Back in Brazzaville!

Hey everyone, Yes, we realize it has been since March since we have posted! Yikes We are failures at blogging, but are going to try to do better! Well since March a lot has happened. In April, we had the youth from the Nazarene church over to eat and play games at our place. We had around 20 people in our tiny one bedroom apartment, but they didn't seem to mind. We made Mexican food for them. Nate had to demonstrate how to eat a taco once we realized they were eating the taco with a fork! haha They really liked the tacos and guacamole. The youth pastor gave a short devotional and then we went outside to play a few games with them. Nate and I had to brainstorm about our old youth group days to think of some games. The kids loved it.
Allie has begun working on the Kiva stuff at the HOPE office. Kiva is a partner organization with HOPE that fundraises for microfinance institutions around the world. Allie and an intern, Merveille, interview groups of clients and post their loans to the Kiva website for people around the world to donate the money for the loan. It is a great partnership that helps provide more funding for HOPE Congo to give more loans. Kiva audited HOPE Congo at the end of April. Allie was very busy in April readying the office for the office. HOPE Congo failed the audit a few months back and really needed to pass this audit to be eligible to receive more funding from Kiva. HOPE Congo ended up passing the audit! Before we were able to receive $25,000 a month from Kiva, now we can receive $80,000 a month! This was truly a blessing from God.
In May we got to visit the US! HOPE had their annual Leadership Summit in Lancaster, PA. It was great to spend time with HOPE staff from the corporate office as well as from all over the world. This week was very encouraging and refreshing for us. It reinforced God's call and reenergized us to go back Brazzaville. Since we were already back we took 2 and half weeks of vacation. We spent a few days in Greenwood to visit Allie's grandma and to go to doctor/dentist appointments. We then went on a week long Disney cruise with Nate's family. Needless to say, It was MAGICAL! We had 4 stops. The first was GrandCayman where we swam with the sting rays. Next was Cozumel where Jim, Nate, and Allie scuba dived and Patty, Johnna, and Jamie horsebacked. Then Costa Maya where we were supposed to visit the Mayan ruins, but it ended up pouring rain. We saw one ruin right before the rain started, but it was all good when Disney got our tour totally refunded! Finally the last day we visited Disney's private island called Castaway Cay. There we just laid on the beach and ate an amazing barbecue dinner by the beach. After that week we then went and spent a week with Allie's family in St. Augustine. The Pineda's were able to come a few days. We really loved getting to see them and the kids! Our baby, Miley, also came and spent the week with us! She loved the beach and sat out with us all day under the umbrella. The week in St. Augustine we got a lot of lovely beach time. The family went into St. Augustine for dinner and walked around the scenic downtown one evening. We also celebrated our 2nd anniversary that week! The 2 weeks of vacation were full of family, AC, good food, and great memories. We were very said to say goodbye at the end of it all.
We had a bit of an adventure getting back to Brazzaville. We were flying out of Charlotte to DC to  connect with our international flight. Well we ended up missing our flight in Charlotte and had to reschedule our international flight for the next day! We were so stressed, but thankfully it was all worked out. We ended up spending the night in DC and leaving the next morning. We also were missing 2 of the 4 suitcases we checked when we arrived in Brazzaville. They were found and arrived the next day. When we returned home the Sparlings had a warm dinner prepared for us that night. We were warmly welcomed by everyone and have enjoyed catching up with all of our friends. The weather here is awesome! These are the winter months right now and it is always in the 70s or 80s. It really cools down at night. We actually use our covers! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. We really cherish all of the messages and emails you send to us. Enjoy some of our pictures from the last few months!

Crashing the US Embassy pool one HOT afternoon

The youth group!

They loved the water games

These boys were inseparable. 

There's Mickey!

He is so proud of this picture.

The chandeliers were beautiful! haha

Happy Anniversary!

It was great to spend time with her.

Gotta love Grandma :)

The Family in St. Augustine.

My besties! Im so glad they got to visit.

Pirate Night!

We look so mean.

Reunited with our baby :) and of course she is terrified of the balloons.

