Kete voundou laso

I know this entry is going to come across a little strange to all of you but
some things just need to be said. A month ago our neighbours surprised us
with a new pet. A bush baby, a really little one. A bush baby is in the
monkey family and kind of looks like a lemur more than a monkey. We named
him Pip, after Pip Squeak and he has been bringing us happiness since we got
him. He has free reign of the house and he is small enough to curl up in
the palm of your hand. We had been feeding him milk from a syringe, bits of
bread, banana, papaya and termites since the bobos starting coming out two
nights ago. Well, this morning when we woke it was thundering and raining
and Pip came straight to the bed to greet us and all was normal. I lay on
the couch with Pip curled up in my shirt while reading this morning and then
maybe an hour later I went looking for him to hold him for a bit and I found
him dead curled up amongst my hats in the bedroom. I am feeling quite sad
at the moment and homesick all at once. It has been raining since early
this morning and has that grey cast to the sky and slight rain-cooled chill
to the air, just like at home in the winter but 15 degrees warmer. Pip's
death and the rainy day have me thinking of home and feeling rather pensive.

We have had a challenging couple of weeks in February that has tired us out
with no time to rest. February 11 we held an "agroforestry recyclage". We
invited one member from each of the 25 cooperatives to come to Gamboula for
four days of teaching and hands-on learning at the agroforestry center. We
had over 40 participants as a contingent of 7 Aka pygmies from Bayanga came
up with Raul, the American missionary there, as well as all of the ag center
staff. I played a big role in helping organize things and in teaching.
Darren taught on the banana technique he learned in Cameroon, Bruno and I
taught on grafting and we also did an afternoon on vegetable gardening. We
also spent one full afternoon talking about cooperatives and their
importance in development. It was an excellent week despite the fact that
during day 2 our energy generating turbine went on the blink and is still
broken nearly two weeks later.

Now I know what you are thinking, 'big deal, the power went out. Don't you
live in Africa?'. And yes, we do live in Africa but our houses are set up
with full reliance on the turbine and so is our hospital. We do have an
emergency generator which is too big for its purpose here and drinks 15
litres of fuel per hour! We have been running the generator for six hours a
day in order to give us a chance to cook, for the fridges and deep-freezers
to stay cool and to pump water. Hundreds of people rely on the mission for
water and our pumps need electricity. The unfortunate part of the set-up is
that our house is the last in line to get water so right now we are only
getting water for maybe an hour a day. We have been showering in agri's
outdoor shower or at Roy's house and storing up water in buckets for use in
the kitchen and to flush our toilet. The part for the turbine has to come
from Spain so we will be without for most likely the rest of this week. It
is not that being without power and water is the end of life, as this is how
most everyone else around here lives, it just means that it takes up much of
your time to do really basic things and this is something that while I knew
it I didn't fully understand it in a practical sense. We surely are a
spoiled bunch in North America that is for sure. I am just really grateful
for our back-up as is the hospital. It is really hard to do surgery without
power.

Our lack of power may also help to explain my failure to write in the past
month. Since the recyclage we have been planning for this season's work
including 6 big seminars that will be happening in large towns starting
March 6. The day after the training here in Gamboula Darren and I took off
for Berberati with Roy, Aleta and BJ to go and help fix a missionary house
there. Actually it is the house of Roy's son who recently came out with his
wife for a 2 year term. They came down here this past weekend and we had a
good chance to dream about what our futures in CAR would look like. We are
all talking about starting a model/research farm in Berberati connected with
a new development NGO in CAR. Anyway, for us this would be a few years off
but we are glad to be included in the development stage.

I feel as though my thoughts are very scattered today so I won't say much
more. The next few months will be taken up with travelling to seminars,
grafting, and more travel as we have said that any cooperatives that want
extra teaching on grafting, banana multiplication or that want women
specific seminars, that we will travel to them and do the training on-site.
There could be a big demand for this. Come summer we are hoping to be down
in Bayanga for a few months. Our mission director is planning a visit in
September/October which will be good to share our dreams with him as well.
We are planning on returning to Canada in late December in time to celebrate
Darren's Granny's 90th birthday. A second recyclage is planned for the
beginning of December and the guys insist that we be here for it!

