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Thursday, January 30

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 Thursday, January 30, Morne had me work from home. He didn't want us leaving the compound. I spent the morning doing my normal work and then at 2:45 in the afternoon, Sisca came knocking on my door telling me there was an emergency meeting called at 3:00 and Morne wanted all of us on the phone for it.  We met in Leonie's house and called in.  Morne started out by telling us that the M23 Rwandan rebels, who had already taken over Goma in the North, had started moving south and were planning on taking over Bukavu.  They announced their intentions to continue moving south taking over Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga, Lubumbashi, and then make their was to Kinshasa. The US Embassy had already been attacked and set fire to.  There was discussion about what we should do and the home office was involved too.  It was decided that all the women and children should leave. We didn't know for how long, but because the airport is also the military base, they wanted us to leave whil...
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Wednesday, January 29

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 Wednesday, January 29 was different. Morne didn't want anyone leaving the compound. We pulled the van in front of the gate for an added layer of security. Spent the morning cleaning the house, doing laundry & visiting with Leonie.  We went to a braai at Morne & Sisca's and snuck peeks of the cute puppies!
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Tuesday January 28

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 Tuesday, January 28, started out as a normal day. We had been hearing rumblings of Rebel activity in the north and locally in Lubumbashi there were locals targeting expats.  It is very clear our compound is all expats! I spent the morning taking pictures of the site...little did I know they would be my last. Cory started building a shed to lock up all the tools! The guys were talking about ways to fortify our compound. The locals were using machetes to attack the homes.  Morne had Cory make weapons for each house to have just in case. Cory made spears and everyone was quite impressed. Amidst all this chaos, Basil became a father, Mpenzi had puppies! She had 8 puppies total but 2 ended up passing away.  They are darling!
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Sunday Fun

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 One thing that drives me crazy at church here is they CAN NOT start on time.  Church is supposed to start at 9:00 and we are lucky if it starts by 9:30.  Here is picture I took at 9:21...hardly anyone was there. Not even the bishopric is there! The young women in my Mapleton Ward made bracelets and lip gloss gifts for my African young women.  Leonie brought over swag bags from their wedding that she saved for me and Cory.  It had light up sticks, light up scrunchies, tic-tac-toe games, treat bags and hang over bags!  She thought of everything!
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Dona's Birthday

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It's Dona's birthday! We couldn't do things without him!  I made him a sign and the printer didn't have colored ink, so I had to improvise with highlighters and colored pencils!  We got invited to Dona's birthday party! It was awesome, good food, good company and loved the decor!  We also got to hold Dona's newest girl to join his family!  
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Mikembo

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 We had a long, holiday weekend so we went to Mikembo with Moren & Sisca, Darius & Leonie, Leslie, Trent, Scotty & Kayla and kids! It was my first time being there and I loved it!  I was a little nervous when I heard we would be camping in tents, but it wasn't that bad. The tents were "nice" and we just sprayed for insects 2-3 times a day. There was a pavilion where we cooked, visited, and ate. There was a pavilion closer to the river that had couches and a table. People napped there, we played games there and just relaxed!  It was very green, because of the rainy season. It was a very beautiful place!  Simi playing around in the eating pavilion.  Caught Cory taking a nap! You can see the tents in the background. Scotty and Trent went and found some wild mushrooms and cooked them up! I was excited to taste them, I love mushrooms!  These particular ones were not my favorite...they had a flavor I didn't like.    It was very hot and humid...
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