Explosions in Brazzaville

As I am sure many of you know by now, Sunday March 4th was very eventful for Allie and me. We had just finished getting ready for church that morning and were about to leave the apartment when the first explosion went off. These explosions were nearly three miles away, but they felt so close. We could literally feel the force of the explosion as it blasted through our windows, breaking some of the glass. Nate's first though was that our complex was being attacked. We both the hit the ground scared of what might be going on. We peaked outside and no one was screaming. There was no panic and people were actually outside working next door. At this point we assumed it must have been a generator near by that just exploded. We gathered ourselves and started to head out the door when the second one hit. This one was by far the biggest of all the explosions. The blast was so big that it knocked Allie to the ground and sent her glass of water flying across the room. More windows broke. At this point we were terrified. We both crawled to the bathroom, grabbing our cell phones and computer along the way. Once inside we began to pray. We had no idea what was going on. Our first thought was that a war must have broken out. I mean, what are you supposed to think when explosions go off in Africa? We prayed for our safety and the safety of all the innocent people of Brazzaville. Nate sat with his back against the bathroom door when the third explosion went off. Although not as big as the second, it was still powerful enough to force the bathroom door open even with Nate sitting against it. After those three, we heard many more explosions. Some sounded close, others further away. Our only thought was that rebels were traveling through the city, tossing grenades all over the place. We were able to get a hold of our friend from the Embassy before the phones went out. Unfortunately, he had no more information for us. Luckily, the internet was still working even after the phones went out. We started skyping with one of our missionary friends that had just traveled to another part of Africa the day before. She had heard from her husband, still in Brazzaville, that there were explosions and wanted to know if we were ok. She was also with one of her teammates who left behind his wife and 5 month old baby. He had been unable to contact them. As his family lived just across the courtyard from us, Nate decided he should go check on them. Things had seemed to have quieted down a bit, so we thought it would be alright. As soon as Nate walked out the door, all the others living on the compound started coming out as well. We were all confused and scared. Communication is not the same in Africa. In America, within 30 minutes the President would be on every station informing the nation of all the details. Not here. It was over an hour before we got the first bit of information. Oddly enough it came from Kinshasa, the capital of the other Congo. The explosions were so powerful they even broke glass windows over there, across the river. All the HOPE staff living at SIL gathered in Catherine's room on the first floor. We sat together, discussing the events and trying desperately to find some information on the internet. We all packed a small bag just in case we would have to be evacuated. We were so relieved to find out almost two hours after the first explosion that the whole thing was the result of a fire and not war. It was about this same time that HOPE's Director of Operations showed up at SIL. He lives very close to the ammunition depot and had walked over an hour to get to SIL. He was a little banged up from his door that came off its hinge after the second explosion and hit him in the head. He was in a bit of shock, but was ok. We were all relieved. Over the next few hours we learned that all HOPE staff had survived the explosions. We also learned that two of the staff, Olive and Loveline, suffered sever damage to their homes. Olive's home was actually completely destroyed. They are both now living with family members and trying to figure out the next steps. Please be praying for both of them as they are also dealing with the emotional and mental trauma from the experiences they lived through.

Things are calm in the city now. Thankfully there haven't been any uprisings or protesting. There was a bad civil war here in the late 90s and many people think memories of it are keeping the peace. No one wants another war. There are thousands of displaced people who had their homes completely destroyed. There are 6-7 refugee camps around the city. Angi and I, Allie, went to visit one last Sunday that is right up the road from where we live. We took some clothes donations to give to the camp leadership. The sight was so sad. Many people didn't have tents, but just straw mats to sleep on under the stars. The numbers in the camp increased exponentially so there has been trouble with keeping organization and order. We were told there are 3 toilets for the 2,000 people in the camp. Ridiculous. I felt completely lost and frustrated. I want to help, but don't know how. The government is barely doing anything for the people, even though the explosion was there fault. Everyone is waiting for the exploded area to be deemed safe and reopened. They have quarantined the area looking for live ammo that flew out, but didn't blow up. Please be praying for all the people affected. Those who are living in the refugees camps especially.

