As the only missionaries at Rethy, most of our interaction with the local people was in the trade language, Kinguana, derived from Swahili. Kinguana worked fine for buying and selling at the market place, and for doing building projects, but it had definite limitations. Words were added as needed, from other languages, usually from French in the Congo or from English in East Africa. The official language of the Congo was French, the language brought in by the Belgians when the borders of were first recognized in 1908. The language of the army was Lingala and the trade language related to it was called Bangala. The local languages were Dho Alur and Kilendu. No one else really knew English well except for us and Mboligihe.

When we first arrived our priority had been our dorm family of twenty-three children in fourth through sixth grades, but we were required to learn Swahili. Lorraine Stirnaman was assigned to be our teacher. The only time we could find in our busy schedule for language classes, was after we had put our dorm kids to bed. I began using the Kinguana I knew as a child at Rethy, and Ellen studied hard doing all her homework while I taught at school. Ellen passed both Swahili exams and was made a member of the language committee.

I passed the first and took the second Swahili exam, preaching a sermon to the church at Kokpa for the oral part of the test. Two language committee members sat in the back of the mud and wattle church and took notes. I became less and less aware of the examiners as I sought to communicate clearly from the Bible the fact that God chooses to use the uneducated, those with little strength, and the humble to do His work, so that no one can brag, but only praise God when any good thing is accomplished. On our way back to Rethy that day, Burnetta Wambold asked Ganda how he thought I had done on the oral test. He said I had done very well in Kinguana. I felt that God had used me to teach the congregation that we need to obey what He tells us, and remember that when He uses us, we need to tell everyone that God needs to be thanked, not us. Eventually, when the Missionary Committee minutes were published my name was not shown as having passed the second Swahili exam. I asked Burnetta if there was a mistake. She said, “No, there wasn’t. I hadn’t passed my oral exam in Swahili.” I never did, but kept on using Kingwana.

To communicate and understand the people better we would need to learn Dho Alur and Kilendu since those were the mother languages of the two main tribes at Rethy. We had worked at Rethy for nearly thirty years and had learned neither. Only recently had we begun to realize that there were deep, hostile feelings between the two tribes. At first we hadn’t even thought of there being different tribes at Rethy. All the dorm employees had worked together in harmony.

When talking about personal, family, or spiritual relationships there was usually a Swahili word in the dictionary to convey the thought we had, but the people at Rethy would not know it. Though we knew, and interacted with many people, it was mostly on the trade language level. I often wonder how well we knew those with whom we worked every day. When I was in charge I just expected them to agree with my decisions. I think this may have been a carry-over from the colonial times, when it was taught that the Muzungu was the wisest, and that what he said had to be right.

We didn’t really understand the tribal tensions between the Alur and the Lendu. We were told that the Lendu were going to take back the land the Hema and the Alur had stolen from them, many years ago. Ancient history said that when an Alur chief was buried, six Lendu would be buried with him. The Lendu were not going to be below the Alur anymore. They would be over them. Njaba told Ellen that the Lendu had been “Chini, chini, chini” (below, below, below) and now they would be “Juu, juu, juu” (above, above, above). He said there would be blood. The Lendu were tired of being the workers and the Alur the leaders.

We knew very little about the organization called the LORI, (which I have since found to stand for ‘Libération des opprimés et rejetés de l’Ituri / Liberation of Ituri’s Oppressed and Rejected’) but I knew that the Lendu were working together to educate Lendu men so they could become the top leaders. The Lendu didn’t want another Alur pastor after Rev. Balongi died and told us that the large Rethy church would be for the Lendu only. Ellen asked, “Njaba, aren’t you all brothers in Jesus? If it is only for the Lendu where will I go to church?” He didn’t answer.

When the long rule of the Nilotic Tutsi tribe was broken and avenged by the Hutu, and hundreds of thousands were systematically murdered in Rwanda, there were tribal tensions in Zaire as well. The Belgians had favored the Nilotic Alur tribe for training and leadership positions; and viewed the Lendu to be merely workers. This polarization was also manifest in the CECA church where a majority of the leadership positions were held by the Alur or Hema, but were desired by the Lendu. Pierre Marini wanted to become a Bishop and change the existing CECA church government to a more liturgical system with himself as head. He and his followers called it, CECA 20-Reformed.

When Rev Balonge passed away the Lendu wanted total control of the church and its assets. A Lendu doctor came to work at Rethy assuming leadership at the hospital. At the full CECA church assembly in Aru the Lendu were able to elect Kwani Lodzavi to be the Moderateur de l’assembly General. The tribe was gaining power in the church and soon Kwani was assigned to be the manager of the Koda Hydroelectric installation at Rethy. The Lendu were succeeding in getting more and more of their tribe into positions of power.

It was my responsibility to train Kwani and hand everything over to him. I found that he had had some University courses in Hydroelectric Systems and quickly understood what we were doing to keep things running smoothly.

