June 28, 2015 - Shelley

June 28, 2015

Greetings from the land of the plastic chair, where carbon paper is still alive and well! ☺

Well, we’ve had a good week with projects because we received word that our biggest project – the Regideso water project – was finally approved!  There is still much to do, but at least we’re on our way.

Even though we are running out of time, we are still being bombarded with requests for help.  Some things will be possible, but some aren’t, and it’s pretty hard to turn away people who are really in need.

This man is the chief of an outlying village where the well is broken.  The villagers are drinking water from a nearby river that has dirty water.  One man died last week after contracting typhoid fever from the water.  He needs help repairing the village well.

We have visited this above site before.  In the photo, a bridge was washed out and it’s 8 km to walk around to the other side.  People with boats and bikes are transporting people across to the other side. The Bouurgmeister from the Commune brought us here again this week to see if we could help.  Two people have recently drowned – and dozens have drowned in the last ten years since the bridge washed out.  TEN YEARS!!!!!!

We were approached by a local chief de quartier to get help with his reading program.  He is using an elementary school in the afternoons after the kids have gone home to teach women who can’t read.  It’s called an “alphabetisation” program.  These are gals who weren’t allowed to go to school as children.  They speak Swahili, but can’t read or write it – and they can understand some French.  The classes are teaching them to read French.  

As in many situations, we were totally unprepared for what we saw when we got to the “meeting” the chief invited us to.  These poor ladies had dragged the desks out of the classrooms into the sun and were waiting for us.  Several of them gave testimonials about how much they needed help, and they sang songs – including the very touching Congolese national anthem.  I don’t know what we can do.  The instructors aren’t being paid much of anything.  This photo shows about 200 of the 600 ladies in the program!

I’ve been so pleased that my stake at home and some family members have been involved with the Days for Girls project.  I conducted a pilot program here about a year ago, but was discouraged from continuing it because the suggested materials aren’t available here.  Well, after making it a matter of prayer, I have decided to go ahead with introducing the program in the three Lubumbashi Stakes.  I decided that even if things aren’t perfect, they are better than what they are using now.  And it’s definitely better than girls not attending school one week out of each month.  After making this decision, a true miracle occurred!!!  

Sister Claudine Riendeau was the only French-speaking woman I have met here who also speaks English.  She helped me with the pilot program, but her mission ended and she returned home last November.  Well, two weeks ago a Congolese girl who has been serving a mission returned home – and she served in LONDON!!!!  It’s almost unheard of for someone from the Congo to serve anywhere but in an African country.  Elise is shown on the

left in this picture with the three local Relief Society Presidents.  We had a meeting at my house and Elise acted as the translator.  She really is one of a kind here!  Sister Kot, on the right, did the pilot program with me – and she was more than excited to finally get this thing going!  The two others were quickly convinced that it definitely fills a local need – even if the materials they use aren’t exactly the same as those available elsewhere.  I’m going to take them shopping this week – and Sister Kot has already set up two Saturdays in July for the pilot team of ladies to teach the other stakes.  It feels like the right thing to do – and I’m so happy that it is working out before we go home.  It is something that has been weighing on my mind.

We’ve met so many wonderful people here.  Even though we are different in many ways, we are more the same than we are different.  Their lives have triumphs and challenges, just like people at home.  One couple that has befriended us is Patrice and Christiane.  They both are helping Sister Cook in the community English classes that she is teaching in the three stakes.  They have been married for nine years, but have

been unable to have children.  In a society where there are children EVERYWHERE and there are huge families, it has been a heart break for them not to have children.  Adoption laws are different here, so I don’t think that’s an option.  It seems so strange when the orphanages are filled to capacity.  Anyway, they are such great individuals who would be wonderful parents.

Our biggest event of the week has been the wedding of our current translator, Marcel Buzangu to Gracia.

The wedding day began with the civil ceremony at the government building.  The civil wedding is necessary for anyone wanting to get married in the temple.  Traditional marriages are apparently official when the dote is paid, or at the end of the final dote meeting.  Anyway, thirty other couples got married by the Deputy Bourgmeister on Saturday.  It was

whistle-blowing pandemonium!  Marcel has the blue tie and Gracia is on his

right.  Clark wangled is way into the front of the room in order to take pictures, but I watched from a window along with about this same number of people.  It’s so funny because our culture expects wedding days to be so joyous and smiley!  But no so here!  Everything is very serious!!!!  (Everything except the whistles, hoots and hollers, and silly string from the on-lookers.)

