March 1, 2015 - Shelley

March 1, 2015

Can you believe that it’s March already?!  As we have mentioned before, everyday seems the same here in the DRC as far as weather goes.  The rain makes a difference, but the temperature stays quite constant.  It’s absolutely lovely!  But when you’re used to judging time by the seasons, it’s hard to keep track.

As I said last week, we had company again.  The photo below was taken a

week ago today at Sunday dinner at our house.  Kenneth Mofokeng is on the left and David Frischknecht is on the right.  Both are from the Johannesburg Area Office.  David was here to review physical facilities and to interview church employees.  He wasn’t here to see us, but we were lucky enough to spend some time with him.  Kenneth came for us.  He approves all water projects for 25 African countries.  So it’s easy to see why we were so anxious for him to come and to understand what we want to get approved.  We spent the week bouncing around in the truck on dirt roads visiting potential well sites.

Above is a cute photo of my favorite companion as we were out and about!

One of our biggest potential projects is with Regideso – the local water entity.  Kenneth wanted a picture taken with the engineers we have worked with and pretty soon we had a crowd – everyone wanted to be in the photo!  You can tell by the background that the engineers’ office looks about like my sewing room at home (messy!), so I always feel comfortable there.  Haha

One really innovative water pump that we’ve seen uses an old railroad tanker car.  I don’t know how they ever figured it out or how they moved it to where it is, but the pump fills the tanker – and then there are 12 taps where people retrieve water.  Lots of people can get water at a time – and that place is really busy!!!  On the other side of the tree in the picture is a water line with the taps on it.  People are charged 50 Congolese francs (about 5 cents) per 20 liter bidon.

At another one of the more interesting water sites, a man from the adjacent neighborhood was buying water at a school.  A former student at this school recently donated a water system, complete with holding tanks and solar panels for energy to pump the water.

(Those are the kinds of students every school needs!!!)  By the time this man was ready to leave, he had 11 containers miraculously tied on to his bicycle.   I don’t know how he managed to get home with the water!

Think how heavy that must have been!  Note the clever way he uses a wooden pole as a kick stand to hold his bike up.

So Kenneth left on Thursday and we have been heaving a sigh of relief, more or less.  We were able to celebrate a good week with the other senior missionaries when President and Sister Thomas had a movie night at their home.  We finally got to see “Meet the Mormons” – and we had popcorn and real banana splits!  Sister Thomas actually found CHOCOLATE CHIPS at our new grocery store.  With them she made a yummy fudge sauce.  I need to

mention here that the five-pound bag of chocolate chips cost $50!  Totally worth it if you ask me!  Haha

One of our children recently asked me if I will feel guilty when we get home and can turn on the water tap.  Not only can I feel confident that the water is clean, but it comes at any temperature I want.  “Guilty” because I’ve seen first hand that millions of people don’t have this luxury.  I’ve thought a lot about it and have concluded (at least for now) that I won’t feel guilty.  What I’ll feel is grateful.  I don’t think Heavenly Father wants me to sell the house and move into a tent just so that I can suffer along with so many other people.  I can’t explain the inequities in life.  I don’t know why my life has been blessed with physical comforts.  I do know, however, that I need to always remember the source of those comforts and to show constant gratitude for them.

Joy McMullin, the wife of our former mission president, had a dream that she went home to the United States and sold her house.  She got the proceeds in one dollar bills and returned to Africa.  Then she starting passing them out to anyone who looked like they needed money.  The crowd immediately grew and within a short time, her money was gone.  She soon realized that she really hadn’t helped anyone and she had nothing left to give.  (I hope I’ve given justice to your story, Joy.)

I guess that one lesson learned is that unfortunately there will always be people who are hungry.  After my experience in teaching school, I know that there are children even in Brigham City who come to school hungry every day.  Those of us who are seldom hungry have an obligation to be generous and compassionate – and always remember to express gratitude for even the smallest things.  I know that Heavenly Father loves ALL of His children.  I hope that our experiences here have given me a heightened awareness of the many ways I’ve been blessed in my life.  Our charge as humanitarian missionaries is to relieve suffering – and my hope for our time here is that we will be able to do that with our Father’s help.  Much love,  Mom/Soeur Davis