We had a pleasant stay and got a sound sleep in Kimpese. The temperature is more agreeable here than in Matadi. As far as I can understand, Matadi is one of the hottest places in Congo. It rained for a while during the night, and that makes the climate nicer to a Northerner. After getting up, we packed our bags for the journey home. It´s important to pack the clothes and things in the right order to have easy access to sweaters and coats when we come home to a much colder climate.

When Emy and Yapeco met today they greeted each other in Swedish: ‘Hur mår du?’ ‘Tack, jag mår bra.’ (‘How do you do?’ ‘I´m fine, thanks’) Both of them have been to Sweden several times. Now, Emy is hooked on starting an entrepreneurial course in Kimpese. We discussed the criteria Yapeco has used when he´s chosen the participants in Matadi. Emy is going to cooperate with Yapeco, they seem to know each other well. Before leaving IME, we paid a visit to Roger Olahema, the manager of the hospital. By ten o´clock we left for Kinshasa. Roy, a friend of Yapeco went with us. He is a happy and talkative guy. Our impression is that most Congolese are easy to make contact with; they are generally talkative and use a lot of body language. If they know English, they are happy to speak it. And Roy knew English. More and more Congolese speaks English, and it´s a status symbol to be able to. As we sat in the back of the car, we watched Yapeco and Roy talking to each other. By the intensity of their voices you might have thought that they were rather agitated from time to time, but that was probably not the case. It is just the way they express themselves.

Bernt and I summarized our experiences during the two weeks that had passed. Our message about financial planning has been swallowed hook, line and sinker. It remains to see if they are able to put it into practice. We have received much appreciation and great openness. They are disappointed that Sweden to such a large extent has abandoned them. They want us to come back and help them improve their community. The Covenant Church has been present in Bas-Congo for 130 years, and hundreds of missionaries have worked there. Muditu named the missionaries who´d lived in the house in Lisanga, Matadi, where we´d stayed. Among others were the previous pastor in Hökerum and his family. It is time to increase the signs of our solidarity again. There are many opportunities to make contributions to schools, health care and businesses.

Some of the opportunities are: the Baobab Church which would like to run an entrepreneurial program in their Secondary School, which is the equivalent of our upper secondary school. The Adult Education School that corresponds to the Swedish ‘Komvux’ also wants to start an entrepreneurial education for the students in addition to the three years of adult education. Julienne and her husband own 315 hectares of fertile soil that lies untilled, and they lack the means to get new cultivations started. Several new batches of entrepreneurs are queuing up for courses and for help to get started with a business. Emy wants to start an entrepreneurial course in Kimpese, and on several other locations in Bas-Kongo there are people who want to do likewise. Recently, we received an invitation to arrange courses from the Katanga province. The need for education and help to get started, that is loans, are great. We have also discovered a need for instruction in the English language.

There are two things I regret I didn´t do, says Bernt. One day we passed a barefooted young woman on her way home from the field to her village, 7 kilometers away. She carried a heavy basket filled with vegetables and firewood on her back. Yapeco stopped her, and bought some corncobs from her when she´d put down her basket. When the deal was closed, both Muditu and Yapeco had to help her lift the basket back where it belonged. With the sandals on her head and a happy smile, she continued her walk. What we should have done, says Bernt, was to have put her basket in the car and offered her a lift. But maybe that would have been impossible, the car and consequently the decision wasn´t mine. The second event that I regret happened one evening in Matadi, he continues. Yapeco had left us to run some errands, and a street boy came up to the car, asking for a few francs to buy bananas for supper. He didn´t get any francs even though I had many of them in my breastpocket. It would have been so easy to give him the means to satisfy his empty stomach. I made the wrong decision, says Bernt, and I regret it.

When you have read our blogs depicting our weeks in Congo, I hope they give you something to think about. The stay has certainly given us a lot to ponder upon. We have gained a better perspective on life and what we surround ourselves with. When we meet people in a community like Congo we are forced to make a choice. We choose either to ignore them – we might think that they have themselves to blame, and that everyone has to set one´s house in order. Or we might reflect upon the fact that we are a part of the global community that allows the Congolese to live in such poverty. Could it be that we owe them something? I hope our blogs can give you an answer. Thank you for your commitment. It makes it possible for us to carry on the work.

