November 30, 2014 - Shelley

November 30, 2014

I must begin by thanking everyone for sharing your Thanksgiving pictures and calls with us!  It was such a boost!  

We also celebrated the holiday.  We had a dinner at the mission home on Friday evening and then ate the left-overs together on Saturday evening.  The hero of the day was this lowly

squash!  With the proper seasonings, it can actually taste like pumpkin in a pie!  AND with enough butter and brown sugar (and keeping your eyes closed) you might think you were eating sweet potatoes!  We had a lot of fun together and shared memories and thoughts of home.  It was wonderful!  I do have to give proper recognition to Lynn Muhlestein.  He’s the father-in-law of our daughter Lindsay.  With his fabulous recipe and a little creativity, we were able to enjoy rolls with our dinner.  The creativity part came when I had to use

a new toothbrush to baste the rolls – but it worked!

When our interpreter, Steve, was little, he used to help his mother sell clothing in a local market.  She would buy a “bundle” of clothes and then sell them as individual pieces.  I asked him where the bundles came from and he answered in one of my favorite “Steve-isms”.  He said, “I’m sure they came from the army of salvation.”  He was perfectly serious!  So I hope that the Salvation Army feels properly credited with that.

So we decided that buying a bundle of clothes might be a good idea to give the girls in Katimel orphanage when we go there with our Christmas project.

After Thanksgiving dinner, we opened the bundle.  Above shows (left to right) Sister Anthony, me, Sister Draper, and Sister Mikesell.  And below show us, with

the addition of Sister Thomas, sorting out the clothes in the bundle.  We paid $100 and got 271 pieces of children’s clothing!  All of it was clean and in good repair.  This particular bundle came from Germany, but you can buy them from lots of other countries.

Above shows the clothing market that we pass on our way to church.  Clothing is laid out on the ground on a tarp and people look through it to find what they want.  It’s quite a sight, but we see some very attractive outfits on people, especially on children.  Keep giving to the D.I.!!!!!

As if Thanksgiving wasn’t enough excitement for the week, we were notified that Clean Latrine Day had been extended into the surrounding villages.  Our friend from the Ministry of Health, Immaculee, invited us to be a part of the inspection team in Pita Village.  Some day in the future when I’m just at home cleaning the bathrooms, I want to remember back on this occasion – and I will be ever grateful.  Grateful to have had this experience, but especially grateful that I have a flushy toilet to clean!  Not everyone can say that!

The committee was looking for six qualities in a latrine.  (1) Free from obvious dirt. (2) No insects.  (3) No smell.  (4) Only used by one family.  (5) Cement floor around the “dahl” – I’m not sure about the spelling or the actual word, but it means the hole covering, I think. (6) Some means of hand washing attached.  The latrine below had it all,

even a “door”.  Campers and scouters should recognize the bottle with ball point pen poking out of it, which is used for hand washing.  If you look carefully, you can see a little pan on the right side.  It contains cinders, which are used for soap.

We went along with the committee and toured through the community while they judged 32 latrines.  The winners were chosen and were awarded with bars of soap and a poster.  In the ceremony at the end, the school children marched over from the local school and sang a couple of songs about the virtues of being clean and how great it is to live in Pita Village.

Here is Clark with the village Chief.  We have been in this village before to meet the chief because he is such a role model for the other villages.  He collects money from people who use the village pump so that he has an emergency fund for repairs to the well.  This is such a difficult concept to teach.  Some other villages collect money for usage, but usually the funds never make it any farther than the person who collects it.  There are no local banks, and it’s a challenge to teach the concept of honesty and trust.  When the wells don’t work, people just go back to carrying water from the nearest source, even though it may be a long distance away.

Sitting in front of me are Suzanne, on

the left, who is a local pharmacist, and Immaculee.

I wanted to include this super-duper arrangement that had a latrine on the left and a shower on the right.  Can it get any better than that?!

We all have much to be thankful for!  My wonderful companion and I hope that your eyes are open to the blessings you enjoy – even if it’s toilets that flush!  And hopefully this is the last of latrine talk that you’ll hear from me for awhile!  Have a fabulous week!

Much love,  Mom/Soeur Davis

November 30, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, November 30, 2014

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is December.  One of the highlights of the week was receiving a new air conditioning unit in our bedroom.  I’ve told you before that my pillow is often wet and not with tears.  The temperatures have dropped because of the rains and clouds.  It is still in the low 90’s high 80’s most of the time but the nighttime temperatures are now below 70 degrees.  The new air conditioning unit gives us better nighttime recovery.  We are truly spoiled especially when the mission home manager, Justin Mukuna, came over to supervise the installation.  He has neither running water nor electricity at his home.  

We’re going to Ruashi to attend church today.  We continue to attempt to visit several wards and branches to get a better feel for the breadth and strength of the church membership here in Lubumbashi.  Ruashi is where Emmanuel lives.  He is over apartments and repairs in the mission home.  His wife and two daughter just returned from attending the Johannesburg Temple.  The financial participation required by the members is to raise enough money for their passport, all other costs are paid by the church.  Emmanuel and his wife have wanted to attend the temple since their marriage but this is the first time they have been able to jump through all the hoops.  It’s a good thing because they are expecting their third child next March which may have delayed their chances at least an additional year.  When he returned he had hundreds of pictures he shared with us.  They were so happy. Emmanuel’s favorite expression is ”powerful” and this definitely was a “powerful experience”.

We have had another memorable week although all of the days are running together.  We spent much of our time trying to finalize our three outstanding projects in preparation for Phillip Moatlhodi’s visit.  He is the Area Welfare Manager over all of Southeast Africa, over 20 countries.  Here is my progress report by project:

1. Mapendano School Latrines-the contractor has been wonderful and has consistently gone the extra mile in doing things not on the plans.  He painted the door and entry way to the latrines.  He installed interior lighting and altered the teachers’ facilities to provide more privacy.  He is nearly complete and we will have the hand-over exercises Thursday.  We ordered a special copper plaque for the entry way.  We contacted a street vendor and negotiated our own deal; not sure if it was good, but the sign is about 1 meter square for $200.  
2. Katuba bridge-finished and painted to project despite the rains.  We’re concerned about keeping all the community leaders happy because it spans a river that is the dividing line for two neighborhoods and two communes.  Too many chiefs to please.  We had to loan money to the contractor to start this project before the rainy season because the church financial processing system can take 30   days or more.  These contractors don’t have working capital to order materials.  The neighbors recognize us now and we are treated very well whenever we visit the bridge.  Colors are red and white.
3. Notre Dame School for girls-Therese Ndaya is our local version of Oprah.  She runs a school for 350 girls and teaches homemaking skills.  She received 10 sewing machines two years ago and has developed a complete sewing program around that meager start.  We have assisted her in developing a cooking lab with kitchen equipment.  They will have over 400 participants at their celebration on Saturday.

For all of these project closings, the local tradition is to have a celebration where the ownership is symbolically turned over to the beneficiary organization.  We have only had one where we provided sodas and cookies.  That is the cheapest option.  We ordered 800 bottles of soda just yesterday for these three events.  The sodas come from the local brewery.  

Again this week we went on a fieldtrip with Immaculee from the ministry of health.  This was a continuation of National Latrine Day.  The village of Pita was recognized as the award winner in the health zone we visited.  This time we had the opportunity to tour 32 latrines while local judges made the selection of award winners.  This was a real eye-opener.  I enjoyed photographing the local residents as we toured the latrines of the village.  Shelley has the 6 criteria.  We thought it was only fitting that the awards were Lifebuoy soap in varying quantities.  The village children performed several vocal numbers for us.  We were the guests of honor and Shelley was invited to hand out all of the prizes.  This village is progressive in comparison and they have started accumulating preventative maintenance funds for well repair.  They have two wells and neither is working at present. They have to carry water from the river.

We also visited two orphanages again that are on our list of potential projects.  One is in Ruashi and needs school desks.  They have an elementary school whose tuition supports the orphanage.  They have added 4 new classrooms and need 100 new desks to attract additional enrollment at their school.  We plan on helping this orphanage with Christmas clothing as well.  They have 52 boys and girls.  The other orphanage is Katimel where we have a long-term relationship.  This is where the senior missionaries will participate in a painting and sharing gifts.  I previously talked about buying clothing bundles for this purpose.

