September 28, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Let me share a couple of personal interest stories with you.  I’m beginning to realize that it’s not the work you do with organizations but the opportunity to affect individual lives that is important in our humanitarian service.  I have been concerned that most of our DRC budget has evaporated with bureaucratic red tape compliance.  Well let me share some positive experiences with you.

1. We have attended 9 orphanages, some multiple times, in Lubumbashi.  We have been trying to develop a project proposal for 3-4 of them.  At one of the orphanages we attended, we met a young lady by the name of Rose.  She had raised herself by her own bootstraps and was just completing her university studies.  Flavien, our translator who owns a print shop, recognized she needed help in printing her thesis for graduation.  She needed 6 copies of it.  Flavien gave her his contact information and told her to contact him.  She did this past week; he told her he would prepare it at no cost, but she offered him 10,000 Fc, about $10 dollars, a large sum for an orphan.  He was so impressed with her that he prepared 10 copies, provided her transport in his car and spoke with his family about adopting her into their family.  Flavien’s parents have 13 children.  Our limited thinking for help for her orphanage was to buy beds and mattresses.  You can see how advanced Flavien already is as a humanitarian missionary.
2. We’re starting a construction project to build a pedestrian bridge near one of the local chapels.  It will join two neighborhoods and allow school children to cross the Katuba River safely on their way to school.  Each construction project requires a site monitor to track the construction progress, take pictures, and keep a log.  We have been impressed with a young returned missionary we have met by the name of Steve Mutombo.  He is 24, engaged to be married and a counselor in a local bishopric.  We contacted Steve to serve as the site monitor.  You need to understand these are not glamorous positions and only pay $2-3 per hour and they only require maybe 10 hours per week.  He was so grateful because this will allow him to proceed with his marriage plans.  I told him that small things often lead to larger opportunities.  I told him exposure at the mission home will help with future potential employment opportunities.  Today at church President Thomas talked to Steve about another employment opportunity with the Mikesells that may develop this week.  The bridge project may have less to do with the neighborhood and more to do with Steve.  He’s the type of young man that could be a future stake president someday.  

We received some exciting and some depressing news in the same announcement this week.  Elder Brent and Sister Celeste Atkinson are going home two months earlier than expected.  Elder Atkinson has been part of a construction program where they train about 10 returned missionaries at a time in the construction trades while they are assisting in the construction of local chapels and stake centers.  His construction program was cut short due to building construction being put on hold or being cancelled.  The mission has used his skills in repairing everything in sight and he has assisted with the missionary apartments.  He and I participated in a potential project to repair water wells and they have lived in our compound.  The area presidency decided since his program had been cancelled, they would allow him to return home two months earlier than planned.  They are both excited and the rest of us are losing close friends and part of our support network.  We’re excited for them but will miss them tremendously.  Brent keeps our apartment infrastructure in good repair, fixes all of our unreliable appliances and takes me on stress-relieving walks in the evenings.  He also speaks very good French and we will be lost in meetings without him.  Mom and Celeste have also become good friends.  Celeste grew up in Brigham City and her father still lives there.  Mom has been working on a knitting project that she had planned on sending home with Celeste, but now it has an earlier deadline.  Every evening she is busy with the needles.

This week we spent most of the time with the Mikesells.  They do not have a car and no translator.  We let them use both; we became their drivers and Flavien became their translator for the week.  We visited local hospitals to determine what services they provide and what equipment they have.  We were introduced to Dr. Saban, who is the supervisor of all hospitals in Lubumbashi.  He introduced us to the vice mayor and his staff at the city office buildings.  He accompanied us to visit several hospitals and clinics.  It was a discouraging time for Flavien.  His complaint was that these nicer hospitals, CMC and Foundation, are not available to the locals because their costs are so high.  Obviously they were the hospitals with equipment and more complete service offerings.  

We noticed at some of the poorer hospitals, they had received second-hand equipment from well-intended donors but no one knew how to operate or repair the equipment.  It just sat there in the operating room with a blue covering gathering dust.  One operating room had lost the light over the operating table and had only natural light to perform surgeries.  I’ll try to send some pictures.  

Flavien has served notice, he is going on no more visits with the Mikesells and he wants to return to humanitarian services which he feels are much more worthy of his time.  We’ll take care of that this next week.  John and Marcia Dow from San Diego are coming.  They have spent the past week in Kinshasa and Brazzaville.   They travel the world visiting 3rd world countries as the church specialists in wheelchairs.  We will host them from Monday through Friday.  Monday and Friday are travel days and we will probably accomplish precious little, but we have the other three days packed with appointments.  The Ministry of Social Affairs has appointed Tabu, a person who is handicapped and requires crutches, to arrange for all our visits to handicapped centers.  He will also be responsible for all reporting of wheelchair placements.  We look forward to the week and hope to be successful in receiving approval for a wheelchair project here in Lubumbashi.  Prospects look promising.  Wish us luck.

The weather here has become warmer.  It’s just opposite of what you would anticipate because we are in the southern hemisphere.  We have been told that the warmest months of the year are September and October.  It ranges between 70-95 degrees in Lubumbashi and has been much more uncomfortable.  The heat isn’t extremely humid and so it is bearable, just uncomfortable from what we have previously experienced.  The composition of the mission has changed dramatically this past few months with the departure of President and Sister McMullin, then the Clawsons, now the Atkinsons and we just heard that Sister Riendeau is going home in less than two months.  Her sister has bone cancer.  I suspect she is also disappointed that President Thomas cancelled her French language lessons to the Sister Missionaries.  We’ve had the arrival of the Drapers and the Mikesells and we’re feeling extremely unprepared to be the senior tenured couple.  Elder Ngandu was sent to Ngandijika to finish his mission and Elder Lono has replaced him as an AP to President Thomas.  These are wonderful young missionaries with testimonies and scripture knowledge to match the best of them.   

Mom and I have recommitted to studying French because many of our crutches are leaving or have already left.  Sister Clawson sold us her Fluenz language program and we are trying to study daily (week daily) we are understanding more and yet still feel like first graders.  We have had better connectivity this past few weeks and look forward to our facetime visits.  We appreciate you trying to stay in touch as it lifts our spirits and gives us the encouragement to persevere.  Mom and I are doing well together but we needs some alone time occasionally.  The work can be frustrating but we do see changes in the lives of people, including ourselves.  For those of you familiar with Zions Camp, we feel this is often a similar experience.  The Lord is proving us to see if we will be faithful and we hope to measure up.   We’re surrounded by wonderful examples in the lives of other senior couples as well as local members and missionaries.  We’ve been reading in Heleman, chapters 13-15 on Samuel the Lamanite.  One good lesson we’re learning is not to covet our own property.  President Thomas discovered in the Swahili language there is no word for ownership.  The word translates into stewardship rather than to own.  Rennie Bott, my long-time friend and business partner shared a Boy Scout slogan with me written on a coin, “Leave a Legacy”.  We hope through our missionary service we are leaving a legacy of faith and stewardship for our children and grandchildren.  We love you,

Dad (Elder Davis)