Another Trip to Africa...

At the end of February, I went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to facilitate a training for a number of Central African countries on a software program developed by the Department of Statistics at the World Centre. After the training I had the privilege of attending an institutional meeting in Kinshasa where friends from all over the Congo gathered to consult on the new Five Year Plan. So Menchie and Enna-Marie were husband-and-daddy-less for a week. It was a wonderful trip, and it was wonderful to meet so many new friends.

Some of the wonderful friends I met were Susan and Jason Sheper, who have been pioneers in the Congo for over twenty years, Ali and Sylvie Sereshghi and their two daughters of seven and four years old Karen and Yasmine (I stayed with them for the duration of the trip), Mrs. Behin Newport from Congo Brazzaville, with whose son Navid I used to live for a couple of months in Akka (back in the days) and Gity Raoufi from Lubumbashi, who also stayed at Sylvie and Ali's place, and some of the friends who were singing in the Congo choir during the May 2001 Inauguration of the Terraces on Mount Carmel (Menchie was singing in the Bahá'í World Centre Choir at the time and knows some of these friends as well).


The first picture is of the Area Teaching Committee of the Salman cluster in Kinshasa, a cluster which will launch an intensive programme of growth on the 19th of March.

The second picture was taken at the statistics training in the National Office in Kinshasa. With so many laptops around, this office had never looked more high-tech than during this meeting :)

Group picture with the friends participating in the training, coming from virtually every province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as from Central African Republic, Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville.

Playing a game with Ali (who took the picture), Karen and Yasmine during one of the relaxing evenings at home...

In the garden of Ali and Sylvie's home in Kinshasa, with, from left to right, Gity, Sylvie, Mrs. Behin Newport and myself...

An ad-hoc choir, that performed during one of the breaks of the institutional meeting...

A group of friends performing an improvised dance during another break...

Colourful display when friends from the Kinshasa community gathered at the end of the meeting....

With Mrs. Ndegwa and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly...



Ali enjoying the afternoon program of the institutional meeting...

Susan and Jason having a conversation...
And this is a typical scene on Kinshasa's busy roads :)