As for next year this time, plans are evolving and it looks as if we may
find ourselves back at ECHO for a few years while I work in the nursery and
Darren attends FGCU. Please be praying for our 2006 seminar and follow-up
program, for continued safety on the roads and for change on the lives of
those we work with. These are exciting times for us and we know that there
are battles being fought all around us in the spiritual realm.
Ange

Special Help

In an update to the last Blog about extra help out here we would like to say
that anyone wanting to help send donations to our mission agency clearly
marked Boss-Special Projects.
In Canada the address is: CCWM, Box 25, Stouffville, ON L4A 7Z4
In the USA the address is: NMSI, Box 547, Fort Myers, Florida, 33902

At our discretion we will use the funds to help pay school tuition for
teenagers we see that have the potential and the desire to graduate and go
on with their education.

An update on the Women's project:
We started our new project in the nutrition center the first of this month
and so far the mother's are very enthusiastic and do not skip a day unless
they cannot leave their child. Three times a week we are prepared to have
any of the mothers with children at the hospital's nutrition centre come
down to the nutrition garden to learn from me or Mama Paulien and to help
with the garden chores, thereby learning how to grow the veggies that they
use in the nutrition centre. The hours they do are recorded and if they do
10 hours during their stay then when they leave for their villages they will
receive a machete and veggie seeds to take back with them. So far we have
given out 3 machetes. The women participating all work with joy and we can
see a genuine desire to learn, even the centre staff are participating and
learning and asking questions. I am happy to see one of my ideas come to
fruition and be successful.
Please note that this address sends and receives e-mail via a satellite
phone connection. All e-mails over 25 kb will be returned to sender
unopened. Sorry for the inconvenience. For more updates on the Bosses,
please log onto http://thebosses.blogspot.com

Help wanted ads...

I am not sure if this is an acceptable thing to use my blog for but since it
is my blog after all, then why not. I have been learning a lot about myself
over the past year and one thing I have noticed is that I am more and more
willing to give stuff away than I once was. Not just stuff even but my
time, talents and resources, such as this blog. I suspect this has
something to do with growing in the faith and being in the kind of place
that I am although I am sure that some people can be hardened to giving if
it is asked of them too often. All of this is to say that I want to present
you all with the opportunity to help a few people. I know that you are
already helping because of your gifts of your talents, time and resources
that you have not only given to us but probably to many others as well.
However, for some of you that is just not enough and I want to give the
chance to be blessed and be a blessing even more.

Opportunity number 1: There are two brothers in our church here in Gamboula
with the most incredible singing voices I have been privileged to hear in my
short life. They are both in their twenties from poor families, but they
have managed to scrape together enough money to make a cassette tape to sell
around the country. What they would really like to do is to go to the
capital and professionally record their music on CD. Actually, in their
biggest of dreams they would like to go to a French Conservatory Music
school somewhere in the world. However, given that that is a dream (one
that would be great to come true but not really within any of our means) the
second best would be for them to have the chance to record their music.

Opportunity number 2: As you may have gathered from previous entries,
graduating high school is about as difficult a task as getting a driver's
license in this country. Generally, kids do not make it past elementary
school because it is too expensive to go to school in terms of school fees
and supplies. As well, kids are often set back when the government here
neglects to pay the teachers salaries for a year and they close the school
down for two years at a time. If you do make it all the way through high
school you are required to 'buy' your graduation certificate at a cost of
one hundred dollars. I have the privilege of knowing two exceptional young
men who are near completing high school and who have dreams of not only
finishing high school but going on to University in Bangui (the capital).
One would like to study to be a lawyer, an occupation of which good ones are
in short supply. The other would like to study economics. They are both
fantastic youth with good hearts and good dreams for their lives. The are
doing every thing they can to pay their way through school; even their
relatives are pitching in but I am afraid it will not be enough. The one
thing that so troubles my heart here is that the only ones who succeed
monetarily in life here are those who are corrupt. If it is mostly the
corrupt to get into university and study and become the heads of things in
this country than it is no wonder it is in the shape that it is.

