OUR LIFE IN THE CONGO
The Saddest News of the Year: It is impossible to forget the death of a child and we have lost to tetanus one of our 8 year old boys, Serge. I think I wrote to you about him but I repeat myself for his departure has marked our lives deeply. Now all of our children, old and new, have been vaccinated against tetanus and we pray to God our Father to protect them all. 
Good Samaritans: On November 19 our team met with a protestant group called “Good Samaritans”. We reflected on what we can do for the children who refuse to go to a center for their safety and training. Soon the police may close down one of their favorite haunts, so we want to be there in order that they find a place to sleep and live that is safe. Two years ago, two of our boys had been abused in their den and we want to do everything so this will not happen again.God bless water: All of us of at “Maison Kwetu” (Our Home) have welcomed the torrential rains because we have placed gutters on our house and now the barrels are always full of water. This means that the kids no longer have to go down to the lake to fill buckets and carry them back home on their heads.
No more work: Many mining companies have sent home thousands of workers because the price of copper has plunged. The entire economy of our town has been affected and delinquency and violence have already begun. Stores are having difficulties with survival. This means that some of our former kids have also been put on the streets and now they are having difficulty surviving, paying school and health fees. Our young men are talking about working together in order to help one another.
Out of prison, into troubles: Yes, our young many who spent six years in the state prison in Kinshasa is now free but this freedom has been bitter-sweet. We welcomed him back to Kolwezi, but his family did not. They had already sold some of his property and have left him with practically nothing. His poor mother has serious mental problems and he invited us to go to see how she lives, rejected by the family. He has not yet found work, but we have been able to get his oldest girl (he has four children) into the catholic school. His wife had been used to selling bread and fruit but now has no work. Tomorrow we will try to find a way to help her. The rooms we found for them are far from water and very cold, so we are trying to find the family a place closer to our center. Thanks be to God, we had the means to pay for hospitalization of his daughter who fell sick just after her arrival.
Putting Order in our Life: Baba Yav is the boss of social services here in Kolwezi. Our collaborator, Baba Kazadi, has worked for weeks with Baba Yav in order to get our official papers in order so that we will be recognized by the state. For years we have worked informally but now we want to prepare the terrain for the Congolese brothers so that if they take over our project, everything will be legal. We gave Baba Yav $200 for the extra work he is doing to help us. He and our chief of Kanina (our village) have been wonderful collaborators who have encouraged us all along the way.
Two bank accounts: In order to keep our accounting clear, we have opened a new bank account with the name of the young man in charge of our center, and my name. This is meant to keep food and survival money separate from pour project account. It is also a way of teaching him how banks work. They are quite a novelty for many young Congolese.
An Abandoned Farm. 84 acres to recover: In 1992, a friend gave me a 42 hectare farm and the state encouraged us to use it for the formation of abandoned children. We trained them to work with oxen which we used to cultivate our lands and which we used to cultivate others’ in order to earn some money. In the year 2000 I was sent elsewhere to work and we confided the whole project in town and at the farm to others. Unfortunately, they did not continue our project so the farm has been abandoned since at least 2008. Abandoned yes, but our friends have stayed there in order to protect the buildings and to discourage cutting down the trees. We are working on a project of recovering this farm that has a large pasture area, and no borders, two rivers and lots to eat. We visited the farm two weeks ago. It is in a sad state but recoverable. We have to straighten our our situation with the state with whom we are in debt on our payments. We will work it out with God’s help.A New Volunteer Brother: One of our brother students, Brother Blanchard, is now on our team of Maison Kwetu. His main job at present is to discover where are the parents and family of our children. Every Saturday he accompanies two or three children to their family in order to receive permission to keep the children in our center as long as necessary before reconciling them with their families. In reality, not all will be able to return to their families, for many reasons.
Our Team’s Money: Each member of our team receives between $200 and $250 a month for their work as volunteers. Since the head of the house is also the one who teaches the children the trades, and also the one who does all our building, we pay him for all this professional work. He is with the children 24 hours a day. They love him. Perhaps I should put myself on the list for some monthly money in order to help our Franciscan community?
