Sunday, April 05, 2015
General Conference weekend and we really miss not being able to watch all the sessions from the comfort of our own home surrounded by family. Here the internet is so unreliable that we wait for 2-3 weeks before receiving DVD’s in French. Today was just another regular Sunday for church meetings but in a few weeks they will have General conference Sunday in French. Last Sunday we attended Nyashi 1st Ward and today we attended Bel Air Ward. Narci (sp) is the Bishop and he works for the church at the seminary and institute building. He wasn’t in attendance but we met his wife. Steve, our translator told us an interesting story about how Narci met his wife. They were in school together. He was a mediocre student but took notice of the number one student in their class. He introduced her to the church and later baptized her before they were married. Tell me who was the smartest member of the class? She got a real smile on her face when I told her of the story we had heard of their courtship and she confirmed it. They have 6 children under the age of twelve; 2 boys and 4 girls.
Wayne Hunsaker was teasing with me when we received our mission call to Africa. He said , I understand the field is BLACK already to harvest”. Although a slur to him, it couldn’t be truer. The people are so prepared to receive the gospel message and religious, family and sacred topics are commonly discussed. President Thomas corrected the Likasi District conference percentage from 81% to 88% from my previous letter. He said that the mission had 89 baptisms last week alone. I remember in Germany we were happy to break 100 for the year. President Thomas asked a new Elder who is serving in Tshitenge who has been on his mission for two and a half months, how many baptisms he had so far. The answer was 29. The young missionary only laughed when President Thomas told him he had spent 22 months in France as a young missionary and baptized 3 people. Yes the field is black already to harvest. I certainly wish we were allowed to proselyte; we meet so many good people who would make wonderful members.
Monday we visited Peage School to see that they had received their 10 treadle sewing machines. They called us on Tuesday to see if we could give them some money to assemble the machines. We told them that was their responsibility and if they were unable to meet that commitment, we could find other beneficiaries who were. They called back the next day saying they were all assembled. We also visited a small local health center. I hesitate calling it a hospital but they were treating their patients with herbs only. They had one room full of herbs, roots, and other local remedies. They had taken pictures of several of their worst cases and gave the pictures to Shelley who promptly threw them in the garbage as soon as we arrived home. (Too graphic to share). The doctor of the hospital was a woman and had grown the hospital from nothing and was doing much good just in bolstering the morale of her patients. I’m not sure how much physical healing she was doing.
Fifi from Katimel Orphanage and another nun by the name of Helen, went shopping for fabric and notions with Shelley, Steve and I. Shelley was really in her element shopping for fabric but these Catholic Sisters showed us a great fabric store. The fabric comes in 6-meter pieces which are purchased in their entirety. They usually cost $25, $50 but more recently $75 and as high as $125 a piece. This store had a great inventory of fabric costing $12 apiece. They were made in China and may not be as good a quality but the pricing allowed the sisters to buy a separate piece of fabric for each of their 30 girls at the orphanage. Therese from Notre Dame School for Girls is scheduled to teach them sewing lessons over the Easter vacation. We’re hoping to get two of our beneficiary organizations together to provide and receive service.
Tuesday was another adventure as are most of our days. You wake up without a concrete schedule and make yourself available. We always tell Steve if you’re going to win the lottery, you have to buy a ticket. Humanitarian work and missionary work are much the same in that you don’t really feel like it is your schedule at all. With nothing concrete on our schedule we decided to go to the bundle store to buy back packs for the three orphanages we are working with at the current time. For each project, you usually have a closing ceremony where you have refreshments and a small party to culminate the project. We decided rather than provide refreshments, we would provide a tangible remembrance. At Christmas time while attending the nativity presentation at Tumaini Orphanage, one of the orphans read a poem about how he was made fun of because he didn’t have his own school bag or back pack. Shelley remember that poem and as a consequence, we purchased 120 backpacks.
At the bundle store we became friends with Ali, the owner of the bundle store from Lebanon. We negotiated a price reduction from $1,800 down to $1,320 and then negotiated a change in procedure where we were allowed to open the bags and reject those that were broken so we had 120 operable back packs. You usually have to accept the blind grab bag approach. Now we have the dilemma of who receive which bag. We never imagined bundle shopping could be so entertaining. Shelley will send pictures.
Eduard works in the construction department and we became acquainted through Elder Atkinson. Eduard invited us to attend their FHE. He doesn’t speak any better English than I speak French, but he invited a couple members of his ward who do. They had your traditional FHE and we were able to share their home, their family and the spirit of the event. The best part was being able to hold their young children on our laps during the lesson. Often children are afraid of white people but we hit it off and enjoyed the occasion. Almost every event has Fanta orange, popcorn and perhaps peanuts. Eduard and his wife were part of the 40 couples being officially married by the mayor of Commune Annex about 2-3 months ago. I had taken pictures and Shelley couldn’t believe Eduard’s wife was the same person. The women here are beautiful and they love to dress up. It is unbelievable how amazing they look when you consider the lack of common conveniences like power and running water and carpeted floors at home.
My letter is taking far too long so I’ll abbreviate the balance of the week. We have dealt with a manufacturer in Ruashi in making bunk beds for orphanages. Ruashi also has some souvenir stands we have previously visited. We visited the stands twice this week; once alone and then we organized a senior missionary activity for Saturday. It was fun and both the vendors and the senior missionaries enjoyed our visit. Sister Anthony is going home in 6 weeks and so she was the most active. Elder Draper was the hardest sell and as a result the best negotiator because he wanted to buy nothing. It’s amazing how well you can barter with no language skills. I guess money really does talk.
We felt we did make some headway on our projects. The Vision Project has been submitted and we’re awaiting approval. The small village project to repair pumps was finally approved although with a reduced budget. This is the project Elder Atkinson started but the revisions that came from the delays may help it to be more sustainable. Now instead of repairing wells, we’re training locals in how to repair wells. We spent the week negotiating with the trainer on his fees and arrangements for the training to start in 2 weeks at the Kafubu Health Zone. We’ll have 12 in our class who will then be available to repair wells through the health zone. Enoch’s Tabacongo well development project is ready for submission. The Kampemba Health Zone has organized 3 water committees, drafted bylaws and conducted training. Wish us luck.
We finally got one of the pictures we have coveted; several people riding a single motor cycle. The picture is of a husband and pregnant wife along with their three children riding the same bike. This is common. Most families have no car and a motor cycle is a coveted item. Much of the transportation is in Toyota vans referred to as transports. Most are in ill repair but they are the backbone of public transportation. The motor cycles wait at the less traveled cross roads and transport people from the main routes. Transportation cost is a significant family budget cost, but maybe not as expensive as a car, insurance and fuel and maintenance.
Elder Mikesell and I returned to Mega Store to deliver some pictures to the store owner. His name is Phillip and he is from Belgium. He had donated lipstick and nail polish to the Operation Smile patients. We took pictures of the application and receipt of these “never before seen” beauty aids. He delighted in the joy in their faces and before we were able to leave the store he gave us other items for their benefit. We have certainly found good people wherever we have gone. Have a great conference weekend.
Love, Dad (Elder Davis)
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