August 31, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Week 19.  Every day feels like ground hog day in that the weather is quite constant and the routine is similar but the contacts and people we are meeting daily changes and adds to our experiences.  This past week we spent a great deal of time trying to organize the projects that have already been approved.  We purchased painting supplies for Bukanda School.  This is a small village school and we requested that they spray for termites and paint all of the classrooms before we deliver new school desks for six classrooms.  This is their sweat equity buy-in and we plan on attending their workday tomorrow with the senior sisters to take pictures and assist.  The trick is they want you to take over their project but we need to let them take the lead.

We also spent a significant amount of time trying to line up the money for the market fire rebuilding project.  This is an emergency response program and we need the money now but the system is cumbersome.  We received 5 different sets of instructions trying to streamline the process of forwarding the cash and making it available before we settled on a satisfactory solution.  In the Congo, cash is king, no credit cards, not checks and most of their businesses are small and they don’t understand and or don’t trust electronic payments.  The final solution was to electronically transfer the full funding request to the mission bank account and allow us to draw on it immediately.  South Africa is listening.

Much of the week was spent in preparing for the arrival of the Drapers, a senior couple from Calgary, Canada.  We cleaned their apartment, shopped for basic grocery supplies and readied their apartment for arrival on Friday.  Unfortunately their flight from London was delayed and they missed their connecting flight in Johannesburg to Lubumbashi.  Instead they had to fly to Nairobi and experience another layover and then fly to Lubumbashi a day later.  They arrived 65 hours after leaving Salt Lake City.  Their story will require more than a single journal entry but they were in good spirits and very friendly.  This is their second mission; they served as MLS missionaries in Florida and were home for two years before being drafted by President Thomas after he was called to DRC.  We’re happy to have them and look forward to establishing a rich and enduring friendship.  P.S. Draper’s luggage hasn’t arrived yet!

We have been amazed at how many of these senior have served multiple missions.  The Wrights, the Clawsons, the Atkinsons, Sister Riendeau and now the Drapers.  I’m hoping for a single honorable release but I am in awe of the dedication of so many faithful seniors.   Once you’re here you can see the dire need for additional senior couples.  They allow the mission president to focus on missionary work when he is assisted with all the temporal planning and logistics.  We had a fun activity last night at the Mission President’s home where all the senior couples and the two full-time Congolese employees and their wives had a Mexican potluck dinner.  Elder Ellis of the Seventy was visiting and each couple shared the story of how they met and had to remember the first thing they bought together.  Most of the sisters took the lead and it was enjoyable and humorous.  We would have taken pictures to send but the power went out for the night in the middle of dinner!  Candlelight dinner was fun!

Along with Elder Atkinson, we organized another pump refurbishment trip on Wednesday and Friday.  We hired a local returned missionary, Steve, who is 24 years old and engaged, to be our trainee in pump repair.  We worked through the Ministry of Health in identifying high priority wells for refurbishment.  We pulled the piping and analyzed the malfunction problems on Wednesday, purchased replacement parts on Thursday and repaired four wells on Friday.  Elder Atkinson is the brains behind this effort and coordinated all the activities.  We hired two local village technicians to assist.  I’ll send you a copy of the report summarizing this week’s pump work.  I presented it to Elder Ellis from the Area Presidency during our interview.  It sounds like a no-brainer but water project approvals are very difficult to come by.  

French continues to be a challenge.  I’m understanding more but whenever they don’t want you to know what’s going on, they switch to Swahili.  I can’t speak much French but our translator is great and I feel like we are able to connect in meetings with government and organizational officials.  I hope to begin speaking more with the members and the locals.  

We do have some good news about the wheelchair project.  Elder Dow is the worldwide specialist and is coming to Lubumbashi the end of September to assist us in organizing a wheelchair project for the 2014 year.  This has been a long time coming and there have been many tender mercies to bring it about.  We can definitely see the Lord’s hand in our work.  You can’t explain the timing, the contacts and the “chance” meetings any other way.  We continue to try to find the projects the Lord would have us pay attention to.  It is amazing how some of them develop and how others just fade away.  We appreciate your prayers in our behalf.  We want to follow President Hinckley’s example of being optimistic and hopeful at all times.  We’re happy in our work and happy together.  

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Pump Restoration Project

Our objective was to gather test data to determine if refurbishing wells from existing boreholes could be an effective way to teach principles of self-reliance and provide water to small villages.  Before we could develop the training model and submit a PDW, we needed to know more about the anticipated costs of refurbishing wells.  Elder Brent Atkinson and I have repaired five wells in the past two weeks and wish to make some conclusions.  Most repairs were replacing leaking sections of pipe and gaskets.  One well was a simple repair requiring replacement of the pump handle and has been excluded from the average cost results.

Lubumbashi, Katanga, DRCongo
Humanitarian
Pump Refurbishing Project
Date	Description		Tools	Labor	Material
Aug 15	Pump Lubumbashi (2 PVC Pipes)				160
	Rod and gasket o-ring				100
Aug 15	Emmanuel-Urashi sector			85
Aug 16	Tools for pulling up pump & delivery pipe		590
Aug 26	Coupling grease				8
Aug 27	Steve , transport technician			40
Aug 28	Pipes, seals and rod repair				720
Aug 29	3 technicians, Steve, transport			120
	Totals		590	245	988	1823
	Wells					4
	Cost per well					455.75
	Cost per well without tools					308.25

Summary of Findings and Observations:

1. The Ministry of Health has already developed a small village water program that provides for:
1. Water committee creation, training and monthly meetings
2. Modest fees are established for pump repair in the committee training
3. Technicians are trained in local well repair
4. Local villages maintain a well history, depth, dates, production
5. Water committee establishes well schedule and sets security policy

2. Elder Brent Atkinson has the technical skills to train others in well restoration and has done so in this project.  His mission release date is December 7, 2014.  President Brent Thomas is supportive of using Elder Atkinson’s skills in this training program.
3. Local technicians have previously been trained and are available at a modest fee to assist in well restoration.
4. No financial participation has been required by village residents for the first 4 wells as we were developing a baseline with the assistance of the Ministry of Health officials who helped identify the wells we have worked on.
5. Refurbishing wells provides the same benefit as a new borehole and at a fraction of the price.  We have been told that new boreholes in our area cost between $15,000-17,000, whereas our average refurbishment cost was approximately $300 per well.

Proposal points:

1. Village requirements:
1. Functioning water committee who has been trained by MOH under LDS model
2. Establish methodology for collection of funds for future maintenance
2. Village required to deposit $150 in bank account as seed money for maintenance fund for future repairs (this is 50% of the average repair cost; Humanitarian will cover any cost in excess)  This is a much more affordable option for the villages over providing 10% for a new borehole estimated to be 10% times $15,000=$1,500.
3. Humanitarian will decide on the materials and the scope of the repair.  We will start small with a request for $25,000 which we believe will be enough money to refurbish an estimated 50 existing boreholes.  The scope of the project will be limited to 4 health zones on the Kasenga Road which is just outside Lubumbashi.
4. We will partner with the MOH small village water program in establishing a model program that can eventually be considered for more health zones.  There are 62 health zones in Katanga Province.   We already have a good working relationship with the program director and some of her assistants.