Life in the Submarine - The Mill Hill Missionaries

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soft soil just beyond the hardened surface of the runway and the plane cameto a shuddering halt. We were told to stay on board whilst the pilot and hisassistants tried to get the wheel free again. As it was early afternoon and thesun at full force, the cabin turned into an oven in no time and we were allabsolutely soaking with sweat. Eventually we were allowed to disembark andanxiously watched proceeding from under the shadow of the wings or fromnearby bushes. Someone was dispatched on a bicycle to Lisafa, an oil palmplantation at about 20 kms from Basankusu, to get a tractor. In the end it wasa large shovel that did the trick. The hole was evened out, the pilot restartedthe engines and the plane managed to get away all of its own – to our intenserelief. It didn’t take a minute to get everyone back on board and off we were.About two hours later we landed safely at Ndjili International Airport.On my final trip in my capacity as General Councillor for Africa there was only ahandful of Mill Hill missionaries left in the diocese of Basankusu: a small groupin and around Basankusu itself and another small group at far away Djolu inthe Bongando area. The change of regime at Kinshasa had brought nodiscernible benefits or improvements to the provinces so far. All infra-structureseemed in a state of advanced decay: schools, hospitals and dispensaries,administrative buildings. The roads, never in a state to write home about, hadbecome completely impassable and long distance travel was possible only byriver. Harrie Reusen, the local Superior, thought it would be possible to travelto Djolu by motorcycle to visit the small Mill Hill contingent there, using the littleused northern Bongandanga – Bokenda route. And so we set off by boat toKodoro, then overland to the river crossing to Djombo. The small dugout wefound at the crossing was just large enough to precariously hold ourmotorcycles and so we reached the opposite bank. Then overland to Djomboand on to another river crossing to reach Bongandanga. Same procedurethere. We spent the night at Bongandanga, celebrated the Eucharist with thelocal community and then moved on overland to Djolu, another day’s travel.Frans Kwik and Marinus de Groot were very pleased to see us. Not long afterthey were to leave the area and hand it over to the local diocesan clergy.My last visit to the diocese took place in 2005 at the occasion of the centenaryof the arrival of the first Mill Hill missionaries. The centenary year had beencarefully planned to allow each parish its own separate celebration. Bokakatabeing the place where the first missionaries were buried – one of them diedsoon after arrival and all without exception died young – I was happy to be ableto join the celebration there. Our party travelled to Bokakata from Basankusuin one of those outsize dugout canoes carved from the stem of just one giantrainforest tree. John Kirwan made sure that we came on land at the exact spot
where the early missionaries had landed a hundred years earlier. A simplecross had been erected there and was blessed that same day as part of thecommemoration. The next day we celebrated the Eucharist in true Congolesefashion, dancing around the altar at the ‘gloria’ and raising the roof withexuberant song. The offertory procession alone took more than an hour! Peoplewere so entranced by the dancing and singing and bringing of gifts that theyjoined the end of the queue again to come forward once more. The precessionto the graveyard to bless the tombs and commemorate the sacrifice of the earlymissionaries was very moving. For me this was a fitting conclusion to morethan 30 years of association – 17 years as a missionary on the spot - with thelocal Church that is in Basankusu, Equator Province, Democratic Republic ofCongo.EpilogueIt still hurts to realise that Congo, my first love, continues to be the ‘sick man’in Central Africa. Maybe the recent success of Lubumbashi’s TP Mazembefootball team who missed becoming world champions by a hair breadth, is aharbinger of better things to come? David Reybrouck’s ‘Congo’ , a beautifullywritten history of Congo published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary ofthe declaration of independence, ends on an optimistic note underlining theincredible creativity, flexibility and enterprising spirit of the Congolese. ThierryMichel’s impressive documentary on recent developments in Katanga –‘Katanga Business’ - shows the enormous potential waiting to be harnessed.Esili boye.Fons Eppink 17.01.2011
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