August 31, 2014 - Shelley

August 31, 2014

Another month is ending, and I would have to honestly say that this has been the fastest month yet since we’ve been here.  Just as your weather is starting to cool off, ours has started to get warmer.  Nothing terrible – but noticeably hotter than it has been.  We haven’t had even one drop of rain and things are VERY dusty, so we’re looking forward to the rainy season.  I’m not sure when it starts – hopefully soon.  Haha

Today (Sunday) is a bittersweet day for us.  We knew that these days would happen in our absence, but still it’s hard not to be home for our grandson, Joshua Chamberlain’s missionary “farewell”.  He will be leaving for the McAllen Texas Spanish speaking mission in ten days or so.  We’re so proud of him and know that he’ll be wonderful.  It’s fun to think that we are both out in the Lord’s service at the same time.

We have had a new senior missionary couple come this week.  They are Elder and Sister Draper from Calgary, Canada.  They are friends of our mission president, so he “recruited” them to come.  If you are ever feeling whiney about the inconvenience of a trip you are taking by air, you can think of them.  Because of missed connections and crazy airline schedules, they spent 64 hours getting from Salt Lake City to Lubumbashi!!!  Now that’s an inconven-ience!!!  They seem very nice!

One thing I’m excited about is that it appears to be papaya season.  Maybe if I close my eyes, I can just pretend that they are peaches and we are going to Peach Days!

This came from one of the many papaya trees in our yard.

I keep getting questions about if we are safe or not.  Below is a picture of the barbed wire that runs around the ten-foot fence surrounding our compound.

Saddly, our biggest safety concern is actually being stopped by the police who constantly try to extort money from drivers.  We were stopped for the first time this week and managed to escape by only paying enough for the policeman to buy a soda!  Lucky!

Clark has spent the week working on a project to restore broken pumps out in the villages near town.  It’s wonderful to see the reaction of the people who are now able to get water for the first time in years without walking for miles to the river with bidons and buckets.

As always, there are darling children.  It is very common to see young girls carrying younger siblings around on their backs.

Generally speaking, women are strong and work hard.  I so admire how they labor to care for their families in a way that seems to me to be much like people in the pioneer era.  Their necks and backs are strong.  However, Justan Kabala, who is the office manager of the mission home and is serving as a Stake President, said that only 30% of the women in his stake can read and write.  It’s hard to imagine, but hopefully, progress can be made to correct this.

We love you and know that the Lord loves you.  We are all very blessed!!!  Take care of each other and have a wonderful week!  

Much love,    Mom/Sister Davis