May 28, 2014 - Clark

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

You can tell we are pretty lonely in the evenings with no flowers to attend to, no Castle or Dancing with the Stars to follow or NBA playoffs to keep track of.  We have no TV other than fuzzy French and it isn’t safe to be out at night, so we don’t leave our home after 6:00 pm.  We are pretty close to the equator so the sun rises and sets around 6:00 with little variance.  The weather is similar to Hawaii but not as humid.  Lubumbashi is 4,000 foot elevation so it is cooler than you might imagine.  

We have been here for 10 whole days and definitely have some vivid impressions.  We have been cautioned not to take pictures because they may feel you are looking down on them.  We have a million pictures in our heads but few on film.  The streets are lined with people; there are no sidewalks so people walk in the road.  The driving is insane because there are no rules.  You have to be a defensive driver and there seem to be police on every busy intersection.  They aren’t there to direct traffic but to extort money from people to supplement their meager income.

The electricity is off in the homes most days and comes back on for 3-4 hours in the evening.  We live close to the mining efforts and so our section has more reliable power.  We stopped sleeping with our mosquito net because I haven’t seen any mosquitos to speak of and the mission president confided in us he doesn’t sleep with one either.  We use water filters for everything.  I haven’t consumed so much water ever, because other beverages are not as readily available.  The only milk they have is the long-life milk and I tolerate it for breakfast cereals and the like, but to drink it straight isn’t yet in the cards.

There is noise everywhere and at all times of the night.  We went for a long walk on Sunday and found the source of the noise: a revival church, 2-3 bars and some residences with private parties.  The roosters crow all night long and we  have a couple of dogs in our compound area that bark at the slightest movement.  I’m sure they help the 3 guards who watch our facility 24/7.  They rotate on a three day cycle.  They sleep here on the premises and are always visible.  The compound is surrounded by a wall with broken glass on the tops of the walls along with coiled barb wire similar to a prison.  One could feel imprisoned with all the locks and gates and security.  Somehow I haven’t felt nearly as threatened as I did in Johannesburg.

Today we had our busiest day yet.  We visited 3 potential project sites.  The Area Presidency members had previously visited the Catholic Priest who is the Director of Public Schools.  His name is Pere Gideon and they are responsible for over 107,000 students.  We visited him yesterday and asked what their most pressing needs were.  He reply was latrines, school desks, security walls and roofing.  We told him we usually are not involved in building construction but we have done latrines as part of our sanitation emphasis.  We asked him to line up a couple of schools we could visit to see first-hand their most pressing needs.

Our first stop was a school for the blind.  They have 75 students; 52 male and 22 females.  They have 65 who board at the school.  They gave us a tour of the grounds.  They have large gardens which were planted with onions, eggplant, tomatoes, cabbage, pumpkin and cassava.  They have continuous good weather so their gardens will produce year round.  In addition to their agricultural efforts, they showed us their small animal production facilities.  They have 10 sows in a shed where they hope to be able to have the pigs multiple and eat some and sell some with the offspring.  They asked for 10 additional female pigs at a cost of $7 per kilo.  The average sow weight 40 kilo, so the cost would be about $280 per pig.  The other production project they are working on is a fish farm layout.  They have 4 pond areas they have carved out for growing tilapia.  In the past they have done this but the security wall was insufficient and many people were stealing from the blind.  They are currently in the process of building a higher wall and putting barb wire on top of the wall.  

The woman who ran the facility had been there since 2002 and was kind and compassionate.  She showed us their sleeping quarters that were wall to wall beds with mosquito nets.  It was pretty sobering, yet clean and well maintained.  One nice thing was they have employed graduates of the school on their staff and as grounds personnel.  Their compound is on a site that must be 5-10 acres and they have another 10 acre parcel about 20 kilometers from town.

The finale of our tour was to go upstairs and meet the music coordinator for the school.  He had arranged a couple of vocal numbers.  We listened to the harmonies and they sounded like heavenly voices.  There were 5 in our party who were visiting and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.  These children are at varying stages of blindness and they are trying to allow for integration back into the public schools with a little skills development.  It was inspiring to see what they are doing on their own with these disadvantaged children.

Our second stop was at a large school located closer to what they would consider a slum area.  The school has two elementary school and a secondary school housed on the same property.  They were asking for help with their latrines.  They have a combined student body of nearly 2,600  students and originally had 16 latrines for girls and 16 latrines for boys.  They had a humanitarian project performed by UNICEF to refurbish half of the latrines.  What UNICEP did was to paint the bathroom and paint and put doors on all the latrines.  The problem is they didn’t pump the latrine holding tank or pond and they didn’t repair any of the piping.  I would have been embarrassed to put my name on that project, but they did.

The sad thing is they have a temporary solution which is to have 4 latrines to service 2,600 children.  They go by class and I’m sure there isn’t much privacy.  The place stunk to high heaven but can you imagine 4 latrines for 2,600 students.  