The commune clerk first read a list of what each future husband had paid for the dote (the bride price).  One by one, someone in the bride’s family had to respond that it had been properly paid.  If not, the wedding wouldn’t take place!  Then the couples came up individually to be married by the Deputy Bourgmeister.  Fortunately,  Marcel and

Gracia were the first couple to be married. The D.B. is in the center in his military uniform.  The other couple is their escort couple.

Saturday night was the reception in the Kisanga Stake Center.  Here is the dance group that preceded the newly

married couple into the room, amid a total hooting, whistle-fest!!!!  My ears are still ringing!

Marcel’s father died a few years ago, and his mother didn’t have enough money to travel from her village in the Kasai Province, but he has other relatives who live here and they came.  Gracia is the oldest of eleven children and her family was all there.

Here are her parents dancing.  Note the whistle in her mother’s mouth!

We’ve been to a couple of other weddings, and they all seem to follow a similar format (that’s probably what they would say about our weddings, too).  The couple sits up in front of the hall with their escort couple (usually an older couple – not parents – just mentors or friends).  There is a floorshow with dance groups and dancing of the guests.  There is an emcee who has a microphone and kind of keeps the evening moving along, and a disk-jockey to play continuous tunes.

We haven’t seen this cake ceremony before, though.  Two of their friends

carried in a small table with a cake and drinks.  Then this other gal came dancing in with two forks and two knives.  I can’t quite think of the words to describe her dancing, but it was very popular with the crowd.  Haha  MANY people put money on top of her head or tucked it into her shirt or just threw it at her.  She was modestly dressed and very pretty.  

And through the whole evening, Gracia didn’t crack a smile!!!  Marcel did his best not to look too jovial, but he’s a smiler by nature, so it at least looked like he was having a good time.  It’s the custom – the other weddings we’ve been to have been the same.  Marcel’s committee of friends had done a good job of planning the evening.

And then we ate.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell – haha!  Sorry that I rambled on!  Have a great week!

And Happy 4th of July!!!!  Much love,  Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis

June 28, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Today is the birthday of my youngest sister, Nancy Jo.  She was 10 younger than me and when she came to our family 8 years after my sister Cathy, she was everyone’s baby.  (And everyone’s favorite)  I remember even as a young boy wanting to please her.  We used to argue over who would hold her or take her on walks around the block.  I became pretty expert at pushing her in the stroller around the neighborhood.  She had totally blonde hair and a cheerful disposition, always drawing the attention of the entire neighborhood.  

I thought I was her favorite because I used to have the responsibility of putting her to sleep.  She loved to be tickled and I could usually crawl out of the bedroom quietly enough not to awaken her.  If you did, you were in for another round of tickles and restarting the process anew.  Because she and Cathy shared a bedroom, I soon recognized my place as her second favorite sibling.  

My reflections of her youth come primarily from her commitment to Rama’s Baton Arte. She twirled everywhere and everything.  She adopted Rama Glover Rasmussen, who was my age, as a second mother.  She confided everything in her and often returned home from baton and dance lessons with some additional life’s lessons.  To this day I don’t know if she was naturally smart or just good at apple polishing.  In any event, she was almost a straight A student and upon graduation was recognized as a member of the top 10 academic students at Box Elder High School.   

She and her “only one true love”, Marty Wayne Jensen, had six children by the time she was 36.  She had developed a great love for family history and seemed to know the deceased relatives in the cemetery as well as those who were still living.  She spent countless hours searching their histories and their lives and as a result she introduced them to the rest of us.  I suppose another reason she became so well acquainted was because of her closeness to my mother, with whom she spoke every day of her life.  

I realize that death can be sweet yet in Nancy Jo’s case, it was a bitter pill to swallow.  Life and death seem so unfair at times and this was one of those times.  As a young mother of six, she was diagnosed with cancer and within six months she was gone.  It has been over 20 years since her death and her memory and legacy are alive and well in the lives of her six children.  I don’t believe my parents ever recovered from losing their baby, but at least now they are reunited.  I miss her often and on her birthday I wanted to capture some remembrances in this journal entry.

