Just a normal day in Kinshasa!

I often find that we go through our days out here at a busy pace, both kids are in school and both Evan and I are working full time hours. It makes life crazy and we often feel like there is not enough hours to spend with our kids, to cook or even relax!
When you are so busy it is easy to stop looking at what is going on around you, and in Kinshasa there is always something going on!

Today, Evan and I took our kids swimming at TASOK...... sounds straight forward right? Oh, wait until you hear the tale of our day!

We left our house around 11:00 am; while driving toward TASOK we were behind a dump truck. I noticed something fall out of the back of the dump truck and thought it was dirt so I kept driving. I ended up driving over a massive bump, still didn't know what it was! We kept driving and all of a sudden about 10 cement blocks fell out of the dump truck and I had to swerve into on coming traffic to avoid them...... thankfully there was no close on coming traffic.

After swimming for about 1.5 hours we decided to walk to our new house from TASOK to time how long it is going to take me and the kids to get to school once we move. The traffic is CRAZY, cars were passing by us so close and so fast it was scary! The cars had to be going anywhere between 80-100 km per hour!

On the way home after swimming we were driving past a corner that often has lost of people begging! I pass it everyday, so seeing it becomes the norm. Today I was nudged to take a second look and there right beside our car was a man holding his arm, severely bleeding. We rolled down the window to find out that he had just come from the hospital but was turned away because he didn't have any money. We put him in the back of our truck and started to head towards the hospital. We didn't travel more then 10 feet and we were stopped by the roulage ( traffic cops), he was furious that we stopped to pick up the man and was yelling at Evan. Finally, Evan reasoned with him and we were on our way again. After traveling a couple of blocks we passed over some concrete slabs that bridge the gap for a drainage ditch; the kids and I pass over these slabs twice a day, 5 days a week. Today as we passed over, the concrete slab broke, sending the front of our truck into the drainage ditch ( with the injured man still in the box of the truck). The kids were freaking out and Evan and I just shook our heads. It took about 7 men to get us out and about $8 to pay them for the help and we were on our way.

At the end we got the man to the hospital and paid for his treatment for a week, he will be fine but has a road of healing ahead of him.

As we finished at the hospital and drove towards home all we could do is shake our heads and laugh!
It's just a normal day in Kinshasa!

On an unrelated note, Micah now has the dreaded infection! We are all trying to hold our heads high but it is feeling draining for all of us. Micah has 2 infections sites really close together. She is uncomfortable but is a trooper.
Emmanuel healed from his in just under 2 weeks and was also a rock star in dealing with medication and dressing changes.