March has been SO HOT. Definitely the roughest month yet in terms of comfortability. It is like summer in South Carolina, which Im very used to, but we don't have A/C to get a break from it. We are definitely always covered in a little layer of sweat. Thankfully, we got to watch March Madness this past weekend in an air conditioned apartment. It was awesome! Other than the heat things are good. Nate has been busy at work as HOPE has been assessing all the clients to see who was affected by the explosions. Thankfully no clients died, but homes and businesses of clients were definitely destroyed.

God answered Allie's prayer! Thank you for all your prayers :) I was asked to be the volunteer Kiva Coordinator. Kiva fundraises for microfinance institutions (MFIs). They partner with MFIs like HOPE and send money for loans. HOPE posts profiles of clients on the Kiva website (www.kiva.org) and donors from around the world can fund the loans. I assist in interviewing and taking photos of clients, posting profiles online, and "liaisoning" between HOPE and Kiva. I have also been asked to revamp the Manual for Kiva processes and to institute a process that will allow for greater capacity as HOPE increases its received funding from Kiva. I am enjoying it very much and am keeping very busy! 

Allie had a wonderful birthday Saturday! Thank you everyone for all the wonderful wishes and love. Nate made an awesome dinner for me! He brought Carrabbas to Africa. He made homemade chicken marsala, herb potatoes, green beans, and bread with olive oil. Yum! I was so happy. Cant believe Im 24 though. yuck! I think Ive decided to stop at 25. Its a good number. 

We are looking forward to visiting home in May! It is only 2 months away. We are so excited to see our families and friends, sleep in some air conditioning, and eat chic-fi-la and hamburgers and steak and mexican and the list goes on.... 

The amazing Chicken Marsala.

Wearing our St. Patty's shirts from the Pineda's!

An African haircut. So we move to Africa and turn redneck....how does this happen?! 

We had to do it. Mullet and then the rat tail.

Our Mom's are in the Congo!

We are having a wonderful time with our mom's here in Brazza with us!! It has been so much fun showing them around town and our new life. Having them here with us has been so encouraging. We are so lucky to have moms that will travel across the world to see us. They have been doing great. Neither one of them has gotten sick, and besides the heat they seem to be very comfortable being here. The heat takes getting used to!

They arrived Thursday safe and sound. Everything went smoothly except a little 15 minute delay at the immigration counter at the Brazzaville airport. They were just trying to get money out of them, but thankfully we had all of our bases covered. We had extra copies of a signed letter they needed. Once we showed this they allowed them through! We advised them to try to stay awake until it was time to go to bed so that they could sleep through the night. Sleep through the night they did! They went to bed around 10pm and woke up at noon Friday! haha We were glad they slept well. 

We have walked them all around downtown Brazzaville showing them all the places we shop and like to visit. We have showed them the HOPE office and let them meet all the staff. They were warmly received! They visited 2 HOPE group meetings and got to see the mircofinance in action. We visited the tourist market where they bought a bunch of African goodies. Our church was so happy to have them visit on Sunday. We also took them to the Youth bible study that we attend on Tuesday nights. They have been troopers! We have been doing something almost everyday! Sunday afternoon we took them to the Congo river to see the huge rapids. We canoed across a little water way to get to an island where we could get right next to the rapids. It was beautiful, but definitely hot! We couldn't stay too long in the baking sun. 

They have gotten to meet many of our friends here. Tonight we are having several of our friends over for crepes. We have a new found love for crepes with Nutella! YUM! Here are a few pictures of our time here with them so far! We are going to be so sad to see them leave on Saturday. 

Shopping in our market. 

We play games every evening. It is nice to have more people to play with!

Visiting the office.

Carol posing under her mosquito net. haha

Allie and all her goodies from Carol and Patty. She is very happy.

The Nazarene church outside the building.

Next to the raging Congo River rapids.

Taking a canoe to across a small stream.

Patty was ready to take home every kid in the church!

Sitting in church.

This place has really good wood fired pizza.

The moms with their welcome to Congo flowers.

Our Super Bowl All-Nighter

The past week has gone well. We are still getting used to all the free time here, especially in the evenings. We have are quickly making our way through the TV shows Lost and 24. We have also been reading some good books, including the Hunger Games trilogy, Twilight books (Allie- who has decided she is Team Edward), and other free books on Amazon for the Kindle. Our Rosetta Stone French version arrived yesterday! We are very excited to be back studying with Rosetta. This will be something else to fill our evenings with.

Next Wednesday our mom's are arriving!!!! We are so excited to have them here and show them our new home. They will be here for 10 days. They are both bringing 2 suitcases with about 3/4 of them full of stuff for us. haha They are so good to us. Our list of things keeps growing as the time nears for them to come too. Please be praying for them next week! They are both a little nervous about the 14 hour plane ride as well as having to change planes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We met a new friend last week, Markus. He is a 19 year guy from Sweden. He is in Brazzaville as a volunteer with the Swedish Missionary Church, which is supposedly the largest Protestant church in Brazzaville. He volunteers with the church's soccer ministry and coaches kids each afternoon. We had him and some other friends over for dinner last Saturday evening and also invited him to watch the super bowl with us. He is really fun to hang out with. And Nate and I both love the Girl with the Dragon Tatoos books, so we have been asking him all about the books. haha yeah we are stupid. He said that most people in Sweden have read them because they were such a big hit.

One missionary couple here who has an actual house and a TV with American channels invited us over to watch the Super Bowl. We were so excited to find a place to watch the game. The game started at 12:30 am our time and wasn't over until 4 am. Nate took a nap all Sunday afternoon to prepare for the game. He had to get up and go to work Monday morning. I, Allie, was able to sleep in until 1pm. We had a great time watching the game. Nate was so happy to be watching sports. We watched the game with Markus, the missionary couple Gary and Sharon, and our friend Bret. Bret is a hoot. We love hanging out with him. He is here in Brazzaville working on his dissertation for a PhD from Harvard University. Yeah he is really smart, but not weird or stuck up like one would assume. ha Bret is so animated, outgoing, and funny. He is a die hard Patriots fan which made the game fun to watch with him.

I, Allie, have had a rough past week or 2. I haven't been able to find volunteer activities like I thought I would. I do work with HOPE, but the things I do only take up a few hours during the week. I have been bored, restless, and frustrated. Im kind of a busy body and I don't do bored very well. I have had a few leads which have't worked out. One big disappointment was not being able to work with UNHCR- Refugee section of the UN. I visited their office last week with my resume in hand. I was able to talk with someone who informed me I had to go through the process of applying online through headquarters. They said they did have a volunteer position available, but it had to be filled through the "correct channels." I came home that day to fill out the online application and found out I had to be 25 to volunteer with the UN! I couldn't believe it. It has been a long time since I was told I wasn't old enough to do something. Im going to try to call up there one more time and talk with them, but I don't have much hope. I also have 2 other possibilities that I am waiting to hear from. Anyways, please be praying for me. That God would give me patience and trust in the coming weeks. Pray that God would open a door or lead me to a ministry where I can serve.

Random Stories

Sooo I thought it was about time we just share some of our random and sometime humorous moments we have had since here in the Congo.

Congolese trying to speak English: One day while I (Nate) was at the office, I had to go up to the Secretary's office to ask her a question. When I got to her door I could hear someone else in there, so I decided to patiently wait outside until she was finished. I couldn't help but hear the conversation that continued inside, in English mind you. Xavier, our Director of Operations, was asking Sophie (Secretary) to buy him a diary. This is the word he used for basically what we would equate to a daily planner. Anyways, she was confused when he asked for this. She was wondering why he was asking for a cow product (dairy). Xavier is from Uganda and speak pretty good English, so he decided to explain to her that diary can be two things. It can be used to describe a planner as well as products from a cow/farm such as milk or cheese. Of course, I started I couldn't help but laugh to myself since I knew that these were actually two different words that just sounded the same. He continued to make a note of how he thought it was strange that this word could also be used to describe someone who has to poop alot. I about lost it at this point. He sincerely believed that diary, dairy, and diarrhea were all the same word. He concluded that this is the reason English is so difficult, "the same word can mean so many different  things."