We have reached the last day in Matadi. We got up at 6.00 am. The coldness of the shower both gets you going and makes you shorten the duration of it all. We packed our bags, rested for a while and had breakfast. I printed out the last documents, cleared the desktop and returned the printer. A group of children have been playing football outside our house during our stay. We´ve gotten quite familiar with them, and taught them to say hello in Swedish: ‘Hej hej’, and raise their hands. Bernt handed out pencils to them the other day. We made them queue up orderly, and Bernt handed over the pencils one by one. When they saw that we were leaving, they gathered around us and said ‘Hej hej’. Samuel Nkailu and Muditu came to say goodbye. Samuel gave us a beautiful knitted gift yesterday, and today, Bernt got a knitted sweater for one of his grandchildren, made by Mama Matila. Bernt withdrew money with the VISA card so that we could pay our expenses at Lisanga. Yapeco went to withdraw money from our account to cover costs related to the entrepreneurial course. It took one and a half hour to get the money. The bank employees claimed that they had problems with the internet connection. In Congo, as well as in Sweden, you can always blame the computer when things don´t work.

At half past eleven, we set off for Kimpese, which is 120 kilometers away. Muditu prayed for us before we left. Bernt and I sat in the back of the car and we slept parts of the journey. It was hot, which didn´t make the sleep very comfortable. It´s a beautiful part of the country to travel through. There are steep hills and deep valleys. The first part of the distance is almost like a fjeld landscape, the road winding its way over the green hillsides. We stopped at a road toll station. There, a crowd of sellers almost caused a solar eclipse in the car. Our desire to buy things wasn´t at it´s best. It felt safe to be in the hands of Yapeco. By three o´clock we came to Kimpese. Now, we had to find someone who would drive the 100 kilometers to Luozi, to make sure that Julienne got home. It took us ten minutes to find a group of people who were going there. They had a pick-up truck and the loading platform had a tarpaulin cover. Two planks were fastened between the flaps to sit on. Julienne had bought a 25 kg sack of rice in Matadi. Bernt carried it on his head from our car to the truck. That caused much excitement; imagine a ‘mondele’ carrying something on his head! There was cheering and applauses. Julienne got to sit next to the driver. Around us, there was a brisk trade and lots of people. And all cars were crammed with people and goods. No empty transports here.

We settled in at the IME Guest House. Dinner was served, and afterwards we took a shower and a good long siesta. It is wonderful to stay here, it´s a quiet and peaceful place. At nightfall, we sat down on the veranda and philosophized. After a while, Peter and his wife joined us. They are good friends of Yapeco, and Peter is the principal of the IME School. He speaks English, and he helped us sort out some misunderstandings. Later on came Dr. Philippe. He was going to check in on our health. We told him that we felt well. He concluded that we were healthy enough to go back to Sweden.

We spent a couple of hours in the pleasant Congolese evening conversing. We talked about enterprising spirit and development in Congo. We agreed that if Congo is going to evolve, the Congolese need to change the way they think and learn how to plan. A modern society call for planning and the ability to think ahead. The widespread corruption and the far-reaching irregularities are curses that must be thoroughly uprooted. They throw spanners into the works of a sound progress. The fact that Congo is still on the same old spot, or even going backwards, is in the first place an issue of mentality, not an issue of funds. Lack of funds is a result of systematic mistakes. If you are ready to give up your old ways of thinking, and think something different and new, then change will come. The youth understands where the problems are, and they want a change. They are the hope of Congo and change will come, you may rest assured. The situation is comparable to that of the Prodigal Son; in his misery he awakened and made a decision to change his life. Another problem is that the educated and skilled people move abroad to find a more comfortable life. It is understandable, but they are needed in Congo, and it is in Congo that they can make the greatest contribution to humanity. To a great extent, the world around is accessory to the situation that Congo is left in. Ruthless exploiters have abused the inability of Congo to defend its interests. When strong global financial forces are at work, the law of the jungle takes effect.

Dr. Philippe told us that he is an entrepreneur too. He is building a guest house for tourists, and will open a tourist agency. He wants to pay attention to things worth seeing around Kimpese. He is also a fishmonger.

Last year, I listened to a well-known business executive in Borås. He talked about a period of time when his company had been in a critical state. He and his closest co-workers worked intensively together. To be able to work almost 24 hours a day, he suggested that they should sleep together. His wife had to move out, and his nearest co-worker moved in. Every waking hour, they conferred about solutions to the difficulties of the company. Bernt and I have slept in the same room during this stay in Congo, because we don´t need more private space. Primarily, we made this decision because of financial reasons. But, as it turned out, we didn’t save any money. The local practice is to charge you by the number of beds you use, not by the number of rooms. However, we have discovered another advantage. In the same fashion as the executive and his closest man above, we have spent every waking hour discussing the challenges we are facing. It works just fine to draw up good solutions in a horizontal position. Later, we heard that some Congolese have been somewhat apprehensive about us sleeping in the same room. They have drawn the conclusion that we might be having a relationship. We didn´t have the faintest idea that we could cause offense. We have assured all our friends that they needn´t worry the least about us – the last time we slept in the same room was 55 years ago, in a fisherman´s shed at a Covenant Church youth camp.

Electricity has been gone all day and returned at half past two. So far, this is the longest power failure we have experienced. I didn´t have any battery time left on my computer, so the only thing we could do was to lie down and rest, and that is what we have been doing. After breakfast, I went to publish my blog, but the Internet Café didn´t have any more electricity than the Guest House. Without any success, I had to return. After a while, the manager of the Internet Café came to tell us that the computers and the internet were working. He had started the generator Yapeco bought with a loan from MSG. It feels good to witness the practical consequences of a loan. When I was done, the diesel had run out due to lack of planning. This will be rectified.

After dinner, I went to the Internet Café again to continue some other work. The generator had not been refilled. Yapeco couldn´t get the necessary diesel, as he wasn´t at home. I gave the manager $10 to go and buy fuel. But by the time he came back, electricity had returned, thank heavens. The diesel he bought will come in handy during the next power failure.

Julienne needed to get a passport, and she and Yapeco went to the centre to sort out the formalities. They went after breakfast, and came back by half past two. Julienne was prepared to stay until Tuesday in order to get her passport. When they came back, she was very happy. Through Yapeco´s skilful ways of handling people in authority and his great network of contacts they had solved all the formalities. True, she had to pay a $75 bribe, but now she can go with us tomorrow to Kimpese and then onwards to her home in Luozi. Such is the bureaucracy in Congo.

During the afternoon, I made print-outs to the first group of entrepreneurs. The print-outs were of the loan deeds and the budgets that will be followed up month by month. Unfortunately, we couldn´t pay out the loans because of the slow working of the bank. Yapeco will have to take care of the payments next week. I will prepare all the necessary documents and put my name to them on account of MSG.

Bernt has inspected the tin roof of the Youth House. There are some holes in the roof, and it leaks when it´s raining. We used a couple of buckets to catch the running water when we were there. Bernt have a few ideas of how the holes can be mended. That will be an assignment for our next visit.

The day has been dedicated to the individual consultations with the new entrepreneurs. Bernt, Julienne and Yapeco have been in charge of the interviews. The less Swedish we use in class, the quicker our students pick up the course material. By now, Julienne and Yapeco know the important parts, and they take over more and more. The tenth entrepreneur arrived at half past five, and the interview was done shortly after six o’clock. A common feature in their response to the course material was that it is easy to understand and contains a new way of thinking. ‘You give us the opportunity, we have to make use of it.’ Some of them expressed gratitude for being chosen. They are going to hand in all the written exercises by January 27^th. Bernt´s overall impression of the new entrepreneurs is that they know what they want, are target-oriented and seem to be stable people. Myself, I have used the day for paperwork. There are many documents to write in order to make everything work. The pack of 500 sheets of A4 paper I brought will probably be used up by Friday when it all has to be completed.

Mama Matila invited us for dinner at her restaurant. She served antelope, manioc, rice, sweet pepper and sweet potato. The meat and the sweet potato were the highlights, but the rest of the meal was delicious as well. Mama Matila is a true entrepreneur. She started the restaurant when she was left a widow, many years ago. Now, she has several employees and a much frequented establishment. She was fully occupied doing the cooking while we had our dinner, and we had to enter the restaurant kitchen to be able to see her and thank her. Her business gave her the means to pay for her son Oscar´s university education. A fine example of how a crisis can be the starting point of something new.

Yesterday, I wrote about Julienne´s fields outside the Nsanda village. I had misunderstood the size of her property, due to the limitations of my apprehension no doubt. Instead of 150 hectares, she owns 315 hectares of fertile Congolese soil. It can give two harvests during the rain period. Add an irrigation plant, and you get up to four harvests a year. What an amazing natural resource, the Congolese soil! In Congo there are millions of acres of fertile soil that are not cultivated. In 2003, Julienne and her husband visited Sweden. In their absence, the man who they´d employed to take care of their fields, sold their farming equipment and embezzled the crop profits. He caused them a loss of $30 000 and put them in a series of difficult situations due to his disappearance. Since then, the fields have been lying uncultivated, as Julienne and her husband have not recovered financially. The Swedish proverb ‘När det regnar välling har den fattige ingen sked’ (‘When it´s raining gruel, the poor man has no spoon’) goes for Julienne, as well as for many Congolese. Please, let us give her and many others a ‘spoon’.

Congo is presumably one of the richest countries in the world when it comes to natural resources. From my point of view, I don´t think the Congolese have any use for the kind of aid that make them passive bystanders. Instead, they need the tools that can enable them to transform their resources to prosperity. Julienne’s fields of 315 hectares could support several families, maybe as many as 50 or more. We are drawing up a plan of how they can make their fields profitable again. Julienne has talked to an agronomist who has done an estimate. We believe they should start on a small scale, and little by little grow the business through their own efforts, that is, putting aside some of the profits in order to make investments. This is a project with huge possibilities.

Today, Bernt had to ask Yapeco to contact Dr Philippe on his account. Dr. Philippe prescribed the same kill-or-cure remedy to Bernt as he previously gave me. It´s not as easy as you might think to get the stomach to work as usual again. We hope to be ok when we go home to Sweden again, Sunday night.

To be thoroughly rested, we are staying one day longer than planned in Matadi. We are leaving for Kimpese on Saturday after breakfast, and will then continue to Kinshasa on Sunday morning. Yapeco will be driving us the whole distance to the airport. Yapeco had wanted to meet us at the airport when we arrived in Congo, but we felt sorry for him for having to drive a total of 370 kilometers to pick us up. That is why we asked Nzo Binati to set up the trip from N´djili to Kimpese. The trip to Kimpese almost cost us our lives, see an earlier blog, and it cost us $200. The usual fare between Kinshasa and Kimpese is $10. We used the car and driver for some short transports in Kinshasa, so a bill of somewhat more than $10 would have been ok. But with such an unfair pricing, we will not be using Nzo Binati´s services any more. Next time we will stay at another guest house. Nzo Binati charge more for food and lodging than a Swedish equivalent. Through our friends in Matadi, we have found more beneficial solutions.

We are not going to repeat the mistake to say no to Yapecos generous offer to take care of us as soon as we land in Kinshasa. Julienne said ‘You are not to use any taxis, Yapeco will drive you, Yapeco is God´s gift to you.’ This almost brought tears to my eyes. Afterwards, we´ve understood that Yapeco was a little offended when we said no to his offer to meet us. He didn´t understand why we didn´t want him to fetch us. Cultural differences cause us Swedes to make stupid mistakes! But by now it´s all sorted out, luckily.

During this week, Bernt and I have been feeling sick. Our stomachs haven´t agreed with the local bacteria. We´ve been forced to pay quite a few speedy visits to the lavatory. We have been in such great need of toilet paper that we´ve had to ask for an extra ration. Luckily our request was granted, and we agreed to always have a spare roll in our room. Bernt had brought Imodium Plus tablets and I took most of them I´m afraid. Bernt´s symptoms have been less severe than mine. In the afternoon I asked Yapeco to call a doctor as I felt worse; I was in pain and felt generally weak. He got hold of Dr Philippe at the IME hospital. Dr Philippe asked me about my symptoms, and told me that I had it mildly, as I neither had thrown up, nor had a fever or a headache. I was prescribed medicine though, which I have been taking according to his orders. Daily, I take 1 Lopradé, 3 x 2 Clamoxyl and one litre of water mixed with Davisalts. The medicine has worked. On Thursday morning he wanted to talk to me again, and I could inform him that I felt much better. Friday afternoon, we are going to see Dr Philippe at the IME hospital to find out whether or not we are fit to return to Sweden. As luck have it, our ailments have not immobilized us. We have been able to carry on with everything we had made plans for and more.

Today, the entrepreneurial course have dealt with making budgets, which in summary is about transforming your ideas into numbers. Financial planning is the most important part of the course. I had prepared the class, thinking that we would use the computer, projector and the big screen. But the guy who owns the cable we had used to connect my gear to the power point had forgotten to bring it. Or perhaps he had been told that we wouldn´t be using it any more. An hour later, Samuel had fixed another cable. He put the naked copper wire of one end of the cable in the power point, thus providing us with electricity. But by then, we were using the flipcharts that we had used in October, and they worked splendidly. The absence of digitality was not as severe as we had thought. Julienne held the lecture on promissory notes, guarantees and the business loan regulations all by herself. It is very good that we don´t tire the entrepreneurs with our Swedish unless we have to. If Julienne forgets something Yapeco fills in. The Youth House is perfect for our courses. Only sudden cloudbursts reduce its usefulness. The Support Group have decided that we won´t have to pay any rent.

In the afternoon, we visited Muditu again and this time in his home in Matadi. He has built the house himself, beautifully situated on a hillside above the Congo River. At the moment, his wife Josephine is staying at their other house, nearby their fields, but at Muditu´s home we met five young people. Two of the boys were related to him. They had come to help on the fields, but one of them got sick. No help from them. The three girls, who were between 15 and 20 years old, are orphans living with Muditu and Josephine. Muditu used to work in the harbor. He was the manager of loading and unloading. He is now 67 years old, and has a great commitment to social issues. In his spare time, he works with family therapy. He and Josephine have seven children; all of them have left home. He is one of the driving forces of the Youth House. We sat down in his livingroom, and were entertained with Coca Cola, buns and peanuts.

