Thursday, June 19, 2014
We’re back to Mbuji-Mayi after traveling to Mwene Ditu and Luputa. We wouldn’t have felt it was civilization just last Friday when we landed but today it looks almost like home. Our experiences have taught us a greater appreciation for the differences in the progression of peoples in their development. It is readily apparent in these 3 cities.
I just want to recount the different impressions we had from our travels:
Friday night we arrived and traveled to Mwene Ditu from Mbuji-Mayi. Nothing is simple at the airport. Nothing is automated and everyone is looking to collect additional fees for so-called legal infractions that are most often fabricated. The church usually uses local handlers to assist with both arrivals and departure including the presentation of all required documents (passports, health cards, drivers licenses, tickets, boarding passes and on and on) and tracking of your baggage.
For our travels we used a Toyota Land Cruiser that was equipped for the back country. Our driver’s name was Code de Frois, who is from Mbuji-Mayi. He has been marvelous. He knows all the roads and the people. We had him buy fruit and water from the local sources. Whites attract a crowd regardless of where they travel and also attract inflated prices for everything. The vehicle is equipped with two seats in front and side benches for about 10 people in back. We had to take a second pickup to carry all of our luggage. The roads are bumpy and hard on your back as we drove for about 3 hours in the bouncy back of the Cruiser with no potty breaks.
Mwene Ditu will best be remembered for the Turkish Prison where we stayed for the first night and then again for two nights after our 3-day stay in Luputa. The rooms would remind you of a prison, in fact they have one right next door. There were cockroaches, mice, and lizards on our all-concrete pad (floor). The generator was deafening but welcome because it brought power both morning and night. The beds were on wood slats with a lattice. The mattress was a thinly referenced foam pad and any time you turned you had to make sure your hip was between the lattice framework.
I couldn’t sleep the first night and very little the other two nights we stayed there. Those who know me realize that is really something when I can’t sleep. The temperature was 20 degrees hotter in the room than outside in the plastic patio chair. I spent as much time outside as possible. The first night, the guard who wanted to secure the front door of the prison block (hotel) had to shew me into the cell block after 2:00 in the morning.
The living conditions were primitive with bucket showers, open latrines and sewer smell permeating every breath. Things we did to forget included watching episodes of Amazing Race and Castle on mom’s computer. We watched world-cup soccer outside on their TV powered by the generator, played Phase 10 with all the children and visited in the thatch-covered outside bowery.
The family who owns this facility are members of the church and President McMullin has supported them even though there is some personal inconvenience; we were completely supportive of that commitment. John Pierre and Aimee are the couple who operate the “prison”. Their children were mostly delightful; polishing shoes, cleaning luggage, assisting with laundry, serving us dinner and breakfast, shopping for fruit and in general watching out for us. We went for a walk one day with Pirole, their 14-year old son as our guide. The crowd of curiosity seekers grew and grew until he felt it was unsafe and instructed us to return. He warned us not to show people the pictures we had taken for fear they would steal our cameras. People on the street started demanding money from us and became more and more obnoxious. You need to realize I was the only man with mom and two 70+ senior sisters.
Mwene Ditu had the most alarming feel to it over the other two locations but we were able to participate in a zone conference and feel of the strength of the missionaries there (8) and especially the strength of spirit of the McMullins. They are wonderfully committed people and such a great example to these young missionaries. Zone conference lasted from 9:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon. The two AP’s also assisted but we sat on rock-hard chairs for almost 7 hours straight and loved it. The missionaries all participated in the training.
Another Mwene Ditu experience was to attend the Priesthood leadership meeting with the district president and the 4 branch presidents. None of them had ever met a humanitarian missionary before in person. President McMullin translated for me and I explained the humanitarian program to them and asked for their input regarding possible projects. Immediately following the meeting one of the branch presidents handed me a proposal from the Relief Society that they have been working on for the past few years. It involves a gardening project and looked like they had spent considerable time developing it and it had priesthood council input and approval.
On the other hand, we had several proposals that appeared to be only money grabs:
A district clerk presented a formal proposal to buy sewing machines for single mothers to teach them a marketable skill. The problem was he was the director of this NGO and would retain ownership of the 20 machines after the initial project.
Aimee back at the compound wanted to start a fish project. She wanted us to supply fish eggs for growing fish that would be sold and proceeds used to help the poor. She also wanted us to provide all the feed for growing the fish but there was no plan to become self-reliant in the future, just give us the money and by the way, we need it today. When I told her even the simplest proposal would take at least 60 days, we were immediately the enemy.
Her husband, John Pierre also had a proposal, but he became pre-occupied with the world cup soccer game and said he would send it to us.
We also had a member of another branch presidency approach us with a laundry list of 5 different projects that were all money-makers including opening a pharmacy.
We were amazed that for spending only 2 consecutive days there the word spread like wildfire that we were looking for humanitarian projects. Shelley and I aren’t all that anxious to return, so we weren’t looking as hard as they were. The Mbelle’s are located here and could help us with any future coordination.
We really do need the power of discernment to determine which projects are viable and sustainable and it is remarkable that with no language skills, you have a feeling that reveals those things to you.
Despite all the personal inconveniences and bumps and bruises, we have been sustained, supported and felt the spirit in our calling. I want to share my feelings on several instances where this has occurred, but first I want to give credit to President McMullin for making this all possible.
He scheduled this trip to introduce us to the priesthood leadership and help us realize humanitarian efforts need to be coordinated through priesthood leadership.
His action brought the ADIR engineer, Biduaya Jules, to Luputa. He knew the project from it’s inception and without him, our trip would have been ill-conceived and ill-directed
He invited Sister Riendeau, a native French sister on the trip and she has been invaluable in translating and spreading goodwill.
Working through the Luputa Stake President, he made arrangements to visit with the Governor’s representative, who is the highest elected official in Luputa.
He invited me to priesthood leadership in Mwene Ditu and allowed me to present humanitarian principles to their district leaders who had never before worked with humanitarian.
He coordinated with Emmanuel and Serge in Mbuji-Mayi to invited 3 well drillers to Tshitenge to review the site and propose development of water.
With those same well drillers, he arranged for them to show their successful projects already completed in the Mbuji-Mayi area. Tshitenge is located close to Mbuji-Mayi, an area of over 500,000. They will also present their quotes for services on Saturday morning.
President McMullin is a doer and has been a wonderful example of enduring to the end. He goes home in less than two weeks and is spending his final weeks under the previously conditions described. I am so glad we came 6 weeks early to learn from him and his wife Joy.
I need to record that we have been blessed beyond our personal abilities. I know that we have been led by the spirit as Nephi, not knowing beforehand the things that we should do. I especially felt this is Luputa in meeting with the water committee. They had 5 committee members, their director and 4 members of their water assembly in attendance and the engineer, Biduaya Jules. I had no history of the project other than reading the reports. We had no chalk board, no audit or operating reports, no power point, just one on one conversation. We conducted a 3-hour meeting, reviewing the parable of the talents and talking about what needed to be done to preserve the water system.
The water committee is corrupt, has mismanaged funds and has no reserves. They needed to be called on the carpet and notified the church had transferred ownership to them and they would be held accountable to the people. We definitely felt blessed to have facilitated that discussion and developed a plan without alienating them entirely.
Shelley has been wonderful in keeping minutes, prompting me and recording actions to be taken in her reporting. She has really found herself and her purpose in documenting our contacts, our impressions and our recommendations.
We look forward to our meetings on the Tshitenge proposal. I’ll describe the history of this remarkable village in my next installment.
