Tuesday morning, the rain water had drained away from the road outside our house and the air was cooler. We were grateful, it was easier to breathe. First, we managed to start the washing machine, thanks to Google Translate. The washing machine worked just fine and we hung up some the clothes, and I ironed some. Altogether, we were very pleased.

At 11 am, some people from the organization Niosi were coming. They wanted to know more about the Focus Business School and had also promised to invite us to dinner. They had spoken to Yvette who consequently had been preparing the meal the whole morning.

At 11.30 five gentlemen arrived: Bittow, Auguste, Benjamin, Nganga and Samuel. Our interpreter Billy came too. We had met them before, the other day in the garden at the Niosi house, therefore we started right away with showing a Power Point on Focus Business School, it’s background and principles. They were very interested, so we watched another Power Point as well about the organization’s “dreams and visions.” Each lesson in Focus Business School begins with an inspirational Power Point.

Samuel said that the Focus Business School is the right path to go. The Niosi organization desire to interest and inform about a new ways to work. There are many problems to contend with today. Many people start businesses without knowing anything about how to run a company.

Auguste said that we should take better care of the generation growing up now, and that the ideas of Focus Business School would serve the young generation well. He said that many churches speak of heavens to come. But we should also work with people here and now.

“We select people who have a business idea we are looking for talented and pedagogical teachers.”

Yngve said that many Congolese already are entrepreneurs, but they need to learn to be more result-oriented.

One of the older participants, Nganga, said he had met Axel Gustafsson in Borås twenty-five years ago, and than he still remembered Axel’s vision of what the Congolese people would be able to achieve.

Everyone agreed on that Focus Business School is the way to move forward, and that Joseph Mandzoungou is the one who should coordinate the work.

Joseph visited us for a little while in the afternoon, after a funeral. Hans Norelius and a young man, Magloire, also came by to get more information about Focus Business School.

Joseph Mandzoungou picked us up at 10 am and we went by taxi to one of the Swedish Mission Church’s first missionary stations, Mansimou, near the Congo river. The entire station was built in 1914 and it contains a lot of houses. Close to the missionary station, our skillful interpreter Marius Billy was waiting for us. In one of the houses we were very kindly received by the station manager Mampsya, his young assistant Ngunda and the secretary Kountama. Except Billy and us, André and Hans Norelius were also there.

In the same house, the agronomist education is housed. When they had listened to Yngve’s description of the work Matadi Support Group have carried out, the manager said that it it exactly the right time for them to introduce entrepreneurial training. Five students are doing their third year at the school and they have not found employment yet. Now, with the help of this training, they could learn how to start their own businesses. Mampsya showed us a power point how the school harvest grass, rot it and then use it as a fertilizer.

Ambassador André Hombessa had come in his jeep and we could all ride back with him thanks to Joseph, Billy and Hans who sat on the flatbed. Every time we go somewhere in Brazzaville we go by car at least three quarter of an hour. Whenever I hope that we are at our destination, we have mostly just gone half the journey in this perilous traffic.

Our next goal was to the Evangelical Church of Congo. Here, we first met Maria Lorentzon from Smögen, who has been working in Brazzaville since 1989. She told me that all the missionaries came to this place when they first arrived in Brazzaville. We were invited out in the garden to sit in the shade of a paillot where we were offered soft drinks. Here, we met Prosper Massamba who is responsible for all projects of the church and the right man to speak to. He listened with interest to everything Yngve said and told us he wanted a few months to think about it. He will then leave his answer to Joseph Mandzoungou. He said that if there are more entrepreneurs there will be more jobs.

Joseph Marius, Yngve and I took a taxi back to the Saka Saka where Yvette was about to make dinner. Yngve had time to see a Power Point made by Focus Business School, a training program that Joseph and the organization Niosi just have become responsible for in Congo Brazzaville.

Today we got to meet Nainith who is the main responsible for the Saka Saka apartment and for arranging food and cleaning for the guests. Yvette had been standing in for Nainith during our first week. Our friends from Chad left the house for the second time. Junis and Sem’s five children all live in the US, where the family lived for five years.

Joseph Mandzoungou, friendly as usual, came to pick us up at half past ten. The green taxi was waiting outside the door. At 11 am we arrived at the office of the director of the church, Patrice N’souami. Yngve had met him once, two years ago in Kinshasa. Otherwise we were strangers to each other and the meeting started, for obvious reasons, with a bit of distance between us. Marius Billy was also present. Anyhow, it was really good to get into an air conditioned room. Outside, the heat was palpable.

