Day 1 (Friday 31st May) Settling in

First day in Australia - last day of Autumn.

First stop - Bucklands Retirement Village 

Signing the Visitor Book at Buckland Retirement Village where the first visit of the day was to Dorothy Stirling, mother of Mama Wendy.

Greeting the staff outside  Dorothy's room

Dorothy first met Ise-somo in 1989 in Zaire.

Ise-somo with 4 generations of the Stirling- Toulmin family - grandson Matt Toulmin, great granddaughter Ellie,  long time friend Joy Wells, Dorothy and daughter Wendy.

Ise and Mrs Greed, another resident.

 2nd Stop - the Church office

Marie, Ise and Karen 

Ise jokes with staff - Youth Pastor Dave McPhail and Senior Pastor Steve Young

Next stop - an interview at the Local Newspaper - the Blue Mountains Gazette - with Brenda Cunningham-Lewis.  John Lambert, representing Springwood Rotary joined us for the interview.

After the interview outside for some photos

John Lambert, Ise, Steve Young, Graham Toulmin

 4th Stop - time to buy some warm clothes for winter starting tomorrow.

 Then time to wander around Springwood

 5th Stop - the local police station - they loved the story of the Random Breath Testing

6th Stop at the home of Ian Harrowell, seen here with builders Brett Langworthy and Nathan Wheeler.

 Back home at the Toulmins with nextdoor neighbour Joanne Toohey

 Afternoon tea and short expanation of why he was back in Australia and an overview of life in DRC

With Eddie and Sally Kopiec

Barbecue - from left, Louis Maule, Matt Toulmin, Josh Maule, Bryce Mclennan,Ise, Andrew Schmidt and Pam Maule.

 

Meeting Warren Irwin

With Jacquie Thomas, her dad - a missionary in Zaire/Congo for 28 years, Howard Wilson, Neville Thomas.

"Why were you counting to 10?"

The first new experience for Ise: we left the Richards home at 11.30 for the hour long journey to the Blue Mountains town of Springwood.  As we travelled through Blaxland, only 10 kms from home, I could see ahead an RBT unit and sure enough two policemen signalled me into the lay-by.
"Have you had anything to drink?"
"No."
"Count to 10 into the machine."
"Thank you, have a nice night."

Ise-somo is fluent in about 7 languages - English is his last.
As we pulled away from the Random Breath Testing unit, Ise turned and said:
"Why were those soldiers teaching you how to count to 10."
We all had a good laugh as we explained what it was all about.
No RBT's in Congo.


La première nouvelle expérience pour Ise: nous avons quitté la maison Richards à 11h30 pour le long voyage heure à Blue Mountains ville de Springwood. Comme nous avons voyagé à travers Blaxland, à seulement 10 kms de la maison, j'ai pu voir en avant une unité RBT et bien sûr deux policiers m'ont signalé dans le lay-by.
"Avez-vous eu quelque chose à boire?"
"Non"
"Comptez jusqu'à 10 dans la machine."
"Merci, bonne nuit."

Ise-Somo est à l'aise en 7 langues - l'anglais est sa dernière.
En nous éloignant de l'unité de tests d'haleine aléatoires, Ise se retourna et dit:
"Pourquoi ces soldats ont été pour vous apprendre à compter jusqu'à 10."
Nous avons tous eu un bon rire comme nous l'avons expliqué ce qu'il en était.
Pas de RBT est au Congo.

"There are no soldiers."

Ise-somo's first words as we were driving out of the airport.

56 hrs later - AUSTRALIA!

Graham Toulmin (the blogger), Bishop Ise-somo, Wendy Toulmin, Andrew Dodd, Josh Maule -
behind the camera Steve Toulmin

Bishop Muhindo Ise-somo arrived on Emirates Flight EK414 half an hour earlier than expected and came through Arrivals Gate D just after we arrived.  Andy Dodd, who has visited Ise three times in Butembo since 2006 was the first to arrive, followed by Wendy, Steve, Josh and I.

Josh Maule, a journalist now studying at Moore College is writing a book about Ise-somo following visits to Butembo in 2009/10  and October 2012.  The first draft of the book is being proof read and it will be a good read.

Steve Toulmin visited Ise in July 2011 with brother Jeremy, the first time either of them had been back to Congo in 20 years when they lived there and the place was called 'Zaire'.

Also there to greet Ise-somo in Swahili was Malcolm and Elizabeth Richards who have spent probably 12 years working in Zaire/DRCongo in Goma and then Kindu with Bishop Masimango.
Malcolm is the new General Secretary for NSW for the Church Missionary Society of Australia.
We then headed back to the Richards new home in Mascot just 5 minutes from the airport.
Ise-somo didn't seem tired and was in good form - there were stories, laughs, cups of tea and coffee and general amazement that he actually got a visa and had arrived in Australia for what we are sure will be a memorable visit.

Arrived safely in Kampala, Uganda

3.22am Australian time:  Text message received:
"Thank you for your prayers. I am now in Kampala."

He is on his way.

 22 hours till check-in at Entebbe.

10pm (2pm Uganda)  Bishop Ise-somo sent a text just now:
" I left Butembo early in the morning and travelled to Beni.  From Beni to Kasindi on the border with Uganda.  I have crossed the border, travelled through Kasese and I am now in Fort Portal.  God willing I will arrive at Kampala in 5 hours. (ie 7pm his time and 3am our time.)"  

(Check out Google Maps to see his journey)

So it has been a long journey but this brings him into Uganda earlier than the planned flight on the Wednesday (which could have had problems with the plane or the weather) so the cancellation of the flight, despite the hardships of road travel in Central Africa, may turn out to be a blessing.

3 Days till Arrival - and guess what?!

You won't believe this but you WILL need to pray!
At 11.08 pm tonight (Monday night) - three nights before Bishop Ise-somo arrives - I received an email from him.

It is 3.08pm in DRC.  Cetraca, the only aviation company flying into Butembo and then out again - without chartering a MAF plane - has just cancelled it's flight out to Entebbe on Wednesday.  This flight was to connect with the Emirates flight bringing  Bishop Ises-somo to Dubai and then on to Sydney.

So Ise has to get his money back,  do some mad packing tonight and then tomorrow he will somehow take a bus or taxi north to Beni ( try looking this up on Google Maps) then turns right and heads for Kasindi on the border and then across Uganda to the capital and hopefully making the plane on Wednesday 3pm.  I think if things go well it is an 11 hour journey - and not a particularly comfortable one.

You may remember my story in my other blog <dentalsafariafrica.blogspot.com> about Cetraca (Congo what a way to go!) and my own difficulties getting out of Butembo last October.

The airline in question  have two old Russian planes. Sorry - they HAD two planes.   The one I started the journey had the left engine blow up while waiting to take off (Phew! it was still on the ground) and then the second one which I left on was a unique flying experience and just  6 days later, the same plane overran the Butembo  runway (yes the same one Ise is leaving from) in bad weather and crashed, fortunately without loss of life.  But the plane was totally crumpled. :- (

So would you all pray for Bishop Ise-somo's safety and travel to Entebbe airport.
I will keep you posted.
Graham

10 days to go!

Yes it is really happening. 

After the aborted February/March visit and the massive problems with getting a visa, it is now all systems go! for the visit of Bishop Muhindo Ise-somo.





The last time he was here was in 2003 and before that, in 1998-99.