Our final stop of the day was in the afternoon when we met the President of the  Kasanga Stake.  Near his stake center, there is a bridge project they wanted us to see.  The Katuba River needs to be crossed for residents to make it to church, children to make it to school and residents to make it to work or the marketplace.  When the previous bridge failed in 2008, they had a “helping hands” project where they secured an old 18-wheel rig’s chassis and used it to span the river.  The sides are caving in and and the frame is not safe for children to cross.  We took some pictures and by the time we were finished over 50 small children had gathered to be part of the picture taking project.  They love to have their picture taken and then have you show it to them.  

This is a project we need to get approved.  It will win the hearts of the local members and meet a local need with a local solution.  They estimate the cost to be $3,000-3,500 and it will teach us the process for approval of local area initiatives.  

This weekend, President McMullin has arranged for us to visit the Districts in Likasi and Kowelzi.  The drive is about 3 hours and we will stay overnight in a hotel they refer to as the Flintstones hotel.  President wants us to conduct our humanitarian work with the knowledge and assistance of the priesthood leadership.  Our presentation to the three Lubumbashi stake presidents last Saturday was one of the keys to the support we feel from both the mission president and the local priesthood leadership.  Next month we will be going on an 11-day trip with President McMullin before he leaves for home.  We will be the old veterans by the time the new mission president shows up.  It’s amazing to think our original departure date was June 2nd.  I’m sure glad we responded and came 6 weeks earlier.  It has been invaluable to be mentored by President McMullin.  

We have hired a translator by the name of Flavien Kot.  He has worked with humanitarian projects since the Packers were mission presidents here.  He has agreed to assist us in training 3 new translators.  Each stake president requested that they be able to recommend one new translator in training.  An area of emphasis is to help returned missionaries develop employable skills.  We think the internship program will benefit both the members and the senior couple.  The church is worried about employing anyone more than 20 hours a week and creating liability for benefits if an independent contractor is reclassified as a full-time employee.  

Flavien has been wonderful and extremely helpful.  He is mature and has helped immensely with the language.  He is being paid $5 an hour and thinks he has died and gone to heaven.  He has 3 children and has just started a print shop.  He buys and sells sporty cars and is extremely entrepreneurial.  

I know I have carried on and it’s time to sign off.  We have been comforted on a regular basis and our prayers have been answered regularly.  We feel totally dependent on guidance beyond our capacity.  We know we are being led to do the Lord’s work and yet we feel totally incapable of any of this on our own.  We already recognize our assignment as humanitarian is much more enjoyable than being tied to the office.  It’s like we get to take a new field trip every day.  We are still working on figuring out the proper protocol but the site visits are an eye-opener.  There is so much need and yet the need is for education and skills development, not money.  Trillions of dollars have been spent in Africa and changed nothing other than to make them more dependent rather than more self-reliant.  We know we can’t change everything but we’re being changed in the process.

May 27, 2014 - Clark

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

We had a bit of a bust for a day.  Only a single appointment with Flavien turned out.  We had a 10:00 appointment with the Minister of Health but Flavien was waiting for his office to call before we went into the office to wait.  Flavien forget his information on prior projects and we had to drive to his home to pick up the pictures that his wife had put in his briefcase that he left at his printing office.  We did a lot of driving but accomplished little.  We had a funny experience when we stopped at Flavien’s home.  There was a large dog in the street and mom asked Flavien why there weren’t more dogs.  He quizzed her on her estimate as to why so few dogs.  Mom said she guessed they were too expensive to feed and he burst out laughing.  He said it is because they eat them.

We went to visit World Vision but they are having a local seminar and we decided to try back on Thursday morning.  We also have another appointment with the Minister of Health Thursday morning at 10:00.  Most of the missed appointments reminded me of being a full-time missionary.  We did have some backup plans that eventually panned out.

Within the last year the Area Presidency has visited the School District Offices for the Catholic Schools and said we would follow-up when there was a humanitarian couple assigned to Lubumbashi.  We visited with the Priest in charge; his name was Gideon.  They have over 100,000 students and the rewarding statistic was that nearly half of the students are girls.  Girls don’t have the same advantages as boys in this culture and often they drop out of school.  Many of the sister missionaries do not know French because it is taught in school and they have not attended school.  

We visited about their most pressing needs and they said latrines and benches.  They asked if we could help with roofs and fencing.  We said we would prefer to focus on classrooms and benches.  They gave us a tour of their facilities which were previously a monastery.  We made arrangements for them to show us 2-3 schools tomorrow.  We asked them to show their areas of greatest need and we were well received.  I asked for a copy of their budget to see the amount of money they were spending on their own to maintain their facilities.  You can be pretty bold when you are writing the checks.  

The afternoon was a continuation of frustration.  I can see early on that the financial and budgetary accountability are going to drive me crazy.  We have a totally cash society and are required to fill in reimbursement forms for any reimbursements requested.  We will also have a $1,000 petty cash fund.  It all sounds pretty good until you realize that to travel anywhere in our mission requires air travel with excess baggage charges, ground transportation and hotel accommodations.  Every single trip will be in excess of $1,000.  Our support couple from South Africa is in Cape Town helping with an emergency response effort where over 200 homes were lost to a fire.  The bottom line is we’re spending our reserve of cash and hope to make an accounting someday.  I wish they would allow me to follow Roger’s example and fill out an annual expense report.  

We did have a bit of excitement this afternoon when the office accountant asked us to accompany her to the bank.  She withdrew $22,000 in cash and wanted an escort.  Everything operates on cash here and you get a little paranoid about carrying hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on your person.  

We have located a couple of American type grocery stores that cater to the expatriates who live here with the mines.  Mining is the big industry and most of the owners and supervisors are white.  The prices are pretty high.  We paid $7 for Nutella, $4 for yoghurt, $11 for garbage bags, etc.  They go through a 3 step process  whenever handling money.  One party rings it up and collects the money, another stop is to have someone review the receipt to make sure you have paid for everything and the third is baggers and anyone else who jumps in carries the merchandise out to your car in order to collect a tip.  

We received our dirver’s licenses yesterday and they are still working on our exit visas.  You receive a travel visa for 6 months when you enter the country, but you can’t leave the country after 6-months unless you have a long-term visa.  In the past it has taken up to 5-6 months to get that long-term visa.

Shelley has worried a lot about what she would do if her mother passed away when she didn’t have an exit visa.  We also expressed a need to expedite this process so we won’t be grounded for that waiting period of time in the event we have projects going on that require travel.  

We had an enjoyable facetime call with Spencer this evening.  He is between nobs right now.  I have been extremely disappointed in Medtronic for the way they have ignored his needs after all the sacrifices he has made for the company.  I’ll let him tell that story.

He taught us how to share our photos using iphone technology.  We have loved the Apple technology and are certainly happy we brought all of our Apple equipment.  In the last week have discovered hotspot technology that allows our iphones to act like a portable router that provides wi-fi or internet access for up to 5 devices.  We learned about photo streaming this evening and generally we couldn’t survive without having contract with our family and the outside world through technology.  

I’m sure once the projects get rolling, we’ll have less time to write.  Everyone continues to do everything possible to make life comfortable and enjoyable for us.  They really do treat senior couples differently in an effort to solicit increased senior participation.  

May 26, 2014 - Clark

Monday, May 26, 2014

This is only Monday of our second week and it seems like we are already somewhat in the saddle.  I realize it will get busier but busy is what I like.  Let me explain the content of our day.  Previous missionaries have used a translator by the name of Flavien Kot.  We contacted him and met for the first time this morning.  He had already made contacts for us to visit prior projects to assess their pros and cons and what could be done differently in the future to ensure successful projects.

We had been advised to use a pool of translators rather than a single source.  The church is worried about creating an employee relationship where benefits are owed but not paid or accrued.  We mentioned this to the 3 stake presidencies we had met with and they each wanted input into the process of selecting a translator.  We decided to use Flavien as the mentor and use an additional translator from each of the three stakes.  One of the area goals is to focus on skills development for returned missionaries, so they can develop job skills for employment and providing for a family.  We felt this would be an opportunity to support this area goal.  He seemed agreeable to the suggestion.

Flavien first took us to the Notre Dame School for girls run by Therese.  She seemed like a modern Oprah or Mother Teressa.  Her school is for girls who can’t afford to attend public school or private schools.  She has 250-370 students during the year depending on who can afford the modest tuition.  A precious humanitarian project was to give 10 sewing machines to the school.  The girls have two contact hours with sewing each week.  Their purpose is to gain marketable skills to support themselves after graduation.  The school has a full curriculum but focuses on skills development.  They use the machines to make clothing for themselves and their families.  

We asked Therese what her greatest needs were and her reply was “a cooking classroom”.  They don’t have clean water at the school.  They have a hand-dug well 7 meters deep with just surface water that is not clean.  She is adding onto her school with two new classrooms and wants to house a sewing lab in one room and a cooking lab in the other.  She needs to outfit the cooking lab with appliances, tools and materials.  Mom suggested clean water would be the most important ingredient for cooking safety.  

We also observed the latrine facilities.  They have 4 latrines, 2 for the faculty and 2 for 250-370 girls.  They had a 50 gallon drum of water outside to dip a bucket to flush the latrine.  The latrines were basically the squatter type mounted on a hole in the ground.  Mom asked about the possibility of using the sewing machines to make sanitary napkin kits for the girls, but was told the type of fabric needed is not available locally.  Theresse said they used diapers instead.  

There are so many needs that we could flush a lot of money away and still not make dent in the problems.  At least we felt this woman was trying to make a difference in the lives of these girls and she has minimal resources to accomplish her goals.  She has a little cinder block home about the size of Butler’s storage shed on the school property.  One problem is you want to help everyone.  