Yngve began by expressing our appreciation for this meeting and proceeded to talk about MSG’s activities. Then, he present our case, namely that the Church could work more actively with entrepreneurship. As time went on the atmosphere became more and more easygoing. We handed over the letter from MSG to the CEC Church and the Church director. He read the letter aloud. Our case was performed both orally and in writing. He also got our training material in two binders.

When Patrice N’souami had received the information he suggested another meeting before we leave Brazzaville. He was noticeably interested and he considered the presence of Joseph Mandzoungous a major asset. The follow-up was scheduled for the day after. Then we will give a review of the material in Power Point. We were happy when we left the meeting and went out in the African heat. There were much market activities on the streets outside and we bought fruit to take home. People on the street are friendly and happy.

Today is the International Women’s Day, also in Congo. In the Plateau Church in Brazzaville, a talented female pastor preached with enthusiasm. Her name is Jeanne Rose Bakissa Mizelet and she directs a women’s section within the CEC Church. She caused a lot of laughter and got long applauses during her sermon.

The church is big and beautiful, but strange enough it had a fully dressed Christmas tree inside. I forgot to ask about this tradition. The choir was great and mighty, all dressed in white blouses, the women also with white headscarves. The strength of the singing in both choir and congregation is amazing. The people who visited the church for the first time got to stand up and introduce themselves and they did so willingly. The collection was gathered as we were sitting in the pews, just like we do it at home.

Joseph Mandzoungou, who had brought us to church took us to a Chinese restaurant afterwards. We had a nice time and we understand each other quite well. We talked about our planned meetings before we parted.

In the afternoon we were invited to Maria Lorentzon from Smögen for coffee and refreshments. She has been working in Brazzaville since 1989. She was able to clarify a few things for us. At Maria’s we met one of the young volunteers from the Gothia Cup, Karl Christianson, whose grandparents were missionaries in Japan. Karl has 1½ months left of his six months stay in Congo Brazzaville. He teaches English to the daughter of his host family. When we left Maria, she got visitors linked to Hembessa and Niosi.

Back in our apartment, we had received emails telling us that a Norwegian had won the warmest ski race “Vasaloppet” so far.

Today we are cooking for ourselves. The other days Yvette comes here to cook dinner for us. At 10 o’clock, Joseph came and picked me up. He had scheduled a meeting at the Forum for Young Entrepreneurs, a Catholic organization that actively works to provide training for and financing young entrepreneurs. Our organizations have a lot in common, and the meeting was fruitful. Christian de la Bretèche, a retired Frenchman, is manager. His closest man is general secretary Paul Kampakol. Paul’s brother is Guy Rufin who lived ten years in Sweden where his wife and children still live. He is a lawyer and works at the Ministry of Justice.

We informed each other about the activities of our organizations. Billy and Joseph know Christian and Paul from before. Christian has been teaching Billy and Joseph and Christian have been members of the same board of directors. The purpose of the meeting today was to build networks. We concluded that 1 + 1 is more than 2, or as Billy put it “on our own we are weak, but together we are strong”. They have begun a collaboration with four universities that they think would benefit from conducting entrepreneurship education. We have reached the same conclusion: the training should be performed by professional trainers.

After the meeting, Joseph came with me to the stores, and he wouldn’t let me pay. He followed me all the way home, and also paid for the taxi to Saka Saka. He arranged two more meetings with Patrice N’Souami, the director of the CEC Church on Monday, and with Mr. Mampouya, principal of the faculty of Agronomy in Mansimou on Tuesday. We met Mr. Mampouya in the street and had a brief talk with him.

It feels good that our friends André, Billy and Joseph are so interested. And they keep asking me how CSG think in various matters. I declare the thoughts and ideas as clearly as I can, and usually end my declaration with “take it or leave it”. In this stage, I can only pass on our ideas and experiences, not carry them out.

They arrange everything about and around our meetings. My hope is that we sow a seed that eventually will give results. And that we can build a solid network between Congo and Sweden concerning entrepreneurship.

Thanks for the encouraging comments!

Friday we had to be a little patient before our three guests arrived. First came Marius Billy who seems to get more and more interested in MSG, then came his boss in Sweden, Ambassador André Hombessa, and then yet another clever man, Joseph Mandzoungou. Marius had helped us to ask Yvette to cook for all of us, and she made both coffee and dinner. To the coffee break, Yvette had bought baguettes and Mikati. And for dinner there were seven dishes including fried fish. Joseph and André asked many questions about the work and the plans of MSG, and Yngve’s thoughts about the project. Together they reached good decisions, which can be combined.

Those who wish to participate in the CSG activities in the future will have to have a business idea before they start the course. Joseph asked what the role of the board of directors will have once CSG have found local people who can teach the course. Yngve declared that they are working on making the current CSG management redundant. Joseph replied that it might be valuable if the CSG management could be there when the course begins. After today’s discussions we think that Joseph Mandzoundou could accept a senior position in CSG.

Yngve hopes that the church could work more actively with entrepreneurship. The meeting was concluded in consensus and high hopes and then we had Yvette’s delicious cooking. The food that was left over including some cassava, Yvette brought home with her.

Thursday was a very sunny and hot day. At 9 o’clock, André Hombessa picked us up and together we went to the city center of Brazzaville. Saka Saka, where we live, is located in Bascongo, a district of Brazzaville. Yngve and André went to exchange money from USD to CFA. I waited in the cool office of an Insurance Agency and saw a cute little girl with beads all over her hair. Christmas decorations can be found here and there in the shops.

We had a Fanta at a coffee shop with Marius Billy. Then, André Hombessa drove us to a garden where once a French family had lived. Since the 1980’s it is the premises of a charity organization called Niosi. There, we met three university teachers. One of them spoke English, and he taught Congolese traditions. When Yngve asked him for a Congolese proverb he taught us: Each bird has its song and its feathers.

Their vision is to build a large house on a plot located near the city center and near a large market. Afterwards we took a taxi to an internet store and supplemented both the telephone and the internet subscription. Marius younger brother Odilon and I sat and waited meanwhile without being able to talk to each other. When I tried to ask him about his future in the police profession he used Google Translate to make his answer intelligible to me in Swedish.

We went to a restaurant, invited by Hombessa. There, we met Joseph Mandzoungou and Yngve informed him about the Congo Support Group. I would have preferred the television sound to be lowered and I didn’t eat the cassava dish, I just took a photo.

We went to the EEC Church where Marius Billy had grown up. We met three persons who are involved in the youth organization CBE. It is an organization within the EEC Church and its members are spread over large parts of the world. They are planning the 50 year anniversary and are considering to launch an entrepreneurial program in connection to this. It was a very rewarding meeting. CBE has bought a hectare of land in Dolozi area and plan to buy more. After prayer the group followed Yngve and me to the taxi. A young driver drove us home and helped us very kindly to find the right street.

Wednesday morning we had a lot of thoughts and questions about the rest of the stay. Yngve, however, had a good start with oatmeal, dry milk and bananas. The porridge here is not nearly as appetizing as my usual breakfast made of rye cereals, regular milk and black currant jam, so I let Yngve have all the porridge.

We were waiting for either the Ambassador, André Hombessa or his aide Marius Billy to get in touch with us. Marius Billy has been a support to Yngve during the Congo endeavours. They both knew we were at the Saka Saka and that Maria Lorentzon had our phone number. Yngve’s regular mobile had been left in Töve, a problem at this point. But suddenly Marius and his younger brother Odilon stood at the door.

We asked Yvette who cook for us if the food was enough for the brothers to eat with us. She did not believe that, but actually it was more than enough. But the Ambassador, André Hombessa and his companion Pierre Nzieti who came a little later after much help to find us via Marius Billy and the telephone had to be without dinner. They got water and a banana and waited for us to finish our meal. Pierre told me that he is good friends with Finn Broman.

Then we have a meeting and I’m acting secretary. I learn a lot.

In the evening, there came three new guests for the other two rooms at Saka Saka. They were Junis and Sem, pastor and wife from Chad and a younger pastor, Nicolaus. They had flown to Brazzaville and participated in a seminar on the Thomas Church. Junis and Sem had lived in the United States and were easy to converse with. We ate supper together.

Thursday, Junis was so nice that I felt that she should have one of the angel pendants I had brought as gifts. I gave it to her together with a few sentences about Alva and the collection of money to research on Children’s cancer. Junis appreciated the gift and wanted to know the collected amount in USD. The Chad residents were supposed to stay at the Saka Saka until Monday, but on Thursday, as we were going out for meetings etc., they told us that they were moving to another place the same day.