The bundle purchase was an experience in and of itself.  The bundles are sorted by gender, size, season, mix, etc.  There are bundles imported from various countries.  Steve’s mother has some experience in buying and reselling clothing bundles.  She suggested the best quality are from Germany.  We searched out two locations that sell clothing bundles and bought a single mixed bundle for an experiment.  We opened it for Thanksgiving while together with all the senior missionaries.  We guessed how many articles of clothing would be in this 100 pound bundle.  271 was the correct answer; that’s 37 cents per item.  This was a much better solution than buying single individual items of clothing.  The girls will all have multiple items and can have the fun of trading after we leave.

Thanksgiving was very nice.  We didn’t celebrate until Friday afternoon and everyone made portions of the dinner.    Local ingredients can be scarce and one of the rules was that there would be “no apologizing”.  The sweet potatoes and the pumpkin pie were both made from squash with added flavorings.  The turkey was small (9 lbs) but we stretched it into two meals.  We had so many left overs that we decided to celebrate with another dinner on Saturday evening.   All in all it was a great success and we certainly had enough to eat.  We did however miss the company of family and friends in our own home.  I hope you all had your in-law Thanksgiving this year so we can monopolize your time next year.  The list of things I missed is too long to enumerate but by next year I’ll be able to name them all.  We’re especially thankful for Christ, Church, Country, Family and Friends.  We like Emmanuel are thankful for the sealing ordinances of the temple.  Mom and I are having the adventure of a lifetime, but not without a little (lot) of fear and trembling.  Come to think of it, that is the story of life; working out our salvation in fear and trembling.  Holding on to each other makes it bearable and that much sweeter.  We are healthy, happy and in love.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)

November 23, 2014 - Shelley

November 23, 2014

Greetings from the land where EVERY Friday is Black Friday!  Haha

Every time I think I’ve written about everything here, something new happens – and this week was no exception.  On Wednesday, Nov. 19th, it was National Clean Latrine Day!  I’m not kidding – you can’t make this stuff up!  We have been working with a gal named Immaculee from the Ministry of Health.  Her job is to help provide clean water to small villages.  Immaculee received a gift of hand soap from a local grocery store, Hyper Psaro.  She distributed it to 50 local elementary schools who were practicing good hygiene – including washing hands after using the bathroom.  She invited us to accompany her to a nearby town, Kipushi, where she was presenting soap to two elementary schools.

The ceremony began with a woman demonstrating proper hand-washing techniques.  Then different dignitaries, including the village chief, handed out soap to individuals who had won some sort of contest (we didn’t ever quite understand that part).  ☺

They even let us give out soap and a poster to some winners!

The school principal (in red) is thanking everyone, and Immaculee is the woman in blue who is taking a photo.  Her husband is a doctor who works at a local hospital; however, doctors aren’t really paid very well here.

Part of the reason for the clean latrine campaign is to help reduce the problems with cholera that come with the rainy season.

As Clark mentioned in his last letter, I bought a sewing machine!  It’s brand new, but is a Singer treadle machine similar to one my grandmother may have used.  I decided against an

electric machine because our power is so erratic.  Fortunately for me, Sister Mikesell knows all about this type of machine, so she has been helping me get it set up.  I’m not very handy with it yet, but I’m working on it!

Several people have asked about our bridge project.  Even though this lady

is walking across it already, I don’t think she’s supposed to because it’s not finished.  The worry has been that

the river is getting too high where the people have to cross when the bridge is being worked on.  The rainy season has begun, so pressure is on to get the bridge completed.  Hopefully, this week!

Our grandkids keep asking about what the food is like.  I’d have to say that it isn’t terrible, but food that we would normally eat is very expensive and sometimes scarce.  We’ve had a joke around the mission office because I was telling everyone that we found cheddar cheese (not always available) – but that it had cost $45!

Sister Thomas, the mission president’s wife was rubbing it in that she had also found some and it only cost her $17.  Well, after she went back and looked at her receipt, she realized that $17 was the price per pound – and that she had paid more than I had!

For years, we drank whole milk at our house.  Gradually we have weaned ourselves down to 1%, but Clark put his foot down when it came to skim milk (he calls it “blue” milk).  Well, as you can see from the photo, things have changed.  He’s just showing off here,

but not only do we now drink skim milk, but it’s long-life SHELF milk!  AND it costs about $3.00 a quart!

One of our greatest joys here is teaching English to the young missionaries, as I have mentioned before.  We teach once a week.

