Work

I have been proud of Orcxance many times but today I am especially thankful for him and proud of him. New country, new job, new everything. He is taking everything in stride. He is humble and tough at the same time. He is kind and willing to learn and even though this job is definitely a “step down” he is doing it for us because he loves us. He has his masters in nursing but he’s washing dirty linens so people can have nice vacations. He is eager and willing to work no matter what. He’s not picky, he’s industrious! We are thankful for the job and I think it’s a great company, I am excited for us to be part of it… but still, my heart hurts a little bit for him anyway.

When I saw him working today I was reminded of what a good provider he is and no matter where we are in the world he will do anything to take care of us.

In the meantime… SNOW

Phase Two: Brazzaville to Addis Ababa

We spent several days in Brazzaville with family and went to a small gathering on New Year’s Day

My sister-in-law did the girls’ hair for the trip and we bought them new shoes

Saying goodbye to our relatives and a very special aunt

We got to the airport about 3 hours before our flight was due to leave. The airport is small and the lines are short, there are very few gates so we cut it a little closer by only going 3 hours in advance. We shouldn’t have. We took two taxis to fit our luggage and the cousins who wanted to accompany us. Quick pic at the airport before saying goodbye to the boy cousins:

Every little step took awhile and we found ourselves starting to get a little nervous about the time. Goofing around with Papa while waiting for our bags to be weighed:

It was the typical inconvenience of the way the baggage and ticket check-in counter is set up. Check in, get boarding passes (this took almost a hour for some glitch in their system), weigh bags then take bags to get scanned then pick up bags to check them in again. We moved our way through the airport at a clumsy and slow pace, having to show our passports and itinerary about 9 times, dropping money into hands here and there to get through.

Everything was going okay until we got to the immigration checkpoint (don’t ask me why they have this for people LEAVING the country) and then we ran into trouble. Actually I think they saw us coming and set this check point up just for us. I’m not joking. The guy in charge was definitely on a power trip. You can always tell people like him from the first words out of their mouth, and it usually comes down to feeling important and getting money. After seeing all the regular passports and itinerary, he said the kids needed visas. Visas to go to the US with US passports? Interesting. He clarified. “Oh yeah. That’s right. No they need visas for Congo.” We told him they had Congolese passports and didn’t need visas. True facts. He demanded to see all the kids Congolese passports. Why do they even need them to travel? Answer: they don’t. Not going this direction. Then he wondered why the baby didn’t have a Congolese passport yet, only an American one. “Um, because you have slow system.” Getting the Congolese passports out was a real hassle as I had them buried under stuff in my carry on. We thought we only needed the American ones to travel to America. Then he pointed out that my visa was expired. True facts. But hey, I’m leaving the country…We said we’d pay the fine or whatever. But he just kept trying to make more trouble by asking for different things and trying to separate Orcxance and I and make us get upset. Well, it kind of worked.

I’m used to talking my way out of every situation and sometimes using money, but Orcxance didn’t want me to argue much. For me, arguing in a polite way has gotten me out of a lot of trouble in this country but this time it wasn’t working. I know it would have gone better if I’d been alone but something about seeing us together just got him riled up. We asked how much he wanted us to pay for the expired visa and he wouldn’t say. He didn’t even know how much a visa cost and I wasn’t about to tell him. He was enjoying making me miserable. Everyone else was enjoying watching the scene from a safe distance. You could tell by their guilty faces that this wasn’t proper procedure. I knew that it would all end at some point and he would let us through, but I was not confident it would happen before our plane left the ground. At this point I panicked a bit, and I was kneeling on the ground digging through my hand luggage with Salem in the baby carrier on me. I found the passports and tossed them out at the officer. Note to reader: Do not, under any circumstances throw, toss, shove or push passports at an immigration officer. Me getting upset made him dig in more and he demanded that the children needed Congolese visas which was stupid and untrue. He just told Orcxance and the kids to move on and told me I couldn’t go. Thankfully Orcxance keeping his cool and the last of our Congolese money was enough to get us out of the situation and on through security to our gate. We arrived as people were boarding and after another check of our carry-on luggage we got on the plane.

Side note: the previous weekend we had a situation that I didn’t think Orcxance handled particularly well but I really ate humble pie at the airport for how I behaved.

The flight went to Point Noire first for a quick cleaning and restock, (we stayed on the plane) and more passengers came on. A meal was served and the girls napped here and there. Molly felt quite sick but Eileen was having a grand time. I just kept feeding her snacks and finally she fell asleep. Orcxance had Aravis and I had Salem. I wanted him to have the window seat and I think he enjoyed the views. Aravis did pretty well on the first flight so we had no warning of Things to Come. Leaving Point Noire and seeing the beautiful coastline was quite something. We arrived in Addis in good time, went out into the cold open air of Ethiopia and chaos began. Stay tuned for Phase 3.

Phase One: Oyo to Brazzaville

Our trip down to Brazzaville did not go as planned. We were supposed to go down in the car with our brother-in-law leaving at noon on Thursday so we could go to our appointment at the Embassy to pick up Salem’s passport on Friday morning.

