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Kitchen conversations in Mulongo |
Alright, so I promised to tell you about what I was doing in Congo last month (beyond getting ordained), and since the U.S. government in an
‘abundance of caution’ has said I should avoid leaving the house this week, now
seems like a good time to write.
To start off, let’s clear up a common cause of confusion
about where exactly I went and who is in charge of the programs I’m (via
FPM)
assisting. Imagine, if you will, going to a big church event and meeting a Rev.
Joe Monroe. Rev. Monroe inspires you with stories of the struggles
and initiatives in the town (coincidentally named Monroe) and district (also
called Monroe) that he oversees. You’d love to visit Monroe someday, but you doubt you ever will since it is in such a remote place. Soon after you
get a call from Denver, an acquaintance who met a Dr. Ivan Monroe and was
inspired by Dr. Monroe’s sharing of the unmet health needs in the community
where he was serving as head medical doctor and of how he had recently started
a nursing and midwife training program there. Your acquaintance is seriously
considering making a large financial contribution to Dr. Monroe’s ambitious
project and wants to know if you could do a site-visit and give him your
professional opinion first.
Where is this school? Monroe, of course.
Now replace “Monroe” with “Mulongo” and you’ve got the start
of the story of how FPM ended up having Mulongo as its DR Congo headquarters
with Rev. Joseph Mulongo as its Country Director and a nursing school headed by
Dr. Ivan Mulongo as its first major bricks&mortar partnership project. The
story has a lot of twists and turns—some of which you can read about in
Dad’s old posts --and a lot more will be told in Dad’s book.
Last month, I traveled to Mulongo not only with my family
but with Denver’s wife (Robin) and their pastor Deanne. We wanted Robin to
witness how her contribution had been transformed into cement and roofing
sheets for a fully accredited nursing school--the only one in the region. The
faculty and students—especially those receiving scholarships from her
family—wanted to testify to the many lives being saved because of the education
received at this school. Robin was overwhelmed by what she saw and has decided
to take the lead in the state-side efforts to raise support for scholarships,
construction materials, and equipment for the nursing school. (Dr. Ivan, now a
congressman, continues to be the main contributor and fundraiser for it in DR
Congo.) She’d be happy to speak with your group about the school and ways you
can get involved.
While in Mulongo, we stayed in Joseph and his wife Mary’s
beautiful home. (Have I mentioned that Mary was one of the first graduates
of Ivan’s nursing school and that she now teaches there?) As you can imagine,
there is a very good story behind how a United Methodist pastor built such a nice house when most of his colleagues’ parsonages threaten to
collapse with every rainfall. It starts with a laptop he received
when visiting the Indiana UMC’s conference office and a desktop printer he
bought with his personal savings. Mulongo used them to open the region’s only
printing station. With those profits he made thousands of bricks—half of which
he sold, and half were for his house. We figured that a
pastor who is entrepreneurial enough to turn a budget laptop into a 4 bedroom house (with indoor plumbing!) all while leading several community development initiatives is exactly the sort of person who should be vetting and coordinating FPM-funded projects.
Thus far FPM's decision to put Rev. Mulongo in charge of the programatic-side of operations has been successful beyond our wildest dreams. Now he's proposing some ideas of income-generating projects that could fund FPM programs and salaries (If the Catholic Church has its own gas stations and hotels in Congo, why couldn't we start a business?). We believe strongly that FPM should walk its talk by leveraging local assets to fund its work, so we plan to give at least one these ideas a try in 2014. We're not ready to broadcast all our plans just yet, but if you are interested in investing, please let us know!
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There are plenty of rooms at Joseph and Mary's house |
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Joseph and Robin by the Nursing School's sign |
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Meeting with some of the nursing students |
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The Nursing School |
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The school's maternity wing under construction |
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Nursing students at the celebration for the completion of the first building |
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Words of appreciation to Robin for financial support |
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