The journey to Luozi began at the Friday because we would first travel to Kimphese and meet up Bertil Åhman who would also attend to the conference. We arrived in the evening after some problems with the car but when we arrived Bertil was waiting with a tasty eveningmeal in the pilotvilla which is, just as it sounds, a villa where pilots lived in the old days. It is located in a neighborhood where it before were living missionaries, doctors and teachers. It was a real little idyll, and I was overjoyed to be speaking Swedish again, have it peaceful and quiet around me and to discover a small Swedish librarie.

On Saturday, when we had traveled a few kilometers from Kimphese on a good asphalt road we took off on the bumpy, winding dirt road that would take us up to Luozi. There were great views from the window and the road was in really good condition for being this road and 100 kilometer long road took ONLY 2.5 hours but when we arrived at the ferry so began our bad luck. A vehicle that would run on the ferry could not handle the ride and got stuck with the front wheels on the ferry and back wheels in the water and mud. We arrived at the ferry location at 12 and then it was just to sit nicely and wait. Because the road was so dirty we were quite covered with dust, and I was no longer the moundele with blonde hair but an orange figure with red hair. So the first thing we did when we arrived was to refresh ourselves in the Congoriver. Then time went on, hour after hour passed and no success with a rescuework could be seen and there was also no information, time frame or similar. The amazing thing in this situation was that the Congolese did not become irritated or stressed, instead they took it all with a great calmness, sat quietly and wait or walked around happily and making conversation. I had also a really nice time and talked with the Congolese, my conversations in French are getting longer and longer, walked along the beach or sat in the sun and read. At five o´clock we finally were allowed on to the ferryboat and on the ten-minuteride that transported us across the river to Luozi. There was Gunnel and waited for us and we went to her home and ate wonderful food. Bananaplants, Kwanga, beef, rice and a deliocious saka-saka.

Monday morning I was “free” because there would be lot of decisions at the Synode, and I have neither voting rights nor can speak Kikongo. Instead I went to the market with mama Pauline. Pauline is a woman who works for Gunnel here. She is a lovely person and because the women in the market know her they gave me permission to photograph so now I have a lot of wonderful photos from there. In the evening I attended, however, in conference. First we went through the financial report and then the service began. All in all, I was sitting on a hard pew in five hours. This is challening my patience i can tell you. organization is certainly an area that needs to be changed here to help them to streamline their operations and develop faster. Any decision takes forever and it’s way to many people who want to make their voices heard, necessary or not.

After it was over we went home and ate an late eveningmeal and then went to bed. I really like Luozi and it is a cozy and lovly little village. Gunnel live a little bit away from the center, and it means that we had it very quiet and peacefull around us and with the nice lawn outside, the view of the Congoriver and Gunnels generous hospitality it could ´nt be that much better.