However, the aforementioned brother failed to tell us about his additional car troubles and change of plans so we spent most of the day ready to leave, waiting for him to show up. Aravis napping in the living room since we’d already packed up her bed:

By around 3 or 4pm Orcxance started working hard on plan B: taking our car instead. If any of you heard about our last road trip with our car, you will realize this was a very desperate plan B. A trip that should have taken us 6 or 7 hours stretched to 16 hours. So I wasn’t feeling too good about plan B, but we didn’t have a lot of options. Orcxance didn’t want us going on the Night Bus. Yes, it’s a thing.

At around 7pm Orcxance appeared and told me the updated plan. Our friends and neighbors really pulled through for us and I was amazed at the generous send-off we had with multiple people putting an effort into getting us going. When they realized we had a deadline to meet, they pitched in and made it happen. It really touched my heart because they just did it out of kindness for us, not to get anything because they all knew we were leaving this town probably for good and would never see them again. It was the most unconventional and beautiful goodbye I’ve ever had.

Our old pastor insisted on traveling with us, and he ended up waiting most of the day as well, since the original plan was that he would go with us in our brother-in-law’s car. When the plan started to come together, Pastor called his son to come and bring him some stuff and he showed up on the motorcycle, which ended up playing an important part in the makeover that our car needed. Orcxance’s brother, a coworker and several neighbors spent a few hours changing tires, checking fluids, filling up tire air and radiator water, changing out the battery and searching high and low for gas. His coworker came over and gave us the battery out of his car. Another neighbor sold us the last of his gas. Orcxance knew we needed a mechanic in case we had serious trouble on the road so he went and rousted Gedeon out of bed, told me to dose him up with malaria meds and after he grabbed his tools he joined the party.

Then we realized the headlights weren’t working. It was almost 10pm this point. So one of the young neighbor guys took the headlights off the pastor’s motorcycle (with permission), separated them and rewired the system so the replacement lights would turn on just like headlights. Pastor’s son drove home in the dark, coworker went off with a bad car battery and a very sick mechanic joined us for the epic nighttime drive into the wilderness. Mechanic Gedeon pictured below with Orcxance:

We loaded up the car with some items, leaving the rest for Many and Felie to come with the two remaining children (Vanquer and Aravis) the next day. I was not sure about leaving Aravis but it turned out to be a good choice. She would have been horribly miserable and Felie is like a second mother to her.

1am found us in the town of Gamboma with a drizzling rain coming down and some guys in winter attire selling snacks and hot drinks by the side of the road. We were actually pretty cold by this point. I hadn’t anticipated being cold but if we thought about wind coming in full blast and rain with no windows, I would have grabbed a few more things like blankets and extra jackets from the house. Stress tends to leave one’s brain a bit addled so I suppose that’s how I forgot important items, because most stuff left behind for the others to bring.

Orcxance bought some hot tea in a plastic baggy which he transferred to an empty soda bottle and we shared the tea. Pastor drank a strange coffee and coke mixture and Gedeon smoked cigarettes ferociously. A couple of guys helped scour the streets for plastic bags and soon we had two of the windows somewhat covered. Here’s the dirty shower curtain someone found that we used on one window:

This helped the next few hours not be so miserable. I had the girls sitting/leaning against our pillows and covered them completely with a sheet and they slept for several hours that way. Around 4am the car rattled to a stop in the middle of open grassland. A flat tire. No big deal, we had the tools and the spare. But then we couldn’t find the tool to loosen/tighten anywhere. We did a pretty thorough search of the car with no luck. But we had our chain smoking, sick mechanic with us who managed to change the tire without it. I huddled in the car praying they could change the tire and somehow, about an hour later, we were back on the road.

They had to make their own tire iron:

I think Pastor was wired from his coke and coffee and he insisted on driving the whole way. He didn’t do too badly and we didn’t hit any potholes exceptionally hard. At the time we were due for our appointment we were still over an hour away from Brazzaville. I was able to text the guy at the Embassy and tell him we were coming but we’d be late and to please wait for us. We got into Brazzaville, Gedeon took over driving and once we were well into the city we got pulled over by the police. Orcxance handed them some money, grabbed our backpacks and left Pastor, Gedeon and a groggy Molly and Eileen to sort it out with the police while we jumped in a taxi with Salem and headed to the embassy. Orcxance spent the short drive changing out of filthy clothes into dress pants and a button-down shirt. I had no extra clothes or shoes so I went as I was, except I quickly exchanged my headscarf for a lacy headband. Everyone at the Embassy was super nice and didn’t mind that we were late, except we had to wait longer because of the consular officer being in a meeting. They handed Orcxance his passport first and we sat down and stared at the visa. It was a moment of thanksgiving and relief. We’ve waited five years for this. We sat there staring at it for a few minutes, said a prayer of thanksgiving and then looked over the other papers. The consular officer answered our questions, gave us Salem’s passport with instructions on how to exchange it for a 5-year one in the US and we were on our way.

Back at my sister-in-law Joseline’s house we found the girls, breakfast eaten, playing with all their cousins’ exciting toys. Joseline cooked up a meal for Pastor and Gedeon and we spent the afternoon taking naps and watching kids cartoons. Kelci and I changed our plans for a visit and instead arranged to meet the next day; we were too exhausted to go anywhere.

And I’m sure that someone, somewhere, is thinking: “Praise God, my Katie made it!” If you know, you know. We’ll catch you on the flip-flop.

Pictures!

I’ll catch up on telling about the phases of our trip later, but for now here are some pictures from our time with the Lightners and Pinkertons: