or…what do you do with
3,500 quart-size plastic zipper bags?
When I was preparing to
leave the United States to return to Goma last month, I received a message from
Bill asking me to bring back between three to four thousand plastic zip-lock
bags to make PEP kits. PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis) kits are
pre-packed doses of medicine given to survivors of sexual assault to prevent
the transmission of diseases like STIs and HIV/Aids. Sadly, sexual
assault is endemic where we work in Eastern Congo…and providing lifesaving
treatment, care, and counseling to survivors of rape is a part of that work
that Bill and I are involved in. Medical treatment is only one of the
elements of care, but without a 30-day course of medicine (to be started within
72 hours) a good number of these innocent victims would contract HIV/Aids, a
veritable death sentence on top of the terrible ordeal they have endured.
The provision of prepackaged and sealed PEP kits can be lifesaving.
The problem is, plastic
bags are not available in the area where we work in Eastern Congo (DRC) and
they are banned (illegal) in neighboring Rwanda, our point of entry into
Congo. Thus the call for me to purchase and bring back over three
thousand zip lock bags in my luggage!
The trip back to Congo
took me from North Carolina to Detroit to Amsterdam to Kigali, Rwanda, where a
taxi drive across that small country would bring me to the border with Congo …
and Goma (our home). However, it was a bit of a risk, knowing that such
bags are illegal in Rwanda, even if I was just transiting through.
The plan was for Bill to
meet me at the airport in Rwanda (en route from South Sudan) in case there were
problems with the 3,500 pieces of ‘contraband’ I was carrying from
the U.S. … but his flight was delayed. When I touched down in Kigali the
pilot announced as we were taxiing to immigration that “anyone disembarking
must remove all plastic bags from their personal possession and leave them on
the plane”. As I watched my fellow passengers remove a few bags from
their carry-on luggage, I thought of the 3,500 plastic bags in my checked
luggage being off-loaded at that moment!
I remember when I became
a new Christian that one of the books I loved was God’s Smuggler, the story of
Brother Andrew as he brought Bibles into Communist countries where they were
prohibited. He is known for praying "Lord, make seeing eyes blind"
before he stopped at the border of a communist country for his car to be
inspected.
Now, I know plastic zip
bags are not on the level of Bibles, but I did have the assurance that God was
in charge. As I put my checked suitcases (over filled with plastic bags) on the
luggage cart and headed out through customs, I saw a line of 8 policemen
waiting to check bags. Praying for safe passage, I walked right past
them, not stopping and not being stopped … me and my 3,500 plastic quart bags.
All of the kits are packed and on the way to those who need them!