I truly wonder what we will do upon our return that will be as interesting as what we do every single day.  I want to share just a few of our adventures from this past week and in no particular order:

1. Marcel Buzangu, our translator married Gracia yesterday.  They have known each other since his mission.  He returned from his mission in 2009.  He worked in Likasi, where her family are all members of the Church.  They have waited until she could also complete a mission and finish her studies before their marriage.  He has been a little distracted as our translator this week but he plans on returning to work tomorrow morning at 8:30.  I became one of the photographers both at the civil wedding ceremony and the reception.  Shelley tells me I took more pictures of them than I did of any of our children’s weddings.  Of all the events of the day, the most inspiring to me relates to the commitment of those who attended his reception.  The reception was at the Kisanga Stake Center and ended around 10:00 p.m.  There were about 150 people at reception and when we arrived, ours was the only car in the parking lot.  I believe there were maybe 2 at the most 3 others cars that came later.  Many of the people live miles away from the stake center and took transport coming but had to walk home.  Four piled into our truck and we delivered them before returning for another four, but all the others returned home without the benefit of transport that doesn’t run that time of night.  To me it represented a significant commitment to friendship and support; many had no thought of difficulty.  I reflect on living on 5th West and murmuring about walking to the stake center on 800 West.  O ye of little faith.
2. Regideso is our largest project and we received good news on Monday with Kinshasa signing the contract.  The project was approved on May 7, 2015 and it has taken this long to get the contract signed by the beneficiary organization who will benefit from a $150,000 water project where they have no risk.  Everyone is worried about someone else in the line of command receiving kickbacks which are a way of life in this society.  We spent the rest of the week getting Regideso approved as a vendor to receive electronic transfers and processing the mobilization (prepayment) for 25% of the project cost, so they can buy materials needed for the project.  It should not be this difficult to give away money.  We may be delayed another few weeks depending on the timing of the electronic payment and their other project scheduling.  Phillip has indicated a desire to do a $500,000 to $800,000 project with Regideso in 2016 but they are in no rush to share their long-term vision with us or do any master planning.  I hope this project establishes a relationship of trust that will be enduring.
3. We had a key meeting at the Ministry of Health this past week.  By chance or tender mercy, we met with three of the most influential leaders of the MOH.  Dr. Kitopi is the general counsel and chief of the cabinet, Dr. Jean Marie is the director of the Division of Health for all of Katanga Province and Enoch is a counselor to the Minister.  We were looking for help in obtaining exemption certificates for the wheelchairs and vision equipment scheduled to arrive in the next month.  Dr. Kitopi is the key person and he said he had processed our request June 16, 2015 and would work with us.  He also received all of the materials we had prepared for the Minister, who always seems to be sick or traveling.  We reviewed all of our humanitarian projects in picture format that Shelley had prepared.  They are going to help us in obtaining the cooperation and assistance we need not only with current projects, but with those being planned for 2016.  Oh how I wish we had had these connections when we first arrived in Lubumbashi.   We are praying for a replacement couple because that is the only way to capitalize on the groundwork we have laid.  Without a replacement couple, much of our foundational work will be lost, but someone coming could benefit from previously established relationships.
4. One of my favorite memories from the week came from our visit to Control Technique; the place where safety inspections are done to renew your six month car sticker.  Stickers are very important to any driver in the Congo.  The police are constantly pulling you over to attempt to find something wrong where you will have to pay a fine (bribe) in order for them to overlook your infraction.  Current stickers are a must for white missionaries.  There is nothing orderly about the process which included three steps:
1. Your car has to be inspected in spite of the fact that it was just serviced by the Toyota dealer.  The person performing the inspection and his assistant asked for water when they were done.  Asking for water is a polite way of asking for money.  They had looked in the center console and saw money we use for paying for tips and parking.  When they had finished, it was 12:06 on they said we would have to return after 14:00 because everyone had gone to lunch.
2. We returned at 14:40 to have the next office record the inspection and write up an invoice that would need to be paid at the payment office.  We visited for a few minutes and I ‘ll tell you the story at the end.  They referred us to the payment office.
3. Payment office was open and six people were on duty but they told us since it was 15:03, they could not accept our payment because they were a branch of the bank and the bank was closed at 15:00.  I was a little miffed because this simple process had taken the better part of a day and they wanted us to return again the following day.

