Father John Kirwan was granted a month's visit back to Basankusu ahead of his retirement. "I've lived and worked here for many years," he said, "and, with these few weeks, I can make my farewells to people I've got to know."
My malnutrition centre had just stocked up on milk powder, beans and so on, and all the volunteers had attended our latest training sessions. Numbers were thankfully down during April.
"Perhaps I could take a holiday," I thought. "Perhaps I could travel to England with Fr. John before the malnutrition centre fills up again in June, July and August!"
Our team of visiting eye doctors was due to arrive soon, from Belgium. Their 16-seater plane would be travelling to Kinshasa empty, so it would be great to take advantage of it.
John spent his time visiting in the villages where he'd worked. With plenty of goodbye meals at various places, his celebrations culminated in the Sunday before his departure, in Basankusu's cathedral.
The eye doctors said hello as we passed at the airstrip. "They're expecting us to treat over 3,000 patients in two weeks, this year," explained Yann, the doctors' organiser. "I'm sure you'll do your best!" I replied ... and with that Fr. John and I climbed the steps of the plane and were on our way to Kinshasa.
We took three hours to pass over the hundreds of miles of tropical forest, eventually landing on the decaying tarmac of Kinshasa's city airport, at Ndolo.
From there we passed the marine engineers, Chanimetal, on the River Congo, and ran into a huge traffic jam. The traffic was at a complete standstill.
"What do you think the problem could be?" I asked Fr. John. I could see that he'd already spotted it as people were already getting out of their cars and holding up their phones to photograph something. The marine engineers' compound has a lot of land going down to the river's edge. "Look down there," said Fr. John, "something's splashing around the water!"
And there they were ... two hippos splashing around the water, running up onto the riverbank, and then racing back into the water. They disappeared underwater and then suddenly reappeared, snorting and splashing about in the water, and generally having a good time! It's an unusual sight in Kinshasa ... the passing motorists had certainly never seen such a thing before and neither had we!
"Perhaps they'd heard that you're leaving," I said, "and they've come to say goodbye."
 |
| Fr. John with Sr. Boudouine |
"Perhaps I could take a holiday," I thought. "Perhaps I could travel to England with Fr. John before the malnutrition centre fills up again in June, July and August!"
 |
| Group photo with Fr. John |
Our team of visiting eye doctors was due to arrive soon, from Belgium. Their 16-seater plane would be travelling to Kinshasa empty, so it would be great to take advantage of it.
John spent his time visiting in the villages where he'd worked. With plenty of goodbye meals at various places, his celebrations culminated in the Sunday before his departure, in Basankusu's cathedral.
The eye doctors said hello as we passed at the airstrip. "They're expecting us to treat over 3,000 patients in two weeks, this year," explained Yann, the doctors' organiser. "I'm sure you'll do your best!" I replied ... and with that Fr. John and I climbed the steps of the plane and were on our way to Kinshasa.
We took three hours to pass over the hundreds of miles of tropical forest, eventually landing on the decaying tarmac of Kinshasa's city airport, at Ndolo.
From there we passed the marine engineers, Chanimetal, on the River Congo, and ran into a huge traffic jam. The traffic was at a complete standstill.
"What do you think the problem could be?" I asked Fr. John. I could see that he'd already spotted it as people were already getting out of their cars and holding up their phones to photograph something. The marine engineers' compound has a lot of land going down to the river's edge. "Look down there," said Fr. John, "something's splashing around the water!"
 |
| The two hippos that were seen on the riverbank |
"Perhaps they'd heard that you're leaving," I said, "and they've come to say goodbye."