Darren and I are doing what we can and even by writing this e-mail we are
giving them some encouragement to tell them, 'keep it up, we care about you
and we want to see you succeed and rise above your circumstances'. Anyhow,
forgive me for being so bold and feel free to think I am crazy. I know that
if I was given the world, some days I would hold it all for my self and
other
days I would give it all away. I know there is a happy medium somewhere in
there, but I am still trying to find it!
We can be reached via our uuplus e-mail or by bossbugs@yahoo.ca

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas wherever you are is all about what you make of it. Take, for
example, Christmas in Gamboula. How do you make a four hour Christmas day
church service a little more interesting to sit through. The answer is, you
form a choir of all the missionaries and get them to sing a medley of
Christmas songs including Jingle Bells, in front of 300 plus people. That
is good for a few laughs I guarantee, especially since no one has a clue
what we are singing. You could also get your ladies bible study together,
teach them a song in Sango and English and then sing that in front of the
church on Christmas morning.

As for Christmas dinner, ours wasn't a very exciting tropical dinner with
snake and monkey on the menu. In fact, ours was rather traditional in the
American sense. We had roast duck, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, sweet
potato, scalloped potatoes and salad. We stuffed ourselves with cookies and
lemon bars and yes, even Nanaimo bars for dessert. This was very exciting
for Darren and I; a) because it is a truly West Coast Canadian food, b) it
wouldn't be Christmas without Nanaimo bars and c). we actually managed to
fabricate all the ingredients necessary to make them and they tasted as
delicious and fattening as the ones my dad makes. Thanks goes to the
Lebanese merchant in Berberati for stocking vanilla custard powder in his
store. The only thing I have ever used the stuff for was to make Nanaimo
bars but I suppose one could actually make custard out of it.

Despite the holidays we are both very busy in our respective roles here,
especially since we keep picking up new ones. I am currently trying to
organize the agri office to help it be more efficient and accurate in its
record keeping and accounting. It is much the same as my job at ECHO trying
to keep my old boss organized. Lots and lots of fun. No, seriously, it is
a lot of fun. Seriously fun. Anyway...

2006 is sure to hold a lot of excitement and busyness for us. Besides
trying to complete an agroforestry manual, the agroforestry centre has 15
seminars scheduled for which the nursery will have to provide over 5,000
trees; we are planning on at least 4 months solid with the Aka pygmies in
Bayanga; Darren is working on producing a couple thousand banana plants for
distribution and I just got word of a good source of funding for a large
women's project for 2006 in which I would be completely responsible. Hmmm,
more fun. Actually, I thrive off stress and Darren thrives on picking up
the pieces of Angela as she thrives on stress.

After having spent one year here we are pretty much hooked and although we
will be going home a year from now, we have set our hearts on returning for
a longer time in the future. We are talking supplementary educated before
returning. Darren in the field of computer science (so he can be a real
expert) and me, most recently, in the field of community health
nursing/work. Does anyone know of a good program for this, preferably
focussed on the tropics? Any info would be helpful as we are
internet-handicapped out here in the wilderness. Thanks y'all.

The injustice system

When the justice system in a country goes unpaid by its government for any
length of time, I suppose it is only natural that the system devises its own
plan for paying itself. Thus, a system that may once have been just,
becomes a system of varied injustice. Lady liberty has thrown away her
scales and has replaced them with rather large pockets in her trousers.

There are some customs you learn in a foreign country that are easily
adopted, others that you adopt but they always remain a bit strange and some
that you never manage to adopt and whenever they are encountered they remain
as foreign as when you first saw them. To me the justice system shall
always be in that last category. Take, for example, last weekend. Constant
was in Berberati for the week having our agri truck fixed, buying supplies
like shovels and machetes as well as stocking up on spare truck parts. They
very moment he was getting set to return to Gamboula he had an accident in
the truck. We aren't exactly clear as to whose fault the accident was but
it seems that a motor bike with a driver and two passengers ran into the
rear wheel of his truck at high speed. The injuries were not serious to the
passengers, just a bruised ankle and some minor scrapes. The bike was
damaged but the driver didn't have a license or the proper papers of
insurance and such for his bike. Constant and his idea was that they were
both at fault and they both go on their way. Unfortunately, a police chief
(CB) or some such person happened to be on his motorbike only 5 minutes
behind them and as they were just picking up the bike from the ground the CB
came upon the scene and called the police in to investigate. (On an aside,
Berberati now has a cellular tower and has leaped into the future now armed
with cell phones. Good for most but unfortunate for Constant.) The result
of having the police know about your accident is that they have just found
their month's pay check. You see, it is a crime in CAR to have an accident.
Both vehicles were impounded, and Constant was delayed an extra 4 days while
they 'discussed' what his fine would be. In the end, after what might be a
small movie script, mostly comedy, each driver was required to pay the
police 30,000 CFA. That is like sixty dollars. What I don't get and never
will, is that they both had to pay a fine for the mere fact that they had an
accident. It is your bad luck that they happen to find out that you had
one. If the police were never informed, they would have gone on their way
as though everything were normal. Unfortunately for the other guy, he also
has to pay another 30,000 CFA because of driving without a license and
insurance.

Since the accident was partly Constant's fault and we do have 'insurance' on
the truck, technically the other driver could have filed to claim damages
from our insurance. He won't do this though, no one does. Why? Because
then you have to pay the police to write a report, then you have to pay the
court to have a hearing to process your claim. In the end, you end up
paying as much or more than you are claiming for, so why bother? Thus a
very efficient injustice system.

I have many other examples, some that make you want to cry in frustration
from the ludicrousy of it all. You can hardly believe that some of the
stories you hear are true, but they are. People who do not collect
legitimate salaries are very easy to pay off.

On the brighter side of life, I am enjoying how life always steers you back
to the things we are good at. I feel like I'm right back at ECHO today as I
became Roy and Constant's assistant in the office, devising a filing system,
cleaning up receipts and generally organizing things. I like to organize
things. Today is also the French service's Christmas special. Next weekend
is for the Sango service. Today we are treated to choirs, memory verses,
skits and, of course, food. Clarisse is in the French service so I am
looking forward to a good time. We are going to Berberati next week to help
paint a house in preparation for some new missionaries coming to Berberati.
I am looking forward to introducing Darren to my new friends there and maybe
he will treat me to a dinner out at the new restaurant in town-a Christmas
present of sorts. Will report on the trip when we get back.

Darren returns

I am happy to report that Darren has returned from Cameroon safe and sound
and a little bit lighter. His time in the north at a banana research
station was very profitable and will be of great help in our program here in
Gamboula and wherever else we go that happens to be banana producing.
Initially, Darren thought he would be learning to tissue culture bananas in
a laboratory setting. However, once he got there he found that they were
learning an altogether new and different technique. The technique he
learned is perfect for our setting as it requires all locally available
materials, is done outside, in non-sterile conditions, and the results are
still the rapid multiplication of bananas, nearly similar to what can be
achieved in tissue culture. I don't fully understand the technique myself
but I will by the time Darren has finished training me. In fact it is
something nearly anyone can learn without having to know the physiology
behind why it works.

After the training course Darren had 5 days to himself in Yaoundé waiting
for his plane flight to Gamboula. His flight in was BJ's flight home for
Christmas. We miss him at our table already but we are rejoicing with him
for his opportunity to go home for the holidays. Darren did lots of grocery
shopping for us and stocked us up on oats (to make granola), tuna, sardines,
and lots of fresh veggies like cabbage, carrots, green peppers and my
favourite, lettuce. We can freeze nearly everything but the lettuce, so
this week our systems are dealing with a lettuce overload. Not such a bad
thing and it is a nice change from eating spinach all the time. He also
bought me a gift of a can of pringles and a diet coke, both which are rare
and exciting and will make a nice edition to our next movie night.

As for work, Darren is catching up on accounting and I am busy in the
nursery. We are grafting like crazy as well as getting ready 5000 nursery
sacs for planting a high quality oil palm we bought in Cameroon from a
research station there. When we first bought them they were planted 5 to a
sac, now we are ready to divide them out one to a sac. 5000 is a lot of
sacs no matter what way you look at it. We fill sacs every other day in
order to give our backs a break. We are looking forward to Christmas and
spending it with new friends and family but I have to admit feeling a little
home sick today. Some days the problems in this place are too much for me
to handle and today is one of those days. However, I am thankful that
tonight is my prayer date with Clarisse and our times together always cheer
me up and restore hope in me.

