Bayanga, love it or leave it

I wrote this when we got back at Berberati. I was hoping to attach some pictures to it, but the connection in Bangui is too slow and I ran out of time.

We are back in Berberati after a brutal day of travel. It took us 10 hours on the road to get back. We had a bad storm last night so the roads were slippery, treacherous, and impassable at certain points. One of the cars had injection problem three thirds of the way here, so we had to stop a lot. Thank God we were traveling with people who know how to fix cars, including the two African men who went with us.

Jim had told us to make sure we took one spare pair of shoes and socks and now we know why. Don’t let the smiles fool you: we were dead tired and ready to hit the sac. Today I feel my whole body aching and the sensation that I had been hitting the waves at some beach is with me and probably will be all night long.

Not only are the roads slippery, they have some big ridges that can be on any side of the road, or the middle, and they change direction often. Time and again you don’t know until you hit that you are falling into a big ridge. Water prevents you from seeing holes and judging which side you should stay on. We are very thankful that we all made back safely here and are getting ready for another 9 hours or so on the road tomorrow, as we head to Bangui, then on our way to Paris. Even though the roads to Bangui are not as bad, we ask you to keep praying. Your prayers have made a difference for us here!

I am still amazed that we were able to make that far into Bayanga country. Meeting Thomas and his family was one of the richest experiences of this trip.

Bernadine, the man on the left, is the main evangelist. He does not have a salary. He tries to earn some money by fishing in the big river where we took a canoe trip yesterday. Two of his seven children actually caught the two tiger fish we ate during the time we were there. Bernadine loves the Pygmies and had led many of them to the Lord. He is the one who leads the prayer meeting at the station where we stayed every day at 5:30 in the morning. You can hear his voice singing, then you hear him come to God in prayer every day. It’s a wonderful sound as you wake up in the morning. This man has a calling from God and his example inspired me to continue to serve God with all my heart.

I had so much fun with these kids and they seemed to enjoy this foreigner as well. I watched them play and saw the beauty of the innocence in childhood again. For these kids, there is no difference between black and white, African and European, Pygmy, Swedish or Central African. They were all one and had no care in the world.

The river I swam on reminded me so much about my childhood, except for one thing: I wasn’t too excited later on when I met one of the Pygmies who hunts pythons with his bare hands and a machete. He told me he caught one right on that same river I was swimming on a couple of hours later. In all fairness, Thomas had mentioned that there are snakes on that river, but hey, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a child again!

Your prayers are carrying us here.

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade