Alessandra woke the next morning with the dream of American cuisine lingering in her mind. Her second thought was about the heavy thud...

Alessandra was reflecting on the provision of God when she crawled into bed on that Sunday evening but was awakened with an entirely...

Leaving behind the bit of historical civilization, the group continued on to the house of their friends. Mwamba and his wife Chantelle...

Sunday afternoon the Carmichael family and Alessandra received an invitation to dine at the home of one of the church members. Alessandra...

Sunday morning dawned hot and bright. While everyone was eating breakfast, they discussed how to get to church. Normally Rob carried...

The rest of that first Saturday passed at a relaxed pace, with Alessandra practicing her bread-making skills and the family enjoying the...

Later that first day of Alessandra’s arrival, the family ventured out to the market to look for supplies and hand out reading material...

Cathy and Alessandra continued to speak about the resilience and patience of the Congolese people and their strength to endure hardship...

The tropical dawn awoke Alessandra with a beauty all its own. A loud screeching sound caught her attention, and she looked out the window...

Alessandra clicked off her flashlight, but she found the heat oppressive, making it difficult to fall asleep. After an hour, however, she...

Alessandra walked out to her depot room to prepare for climbing into bed. She was nervous about her first time of tucking in a mosquito...

Cathy continued to give Alessandra instructions on how to use buckets to flush toilets and take baths, all new concepts for the visitor...

After supper, Cathy walked with Alessandra out to the depot where her room was located and instructed her how to tuck in her mosquito net...

The discussion around the supper table that first night included a run-down of Alessandra’s basic schedule during her stay in Congo:...

Alessandra’s first supper in the interior of the Congo was both eye-opening and refreshing. Eye-opening for Alessandra who was getting...

The Carmichaels had three children, Jimmy, Jackie, and Jenny. Once the Land Cruiser reached the walled-in and gated home, the group broke...

The flight to Ilebo was uneventful, though Alessandra was nervous about landing there on a dirt landing strip. But Dan Carson seemed...

The morning came for their trip to the interior city of Ilebo. Alessandra was excited. Roosters, thousands of them, trumpeted the...

Because Dan felt responsible for Alessandra’s extra day, he and his wife, Sheryl, invited her to come to supper at the Embassy Club the...

Dan drove Alessandra to MPH, the Methodist-Presbyterian Hostel built to house expats in transition in the Congo. He promised to pick her...