June 12, 2014 - Clark

Thursday, June 12, 2014

This has been an interesting week with President and Sister McMullin hosting several social events.  Sunday night they had all their returned missionaries who live in Lubumbashi over for dinner.  We ate out with Clawsons on Monday night at a restaurant that had sandwiches which all resembled each other but they substituted the meat or filling.  The fries were the best part of the meal.  Tuesday the McMullins hosted all the missionaries who are completing their missions and going home.  The office staff and families were also invited.  Wednesday they hosted another dinner for 12 newly arriving missionaries and again today for lunch they hosted the new missionaries before they depart for their assigned fields of labor.  Joy McMullin doesn’t love cooking but she has done a fabulous job of cooking for 40-50 people every time we gather.  

These missionaries eat like it’s their last meal and the sisters can out eat the elders.  They pile their plates high and return often.  Sister McMullin was excited today because this was her last large meal that she has to prepare before they complete their 2-year mission.  I have probably mentioned this before but DR Congo is considered a hardship mission and the mission president only serves for 2 years.  We are looking forward to traveling with the McMullins on their last road trip.  They will be conducting zone conferences with the missionaries and we will be visiting past and future potential humanitarian projects.  Mom is a little nervous about the camping conditions for the next 11 days.  We are required to take all of our own food, own bedding, etc.  The living conditions are much different the further away one is from the large population areas.  We’ll try to document the difference in living conditions.  President and Sister McMullin tell our home here will look like a palace when we return.  

This past week we have had several interesting field trips and interviews:

• We have been attempting to get 3 bids for the latrine and septic tank program at Mapendano School; the one with 2600 students and only 4 operating toilets.  The original proposal included everything but the septic tank enlargement.  I’m glad I had some experience in reading a bid sheet, but the director had only looked at the bottom  line and was ready to sign up.
• We met with President Tshibanda who is spearheading the efforts to replace a pedestrian bridge made from an old truck frame.  He is in the process of obtaining drawings, cost estimates and community participation
• We met with Bertin, a representative of UNICEF who is working on school sanitation projects.  The Belgian government gave them $1 million to be used over the next 3 years.  They have worked with the Ministry of Education in identifying the neediest schools.  They have selected 9 schools each year and we are considering partnering with them.  We visited one school that housed 1,200 elementary students and 500 secondary students.  They have no clean water on the school grounds and only 8 operating toilets.
• We met with the Director of World Vision in Lubumbashi, Florence Mumba, who practiced her English on us but I’m not sure she understood as much as she pretended to.  They have an annual budget of $15 million in the Katanga Province.  We had to write a letter to their international committee pleading with them to be allowed to partner with them on any humanitarian projects.  

We have been so fortunate to have established a relationship with Flavien Kot, our translator.  He worked with the previous humanitarian couple by the name of Bowers.  They were only here for 11 months before they were transferred to Zambia.  They never had a car and could hire a translator full-time.  Now we cannot hire anyone for more than 20 hours a week for fear of creating a liability for the church where they would have to pay benefits.  

Flavien knew all the previous projects and took us back to review their sustainability.  He knew all the contact information for governmental officials.  He even served as a site monitor to track the progress of the contractor on the Sendwe Hospital water project.  Without Flavien, our time and efforts would have been futile for the last 4 weeks here in Lubumbashi.

They sent us here without purse or script.  Literally, we have had no media materials in French, not even a business card.  The approval process for purchasing and procuring anything is so cumbersome.  If we hadn’t brought a cash reserve, we would have been completely handcuffed.  They approved a $1,500 working fund to take care of incidentials, but it has never showed up.  We were promised a car but it is still in the approval process through Salt Lake.  Luckily we have had the mission home to supply us an office and office supplies.  It took us 3 weeks to get our first installment of post-it notes and a stapler and paper clips.  We have actually had very few setbacks due to these inconveniences, but the bureaucracy could kill you if you let it get to you.  

We have felt much appreciated by the Mission President who has given us good counsel to work through the priesthood leadership.  We have been blessed to have a translator who is professional, industrious and resourceful.  The people we have met with are very accepting even without printed materials and we recognize there are so many needs that will never be able to be satisfied.