December 7, 2014 - Shelley

December 7, 2014

Well, if ever we could say that we had a big week, it would be this one!  We have had 5 humanitarian projects – and 3 of them had their closing ceremonies this week.  We more or less planned it this way because we had a visitor from South Africa.  His name is Phillip Moatlhodi – he is the big boss in the Area Office.  He is the Area Welfare Manager for all of Southeast Africa. He was here for 5 days, and we wanted to be able to show him the projects we have been working on and to get input for future projects.  We learned so much from him, even in this short amount of one-on-one time.

I promised in my last letter that I wouldn’t mention the “L” word again, but here I go once more!  I’m sure I’ve

shown this picture before of the 4 make-shift latrines at a school that has 3,000 students.  Mapendano School was one of our projects.  We paid to have 32 latrines repaired and their septic system pumped.  We didn’t have to build latrines – just refurbish the ones they already had but weren’t using because they didn’t work.  

Here is Clark speaking to the faculty and special guests while the student council is lined up behind him.  The kids sang a few songs when we first came.  The people in the photo are (on the left) the principal, Clark, Steve, and Charles (from the Catholic Diocese).  

Above shows the contractor holding a plaque we had made that basically tells that the LDS Church repaired the latrines.  He is standing in one of the fixed bathrooms.  Then two unexpected things happened.  Almost as soon as the program was over, the whole sky opened up with torrential rain.

Above shows the spot where the kids had been standing – a total flood!  One more funny thing was that we ordered 400 sodas and cookies for the student council and guests.  Well, unbeknownst to us, the principal ordered a case of beer for the adults! Haha

A second project that was completed was the Katuba Bridge.  As you can tell

from the picture above, the rainy season is upon us and we have been worried that the bridge wouldn’t be ready before the river started rising.  It was just in the knick of time!

Here is the Bourgemeister for the Commune Annex, accepting the gift of the bridge from us.  After this, he cut the white ribbon you can see.  We had to pay the media $300 to cover the event, and it wqs on the nightly news.

And last, but not least, was the celebration of a new kitchen for the Notre Dame School for Girls.  We’ve mentioned the director of the school many times.  Her name is Therese.  She and her husband run this school for disadvantaged girls in an effort to teach them skills so that they aren’t forced into an early marriage.  This is a common practice especially in cases where the girls have not gone to school.

Therese received 10 sewing machines from the LDS humanitarian couple in 2012.  With those, she has developed a wonderful sewing program.  This year she added the skill of knitting – and it is astounding what these girls have produced.  Therese had displayed the things the girls had made so far this year.  Below shows Therese and her

husband in the display room.  Therese wanted to add a culinary class to her curriculum, so our project was to outfit a kitchen for her with refrigerator, stove, freezer, and small appliances.

When we first arrived at the celebration, it was obvious that Therese had gone to a lot of work to make this special.  There were streamers and Christmas decorations.  The younger kids (they attend just regular school classes – not sewing or cooking) were all wearing birthday party hats.  The girls had prepared songs and dances and poems.

Here we are under the decorated bowery.

These are some of the younger kids – aren’t they so darling!!!!

Here we are with Therese and her husband with the students behind us.  Just when we thought the program was winding down, someone very unexpected (at least to us!) arrived – Santa Claus!!!!  I dare say that he is not like any Santa I have ever seen before, but the kids went wild!

He threw candy and gave out a few presents.  He even gave a party hat

to Elder Davis!  Very becoming, if I do say so myself!

Needless to say, we are feeling very grateful that the celebrations were successful and that we are now able to officially close a few of our projects.  We can only have 5 of them “open” at a time, and we want to get our new proposals ready to turn in for the 2015 projects.

It’s been a great week!  Last night we were even able to “attend” a violin recital via Face Time in which two of our granddaughters played – Elizabeth Chamberlain and Ruby Roche!  They were wonderful!  

We put the tree up (easiest one yet!), so we’re feeling the Christmas spirit!  We love hearing about your festivities!  We love you all and hope that your week is wonderful!  Much love,  Mom/Souer Davis