A weekend to 'ou tere'

'Ou'-meaning to breath and 'tere'-meaning the body, is the sango combination
of words for rest. Thus, Clarisse and I spent the past weekend in ou tere.
Actually, since July we have been planning a weekend away in Berberati, the
second largest town in CAR, which isn't saying much for CAR, to visit her 3
brothers there and to wander around town, have fun and rest. I guess you
can consider it my Christmas gift to Clarisse in terms of paying our way
there. I haven't had so much yet since being in CAR. We stayed at the home
of her oldest brother who is quite the patriarch. He has worked for the
only well-drilling outfit in CAR for the last 15 years, owned by a Swedish
couple and recently handed over to an NGO to take over its operation. Her
elder brother, we'll call him Rex is now the head of their personnel and
such. He has managed to build quite a nice house, cement and metal roofed.
I was the first white person to be a guest in his house and he was so
pleased to have us. He set up two cots in the living room for us and we
slept side by side. The first morning when I woke up I had forgotten where
I was slightly as I rolled over to Clarisse and said "Good morning", in
English. She knows what it means but I quickly corrected myself. How
different it would be to not hear english for very extended periods of time.
For me it was only three days but it still felt strange.

Clarisse's other brother, third in the birth order also lives in Berberati
and close to Rex's house so we went over there to eat and visit. He too was
so excited to have us visit. He came over the morning we left to thank me
for visiting and to tell me how much joy I brought their family just by
visiting. Clarisse's youngest sibling is also in Berberati, living at Rex's
house. He is 19 and is still in school trying to get his graduate diploma,
similar to our grade twelve. Because of the cost of school most students do
not finish by the time they are 18 because they will have to stop and start
school again and again as they find ways to pay their school fees. I can
only describe him as a strapping, handsome young man with the brains to go
places in the world and the desire, but completely bound by circumstances of
poverty. While I was full of joy visiting amongst the cousins and brothers
and sisters and aunts and uncles of Clarisse, I was also filled with sadness
thinking about the future of these wonderful, good hearted, talented young
people, who, in different circumstances, would be entering top of their
class in university, but instead are left wondering about what their future
holds. I so much desire, as they do, for a future for them that is more
than searching everyday for something to eat, for money for school fees and
clothes to wear. Is there not some way to change their future so that it
includes hope for jobs, for less sadness and poverty and death and
scrounging for the bare necessities? I think if I were really rich I would
give scholarships to put foreign students from impoverished countries
through a Canadian college or university with the promise they would return
to their homes to try and make life better. But maybe that isn't the
solution either. All I know is that I can't get these young people off my
mind and I desperately want to make a difference in their lives here.

Well, back to the weekend. Saturday we arrived early in the morning after
getting a 5:00am start with Constant in the agroforestry truck. He was on
his way to Berberati anyway so we took our chance and got a ride with him.
After visiting all the relatives we set off on foot with Chris to the first
of two markets. The nearby market to Rex's house is considerably large,
though nothing at all like Yaoundé, and we wondered around looking at the
different vegetables, fabric and the various things for sale. Clarisse
bought curtains, (used), for her new addition to her house to help keep the
mozzies out. I nearly fainted as I was overcome suddenly by fatigue due to
the effects of the amoeba medicine I had just finished taking. After
resting some at a little shop selling beans and rice where we ran into
Clarisse's niece, Mesi, we continued on to her other brother's house for a
visit and some lunch. After lunch we took a short nap or siesta, which is a
total white person thing to do here but was much appreciated by Clarisse.
It was hot out and she fell asleep in an instant. When we woke up at 3:00
her relatives were teasing her and calling her white because she took a
siesta. She didn't mind though and we did the same thing the next two days.
In the afternoon Chris, Mesi, Clarisse and I went down to an even bigger
market to look around and stroll. Clarisse was in search of a few things
and I was just looking around. The funniest thing was Clarisse and gang's
reaction to the variety of cat calls and the like I get when I am out
walking around. People, young and old alike, love to call lout, "hey, look,
white person!" Or they start talking about me and don't realize I speak
Sango until one of our group says something to me and I respond back and
then that leads to more laughter and calling out 'hey, she speaks good
sango!'. I am quite used to being the centre of attention wherever I go
now, as if I am a circus act, but it gave Clarisse and them a surprise and
caused no end of laughter between us all. We found a brand new restaurant
in the area with cold drinks, cakes, real menus and satellite TV that was
beaming in a soccer game. I treated us all to cold drinks and we shared a
piece of cake that had canned peaches in it. A first for all three of them.
It was so much fun. Saturday night we sat up talking about all sorts of
things. Chris and his nephew, they happen to be the same age, go figure,
sat asking me all sorts of questions about the world of white people. It
was so much fun and once again I was so thankful for the ability God has
given me to pick up and understand a foreign language so quickly.

