday was a big day. My good friend Steve Bontrager took the leap and married the talented and beautiful Sari Vilen. Sari is a great Finish girl who works for a Christian NGO here in Lubumbashi called CORD. They met in Abeche, Chad and here lately decided that a Congolese wedding would suit just fine. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the wedding due a last minute change in our flying schedule, however, I was able to help organize a small wedding party last night for the them. Some of the local staff attended so it was a good time.

Take a look at this cake. This week when I ordered the cake, the lady wanted to know what we wanted written on the cake. How am I to know? The only thing I could think of was "Congratulations." Instinct told me that was not satisfactory. Later that day I had an epiphany. Why not write I love you in several different languages? She is Finnish, he is American, and they got married in Congo - Finish, English, French and Swahili. I am not ashamed to admit, it was clutch.

In other news, I hear our faithful chicken downstairs. Several weeks ago Steve and I bought nine hens and a rooster. The idea was to raise some free range chickens so that we have eggs on a regular basis. The only problem is that we only get two or three a day. Not all that impressive. But anyway, about this time every day we have one noisy hen who insists on coming into the house, through the dining room and kitchen to lay an egg next to our fireplace. At first we tried to chase it away but later discovered that it was only trying to deliver fresh eggs right into our house. I have a feeling that if we were to leave the refrigerator open, she would save us the trouble and plant her egg on the bottom shelf. Kinda cool.

I went to Goma last weekend. On Wednesday I was informed that one of the airplanes needed to go for maintenance and they wanted me to stay in Goma for several days to get familiar with some of the difficult airstrips in the area. Goma has some extra challenges because of the tall mountains and volcanoes as well as difficult weather. It was really fun. I finally got to go to infamous Walikie airstrip. Actually it is a regular road that is also used as a runway. On final approach you find two airplanes that have been taken victim to this unique and challenging strip. The really bizarre part is the curve three quarters of the way down the runway. It is not so bad on landing, but on takeoff we add full power and take the curve at 20-25 knots. It is a little intimidating not knowing what is around the bend. I was a little worried we were going to meet an oncoming Land Cruiser around the other side.

So that is the latest in my part of the world.