Sunday August 13, 1922

Our first Sunday in Congo.

Kinshasa being a cosmopolitan city there are many services in the church in different languages for various classes of people Thus one of my earliest experiences this morning was hearing lusty singing from the chapel near our hostel.

The words were in a strange language but the tune was the same as we are accustomed to at home and it seemed very significant and caused me quite a strange feeling as I recognised the hymn as “O happy way that fixed my choice”... We have seen enough to realise that happiness for the native can come by no other way.

There was an English service at 11 AM where Rev. Davies preached. Some of the men from Levies (H.C.B) were present. Davies was doing great work in presenting Christianity in - to them - a new light.

In the afternoon we went to a service in the native quarter of the town and had our first experience of an African congregation.

In the evening we went for a little walk by the river and came upon a host of driver ants on the march. These ants move in an orderly column like an army on the march. they advance in rows of five or six abreast like a little stream of brown water. They take hours to pass a given spot, which gives some idea of the millions of ants in one colony. They have officers - a larger ant all together with formidable pincers - who walk outside the column or stand in places of difficulty or danger lining the route on either side. They also use their pincers to “stimulate” slackers: when one of these offices really gets a grip of one's finger they will never let go, they will let you pull them in half rather than slacken their Bulldog grip.

Driver ants are the enemies of the termites (or so called white ants) it is the termite which is the greatest enemy of man’s goods in the tropics; so the drivers must be regarded as friends. Termites will eat wooden boxes, books, clothes or anything - except metal. Fortunately then driver ants eat termites!

I had dinner with the Reverend Davies; we had some familiar hymns and anthems after chops.

From the veranda we could see large bush fire on the hills across the water.

It has been sunny and hot today; the warmest day we have had so far, but cool this evening. Even so it has been no hotter than last summer in England, as yet we've had no weather hotter than we have experienced in England.

Last month two sudden deaths occurred at Kinshasa: The wife and son of Mr Haslyn. The little boy got a septic throat which the mother subsequently contracted - both died very soon after onset.