Clothes and Christmas goodies: Everyone in our house is invited by our Indian
Our First Handicapped Boy: On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I accompanied the agents of the state and one of our boys to visit an adolescent who has been abused by his family. He cannot walk, presumably because of polio, but our first encounter with him convinced me that he would be a welcome addition to our house. In fact, he knows how to repair shoes and wants to learn how to sew with a sewing machine to earn his living. He is only 15 years old but his suffering has given him an early maturity.
Lots of sick: When the kids are on the streets they do not seem to be sick very often, but once they arrive in Maison Kwetu, all the hidden sicknesses appear and we have to put them in the hospital. This has been the case lately. The major sicknesses are malaria and typhoid fever. Thanks be to God and to you we are able to pay the medical expenses and after a week or two the kids are back to normal. Each morning they eat porridge (often mixed with soja), after school they eat corn meal mush, vegetables and fish (or insects!) and in the evening around 7 PM they eat again. This is money well spent. One of our boys is epileptic and as long he was at home he was falling every day, despite the prayers and ceremonies of local pastor. Now we have found some medicine to control him and he has only rare seizures. – One of our older boys whom we raised in the 1990’s has AIDS. He is proud of himself for he just built himself a house and wants to settle down after years of delinquent behavior. It takes time for them, and for us, to get our lives together. God is in no hurry with us, read 2 Peter 3,9.
Music and Dance: Africa is inconceivable without music. Thanks be to you, we have been able to buy a loud speaker-radio-disc etc player and many afternoons at 5 PM our kids start dancing in front of their house together with the kids of the neighborhood. We have no wall around our house so we develop good relationships with our neighbors.
Toilet Crisis: We had dug a very deep hole for our outhouse but for some reason, after our few months here, it is already filled. So immediately we have to build a septic tank in order to avoid sicknesses and to accommodate our 20 kids and 4 staff. This was unforeseen but urgent.
Welding Shop: Everything is ready to open our training in welding except for the generator. We cannot count on local electricity, so we bought a generator; but for the moment it is not working. We hope that before Christmas, it will be working and we will have the local pastor bless our building. We will not only train our own kids but those of the neighborhood as well. A follow-up program of intensive training being offered by the Belgians which will be a certain road to either getting a job or to opening up one’s own workshop. This project has attracted a lot of local attention and we are grateful to our benefactors who have financed this project. Some of our kids are already making a living by welding. God is good, and so are lots of people. [Editor's Note: the expenses for the welding program were largely underwritten by Farmweld of Teutopolis, IL.]
Our Franciscan Seminary: I am still teaching in our seminary, at least two courses each semester. For this semester I am teaching Homiletics (how to preach) and Theology of Mission (How to Continue God’s Mission of love in the world). Next semester I will probably be teaching courses on Franciscanism. We are 79 brothers in our Franciscan community, with 70 in studies and the others in teaching or organizing. Besides Franciscans, we study with the Salvatorians, the Spiritans and the Franciscan Sisters. Our pastoral formation is directed above all to parish work and in reality our Franciscan province has little activity other than parishes or schools. In our school, the brothers do 3 years of philosophy and 4 years of theology. These brothers come from all over the Congo but also from Central African Republic. Each one comes with his culture and history so our community is very richly human.
No More Details: I hope this bulletin has piqued your interest for there is practically nothing we can do without the aid you have already given us. I hope you can see in what we do that which you want to be done. We are always open to suggestions. A recent suggestion is leading us to build another building for raising chickens. All of our kids must know how to do that besides knowing how to build a house, how to weld, how to cultivate the land and how to live in peace and love with other people. Blessings on you all.
No Thanksgiving Day here in the Congo, but we thank God and you each day. Have a blessed Christmas and may God give you peace and health to your families.
Fr Damien Isabell ofm – Congo Kinshasa
[To support Fr. Damien's mission with the abandoned youth and the Franciscan seminarians in DRC, contact Br. Joseph Rogenski at the Franciscan Missionary Union, 3140 Meramec St., St. Louis, MO, 63118-4399. If you wish to make an online donation, visit franciscancharities@thefriars.com and click on the appropriate link.]