The next project we visited was the Sendwe Hospital where humanitarian had drilled a well to supply clean water to the hospital.  The project was marginally successful.  The hospital looked like something out of the 1700’s with lines of people outside waiting to be seen and primitive facilities with garbage everywhere.  I’m convinced cleanliness is an issue.  They had a previous well and pump that was leaking oil and contaminating the water.  The church agreed to drill a new well and pump the water to a large tower or cistern outside the hospital.  The hospital agreed to fix the leakage problem within the hospital but failed to live up to their end of the bargain.  The humanitarian couple that started the project was moved to Zambia and didn’t monitor the progress or lack thereof by the contractor.  The contractor didn’t finish the project on time and when they were finished, the pump was either undersized or over utilized because the internal leakage problems that it quickly burned out with no one to repair or replace it.  The church humanitarian does not fund on-going maintenance and repairs.  Their attitude is that once the project is finished, it belongs to the beneficiaries and they have all future ownership costs to bear.  The problem is that once the pump failed, another charitable organization (NGO) came in and replaced the pump and now they get the credit for any success the project has.  

This concept of setting aside a future reserve of repairs and maintenance is not working well in the Congo or other African countries.  They use a completely cash society here and the water committee on water projects usually spends the money on themselves or it disappears.  There never seems to be any thought for the future maintenance commitment.  In many cases, they will allow a drilled well to fail because it is not maintained and allow the women and children to walk miles round trip to secure unclean water.  It has been done this way for centuries and is tradition.  The men deem this work to be below their status.  The society is very patriarchal and women are not treated well or revered.  

We spent the afternoon documenting our morning travels and negotiating contract terms with Flavien.  We agreed upon a rate of $5 per hour.  He also has a car and we are using him as a driver.  He asked us a funny question, “Have you ever seen so many black people in one place?”  

We had an enjoyable evening  going to dinner with President McMullin and the office staff.  The restaurant was called latte-licious.  The pricing was in US  dollars and was around $20-30 per entrée, but very good quality.  We enjoyed the evening and people are doing everything possible to make us feel welcome and appreciated.  

President McMullin has arranged for us to tour the mission.  We are visiting Likasi and Kowezi which are 3 hours away.  We are supposed to work from centers of strength but here it is more about road access.  Most places don’t have reliable road transportation and so there is a lot of air travel.  We will stay overnight and make our humanitarian pitch to the District Presidents in those two towns.  In June from the 13-24 we are going to travel with the Mission President and we’re visiting another center of strength in Mbushi Mayi, Tshitanga, and Laputa.  Laputa is the location of the largest humanitarian project ever completed by the church.  It cost 3.5-4.0 million.  The problem is that they have no funds to pay for any major repairs and the system is already failing.  The quality of the construction is being questioned.  Laputa had already submitted a request for phase II that has been denied. No official notification has been given yet but the church has lost faith in the contractor and Laputa is very difficult to access by road, there is none.  Although it is only 35 miles, it takes 4-6 hours because of the lack of road.  

To make a long story short, President McMullin has spoken with Phillip, the Area Welfare Manager and received his blessing to be more proactive in identifying what needs to be done in both Tshitanga and Laputa.  President told us to pretend we have $1 million to spend and figure out to best spend the money.  We’re somewhat conflicted from the 3 weeks of training we have received, but President McMullin has a way of pushing his agenda.  We look forward to the challenge.  

It has been a bitter sweet day with the family celebrating Memorial Day without us.  We received some pictures that reminded us of family and home.  We appreciate seeing the family traditions being preserved and we look forward to skyping with them this evening.  With the 8 hour time difference, it is a challenge to match up schedules.  

Tomorrow we will be introduced to the Minister of Health and plan a meeting with the Director of Catholic Schools in Lubumbashi.  I’ve been able to sleep much better since hearing from the mission president that he doesn’t use his mosquito net.  It feels like you’re in a cage.  When the mosquitos show up I’ll start using it again.  Another thing that is constant is the noise.  We live close to another church that seems to always be having a revival at all hours of the night and day.  We also live within a block of a couple of bars that play their music through the night.  All the noises are starting to blend together.  It reminds us of the railroad noises at home.  Newcomers always notice but we seem to have tuned them out entirely.  We are surviving and this has definitely brought the two of us much closer together.

May 25, 2014 - Shelley

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Well, tomorrow is Memorial Day.  It feels like Dad and I have wandered off into a totally different world and I can’t believe that summer is on your doorstep.  As I have mentioned before, it’s autumn here.  The leaves are falling and the weather is very mild – even a little brisk in the mornings.  But honestly, the climate is one of my favorite things!  It’s like Hawaii without humidity.  J

In fact, Hawaii prepared us well for this experience in many ways.  Our home looks like it could belong there – mostly cinderblock and stucco-type stuff.  There are palm trees in our yard and the windows are louvered, so they never really shut.  The windows look like the shutters in our living room at home except they’re made of glass.  There are screens on the windows and every room also has bars on the windows – not exactly like prison, but kind of.  The bars are standard everywhere you go – even the churches and schools.  We have walls around our compound that have broken bottles cemented into the top and curly barbed wire on top of that – it’s pretty much the same in all of the compounds.