This is the group we have had for the last six weeks.  There are some truly out-standing young people serving here, and we have grown to love them.  One of our “favorites” is Elder Tshimpe,

whose home is in Kinshasa.  He has been serving as an AP.  We asked in class for stories about the first time the missionaries attended the temple.  Elder Tshimpe told the story of how his parents both died when he was very young.  He was raised by his grandmother.  When he first went to the temple in Ghana (that’s where the MTC is), proxies stood in for his parents so that he could be sealed to them.  You would never guess that he had anything but an ideal child-hood because he is very confident, talented, and is a great leader.  He will be returning home right before Christmas and will certainly be missed.

Our thoughts are with you in the Thanksgiving week!  I think we’ve convinced the Canadian senior couples to celebrate with us, even though their day of thanks was in October.  Sister Mikesell even found a frozen turkey!  It weighed 9 pounds and cost $37!!!  We’ll each be getting just a taste, but that’s okay.  It’s part of the adventure!

We love you and so appreciate your words of encouragement and support!  Give your family extra hugs this week – and never, never forget what a blessing it is to be born in America!

Much love,  Mom/Soeur Davis

November 23, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Reporting back on continuing contacts from last week.  Monday was an outing with Immaculee visiting the villages where Elder Atkinson had repaired pumps.  The purpose was to meet with village leaders to determine what progress they had made in establishing water committees and determine the success of the well repairs.  Three of four pumps were no longer working, so only 1 or four was still in service.  We met with the village leaders and we were well received by one and not the other.  Immaculee is a great leader and directed the meetings.  We will continue to work with the village where they accepted our input.  She invited us to accompany her again on Wednesday when she hosted “National Latrine Day Celebrations” in Kipushi.  This community had developed a model program we hope to duplicate in other health zones.  Shelley will include some photos from the celebration.

Tuesday we attended a trade school called “Able and Willing”.  It is a foundation developed by a Congolese man who lives in both the US and DRC during the year.  Originally it was 8 months in the US and 4 in the Congo, now it has reversed.  He has raised money through his foundation and built a trade school that teaches electrician skills, woodworking, metal fabrication, sewing and the regular curriculum.  The director spoke the best English we have heard from a Congolese.  He was just a little too smooth, but has been successful in applying self-reliance principles.  Two employees from the Church accompanied us; Mbidi over public affairs and Narci over CES.  Narci used to be the director of the school before being employed by the church.  They actually had a computer lab.  They were old model dell computers but none the less, a computer lab that we have never seen in DRC.

We’re trying to arrange for a Christmas service project at an all-girls orphanage.  It is called Katimel and is run by Fifi, a Catholic nun.  They have anywhere from 17-29 girls and their goal is to reunite the girls with their families.  This orphanage is in the neighborhood of Flavien’s church and we have visited here several times.  We asked Immaculee for suggestions on what to buy for the girls and she suggested that buying single items at stores downtown would be very expensive and we would be better served buying clothing bundles.  Steve’s mother used to buy clothing bundles and sell in the Kenya street market.  Steve showed us a couple of locations and we went shopping for clothing bundles.  They come in different sorted groupings, girls, boys, mixed, ages, clothing type (bottoms, tops, sweaters, etc.)  We plan on presenting our ideas to the other senior couples and deciding on how much to spend.  The bundles cost anywhere from $85-$210 each.  We also intend on painting the girls rooms with them and then having lunch before giving our gifts.

English class this week was enjoyable.  We feel this is our chance to establish a relationship with the missionaries.  It has helped to memorize the names of those in our zone.  They are very accepting of our language limitations if we can only remember their name.  Shelley has really taken the lead in teaching an organizing our lessons.  She is an excellent teacher and she applies the second grade approach which is just about the right level of difficulty.  This week we handed out a copy of the Liahona and reviewed an article of a youth group from Zimbabwe who attended the Johannesburg Temple.  We asked the missionaries to share in English their remembrances of attending the temple.  It was especially touching to hear from our AP’s.  Elder Lono recalled being sealed to his parents and having a proxy participant stand in for his sister who had died.  There is a high infant mortality rate and many families have lost children.  The second was Elder Tshimpe who told of being sealed to his parents who are both deceased.  He has been raised by his grandmother.  These Elders both bore a powerful witness of the sealing power and they did it in English.