Party last night:

Last night we had the Finance Department over for dinner. Most of them speak very little English, so it was good practice for a French. It also brought along some humorous moments. The first one happened when Precy was looking at our pictures. He took a look at one of them and said,"Nate, you used to be very big." We couldn't help but laugh. He definitely did not intend to be so blunt, but it definitely caught us off guard. The second moment occurred while Juvet was getting his food. Allie had prepared a salad, some bread, and vegetable soup. Well Juvet decided to not only put some salad on his plate, but also put the soup on his plate at the same time. We had a bowl for him, but he either did not understand why it was there or decided he didn't need it. The results was a plate with a salad soup mix that he proceeded to eat with a smile. Even the other Congolese had to laugh at this one. Finally, Teddy tried to speak some English with me and asked, "Is it ok if I pass the water." I looked at him with utter confusion. He proceeded to repeat the phrase, but this time in French. I still had no idea what he was talking about. Finally, he cleared it all up in one work, "uriner?" He was asking to use the bathroom. I had no idea, but luckily he was not embarrassed and just laughed.

New Congolese Law:

When we arrived in Brazzaville, one of the first things we noticed was the lack of public trash cans. In actuality there is zero. There is no trash collection services. As a result, most people just throw their trash on the ground. What makes this worse is that there are people all over the city selling small plastic bags of purified water. For about the equivalent of a dime, you can buy 8oz of purified water in a bag. As a result, these little bags were littered all over the streets. The President decided this had gone too far. He could have implemented a new trash collection service. He could have added trash cans throughout the city. He could have implemented a new law that punished those for littering. But no, that is not what happened. Instead, he implemented a law that forbids all plastic bags! This is not a joke. You can be fined now if found using a plastic bag. This resulted in a pretty humorous adventure to the grocery store last week. Because of the new law, the grocery store no longer put your stuff in bags. We had to carry all our groceries by hand into the taxi and to our apartment. We looked like a couple of homeless people carrying cans of vegetables and paper bags full of meat. It was ridiculous.

Bombs Away:

This past Wednesday I (Nate) had a unique experience at work. I was sitting in my office, and it took me awhile to notice it but I eventually realized there were people shouting outside our office, just down the road. I could hear all these men shouting, very angrily. I thought this was strange and began to wonder what had gotten all these people so mad when I head a small explosion go off nearby. I have never actually seen or heard a grenade go off, but what I heard/felt was exactly how I would imagine a grenade to sound like. I could feel the ground shake a little bit. This of course was followed by a lot of screaming and more shouting. I decided it would be best if I just stayed in my office, rather than run into the street to check it out. Well this whole confrontation lasted only maybe 5 minutes. A few minutes later, Manny (Managing Director) came down to explain to me that everything was fine. The confrontation involved a small number of people and it was now over. He continued to mention that I should be comforted in knowing that is was just a confrontation between the military and the police, no big deal.  As an American I thought that this was actually a very odd thing for the military and police to be fighting. We don't exactly see that happen very often in the States. Apparently, this is a good thing here though. At least it wasn't military vs. military, indicating a faction. How different things are here. Police fighting military is a good thing. Who knew?!

Getting into a Routine

It has been a while since we have written. Sorry! Things have been going great. We are now getting into a routine and feeling more at home each week. We had some visitors from HOPE this past weekend. Peter Greer, the HOPE President, and Dave Wasik, the VP of Operations, were here Saturday until Tuesday. It was Peter's first visit to Brazzaville and the HOPE Congo office. We were happy to have both of them here. We got to eat several dinners with them. It was nice to share about our time in Brazzaville so far and to receive great insight and encouragement from Peter and Dave.

HOPE Congo hosted a dinner for Peter and Dave to meet the pastors that HOPE Congo partners with. HOPE partners with local churches in order to use their facilities for reimbursement meetings. There we around 20 pastors present and they all got to network, hear more about HOPE's mission, and express their thoughts.  It was a delicious dinner at a nice hotel in town. We have a few pictures from the dinner, but sadly none with Peter or Dave. :( Funny story....Sophie, the HOPE Secretary, asked Nate if he owned a tie! haha She has noticed he never really dresses up and was worried that he would show up to the dinner in a polo. So she asked him to please wear a tie. Allie laughed really hard at this. We had to look really hard to find them! We were a little worried they were lost, but thankfully got him all dressed up for the dinner.

