May 24, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The week has passed rapidly and I attribute it to being extremely busy.  We hired a new translator, Marcel Buzangu, from four potential candidates we interviewed Tuesday afternoon.  It’s remarkable that we started Monday afternoon making phone calls for interview times and by 5:00 Tuesday afternoon we had already signed the new translator contract.  It was a faith promoting experience in choosing Marcel from the four interviewed.  He is engaged to be married June 27th to Gracia.  She has training as a tailor and Marcel met her while he was serving as a missionary in Likasi.  After his mission he returned to Likasi to start a romance that has lasted three years.  He allowed her to finish her schooling fist and has completed paying the dote or bride price to her family.  He was previously working selling talk time at a small roadside stand.  They are prolific in Lubumbashi and it is hard to imagine how they make much profit while selling phone cards.  He has a cousin who is minding the phone business while he serves as our translator.

Since Wednesday Marcel has accompanied us everywhere trying to become acquainted with our projects and the contact list of people we are working with.  He is very capable but quite a bit more reserved than Steve; I’m sure we will get along great.  We have been working both of them harder than usual because we are no longer limited by the 20-hours per week with Steve and with Marcel we will not exceed the 1,000 hour limit by our departure date.  The church worries a great deal about the employee versus independent contractor status because they don’t want to become liable for any fringe benefits or long-term employment commitments. We have one more week with Steve and we will continue to try to get everything done that is possible because he is so familiar with what’s happening and we’re afraid of a drop off when Marcel starts full-time.

In addition to the translator transition, we moved this past week.  Thursday was the official move-in day.  It felt awkward leaving Makomeno, especially the guards, Papi and Samuel.  They have watched over us while we’ve slept for the past year.  They have sensed that we would be moving and have washed our car almost every day for the last month.  I’ll try not to whine too much in this letter because of any small inconveniences.   No mirrors, no bookcase or storage shelves, leaking showers, ant infestation, no furniture frills, no tables;   did I say it was bare bones?  I was ashamed as I read again online with a Google search that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the poorest country in the entire world.  The annual GDP per capita is $394 compared to the U.S. GDP per capita of $53,001. The third poorest country in the world is also in our mission, Burundi at $648 GDP per capita.  

There are several advantages to being located in the mission compound: no drive to and from work, office accessibility, association with other senior couples and yes we do have a wonderful home.  Shelley is decorating the walls with some of our favorite photos taken of African people during our projects or travels.  She has a knack for making it seem homier wherever we live.  The guards helped us move out and move in.  Our new home has been painted, cleaned and equipped with new washing machine, stove, refrigerator, so we’re set to make another set of memories in our new location.  

I mentioned Burndi last week.  They are having political unrest there because their current president wants to stay for an illegal 3rd term and become a dictator.  This is a common problem in Africa and the story will probably repeat itself next year in the DRCongo.   Unfortunately there were 8 young missionaries and 4 senior missionaries that had to be evacuated during the past week to ten days.  The members of the church in Burundi feel abandoned and it’s difficult to imagine it will be the same for quite some time.  The election is scheduled for June 26th and yet it may delayed.  There have been people murdered on both sides and yet the coup d’état attempt failed and two of the three generals who participated have been arrested and the third is still at large.  

The 4 senior missionaries were able to flee to Rwanda by vehicle and then fly to Johannesburg.  One couple, the Neeleys were an MLS couple who basically operated like the mission president because Burundi is remote and not easily accessible.   They only had three months remaining and decided to return to the United States rather than be reassigned for 3 months to a brand new location.  The Van Wagoners are the humanitarian couple who have 4 months remaining and they decided to stay but were reassigned to another mission, Kinshasa, DRC.  The current humanitarian couple in Kinshasa, the Johnsons, are going home in less than a month and the Van Wagoners will assist in completing their projects.  President Thomas is unhappy that not only have we now closed Burundi to missionary work but he has lost both senior couples with no replacements in sight.  

Governments make such a big difference in the quality of life afforded their citizens.  We complain regularly about government in the United States, but a free press and accountability to the electorate are not common in the rest of the world.  I believe, here in the DRCongo, we are also dealing with a very corrupt government yet many of the people we deal with in local government have become friends and advocates.   One example of the corruption is the fact that soldiers and police personnel are dramatically underpaid but have been told that if they don’t have money and they do have guns and power, they have the ability to collect their own wages.  Everyone seems to be on the take and you have to be guarded continually to determine how you could be swindled.  We are stopped regularly by police to extort money and we have a million stories to tell, too long for this letter.

We did have a very sweet missionary experience this past week that I’ll share with you in a separate attachment.  He name is Euphrasie and she is a potential “golden contact”.  I hope the rest of the story has a fairytale ending.  

I received this quote last week from Bonnie McCauley who is a senior missionary in Kiev.  I thought it worth sharing. "To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life."  (Samuel Johnson).  We continue to have golden moments of opportunity here in Lubumbashi.

Have a great week,

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)