Do you ever feel like you live in two worlds? We did while we were in Kinshasa. Two weeks ago today, we were invited out to Rod and Valerie Hochstetler’s home for the afternoon. Rod and Pete went to a weekly pick-up softball game at The American School Of Kinshasa (TASOK) while Cindy stayed with Valerie as she made pizzas for the evening with the MAF crew. Softball was GREAT even though Pete hadn’t played in a couple years. His team lost 23-22. After the game, they went back to Hochstetlers for the weekly Sat night pizza and a movie (The Apple Dumpling Gang) with the Kinshasa MAF staff plus kids sleeping over, 17-18 total. Great fun! It was an afternoon and evening “out of Congo” in a way, except for the traffic to and from TASOK.
Zondo & Aime at the Hunga Busta
Over the following week we had a couple other juxtapositions of the two worlds. Last Saturday Pete played softball again, but didn’t stay for the pizza and movie. We found a fun Italian restaurant with great pizza, the Hunga Busta. We took the Congolese delegation there Friday and Sabuli Sanguma, who has lived in the US, exclaimed “this is like going to America in Kinshasa!”
So why do we say we’re living in two worlds? The rest of our time we are immersed in Congolese culture. In Gemena, we live in the guest house and (until we are in our house) have Congolese meals at President Sanguma’s house. While in Kin, we were at the Protestant Guest House working with Congolese all the time, having African meals in the dining hall. A different world entirely from pizza, softballs and movies! That is part of our life at times, moving back and forth between the 2 worlds. What a dichotomy!