At the time he took over there were, at Rethy, about twenty missionary families consuming an average of $60 worth of electric power a month in addition to the hospital, the press, the academy, and the dorm. There were small businesses at Rethy, including carpenter shops and corn grinding services. There were both small and large consumers in Kwandruma with welding shops and grinding mills including Panga, Mugasa and Mbikpa, who also had a small coffee factory, a hotel and other services. There was a large coffee processing factory built by Lubenga, specifically because of the available Koda hydro-electricity. The fees were collected in Zaires, or could be paid in US$ through accounts in Bunia. The income per month could exceed $2,300 dollars, depending on the electric consumption and the exchange rates.

The Ossberger cross-flow turbine provided continuous, steady, power, up to 400 KVA, and needed only a yearly shut-down for maintenance. During the shutdown we cleaned all the machinery, repacked the flywheel and turbine bearings with a special grease, and changed the hydraulic oil of the regulating system.

At the same time, we had a large crew working at the top of the hill. We opened the drain beneath the dam and cleaned out all the mud and silt that had accumulated in the settling basin behind the dam and in the surge tank just ahead of the intake trash rack. Allowing the dam to fill in with mud would eventually pass the heavier particles of sand and grit directly into the penstock and down 100 meters to blast against the blades of the turbine, wearing them away. It was a big project, and lots of work, but absolutely essential maintenance, if the turbine was to last.

The yellow Land-Rover pick-up and the old Massy Harris tractor with its six-meter log trailer needed to be kept in good repair as we served the existing customers and added new line extensions.

Water generated the electricity sold by Koda, so with responsible management, the net income per month was plenty to pay the employees, operate and maintain the equipment, and build up the bank accounts to purchase anything needed as parts began to wear out.

There was a good work force in place. Paime was the treasurer and ran the small store where we sold electrical fittings. Buto was the secretary and prepared all the invoices for our customers and calculated the wages for our linemen and administrative staff. Paime paid the wages. I cared for the accounting and reconciled the statements from the bank and Bunia accounts with our books.

There were six linemen we had trained involved in caring for the distribution lines and adding new clients. They were the only electricians in the area and had wired the coffee factory for Lubenga. Ganda was the one who designed the layout for the factory and worked closely with Saba, another Alur. The two of them were by far the best linemen we had, though Dzando was favored by the Lendu to become the foreman.

Ganda could also read the schematic diagram for the AVK regulating and control equipment for the turbine. When he and I didn’t agree on the function of a certain relay he was often right. They were a real asset to the Koda Hydroelectric facility, however they were Alur and Kwani was a Lendu. Saba had a hard time respecting the new director and was often late for our morning prayer and the work assignment meeting. He eventually quit, though I don’t know the details.

At first all went well and I was less and less involved in the running of the Koda Hydroelectric service. I had then been given a new assignment as the director of Editions CECA.

Of course everything changed with the rebellion causing all the missionaries to leave the country. The tribal tensions escalated and many of the bills for electricity went unpaid. The Massy Harris tractor was disassembled for repairs of some kind, and the sample parts sent to Kampala for replacement were lost. When swerving to avoid hitting a dog, the yellow Land-Rover struck a hidden log on the side of a back road and rolled over. Though no-one was hurt it was impossible to repair the smashed cab. Ukumu was asked to see if he could locate and import a used one from Kampala for Kwani. This he had done but hadn’t yet been paid.

When we returned after the evacuation I received several requests from local people to take over and fix Koda up like it was, however there was a manager in place, and he was responsible. I was asked by Kwani to help determine what was needed to repair the equipment that regulated the flow of water through the turbine. The 110-volt stabilizing transformer had failed and needed to be replaced with new parts from Germany. Clements Blaske helped me get the details which I gave to the manager. He had the bank accounts and all the necessary contacts and addresses but wanted me to personally make and pay for the order. He didn’t tell me how he would pay for the parts. I had no idea what the finances were like at Koda and I didn’t make the order. I didn’t sense the same oneness in the work we had had before the rebellion. I was an outsider.

Since I had been assigned by CECA to again be in charge of the press, I went to see how we might move forward. I found Lainya, the press foreman, Kakura, the treasurer, and Ukelo, the bookstore manager all still reporting for work. Ukumu was helping import paper and supplies from Uganda. I was pleased to find them working together so well. Amula wasn’t at the press any more, but heading up the Bible School at Linga. I think he was a Lendu. Maybe the harmony at the press had something to do with the fact all the leadership were Alur except me. They were used to my Kingwana. We had worked together before.

With the contacts Ukumu had in Kampala and the trucker he knew in Mahagi we began to work out the details to purchase several tons of paper directly from PanPaper, the paper mill on the boundary between Uganda and Kenya. Lainya, Kakura, and Ukumu knew what needed to be done and we all wanted to keep the press running. We wanted to get that Zande hymnbook printed. They were telling me what to do.

We understood each other well. We were talking the same language and we all loved God.