Sunday, we went off to church the morning and did more visiting and shopping
in the afternoon. We left Chris behind at one point and returned to the
market. When he learned we had left without him he sought us out in the
market, which isn't an easy task. He acted much like our body guard the
whole weekend. If a guy approached me and started to be a pest Chris would
step up and 'take care of him'. Given the circumstances I was glad to have
him around and it gave me lots to laugh about. I am sure Darren would thank
him. I am sure I can take of myself but it was fun to watch him step up and
take care of the white lady. Later in the afternoon Chris borrowed Rex's
motorbike and took Clarisse and I on a tour of the various cartiers and all
the way out to the airport, which is actually more than just a strip of
grass. It has buildings and a little control tower with most of its windows
in tact all the way around. The funny thing about it all was listening to
peoples comments and exclamations as they saw a white lady sandwiched
between to black people on a motorcycle. I felt much like a human Oreo
cookie. They figure the safest spot on the bike is the middle so I did what
I was told and got in the middle. I much prefer riding with Darren but the
breeze was nice and I once again provided the town with its daily
entertainment. No need to go to the movies tonight kids, we saw a human
Oreo cookie today! Chris, much the gentleman, took things nice and slow and
it was the highlight of our day.

Monday we had planned to return home with Constant but his truck was being
fixed in the ICDI garage and wasn't going be ready until Tuesday. Clarisse
had to be back on Tuesday in order to get back to work so we started to
figure out a way to get back. While we sat at the house getting our stuff
ready, Clarisse doing some last minute things at the market, Chris went in
search of a traffique. Normally, traffique's leave early in the morning but
by the time we found out Constant was going to stay another day it was
already 3:00. Around five o'clock Chris came speeding up on a motor bike
taxi to tell us that he had found a traffique with two places left but we
needed to leave in a flash (a real word used in Sango; flash). So we
mounted the bike and gave the town one more show and arrived just in time
for the departure of the last traffique of the day. A real traffique is a
12 passenger minivan that they stuff 16 people into and charge 2000CFA a
head to get to Gamboula. The inside of our's was full and had only one
person riding on the top. They can be dangerous in that they usually drive
too fast and are loaded with stuff so high that they easily tip over which
is not safe in the least. I was given a seat of honour in the front beside
the driver. Clarisse was put in the very back out my range to talk with
her. The unfortunate part of the trip was the soldier that squeezed in
beside me. He happened to be our soldier from Gamboula, currently stationed
at the customs office at the Cameroon border. He is a pain in the butt and
is always ready to harass us for bribes. Monday was no exception as he was
very drunk and had a loaded gun. He had the gun cocked and ready to shoot
the whole way, just waiting for his chance to shoot a bandit on the road.
He told me that if he had to kill someone on the way to Gamboula, a bandit,
I was not to cry. Yeah right buddy is what I was thinking. He was so drunk
he would have to stand five feet fm the bandit in order not to miss him.
After an hour of me removing his hands from my arms or leg and placing them
respectfully back into his lap he got the picture. The hardest part was
that he kept asking me question and I couldn't understand a word of what he
was saying. His sango is from Bangui, the capital, where they tend to slur
their speech and combined with alcohol I couldn't get a thing he was saying.
He was obviously frustrated and I just sat and kept silent. At the half way
point he bought some grilled beef and then drifted off into a drunken
slumber much to my relief. The driver kept asking me if I would be his
'friend'. Right! After all that I still think I would take a traffique to
Berberati again, since in the end it is worth the reward at the end of the
trip. The key is to arrive early so you can grab a window seat and then
Clarisse can squish in beside me. It took 3 hours to get back to Gamboula
and while it was good to be home we could have spent another five days with
out missing much, except Darren of course.

I think what was so neat about it was how it reminded me of my family back
home. How my dad's family tend to live in clusters in the same cities. 3
here, 4 there, and they help each other out, get together for meals and for
fun. I miss that part of my growing up and I found it in Clarisse's family.
Like my dad, she also has 11 siblings so there are many similarities. Rex
was off to another village Monday morning to retrieve some well equipment
but before he left he gave me a painting of an African scene he bought in
Bangui and a beautiful traditional stool as souvenirs of my stay with him
and his family. I could tell you all his merits and the kindness he pours
out on his family and orphans he looks after, but suffice it to say that I
am now part of a very special family that will forever be part of me. May
they feel welcome at my home anytime.