Phillip Moatlhodi, the Area Welfare Manager, is going to visit us December 3-7.  We have been concentrating on making arrangements to finalize our projects so we can have the closing ceremonies with the beneficiaries while Phillip is here.  Those activities include: finalizing contracts, processing payment requests, preparing an invitation and a program outline, ordering a recognition plaque, ordering refreshments, and meeting with the beneficiaries of 3 separate projects.  Doesn’t sound too bad until you remember this is in a different language and a different culture.  Steve continues to be indispensable and is starting to understand our humor.  He had symptoms of malaria this week and Elder Mikesell provided some medication.  He seems like part of the family.

The Mikesells have become close friends in our missionary service.  We had a late meeting on Friday night and didn’t arrive home until almost 8:00.  Elder Mikesell met us as we parked the truck and invited us in for pancakes.  He had made dinner for us and was waiting for us to arrive home.  The next day Sister Mikesell spent the better part of the morning fine-tuning Shelley’s new treadle sewing machine while Shelley held the light for her.  You become very close to these couples you serve with regardless of differing backgrounds and interests.  Shared service and experiences bind you together.

The rains have started to come.  It has brought a welcome break in the 90 degree plus temperatures.  Mud is the downside of rain but for now we’ll take it over the dust.  We had been concerned for two of our construction projects that needed to be completed before the rains came in earnest.  The bridge construction and the Mapendano school septic and latrine projects should both be finished this week.  The rains seem to come in waves where it rains really hard and then just stops.  There doesn’t seem to be a drizzle-type faucet here; it’s either on or off.  When it’s on, you don’t want to be out in the open.  

Mom and I have had another good week and yet it doesn’t seem at all like fall or Thanksgiving time.  This seems like endless summer and to think that it is November just doesn’t match-up.  We do plan on having a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday with the other senior couples.  I guess in Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated in October.  We have two Canadian couples who will lower their standards and celebrate US Thanksgiving with us.  Food that we recognize is expensive and scarce.  Sister Mikesell bought a 9-pound turkey for just under $40 on Saturday.  I can’t believe the number of 30-pound turkeys we have bought for less than that.  

Have a great week and we’ll do the same.  We are truly grateful for our friends and family.  Our lives have definitely been blessed by the gospel and are happy to be sharing that joy with the Congolese people.  They are generally extremely warm and receptive.  We have made several friends even if we need a translator to communicate, we still connect spirit to spirit.  We attended stake conference today and the best part of the meeting was the 45 minutes we spent after the meeting greeting the members and missionaries and exchanging handshakes and embraces where appropriate.  We’ll send you some photos on the photo stream.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)

November 16, 2014 - Shelley

November 16, 2014

It’s been a week of finishing up current projects and trying to come up with new ones for Jan. 1st.  Someone told us that we would leave the Congo knowing less about the culture than we did when we came – and I can understand that more now.  This is especially true when working with governmental agencies.  Just when we think we have it figured out – we don’t!

One thing we have really enjoyed is teaching an English class to the elders.  There are three stakes here in Lubumbashi.  Senior missionaries are assigned to teach the elders and sisters in each of the stakes.  Our class covers the Kisanga Stake.  When we first arrived here, I noticed how the senior couples loved the young missionaries.  It was almost like a reunion when the missionaries came to the office or when they saw each other at church.  Well, I think it’s because of this special time for teaching that those relationships are formed.  Below is Clark with the missionaries in Kasumbalesa.

Today we were able to attend church in a little area where some of “our” elders are serving.  The town is called

Kasumbalesa and is about an hour and a half away from Lubumbashi.

Here I am in a “not very flattering selfie” with two sister missionaries.  They are so cute – one of them is from Kenya and actually speaks English!

We really enjoyed getting away from the city twice this week.  The road to Kasumbalesa runs through little villages and offers many picturesque scenes.

This building is very typical.  It’s a store. The tin roof is held down with rocks and bricks.  Behind the buildings is a big mound of dirt.  Actually, these mounds are quite a phenomenon.  They are everywhere when you get away from the city.  The dirt in them is actually clay-like and is used to made bricks.  So it’s quite different from the regular dirt on the ground.  We have asked several local people where the mounds come from – and we’re always told that God put them there so that they could make bricks.  And it appears to be true!

Here’s a family home with the same scenario.  Bricks are used to build everything.  In order to make the bricks

sturdier, they are fired in an oven like this.  I’m not sure how the system all works – more to come when I find out.  