On the way back, we called on Yapeco, at his hotel building site. So far, he has laid the foundations which he financed with private means, $77 000. He needs a loan of $237 000 to finish the building. The location is beautiful above the river. I am sure it is a good object of investment.

The only thing we are dissatisfied with is the contact with the bank. We didn´t get where we intended. Yapeco has been all over town to find other banks for us to contact. We need a bank that we can count on, and it is a matter of principle that the bank shall put up a loan of the same sum that we do. We are still waiting for the bank to cash in the cheque we brought of $25 992.

After the daily getting up, washing and eating breakfast it was time to take a walk to the Youth House and start a new group of entrepreneurs. Yapeco had notified everyone that the course would begin at 9 o’clock. We had just got indoors when a violent cloudburst came on, and everything and everyone outdoors got totally soaked. Four of the entrepreneurs had arrived before the rain started, and it took at least an hour before the last one showed up. The delay was probably due to the weather. I participated during the first hour, when we introduced the project. Yapeco opened the gathering with a prayer. Bernt, with Julienne as translator, and Yapeco then took care of the instruction. It is fantastic to have two Congolese lending us a hand, especially considering their solid experience in their respective fields. Julienne is a skilful educator and Yapeco a capable entrepreneur. Both of them are competent leaders with an extensive network, and not least – they are enthusiastic about our idea.

Yapeco had received about 25 applications this time, and he had picked out 10 entrepreneurs to the course. We believe that 10 people make a large enough group at the moment. The participants belong to different churches in Matadi. We also believe it is for the best that the recruitment is done within the church. We are aware that there is decency and honesty outside the church as well, but we think that our chances of finding these characteristics are higher among church members. The group is comprised of four women and six men, and they are between 25 and 35 years old. Later, we will receive a complete Curriculum Vita and a thorough account of their business proposition and how it will be realized.

When they had finished two out of five parts of the course material, the gates of heaven were again opened wide and the rain came down in buckets. Nobody could hear what anybody else said. The room has no inner ceiling, but a ceiling probably wouldn´t have done any difference on this occasion as the pouring rain was hitting the almost entirely flat tin roof. All we could do was taking it easy and start on the exercises. There are a lot of those in the material. And we took a break, with lemonade and a bun. Both assignments could be performed without any detrimental influence of the loud noise. To adjust to the circumstances and do what can be done, not falling into the trap of being passive is an important lesson for entrepreneurs. It is an important lesson for every human being. An hour later, the heavenly water came to an end, and the oral instruction could be resumed and we continued until 1 o´clock.

In the afternoon, we went to the Nsanda village, about 20 kilometers from Matadi, on the other side of the Congo River. Seven kilometers outside the village, Muditu has 2.5 hectares of peanuts that he wanted to show us. Yapeco drove the car. He managed to wheel us along the seven kilometers of wet mud road through elephant grass, and we never had to leave the car to push it out of a ditch or to help him tow it. When we arrived at our destination, we were met by the joyous Josephine, Muditus wife. She was weeding the very well-tended fields. It has to be done one time during the three months period of growth. Usually, they employ someone to do this for them, but this year, they couldn´t afford that. Josephine worked the fields alone while Muditu was attending a democracy conference in Lisanga. In Sweden, we would probably have prioritized differently. We would have been forced to, I guess. Josephine and Muditu have a small brick house with a hipped roof in the village nearby, where they stay when they work in the fields. It is too expensive to go back and forth to Matadi every day. The house has dirt floors and three rooms. No windows, only holes in the walls that you open if you need light. Josephine was going to stay there for slightly more than a week. We learned the hard way how to walk on wet Congolese soil – obviously barefooted, like the Congolese. But we hadn´t taken off our shoes, and they became huge blobs, the mud sticking to us as thick as thieves. Back at the Guest House, we spent half an hour taking care of our poor shoes, philosophizing upon the optimal phase of Congolese earth – is it the dust of the dry season or the muck of the rain period? After all, we prefer the muck.

We went to Nsanda, where Julienne and her husband own a house. They haven´t been there for several years now and when we got there, there was another family living in the house. Julienne went inside to find out who had moved in. She had no idea who it was. That´s life in Congo. In front of the house her Toyota jeep was parked. It was left to Julienne by Alice Sandblom, a missionary. It is nothing to write home about, but Julienne wants to have it fixed up. Alongside the jeep stood a BM Volvo tractor which they bought from a farmer in Asklanda. In Nsanda, Julienne and her husband also owns 150 hectares arable, fertile soil. A very interesting project that deserves attention and investments. Do you want to take part in it? Please, contact us!