The people who don’t live in compounds live in little cement-type homes with one or two rooms.  Actually, the people are mostly outside everyday – kids playing in the dirt and people just sitting around or walking.  The people are well-dressed and clean, even though they live in such meager conditions.  They are modest.  It’s very common to see mothers with their babies tied on their backs and carrying something on their heads – water, bananas, etc.  We were told that little girls as young as 18 months start training to carry things on their heads!  They have great posture!

We’ve had some interesting experiences this week.  I guess one of the main ones was a meeting we had yesterday with President McMullin and the three stake presidencies from the area.  One of the stake presidents works for the church and has his office in the mission office, so we kind of know him.  The purpose of the meeting was to introduce ourselves to them and get some ideas from them on projects that they think need to be done in their areas.  It was really helpful.  I think it was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had in that I was the only woman there, everyone was black except Dad, Pres. M., and I – and the room was kind of dark because the power was out. (Power is a huge issue and it goes out regularly - almost daily.  We have a battery and a generator, as does the mission complex – but some areas can be out for days and days at a time.)  Pres. M. was our interpreter – and I can’t imagine doing this without one!  Neither of us understood much of what was said – even Dad’s Pimsleur tapes were pretty worthless except for a word here and there.

Lubumbashi is a gold and copper mining town.  There is a huge mountain made of black slag, which is a by-product of the mines, that is about the only mountain around.

We had our first taste of “foo foo” at President McMullin’s house on Thursday night.  Sister McMullin had made it with the Mbeles in mind – but she also had regular food there, too.  Foo foo is made with the root of the casaba (?) plant – you can actually just buy the casaba flour at the store.  It looks like a big dumpling – about the size of your fist.  You break off little chunks and dip it into sauces.  In truth, I didn’t think it was too bad – mostly just blah – no real taste.  The Mbeles really chowed down on it!

And speaking of good food – we found M & M’s !!!  Real ones!  Spencer has always told us that Kit Kats are better outside the U.S.  Well, I would say that M&M’s are, too.  The chocolate is richer.  The cost is, too!!!  $1.49 for a regular-looking small package with less contents!  Bummer!  We’ve been rationing them!

President McMullin has us scheduled to go on an 11-day tour of the mission, starting on June 13^th.  I must say that I’m not super excited – we’ve heard too many stories about life in the “bush”.  The main city that is “rustic” is called Laputa and is where that big water project was done a few years ago.  You fly into some little town and then ride in a van for 4 hours to get there – and get this:  it’s only a 35-mile trip!!!  The “road” has never had improvements.  (Now, if it were Robert Redford behind the wheel like in “Out of Africa”, it might be tolerable!!  J ) We have to take our own sheets and food and will be there for FOUR DAYS while President has zone conference.  I’m trying to get geared up, but so far it hasn’t happened!!

Well, it’s Sunday – a family day – and we certainly are missing ours!!  Dad has been wonderful in every way – even quite domestic!  He even acts like he enjoys it!  Who knew?  J We love you all and so look forward to hearing from you!  Love and serve each other everyday!  Wish “Happy Birthday” to Jacey and Edie this week – and have a fun last week of school.  Congratulations on your graduation, Joshua!!!

                             Hugs and kisses,   Mom

May 25, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, May 25, 2014

I apologize for any repetition but the days are running together quickly.  We have had an eventful week and it’s hard to believe we’ve only been here since last Saturday.  Yesterday we met with the three stake presidencies in Lubumbashi and presented an overview of humanitarian services.  President McMullin arranged for the meeting.  He is really a person of action and is living on a short-term timeline because he goes home in a month.  He has arranged for an 11-day tour of the mission to allow us to visit with other priesthood leaders about potential humanitarian projects.  We leave on June 13th and return on June 24th.  We are going to visit Laputa, site of the church’s largest safe drinking water project.  You have to carry all of your own food into Laputa.  It is a road which is legendary in the difficulties in arriving without a couple of breakdowns or having to use one vehicle to tow the other out of mud holes and water problems.  It supposedly will make our current accommodations look like the Hyatt Regency.

In yesterday’s meeting we reviewed the previous projects to determine which ones were winners and losers.  We also had them volunteer to make appointments for us with the Ministry of Health and the Mayor for the first week in July when we return from our mission tour.  We also received an appointment to meet on Wednesday to visit the site of a bridge that needs to be upgraded or replaced.  Overall the meeting was positive and President McMullin served as the translator.

Today we attended church with the two senior sisters who work in the mission office: Sister Anthony and Sister Riendeau.  They are both from the Tri-Cities area in Washington.  President McMullin had served his youth mission in France and knew Sister Riendeau’s family.  Her sister is in charge of the language department at San Jose State University and is helping with any formal translation of President McMullin’s correspondence.  She also receives written conversion stories from the DRCongo missionaries and translates them into English to be stored in the Church archives.  