Another thing that makes getting away fun is to see the many creative ways people come up with for transporting things!

Two Men and a Truck have nothing on these guys!!! Haha

This is a great way to get your chickens to market!

And who needs to bother with a bike rack when all you have to do is tie them to the roof of the van?

Mattresses going to town to be sold.

We also saw many beautiful gardens.

Our other trip away was to visit a school in Kipopo.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when Charles, the physical facilities man from the Catholic Diocese, asked us to go with him.  It took us FOREVER to get there!  What we found was a small village school that was very neglected and needy.  Four valiant teachers are trying to hold it all together on a shoe-string budget.  The Ministry of Education this week came out with an edict that schools are not allowed to solicit financial help from parents.  So no fund raisers, teacher appreciation week, etc. – nothing that we are so used to in the United States.  Several principals lost their jobs last week over this issue.  Anyway, it is heart-breaking to see these poor teachers receiving no help from the government – and now no help from the parents.  Their salaries are mainly paid through tuition that the parents pay.  It varies greatly!  Flavien pays $100 each month for his little first grader to attend a nice school.  But schools like this in Kipopo charge $2.50 per month or less.  

But the children are as beautiful as ever!

The darling little girl in this next picture is helping older kids pump water from a well located on the playground in Kipopo.  We weren’t able to offer much more than encouragement to the teachers there, unfortunately.  They have desks, but what they really need is a new building that doesn’t have a leaky tin roof!

Our next few weeks look like they will be busy.  It’s hard to imagine that it’s almost Thanksgiving!  And we have much to be thankful for!  We continue to be truly blessed.  Have a great week! –Mom/Soeur Davis

November 15, 2014 - Clark

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Well it’s Saturday and we just returned from a baptism.  We asked at our English class which missionaries were having baptisms.  Sister Bilau and Sister Mambuku and Elder Biduawa and Elder Mbuyi were scheduled to have baptisms today.  The sister’s candidate postponed until next week and only one of the two investigators came for the Elders.  We spent from 10:00 to 12:00 deciding who would be baptized and then another hour and a half conducting a 30 minute service.  We were happy to be there and I’m not complaining about the time, just trying to give you a feel that time is of little importance here.  We left at 9:30 and came home at 1:45.  Both mom and I were asked to bear our testimonies and we sang hymns in French for over an hour during the prelude, program and postlude activities.  I also had the privilege of serving as a witness and she had to be baptized 3 times.  We were talking about things that are different every day that can jump up and shock you.  Well, following the meeting, when we went to greet the new sister she extended her hand for shaking while sitting breast-feeding her baby.   She is a new mother and this is their first baby.  Her husband is still taking the discussions but is not yet a member.

We’re going to buy a sewing machine this afternoon with Sister Mikesell. She knows about treadle machines.  Mom has been going crazy without any diversions and still has the bug to sew.  She was involved with the maturation project development and as you know enjoys her handcrafts.  The mission has a single machine and Sister Thomas has reclaimed it.  We’ll see how this all works out.  Maybe we can call this our personal study time.  

We took Sister Mikesell with us to shop for a treadle sewing machine.  It was another adventure.  We ended up receiving a referral from Ma Maison electronics to go to a store called Super-Lux.  It was owned by Hussein, an Eastern Indian and his store manager was Abdul from Dubai.  Abdul talked to us for 45 minutes to an hour while his in-store technicians assembled a Singer treadle sewing machine.  We paid them $5 for the assembly and $125 for the machine.  We spent quite a bit of time talking about religion as he asked us why we come on missions so late in our lives.  He said it’s too late and we should serve much earlier in our lives.  I showed him pictures of the young Elders and explained we are here to support their missionary efforts as well.  

When we left the store, I had another driving mishap.  Many of the stores have grates in front of the store that cover a ditch used for runoff.  Well I pulled out and drove directly into an open area of the ditch not covered by a grate.  Before I could switch to 4-wheel drive, there were 3 young men helping us pull out of the hole.  They lifted us out in no time at all and all wanted to be paid along with anyone else close-by who had their hand out.  I tried to pay them from our stash in the console in the middle of the front seats of the truck but they wanted it all not just the few 500 franc notes I gave each of them.  It felt like a mad rush trying to satisfy them while pulling away to avoid further begging.  The youth who really helped us was clinging to the truck asking for much more money and his face still haunts me as I drove away.  

