wes and cathy's big adventure


 we are here in the democratic republic of congo; it used to be called zaire

this is a view of bethel
walking on the sidewalk is a little lizard (about 20 cm) they are ubiquitous.

click for larger picture
the males are multicolored

we have a room in the Congo Bethel, where the family is about 300 people. meals and accommodations are provided for us.

here are a few pictures of what we are working on.

click for larger picture


this will be the asembly hall overseer's home and office
this is the priority now. we have until the middle of january to finish it.
i am installing pipes now. 1/2" and 3/4" galvanized water pipes.
the building main water line will be 1-1/2"; i'll be running that starting monday
this building is very solid concrete; this whole site was actually a concrete
products factory in the 1970's.

click for larger picture
cathy landed a job in the sewing room; she's doing alterations and repairs.
bethel is all french-speaking here. for example, the daily text and comments are in french.
when they really want us all to know something, (not all the volunteers are francophones)
they announce it also in english. other than that, we do our best to follow along.

click for larger picture
we are going to an english-speaking congregation, and the accents there are great.
many of the international workers are from europe; danes, germans, dutch, spanish and french.
quite a few of them are in the english congregation.
we met the johnsons; sebastian and gisela, who were featured in the 2004 yearbook.
they are in the room next to ours.


everyone is very kind to us and we are comfortable.
although the DRC is in chaos governmentally, we are very well taken care of.

if you have the 2004 yearbook, look at the picture on page 252-3.
the palm tree in the lower right corner of the picture is right outside our window.

click for larger picture
view out our window
on the next page, the branch committee, christian belotti is at the head of our breakfast table.

on the assembly hall project, i am working with three danes, a german, a guadaloupian and an australian;
besides a good number of local brothers.

click for larger picture
this is some of the crew here on the AH residence project.


click for larger picture
lisa runs all the heavy equipment
this project is a ten minute ride from bethel.
click for larger picture
chris and lisa at lunch
we have our lunch brought to us in these
insulated carriers with three separate metal canisters inside.


click for larger picture
the local taxis are usually pretty full!

cameras are not allowed to be used here on the street, for fear someone will take a picture of a government
building. the police will confiscate your camera if they see you using it!
the pictures i have of the outside world are taken on the sly.

view old pages
  • first installment
    come back again for an updated report.

    write us: bigwes@midcoast.com