Tag Archives: DRC

Trip Cancellation … for now

Congo + Culture, Travels, ,

So we called for prayer for last Friday, and decided to wait until after mail on Saturday, just in case something weird happened. We believe that God is at work in this situation, though we don’t know what He’s doing… We waited until the very last minute, even until Sunday (yesterday) afternoon, before canceling our flights for this morning.

I talked to the airline agent about the possibility of just canceling the first half of the flight, so we could rebook just that much in the next few days, in case our passports come in that time. But by airline logic, that would actually have been more expensive… So we have a voucher with the cost of that ticket that we can put forward to another ticket, so long as we book it before May 2017. Which is nice, because that gives us time to try to get a visa again, if this one eventually comes back refused. But we’ll need to consider that carefully, since DRC-US relations don’t seem too positive right now, and there aren’t many signs of them improving until after the DRC elections, scheduled for this November.

Once the ticket to Uganda was canceled, we also had to cancel our  guest house and taxis in Uganda, our flight from Uganda to DRC, and our arrangements to stay the first few days in the DRC.  Not to mention the workshop and all the logistics surrounding it. 🙁

We continue to believe that God is orchestrating what from here looks to be chaos into something that will eventually be clearly Good, but it’s hard to see what value there is in this delay at this point, especially if the delay extends so long that the trip will simply not be possible.

Please continue to pray for us, that we would be diligent to do whatever we can to move this process forward, that we would continue to trust God and wait in faith, and that we would have the peace to be productive in other ways in the mean time.

Diplomatically Speaking…

Congo + Culture, Travels, , ,

Apparently a UN embargo on arms entering the DRC (except for purchases by the government) was renewed this week. But it didn’t limit itself to arms; it also includes two paragraphs on elections ((“Stressing the crucial importance of a peaceful and credible electoral cycle, in accordance with the Constitution, for stabilization and consolidation of constitutional democracy in the DRC, expressing deep concern at increased restrictions of the political space in the DRC, in particular recent arrests and detention of members of the political opposition and of civil society, as well as restrictions of fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of expression and opinion, and recalling the need for an open, inclusive and peaceful political dialogue among all stakeholders focused on the holding of elections, while ensuring the protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights, paving the way for peaceful, credible, inclusive, transparent and timely elections in the DRC, particularly presidential and legislative elections by November 2016, in accordance with the Constitution, while respecting the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance,“20.))((Urges the Government of the DRC, as well as all relevant parties to ensure an environment conducive to a free, fair, credible, inclusive, transparent, peaceful and timely electoral process, in accordance with the Congolese Constitution, and recalls paragraphs 7, 8, 9 and 10 of resolution 2277 (2016);)).

About the same time, we have this site telling us “After issuing a warning in May that it would impose sanctions against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the US has acted.” This is a specific sanction against the police chief of the capital city, such that “all assets belonging to [him] are frozen and Americans are barred from doing any business with him.” I have not been able to find the text of the sanction, but it is confirmed here, with nearly identical wording (so one is probably the source of the other).

If there is any question that the DRC is taking this as a serious criticism of the country leadership as a whole, the ambassador made an official statement to that effect.

Anyway, maybe that’s why I haven’t gotten my visa…

DRC STATEMENT ON RECENT U.S. SANCTIONS

WASHINGTON—JUNE 23, 2016—The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today released the following statement regarding the recently announced sanctions imposed by the United States.

“The DRC condemns the action taken today by the U.S. Government. It is an infringement on our sovereignty and will undermine bilateral relations. It will also embolden those who seek to divide our nation and impede our democratic processes,” said Ambassador Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi, Diplomatic Advisor to President Joseph Kabila.

“As the DRC confronts important political, economic and security challenges, we welcome the support of international partners. Our efforts to organize elections in particular will benefit from encouragement by those interested in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful process, as we have seen from certain international organizations to date.

“Despite this decision by the Obama Administration, our efforts to engage and work with foreign partners continues. Ambassador Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi is in Washington, DC this week to consult with U.S. policy makers regarding the actions by our government to advance both a national dialogue and the electoral process.

“We continue to pursue consensus through dialogue, but also have taken actions that have enabled the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to continue to prepare for elections, including the allocation of funds to facilitate the identification and registration of Congolese voters for upcoming elections.”

For more information, please contact:

inquiries@drcnotes.com

Last Day –Please Pray

Travels, ,

So the Congolese Embassy in Washington DC, which has had our passports for the past six (6) weeks, has just closed for the day, and there is  no indication on USPS.com that they used my reply mail envelope to send our passports back to us (with or without visas inside of them).

While unlikely, it remains plausible that they will process our visas and send back our passports tomorrow, in which case we would get them Saturday, two days before we hope to travel. Given that the Embassy is closed on Saturday and Sunday, we are not expecting that they will process or mail our passports between the close of work tomorrow and the departure of our flight at 7:30am Monday morning.

So please pray for three things:

  1. That the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Washington DC would process our passports tomorrow, Friday June 23, 2016, and then mail them back to us in our Priority Mail Express return envelope, which would then return to us on Saturday.
  2. Wisdom in knowing when and if to cancel or reschedule our flights (costing maybe $4,600+ to keep a similar itinerary).
  3. That in all this, God’s glory would be evident in the DRC through, despite, and/or without our intervention.

Prepping the Congo trip

Church, Congo + Culture, School, , ,

imageToday I started printing the posters I’m making for my trip to DRC at the end of June. They should be large enough to be seen by people a long distance away, so they can be used in large classrooms/venues.  The last time I was in Nia-nia, they did some basic teaching with small drawings on a chalk board; hopefully this will help make grassroots literacy more effective. In another location, I had the opportunity to help our local movers and shakers present alphabet work in an open marketplace –so we’re ready for anything!

For interested readers, Anna is pointing to the poster for the egressive (air going out) voiced (vocal cords vibrating) stop (consonant where no air passes) made just behind the teeth. This is different from the implosive (air going in) stop at the same place, on the right. They have a similar contrast for stops made with the lips (‘b’ and ‘bh’). I’ve also made posters for the nine vowels, to help teach contrasts between vowels that they have not been writing (similar to the difference between ‘beet’ and ‘bit’ in English), for a total of 13 posters for this language.