March 8, 2015 - Shelley

March 8, 2015

I will begin by wishing John Clark Chamberlain, our grandson who bears the first name of both of this grand-

fathers, a Happy 8th Birthday on the 12th.  We hate to miss this special birthday!

A few weeks ago we studied the story of the woman at the well in Sunday School.  This week we were visiting the home of a welder who is making beds for one of our projects – and I was able to take pictures of an African woman (his wife) at her well.  This is a hand-dug

well, and the welder has devised a very clever cover for it so that the water won’t get polluted when it rains.  My admiration for this woman went sky-high after watching her almost effortlessly hoist TEN buckets of water out of the well.  I can tell you that these Grandma

arms ached after only lifting ONE bucket!  Her cute daughters were very encouraging!

Our working week was spent making visits while we still wait for approval on our water projects.  One such visit was to Immaculee.  She’s the gal who works

for the Ministry of Health and is over clean water projects for small villages.  Her husband is a physician and he had a stroke in December.  Since then, she has been caring for him at the hospital here – and then at a specialty hospital in Johannesburg.  So we haven’t seen much of her since then.  She invited us to their home so that we could tell her about our small village water proposal that we’ve put together with her boss.

Their home was one of the nicest homes we’ve seen here.  They are both just lovely people!  He has made good progress in his recovery, but still isn’t ready to go back to work.  He is only 57 years old.

Another visit was to see our friend Therese.  We went to tap into her wealth of knowledge about making school uniforms (it’s her school that

received a new cooking lab from us before Christmas).  We have approval for a sewing project at another school and needed to find out where to buy fabric, etc.  Anyway – a big surprise!  She had made me a Congolese dress!  The fabrics here are just beautiful – and I felt so pleased that she would do that for me!  

And Saturday was a whirlwind!!!!  It was the Worldwide Day of Women.  I’m not sure if this takes the place of Mothers Day or not – but it was a big celebration here, complete with a parade through the downtown of women wearing beautiful Congolese dresses.  We didn’t see the parade because we were invited to a special program honoring women at an elementary school where we have a proposed project.  The kids

and teachers had prepared dances, poems, and skits on the theme of motherhood.  The photo above shows some of the youngest students in a fashion show.  The mothers of some of the students were there and we took most of the senior missionaries with us.

We went not knowing at all what to expect, and we were well rewarded.  They treated us like honored guests and had set up a tarp for us to sit under so that we wouldn’t get sunburned.  Here

are some dancers.  These teachers had

made matching dresses and served as hostesses for the day.

The biggest shock came at the end of the program (3 hours later!) when they invited the senior missionaries into an empty classroom for a meal.  It’s important to bear in mind that this school is SO POOR!!!  They had tried so hard to please – and we felt very pleased indeed.  They served chicken, rice, fries, and fish.  (Just for the record, I slipped my fish into my napkin at took it home in my purse so as not to be rude.  I thought my kids might ask. ☺  )Below is a picture of a little student – so cute but couldn’t get her to smile!

We didn’t get home until 2:00 in the afternoon and had to be at a Relief Society Birthday celebration at 3:00 – so we just freshened up a bit and headed out again (just ladies this time).  Again, it was quite unlike any Stake Relief Society gathering I have ever attended!  Well, part of it was the same – talks on RS history, objectives, charity – all of it spoken in Swahili – but we could get the drift.  The ladies must have bought dozens of bolts of matching fabric because about 80% of them had different styles of dresses -- all of them were made out of the same fabric.  So clever!   Then the skits began!  

The atmosphere was joyous – with whistles and hoots after (and during) the performances.  Some of the wards sang or did poems, but a few had little plays.  In the picture below, the sister in

white is the Bishop and his “pregnant” wife is asking him to stay home and pamper her by getting her something to eat.  Instead, he is off to take care of someone else in the ward.  After he leaves, she hops up and gets herself some food.  But as soon as he returns, she is once again barely able to shuffle around and is demanding his attention.  It was totally hilarious in any language!!!!

The Stake President in this particular stake is the office manager in our mission office – Justin Mukuna.  He asked each of the senior missionaries to take a few minutes to share some thoughts about Relief Society while he acted as our interpreter.  Honestly, it is one of the first times I have spoken in any church meeting since we’ve been here.  It’s such a challenge when we don’t speak the language!  We’ve gotten to the point now that we can meet and greet and usually understand at least part of what is being said – but it’s another thing to be able to talk.  Especially in Swahili!!  Anyway, I have very strong feelings of love for Relief Society!  I’ve learned so much over the years and made such dear friends.  It’s amazing to think that this same celebration will be held all over the world in the next week or so.  And this is definitely one that I will hold near and dear to my heart.  Of course, I sure do miss my 18th Ward gals at home, too!!  ☺

Au revoir!  Je vous aime tous!  --Mom/Soeur Davis