Our church meetings are a little long with 100% French and barely knowing how to say hello and goodbye.  We did come home from church and practice on some simple phrases such as: you gave a good lesson, good talk, your dress is pretty, you look good in that suit, your children are beautiful, thank you for making us feel welcome, etc.  We’ll probably be native speakers by the time we come home but for now we’re deaf and dumb when it comes to French.

We had dinner at President McMullin’s on Thursday evening and he showed slides of the mission. I asked him about the growth of the Church.  He said they baptize 250-300 new members each month and the Church isn’t prepared for the rapid growth in DR Congo.  They are trying to control the growth and support centers of strength.  They don’t send missionaries into the interior or the communities further away from population centers.  He said that the missionaries don’t really work that hard, the people are just ready for the gospel.  He said the missionaries don’t do any tracting and simple invite people to church.  Last week the missionaries showed up at church and there were 15-20 new people waiting to be taught.  President McMullin said the roots and the branches need to stay in balance, meaning that the leadership needs to develop deeper roots in order to support the addition of new members (branches).  He said that service is a foreign concept here and that the least bit of service is extraordinary and prompts people to ask why.  If your church promotes service, I want to know more about your church.  

We had dinner with the office staff this evening at President McMullin’s home.  They really take care of the mission presidents.  We had a pot luck dinner and President McMullin had arranged for us to give our humanitarian presentation to the office staff.  They were great and gave us some good feedback.  The Clawsons in particular have a real sense of what can and cannot be done her in DR Congo and how to go about it.  President gave them another assignment to take us to two outlying districts for two days next weekend in order to speak with the priesthood leadership there regarding potential humanitarian projects.  

We were contacted by Flavien Kot who served as the translator for the Bowers, the last humanitarian couple to serve here.  He is going to meet us tomorrow morning at the mission office.  He volunteered to take us to the most recent projects that were completed two years ago and check on their sustainability.  The big question is whether the projects can sustain themselves after the infusion of money.  Can they complete a major repair on their own and do they have any commitment to continuing maintenance?   In many case we recommend North American solutions for local problems and they don’t have the skills or materials to maintain the North American investment of equipment.  It is pretty amazing how quickly things seem to be coming together for us, even though we don’t have a clue of how to go about most of these projects.  We’re learning on the fly.

Everyone has agreed that the local bridge suggestion is a winner.  It is a modest way to get started and it was a project suggested by local priesthood leadership.  We will visit the bridge site on Wednesday with a couple of representatives from the stake presidencies meeting.  I am sure happy to have had experience in working with priesthood leadership.  I’ve had some great trainers but none better than President Ferry.  

Mom and I spent the weekend cleaning our apartment.  The floors were covered in dust but I discovered how they do their mopping here in the Congo.  Now I’m an expert and the cleaner smell is much preferred to the musty odor of dirt.  We feel much better now that we have a refrigerator that works and we’ve figured out how to use the water filtering system.  I’ve never drunk so much water in my life.  It is a beverage we can trust.  Probably don’t want to go into the food options, but suffice it to say that I wouldn’t survive without mom, she is amazing.  She made bread yesterday and peanut butter and jam never seemed like such a delicacy.  I may have to survive on bread and water.  My pants are fitting better already.  

May 21, 2014 - Clark

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Today was a great day to become more familiar with the members of the mission home.  We spent the morning with Elder and Sister Clawson teaching English to two zones of missionaries.  Sister Clawson is the medical officer and they have been serving missions for the last 10 years and they are probably younger than we are by 5 years.  Brother Clawson handles all the apartments and fixes everything.  He has such a pleasant demeanor and told us the best thing to learn in DR Congo is patience.  

We had a wonderful time with the missionaries.  The format of the time together was that each Elder introduced himself and then had to ask us a question all in English.  Shelley and I fielded the questions together and had the Clawsons to interpret if the Elders were new to the field and could only speak French.  They asked questions such as who, what, when, where, why and how about the two of us.  We were told not to wear our name badges so they would have to inquire.  

The best part was being asked to bear our testimonies to the Elders in English.  Following our meetings, we had several missionaries say, “I love you Elder Davis”.  It was so genuine and heartfelt that we felt part of the missionary effort.  

We have recognized that the office staff often works through lunch, so we will have to start packing a sandwich. The staff are composed of the following:

1. Justin who is the general office manager and on Sundays serves as one of the 3 stake presidents here
2. Emmuel who is the full time employee who works with Brother Clawson and negotiates all the leases on apartments
3. Sister Anthony who is in charge of all accounting functions for the mission
4. Sister Riendeau whose calling is women’s auxiliary support, but she is French and teaches both French to the sister missionaries and English to all missionaries
5. Elder and Sister Clawson as previously described.

We finally were able to get our technology working.  Vodafone is the local provider and we discovered that our i-phones will work as portable hot spots which allows us to have cellular internet access anywhere.  We can create a hot spot (basically a portable router) with our phone and then pair our computer or i-pad to the i-phone and have access.  We think we can do this for around $200 a month but we’re trying it out right now.  The mission office has unlimited internet when we are there with the old Pioneer47 access, so now we access from both our apartment and the office.