At dinner, principal Matondo came to see us. She is responsible for 100 pupils, who for some reason or another have dropped out of Secondary school. Her school is equivalent to our municipal adult education, and it lasts for three years. They have been given seven sewing machines by SIDA and the Swedish Covenant Church (as a part of the SEK 13 million development aid to Congo). She wanted us to take over the education of her pupils when they graduate from her school. Today, many of her pupils have nothing but unemployment to look forward to. We might be looking at some future sewing manufacturers here. This is a possible future expansion of our present project.

As usual, we started the day with a shower. Most days, the shower works fine but if it doesn´t, we use the scooping method. In every shower room there is a 200 litres barrel filled with water. Nature itself tempers the water, which means it is a chilling, but it is very efficient way to reach wide-awakeness.

After breakfast, we prepared for the ‘Swedish meeting’ that we organized tonight at the Baobab church. We picked out and sorted the photographs we were going to show. Then I went to Yapeco´s office to publish my blog. I saw that Aron in Moscow was online, and I called him through Skype, plugged in the web camera and sound and picture were perfect. Some Congolese boys and girls gathered around me. Clearly, they thought I was mad, sitting there talking in a funny way to myself. But as soon as they understood that I was talking to somebody else through the computer, they got very enthusiastic. I made them say hello to Aron. Then I saw that Jenny in Santiago de Chile was online too, and Jenny, Aron and I had a conference call. Yapeco also talked a little to Jenny. They met during our first trip to Congo, in October. It is always nice to talk to your children, especially when you are so far away from each other.

At noon we went with Yapeco and Samuel to Samuel Nkailu´s home. Samuel had come to get us at the Guest House. We travelled by car for half an hour. The last part of the road, we had to walk one kilometer. Not even Yapeco´s four-wheel drive jeep could manage the road surface in that part of town. And the standard of roads is similar in many parts of Matadi. The walk was rough going; we crossed a gully where we had to jump from stone to stone in order to stay dry. Samuel and his family rent a house together with two other families. The landlord came to say hello to us. Samuel holds him in high regard, and he seemed to be a nice bloke, about 30 – 40 years old. At Samuel´s we met his wife, his daughter Simba and her husband, their 7-year-old son who shook our hands and said ”Välkommen”. The son-in-law opened a bottle of wine and when the cork left the bottleneck there was a bang. According to the tradition this is a good sign, Samuel told us. We had Coca Cola and Fanta. Samuel told us about the activities at the Youth House, and then dinner was served. It consisted of rice, manioc, fried bananas, meat and fish, and pineapple for desert. At the moment, the pineapple is ripe for harvest in Congo. Samuel´s house maintains a high standard compared to other houses in the neighborhood. It is located on the higher part of a hillside and has a view. The son-in-law expressed how happy he was to meet me, ‘Yngve Håkanson’, as he called me. Throughout the years, many e-mails have been sent between Samuel and me, and it is the son-in-law who has been the middleman. We had a good time with Samuel and his family. When later on wanted to take a picture, Samuel´s family suddenly grew to twice its original size. See the attached photo.

At 5.30 pm, the ‘Swedish meeting’ was supposed to begin, but we didn´t get our things together until six o´clock. It was all for the best, as we needed darkness to show our photos. Damas opened with a prayer. I bid everyone welcome, and Bernt held a brief talk on Swedish history. Then we showed the photos from Sweden. David had sent with us beautiful photos of Swedish nature. We also showed some photos from the Sunday service at Baobab, and the audience was pleased to see themselves. Bernt had taken photos of Josef Nsumbu shoveling snow, and of his house. And we showed photos of Swedish traditions. Unfortunately, we couldn´t show the pictures with the quality they deserved, as the screen had a bluish discoloration, but you´ve got to take what you´ve got. And of course we had power failures twice. A somewhat resigned inhabitant of Matadi said ”This is Congo”. The last photos were shown directly on my computer to a few members of the audience. We started to gather our things in dense darkness, when the power suddenly came back. There are bright moments in life. We had about 100 people in the audience, and especially the young people took a great interest in our presentation. It is important that we get to know other parts of the world. That might convince you to act for change in your own environment. Internet is an important tool in this process of spreading information, and it is coming fast in Congo.

On Sundays, the breakfast is served half an hour later than on weekdays. Hence, the day began with breakfast at 8.00 am. We went to Yapecos office to publish the blog to keep you, our readers updated, and also to read and send e-mails. At 9.30 am, we set off for church. Today, the service began at 10.00 am. The order of the service consisted of 23 points in good orderliness. Point 10 was our presentation. Bernt, Julienne and I went up to the platform and the congregation greeted us with a ”Welcome”. Yapeco held an exhaustive talk about us and our entrepreneurial project. The Congolese certainly knows how to go into great detail. I had greetings from Hökerum to the Baobab Church, and I told them how cold it is in Sweden right now, and the amount of snow we have received. Later that day, I heard that the temperature had risen considerably in Sweden. But on a distance of 7 500 kilometers and in 30ºC it is very hard to predict such a sudden change of weather in Sweden. I also had the whole congregation say ”Hökerum”.