When we returned home, we tried out the machine only to find a part missing and you know how mom dreads returning anything.  I think she is so driven by her passion to sew that she will actually return and visit with Abdul.  We had the Mikesells and Sister Anthony over for dinner and watched a movie together.  We plan on attending meetings in Kasumbalesa tomorrow and every one from the mission home other than President and Sister Thomas are coming with us.  It is mission president conference in Johannesburg this week.  

We received a notice of a new Area Presidency policy on senior missionary travel.  I guess some couples planned site seeing outings on the way to and from our January conference.  They were told in the notice to cancel all such outings and they would only be able to attend such on their way home from their missions.  It is exactly opposite of what we were counseled back in May when we arrived.  They told us that to keep your sanity it would be helpful and totally permissible to schedule a diversion trip every few months.  We had asked to go to Victoria Falls and told no by President Thomas but now the Area Presidency is clamping down on everyone.  It’s ironic because our supervisory couple, Bruce and Melinda Kinghorn, have been on safari with their family for the past two weeks.  We didn’t come to Africa for the site seeing but something in your nature wants to rebel when you are told what you cannot do.  

This past week we had a small adventure with Charles, director of FM for the Catholic Church here in Lubumbashi.  They have over 200 schools they are accountable for and he is supposed to visit every school.  He doesn’t have a car and so a trip to Kipopo is almost out of the question.  It is beyond Golf and the Foundation Hospital by about an hour and a half on dirt roads.  It was a small village school with no power.  They had 27 students and four local faculty members.  They need almost everything.  You could really classify this school as “the poorest of the poor”.  Charles said that administrators who are assigned to this school view it as a penalty.  There is no transportation and it is definitely remote, but the countryside was beautiful.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

We just returned from attending our meetings at Kasumbulesa which is on the Zambia border.  They have two branches there and it takes about 90 minutes to drive.  When we arrived, we drove all the way to the border not recognizing where the Church building was.  We even paid a motor bike rider to show us the way but we knew he was leading us off course because we had been there 5 months ago when we traveled with Emmanuel to obtain our visas.  We eventually called the missionaries who came and picked us up.  The problem was that the church has moved since we visited 5 months ago and the motor bike rider was leading us in the correct direction.  We made it to church on time to attend all three meetings of the second branch, so everything worked out fine after a little diversion.  

All senior couples other than the Thomases went with us.  Somehow I have become the designated driver and it puts added responsibility on you when you feel responsible for everyone.  The road noise and air conditioner noise make it impossible to carry on a conversation.  The 4 missionaries in Kasumbulesa -  Mukenge, Mukanda, Mwanken and N’sayolo are in our English class and they were definitely happy to see us.  It was enjoyable to get away from the city.  The drive was relaxing and the members were very excited for our visit.  

After meetings, pictures, visiting with our limited language skills, we took the missionaries to their apartment and resupplied their medical supplies.  They showed us around and compared to the sisters apartment, this place was spotless.  They were disappointed when we told them we couldn’t drive them back to Lubumbashi for their P-day soccer game tomorrow.  

We’re going to the mission home this evening in hopes of making a better internet connection in order to watch Music and the Spoken Word.  We love seeing Emily because we can reconnect.  We love the music and the half hour reprieve from the everyday routine.  We have been unsuccessful in trying to watch for the past 3 weeks with our hotspot at our apartment, so we’re trying to change our luck.  

As far as accomplishment from this past week, it’s hard to measure preparation.  We have been preparing for the three closing ceremonies to be held the first week of December while Phillip Moatlhodi, the Area Welfare Manager, is here.  Refreshments, program organization, invitations, monitoring project progress to make sure they are all completed in time, etc.  No major milestones, but solid preparation progress.  

We do have some fieldtrips scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.  Immaculee from the Ministry of Health Small Village Water Program is taking us on a fieldtrip to small villages where Elder Atkinson repaired wells on the road to Kasenga.  We’re trying to determine the success of our well repair and to supervise the formation of a water committee to collect money from water usage to be used for well repair.  This is being done in an attempt to develop a model program that can be used throughout this health zone; wish us luck.  Tuesday we are scheduled to visit a trade school identified by Mbidi Illunga while he was working on a project for street people; those with no family and no job and no future.  This school is designed to help them.  We’ll report back.