We also met with Justin about our visa issues.  In DR Congo, you can’t leave the country after your 6-month travel visa expires until you have been granted another visa that lasts for a year.  The problems they have been having are that you have to send your passport in with the year visa request and in the past the requests have taken 3-5 months.  This means that if we had projects in progress outside Lubumbashi, we couldn’t travel to the projects if air travel was required and it generally is.  Justin is trying to anticipate those delays and is working to streamline the process.  If Phillip has any connections in Kinshasa maybe he could do some checking for us.

Allow me to describe our living quarters.  Everyone with any assets lives in a gated secure compound with guards.  We live in a compound that has a main home and 4 other apartments.  The owner of the home vacated his home and lives in the servants quarters attached on the back of the home.  The home has been given to us for living quarters.  By local standards it is a mansion but since the owner was living here alone for the last 2 months while his wife is traveling, it was in pretty ill-repair.  The windows are all open louvered because the temperatures are moderate and generally air conditioning is not available.  The floors were covered in dust and the freezer didn’t work.  The power goes off almost every day and is used by the local mines, but is usually restored for a few hours in the evening.  We have both a generator and a battery backup and I’m not sure the reliability of any of it just yet.  We keep a flashlight handy at all times.  The worst part about the apartment is the lighting.  Almost every room is dingy due to lack of adequate lighting.  It had been suggested that we have our humanitarian office located in our home but we were afraid we would feel isolated without a car and almost imprisoned because of the lack of lighting.  We could hardly wait to visit with President McMullin upon his return from touring the mission.

We had our official welcoming and interview from President and Sister McMullin today.  He spent over an hour with us and we came away with considerable insight into the challenges in DRC.  Conclusions reached included:

1. He will arrange for a meeting with all 3 Stake Presidents in Lubumbashi
2. He welcomed our proposal to be housed in offices at the mission home and said he would make whatever accommodations were needed to assist us
3. He asked  us to make a list of improvements to be made to our living quarters because the church has a longer term lease on the property
4. Humanitarian has to work with Public Affairs and he will put us in  touch
5. He has scheduled to take us on a tour of many parts of the mission from June 13-24 and wants us to meet the District and stake leaders outside of Lubumbashi.
6. He asked us to prepare a presentation for all the church units we will visit.  I’m sure the Kinghorns  can help us with these preparations.  The problem is they must all be in French.  President McMullin wants us to be trainers in what Humanitarian does and encourage these leaders to develop local solutions for their challenges.  

I’ll write more tomorrow, but it was a good day.  The Clawsons sent us home with a cake and the President sent a late email inviting us to dinner on Thursday evening.  These are wonderful people who make the challenges of the DR Congo bearable.

May 20, 2014

Dad is with Elder Lee and Elder and Sister Kinghorn at the airport. We had to have our luggage wrapped in plastic to keep it safe. These two couples are in the area office and are our "bosses". They did the training at our conference.

The white couple in the middle is the Clawsons who have taken such good care of us in Lubumbashi. The couple on the right are our neighbors - the Mbeles. The rest are missionaries.

Here they are filling the font by filling garbage cans from the cistern because the water isn't working nor has it been for a week in the area.

This is the new baptismal font at the new stake center.

The children here are so beautiful!!!  It makes us think of our own beautiful grandchildren at home!

May 19, 2014 - Shelley

Dear Ones - Thank you so much for your letters and encouragement!  We miss you all so much!  I have only a short time to write.  Right now we're at the mission home but will be leaving to teach an English lesson (well, observing how to teach an English lesson) in a minute.  We have spent the whole day trying to get SIM cards for our phones so that they will work.  I'm not techno enough to understand this, but it is also hopeful that they will act as a hot spot for our computers so that we'll have cellular something-or-other at home.  All I want to do is to be able to Skype and write emails - so you can see how helpful I am!  haha

Nothing quite prepared us for what we have seen in Lubumbashi, but I'm sure that it isn't anything that our sons and sons-in-law haven't seen on their missions, too.  We are spoiled Americans!!!!  But we're hanging in there.  Hopefully, the lines of communication will be getting better.  Dad is wonderful and even bore his testimony at church yesterday!  Just a little FYI - they didn't ASK me - I wasn't wimping out.  :)

We love you all so much and are very proud of you!  Every single one of you is in our prayers every single night.  We know that you are all experiencing victories and challenges and we want to be apart of all of it.  We want you to be apart of ours as well.  Much love and kisses to all,  Mom

May 19, 2014 - Clark

We spent this morning teaching English to two zones of missionaries, I’ll write more about it. Love, Dad

May 18, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Every day is a new adventure.  We certainly know we have been completely indulged in our creature comforts but this experience is a rude awakening to the plight of much of the world’s population.  We sleep under mosquito nets to reduce the risk of malaria and take doxycycline every day to combat malaria.  Our water all has to be filtered before drinking, washing dishes or brushing your teeth.  All vegetable and fruits have to be washed in a chlorine solution before consumption.  The power is spotty and is on and off regularly. The refrigerator goes off when the electricity goes off and the freezer has never worked.  You have to keep backup water to flush the toilets and the filter in the event the electricity is off because the pump for water pressure doesn’t work. You have to keep a flashlight near buy to find the battery backup, if the battery backup works.  Those are just for starters on my first day but I’m sure the list will grow.