Point 14 was Bernt´s, as he was today´s preacher. Julienne translated the sermon to kikongo. He talked about Sweden´s path from poverty to welfare state, the role the revivalism played during the 19th century and how democracy gained more and more ground with ordinary people as modern society was founded in the beginning of the 20th century. It is the ordinary people in a democracy that makes the difference when it comes to putting the rights and obligations to the test. When you work and when you take responsibility for your family and for other members of society, that is democracy in practice. Bernt´s point went home, and was further more boosted by the reinforcement of Julienne´s translation. Several times during the sermon, the congregation cheered ”amen” or ”hallelujah”. There were other exclamations as well, but as I don´t know how they are spelled, we will have to leave that open. On the whole, there were no dull moments whatsoever during the tree hour service. All Swedes should be given the opportunity to take part in a Congolese service, the atmosphere, the feeling, joy and devotion is fantastic. Bernt got long applause and some whistles. After the service, Yapeco said: ”Bernt is the best evangelist.”

To experience a similar joy and devotion in Sweden, you would probably have to be on home ground when Elfsborg shoots the winning goal in the final of the Premier Division of the Swedish Football League.

During the service there are many opportunities for prayers, and after the sermon the congregation prayed for its spiritual message. Then, it was time for collection. The Congolese dance their way to the front of the church, moving in step with the drums. The drums are important and together with a lot of other rhythm instruments the sound is amazing. The women are also beautifully dressed. Today, the organ was not used. Damas was choir leader. Collection started with fifteen people gathering around Damas at the altar. Damas prayed for them and shook hands with each of them. They were church members who had promised to give a tenth of their salaries to the church. After this, ten churchwardens took their stands at a table at the front of the church, each of them carrying a basket. Every member of the church belongs to a group, and they put their contribution in the basket of that group. Bernt´s and my basket was white, but there were many Congolese who put their money in our basket. It was very considerate of them. If they hadn´t we would have been disgraced by the tiny sum in our basket compared with those of the other baskets. We ”whiteys” were only 2, and the Congolese were somewhere between 300 and 400.

Then it was time for the Holy Communion. Damas administered the sacrament to us first, and then to those who would administer the sacrament to the congregation. They were dressed in white. Once again, the whole congregation walked in procession to the front of the church. Afterwards, we had a short meeting with the Global Group, and Damas signed our friend relation agreement between the Baobab Church and Covenant Churches of Blidsberg and Hökerum. I will bring the agreements back to Sweden for countersigning.

We had a dinner invitation to Damas and his wife, but it seemed to be the Global Group that was responsible for the food. They joined us for dinner. The meal consisted of chicken, rice, manioc and beans and it was very tasty. Then, Yapeco drove us to the Guest House, and we took a good long siesta. Today has been really hot. We have 30ºC in our room right now, at 9.30 pm Sunday evening. Today must have been the hottest day up until now during this stay.

In Congo, the memory of President Lumumba, who was assassinated in the sixties, is celebrated today. Tomorrow, Monday January 17th is a holiday in remembrance of president Kabila who was also assassinated.

At 8.30, the last meeting with our first batch of entrepreneurs began. For the first time we held the meeting in the Youth House. We rigged up a computer and a projector, and on the wall, Samuel  and Muditu had put up a white sheet to use as a screen. Then, we went through each of the entrepreneurs´ financial plans and everybody could follow the exposition on the screen. It is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of the other members in the group. In collaboration with each entrepreneur we had given the plans the finishing touches during the week. Bernt went through the liquidity budgets and pointed at some examples to show how it might be done. Halfway through his talk, the projector went out due to power failure. It was a pity, but no surprise. We are used to it by now. Power failure is unfortunately a daily phenomenon, and sometimes it occurs several times a day. I am writing this by the light of a torch and luckily, the computer runs on battery. The remaining task for us concerning this first group of entrepreneurs is the payment of the loans, and that will take place during next week. The bank needed a few days to cash the cheque. We hope it will work out fine, but you never know.

When they have received the loans they will begin their investments. They are eager to get going. Now, we hope that the experiences and the know-how we have shared with them will be turned into practice with good results. Then, it is important that the chairperson of the group gathers the group once a month and report through our website. We hope that the pressure of the group on its members plus the obligation to report to us, will have a beneficial effect on the entrepreneurs. We asked Julienne what she thinks about it, whether she believes they will succeed. She told us she had actually talked to them about this, and she thinks they will be successful because they take the entrepreneurial role seriously.

