Abigail Martin

Photo: Abigail Martin and Lino (pronounced "Leno"), the sweet M & L Gas Station attendant, and one of many Congolese who have already proposed to Abigail.

Let me introduce you to Abigail Martin. I've mentioned her before, but need to give you a little more information about her and her mission here in Kinshasa. She represents "Giving Back to Africa" (GBA), an NGO dedicated to the long-term mission of educating young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its goal is to empower GBA benefieciaries through service-centered education who will in turn become leaders who will make significant changes in their local communities and throughout the nation.

Before she left on Thursday to go back to her home near Bloomington, IN, Abbey wrote me a letter that represents the kind of person she is. She writes:
...I write like the little bits of conversation that come out during our morning coffee (we are after all Americans).
1) I will miss your friendship, advice, perspective and willingness to "wait" it out with me. As the French say, tu me manques...you are missing from me; I am lacking you.
2) Have faith in yourself! Your French is so improved, your first class in the medical school is going GREAT. You're driving, you're finding your way around this sprawling city and you've been able to meet expectations and set standards and consistently uphold them at home and at work.
3)You're part of a community here: church, Carole, CALI, the Embassy, UPC, Tasok, Kulungus, students, faculty...it continues to grow!
4) The news from back home affirms your life and work here...
5) Mosala malamu**. Work well.
6) Lala malamu**. Sleep well.
7) Do your hostess thing--you're great at it!
8) Ask and you shall receive Ask questions until you find the answers.
9) Remember to balance all that self-critique...don't give it up because it's one of the things I love most about you, how you're so open to that kind of personal reflection. But them zoom out, way out...!
10) Take pictures. (Not in front of police!)
11) Write! Say it! All of it!
12) Jane Eyre prayer from Thanksgiving Day when we both cried together, comforted by one another and yet lonely for our families and friends back home:
"Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presenve most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky where His worlds wheel their silent course that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky Way. Remembering what it was--what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light-I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Savior of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe: he was God's and by God would he be guarded. I again nestled to the breast of the hill; and ere long in sleep forgot sorrow."
13) Malembe, malembe**. Slowly, slowly.
14) Merry Christmas, Jane, and Happy New Year. Just think of it! What a year to put away! And the one coming! I look forward to sharing it with you.
Sending you much love and many thanks for being you,
Abbey

And I say the same to you all: Sending you much love and many thanks for being you,
Jane
**Lingala, the local tribal language