Church was again a highlight of our week.  We attended a new ward at a new meetinghouse about 15 minutes away.  The facility was built to Utah standards in the DRC and probably cost 10 times the local construction cost because everything was imported and they used materials the locals were not used to working with.  This is according to Kevin Clawson, the other senior couple.  He takes care of locating all missionary apartments and providing water and power to all the missionaries.  

None the less, the facilities were nice but a few things were unique:

1.   They have their baptismal fount outside though covered.  They had a baptism today and the water wasn’t working, so they hauled water in trash cans from the cistern nearby to fill the baptismal font.  Four people were baptized and we sang at least a dozen hymns before and after the baptism.  The font was barely deep enough to completely immerse the candidates, so the person performing the baptisms had to push them down to complete the job.  
2.   Another unique thing is the church is located immediately next to another local church where the atmosphere was more revival in nature.  The neighbor’s singing drowned out the instructions lesson presentation.  All classrooms are open louvered windows similar to Hawaii.  
3. The men are more faithful than the women.  Priesthood was first and we had a full room of priesthood but there were only 4 sisters to start Relief Society.
4. Their scriptures were extremely well worn.  They had turned to those pages many times.
5. Everyone had a cell phone regardless of poverty status, the cell phone unites people.
6. White and bright colors contrast well with black.
7. Young mothers were nursing openly during any meeting.

On the way to church, it looked to me like we could have had a humanitarian project on every street.  The people were bathing in their front yards with latrine-like drainage along the small frontage of their property.  Yet with backdrop, Sister Clawson said, “I see no humanitarian projects here, this is not the poor sector of town and these people have everything they need.”  They have chosen a simply lifestyle that is thousands of years older than our society and they are happy with their simple life.  Finding food and water every day is the first priority and then a place to sleep.  Many of them live outside and only use their hut or residence to escape.  

The lesson in Priesthood was “Leglise et le Roujaume de Dieu” (The Church and Kingdom of God)There were several young missionaries at the meetings, but a young 12-year old deacon was the one who sat next to me and fellowshipped me as a newcomer.  After sitting through a 3-hour block of meetings conducted in French and the French baptismal service, I was searching for “How can  my experience benefit the DR Congo?”  I’m  sure it is not going to be through mastery of the language and the young missionaries are doing such a fabulous job with prospects who are plentiful.  When they had the open house for the new chapel, there were 2,000 people who came and 500 referrals of people who wanted to know more about the Church.  Others have told me that you want to search your entire mission for your specific calling where you can have an impact.  The search begins.  The lesson was number 18 from Joseph F. Smith.  It has a quote from David O. McKay to Harold B. Lee that I just love and needed today:

“The trouble with you is you want to see the end from the beginning.  I replied that I would like to see at least a step or two ahead.  Then came to lesson of a lifetime ‘You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you’”  

Another thought from Ezra Taft Benson is worth recording.  He said that two principles are essential for security and peace: “First, trust in god; and second, a determination to keep the commandments, to serve the Lord, to do that which is right. … The Lord has made it very clear in the revelations that even though times become perilous, even though we be surrounded by temptation and sin, even though there be a feeling of insecurity, even though men’s hearts may fail them and anxiety fill their souls, if we only trust in God and keep his commandments we need have no fear”

I had to sit on the stand in sacrament meeting and bear my testimony.  They provided a translator and I used him.  My testimony included:

1. Your families are beautiful
2. You fellowship newcomers even the Aaronic priesthood, a deacon of 12 made me feel welcome
3. The reverence was commendable even with babies crying, of such is the kingdom of God
4. I told  them I wanted their help in learning their language so I could become part of them and no longer viewed as only a visitor.
5. I know I have much to learn from these people and am happy to be part of “hastening the Work of Salvation” here in DR Congo.
6. I then bore my testimony from the orange flash cards.

Mom didn’t have to share her talk yet but she is ready.

When the Clawson’s brought us home from Church we hadn’t had our filtering system working  yet and hadn’t eaten when it was already 3:00.  Mom dived in and cleaned the kitchen and got the filtration system going with Elder Clawson’s  help.  We were dropped off without wheels and no communication capabilities.  We decided to go for a long walk around the neighborhood and upon returning we sat on the patio outside our flat.  An older gentleman came to visit the guard.  We found out his name was Nicholi and the guard’s name was Peppy.  We talked for 45 minutes on the patio.  He came to charge his new phone and while it was charging he worked on   his English.  We had quite a nice visit while he charged his phone outside.  We asked about his family and shared with him pictures of our family photos.  He left after charging and we provide some fruit to the guard before having dinner.

We’re definitely a few steps into the dark but we’re relying on the promise that, ‘the light will appear to show us the way.’