Julienne, our interpreter, has been a pastor for 37 years, and manager of the CEC Women Movement for 27 years. Her husband is a pastor as well, and he has been director of CEC for 12 years. She was the first female pastor in Congo, and has extensive experiences of development programmes. She has told us about several programmes, with plenty of money involved, that haven’t returned any lasting results. The only ones that benefitted from the programmes were the administrators – they had good wages as long as the programmes lasted. When the programme was over, there was nothing to show for it.

When Julienne was 18 years old in 1967, she came to Sweden to study. She learnt Swedish during one semester at Södra Vätterbygdens Folk High-school. Then, she continued her studies at the Convenant Church Theological Seminary for three years. Her future husband came to Sweden two years after her, and they married on Lidingö in 1969. Arvid Stenström officiated at the wedding. After finishing her degree, they worked in Kinshasa for four years. Then, they went to France for further studies for four and a half year. This time, she studied sociology and community planning. After the stay in France they have remained faithful to Congo. Two years before pensioning, she was removed from office as manager of the CEC Women Movement against her will. She had become dangerous to the executive management, as she had access to too much information. She saw deficiencies and she wanted a change. Because of this, she worked again as a pastor in a congregation in Luozi the last years before pensioning. In Congo, women retire with pension at the age of 60. She came to a church that didn´t have a roof, just four walls. The congregation sat under the open sky during service. But with the help of God and people, as she put it, they soon had a roof on the church. In a few weeks, a German journalist who’s going to write a book about her, is coming to Congo to interview her.

Bernt and I probably haven´t realized what a capacity Julienne really is, what experience and knowledge she possesses. So far, we have understood that she knows the Church and Congo by heart, and that she truly understands the Congolese society. Bernt and I had a meeting this week with Julienne and Marie France, who is also a pastor. We asked them whether they would like to become course-leaders for future entrepreneurs. Both of them told us that they believe in our concept and our planning, and that they agree to become course-leaders for Matadi Support Group. Marie has participated in our first entrepreneurial course and she speaks English.

We spent Friday preparing for the upcoming meeting with the entrepreneurs at the Youth House. I put all the budgets in Excel and created links between the different pages in order to make the computer execute all the calculations. If you change a number on one sheet it will be changed on all the other sheets. If the computer is a friend of yours, it is a good co-worker. Bernt created another examble with a liquidity budget.

After lunch, we visited a orphanage. The staff prefers to call it a youth home as the target group is between 14 and 18 years old. The home got its name after an outstanding woman in the ECC Women´s Movement, Marie Matie, and it was inaugurated last year. It could be realized thanks to a donation from Asklanda Convenant Church, inspired by Febe Karlsson. They contributed $18.000. The Protestant Church in Germany and the Women´s Movement made donations to the home as well. The home admits 30 street children from Matadi and 20 from Boma, and provides a safe environment for them. The staff of twelve includes teachers, paramedics and one administrator. They make sure the children get a proper education. If the children are illiterate on admission, they are taught at the home, and if they can read they go to a regular school in town.

They have several vocational training programs: the children can train to be hotel staff, mechanics, construction workers, bricklayers, electricians, tailors and drivers. To facilitate the young person’s entry into the labor market, the youth home build contacts with companies that can offer them employment. The home sees to that the children are adopted by ordinary families, and they live with this family during their education at the youth home. The staff tells us of how capable many of the children are while we are sitting down in the dining room, each of us with a Coke to drink. They get very good results on their final exams. Imagine the potential in a street child. How important it is to be in the right environment and to get access to knowledge. All of us who have had the fortune to be born in rich countries can help others to get a share of the good things this world has to offer. This is, as a matter of fact, our obligation. Besides, life becomes even more rewarding for the person who gives. It is wonderful to see concrete examples of humanity, such as this youth home.

At the lunch table, we started talking about all the excellent development programmes that have been launched in Congo. Many of them have surely meant a lot and made a difference, as the example above. But there have also been grandiose programmes that looked good on paper where the aid never reached the grass roots. The administrative process with its managers, administrators, coordinators, controllers and offices became so costly that nothing was left for the actual targets of the programmes. The aid was used up before it reached outside the office door. Julienne ended this conversation by saying:”We still ask ourselves what happened to that programme. We didn’t see any results at all.”

As I am writing this blog in the calm morning hours, Bernt lies in his bed on the other side of a row of bookcases, snoring at a moderate sound level. Bernt’s considerate snoring has never bothered me. I wake up because of other incidences. We have a fan that is on all the time to supply us with fresh air, and sometimes it help us to stay alert and efficient. There are small creatures who keep me company when I write. A big beetle takes extensive strolls around my feet. I guess he hasn’t seen such white and bony feet before, his curiousity is very understandable. A lizard is running up and down the wall. Right now, a bird started to sing outside our open window. It is nice with lively morning company. At a distance I can hear thunder roll.