Last night at dinner, Peter brought up the topic of a HOPE Congo basketball team and we all started laughing. A few weeks ago, Nate asked one of the loan officers (Chancy) if some guys in the office might be interested in playing basketball sometime. He mistakenly took this as Nate wanting to form a team. Well Nate couldn't say no so apparently there will be a HOPE Congo basketball team coming soon. Peter loved the idea and even said he would personally pay for all of us to have uniforms with one condition...we had to be name the HOPEfuls. He said that HOPE Int'l had a team one year called that. The team went on to finish 0-10 that year. HOPE is still looking for their first victory. Nate is not sure if it will come with this team, but it will still be fun.

The management team! Xavier (Dir. of Operations), Manny (Managing Director), and Nate

All dressed up!

Peter, Orlane, Manny, and Xavier. Orlane was awarded as the "Loan Officer of the Year"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Congo!!!

We enjoyed the holidays here in Congo. We definitely missed our family, but we were blessed with great friends here who made us feel at home. Christmas Eve day we spent all day with the youth group from our church. Around 15 kids ending up going! We went out to a village about 30 km outside of Brazzaville. We stopped at a hospital/clinic and gave toys and clothes to some of the kids and mothers who were in the hospital. The kids enjoyed handing out the goodies and talking with people in the hospital. We then walked for about an hour and a half on a desolate dirt road to get to the village. We were SO hot and tired after this trek and the kids weren't even phased! haha Made us feel old! When we got to the village Nate and the boys played soccer with some of the village boys, and Allie played games with the girls. The youth pastor wanted the youth group to spend time with the kids from the village. They were supposed to be showing the love of Christ and sharing about God. Ww then ate lunch and sat under a tree as the youth pastor gave a devotion. We also got to walk around the village to different homes and give out more clothes and toys. The families we met were very appreciative. We found out that this was the first time most of the youth group had been to a village outside of Brazzaville. It was a first for all of us! The village was primitive with no electricity or running water. We enjoyed the time getting to know the youth group better. We were very tired and sun burned after this long day in the heat and sun!
Christmas Eve night we were invited to our friend Ann's. She cooked a great dinner and we played cards   after with 2 couples. Christmas Day we were invited over to eat dinner with a group of missionaries. We went over to Ron and Ruth's apartment which was only about a 15 minute walk from our place. We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and other great food! We then played games and did a white elephant gift exchange. Nate got chocolate truffles and I got a hand held electric mosquito killer! All the missionaries highly recommended it.
For New Year's Eve we decided to host a party of our own. We invited everyone from the office as well as a few other friends we have met so far while here in Brazza. The idea was to host a party for those at the office whose family lives elsewhere and have no other plans for the holidays. It turns out that nearly the whole office wanted to come. We had a full house to say the least. About 20 people showed up for food, fellowship, and games. We had to pull out the extra bed from our bedroom to use as a sofa. It was a little crowded but a lot of fun. Allie made macaroni and cheese as well as a chocolate cake. Some of the ladies from the office brought some food as well. After eating, we played a big game of mafia. Nate facilitated the game with one of the loan officers as his interpreter. The group really enjoyed the game and everyone had a great time. Most of the group left around 10pm, but some of our friends stuck around to play cards and welcome the new year! The holidays were very different without family around, but we had a great time getting to know everyone here better. To all our family and friends, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We miss you all very much!

Some of the youth group meeting at the church 

The long hot road to the village.

Pretty views of the countryside along the way

The youth pastor (left) and youth worker (right) giving a devotion

The kids resting during the devotional. They were tired from a long walk and a hour long soccer game.

 Christmas day at Ron and Ruth's Christmas dinner.

HOPE staff at our New Year's Eve party

Clement, HOPE accountant, and his son.

Rachel, Allie, and Alix. These girls are both HOPE Loan Officers.

Nate, Angie, Remi, and Bret at the Party