Since we arrived in Brazzaville, we have only had electricity for 5 minutes (on Wednesday) in the apartment. When the computer battery was out of power there was nothing we could do about it. No computer, no internet. Therefore, no blogs. When we came home tonight, Thursday, the apartment was lit up to our great joy, but wonderful is short, the power stayed only 10 minutes. Luckily, after half an hour it came back again and this time we hope it stays. The flat is anyhow very nice. I will write some of the blogs so that we will catch up.

Tuesday started with planning for the last two weeks in March together with Nsimba and Yapeco. Then, we intend to sell our solar lamps. At 10 o’clock our good friend in Kinshasa came and took us to the ferry station by the Congo river. He helped us get through all the checks unscathed. The trip across the river was very pleasant. The foam swirled around us and it reminded more of a speed contest than a ferry ride.

The first control on the Brazzaville side was for Ebola. That check went well. Next control was less pleasant. We had to pay 1200 CFA ($ 2.40) just to enter the country. Then, an official who forced himself upon us made a mess of the last control. He filled out Kerstins papers completely wrong. After that, it took me half an hour and an interpreter to sort out the confusion. For this “service”, I was expected to pay 10 USD. To our great dissatisfaction, we finally agreed on paying 7 USD for the mess.

The next step was to take a taxi to the EEC Church’s apartment Saka Saka. We found a very reasonable taxi driver. Along the way, I went to a store to get a SIM-card to my phone and a mobile internet connection. The driver and Kerstin had to wait for almost an hour. When we arrived at the residential area where the apartment was located, it turned out that it was very difficult to find. There were maybe 50 identical houses. We knocked on doors, asked passers, and searched among the houses. And our very patient taxi driver helped us with this. Eventually, he got a 100% surcharge on agreed price. He was certainly worth it. My phone number in Congo is +242 055 833 833.

Finally we meet a lady on a street between the houses who asked us: “Do you know Maria Lorentsson?” We certainly did, it was she who had booked the apartment for us. The lady escorted us to Maria’s apartment in the same area, and as a coincidence Maria was at home and she helped us find our lodgings. The lady we had met works for Maria. Certainly, there must be a higher power who has mercy on his lost children? We have an absolutely stunning apartment, but it will not be easy for visitors to find us here.

When we were still at home Sunday night we checked in online, and got our boarding cards. Easy as pie! Early Monday morning came Bernt Sköld, the experienced Congo traveler, and drove us to Landvetter. We left our four suitcases with the airline. They were filled to the maximum weight of 23 kg each and had some clementines, while we were entertained by a Congolese family with three lively children.

We had a comfortable air trip. The plane to Brussels was small and crowded, and the plane to Kinshasa was much bigger and more spacious. And on the later stretch, there was much more food. Three male and one female flight attendant took out the food carts a total of five times. Yngve read a biography about Winston Churchill, and I am reading about Potemkin. We arrived in Congo half an hour before appointed time. As we walked down the stairs, it felt like the heat was coming from the steps, but it was the heat of Congo that greeted us welcome, +30 C degrees.

When we were standing in the passport control queue someone shouted our names. It was Yapeco, our contact in Congo who had been waiting for us. He stood there so familiar among all the unknown faces. He had a good friend from Kinshasa by his side. Good friends are invaluable in Congo. We went through passports, boarding cards and yellow cards, proof that we have taken all the right medicines, with the airport staff and we were approved.

Our friend’s chauffeur was waiting outside. Yngve o Yapeco packed the heavy suitcases into the car. In the Congo night we drove along the boulevard Lumumba, which has a stately statue of the first Congolese prime minister. We made a detour on more narrow roads, to pay a visit to Gosta Luboyi, who is going to RCA (Central African Republic) on Tuesday, where he carries out relief work in a war-torn country.

Gosta is named after a Swedish missionary and he has visited us in Töve before. Now we met his wife and three small children – Gosta, Gunnel and Clarisse. We had coffee and Gösta got a radio that Bernt had purchased to him. The Congolese homes are nice, but smaller and more spartan.

We continued on the boulevard to Nzo Binati, a guest house belonging the CEC Church. Albert welcomed us and it was great to get a room, turn on the fan for a while and then sleep as best as we could.