Fortunately we had made friends with the workers in the recording office.  When we entered the office, they had music playing and I was so surprised to hear the English words to “Lead me into Life Eternal” being sung by the Tabernacle Choir.  (Something that regrettably could never happen in Utah)  I asked them about the music and they said that this was their favorite CD and they played it every day during work.  Not a single member in the office, but one was a choir director with a daughter who sang in his choir.  The African people love music and their singing is with such feeling.  Steve Mutombo, our previous translator, was with me and he said he thought he could find some inexpensive copies of the CD.  Before we left the office, they had ordered six copies, I had told them the story of Emily and even played a little clip I have on my phone with Emily singing with the Choir “when you’re tired and you can’t sleep, just count your blessing instead of sheep”.  We were instant buddies.  This caused us to be late for our third stop but when we returned, they told us they would issue us the permit and receive our money which they would deposit the following day.  Motab rules!

Phillip Moatlhodi, the Area Welfare Manager, asked us to write an article to be used in their January training conference for humanitarian couples in Johannesburg.  He wanted us to write about building relationships.  We also watched a great movie this week called “The Good Lie” about the lost boys of the Sudan.  It had a great quote that is an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”.  We know we are not alone and appreciate sharing some of these experiences with you.  We treasure our relationship with each one of you.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)

June 21, 2015 - Shelley

June 21, 2015

Today is the shortest day of the year here – and the longest where most of you are!  I wouldn’t say that it feels like winter exactly, but it’s definitely chilly in the mornings and evenings!

Our projects have been on a bit of a roller coaster this week.  We’re stalled on some, and we’re trying to get others submitted before we get too close to going home.

One new project came about two weeks ago when we were visiting hospitals with President Thomas’s son, Zack.  The Kisanga General Hospital is the largest hospital in one of the local health zones.  All 200 others send their most difficult cases there.   The facility receives water only in the morning from

this Regideso tap.  The rest of the day, the hospital basically only has access to water from a hand-dug well that is often contaminated.  It’s a hospital with 95 beds and a new wing for TB patients.  Anyway, our idea is to bring in three 5000 liter storage tanks that can be filled when the water is available and then used throughout the afternoon and night.  The tanks have to sit on an elevated platform to avoid vandals and in order to use gravity for water flow.  It would be such a blessing, so hopefully we can get it approved in time.  It feels promising.

Now for the downhill part of the roller coaster ride.  Grapphe is a handicapped organization that sells water to earn money.  They have a nice manual well, but recently they have been losing customers to some wells with electric pumps in their area.  The

photo shows the front of their building with the people lined up for water.  We have wanted to help the handicapped community for a long time, but couldn’t settle on an appropriate way to do so.  Anyway, the plan was for us to provide $10,000 and Grapphe to give $5,000 to convert their manual well to a well with an electric pump.  It took more than a month for us to get approval to do this project – and in the meantime, Grapphe spent their money on a big party coming in August to celebrate their 12-year anniversary!!!  ARG!!!!  The more we think we understand, the more we realize we don’t understand anything!!!!

On a lighter note, we took our last trip to buy lumber for the new roof at the Kamweneja School.  These are some of

the gals in charge of the local lumber yard.  I love how they sit around with their big purses while the men do all the work!!!!  Well, this week happened to be beauty shop week, I guess.  A beautician was there doing hair.  Below

is Lydee who stopped while getting her new “do” to sign an invoice.  I’ve tried before to get a picture of ladies getting their hair done, but usually they are about like I would be in the same situation – not too wild about the idea! Haha  Well, Lydee was a real character and didn’t seem to mind.  I’ve wondered about how the gals get their braids to stay so stiff when they stick out from their heads.  The answer:  black thread!  So, for example, this cute girl in

Luputa used thread to get her ponytails to stand up. Anyway, Lydee was having her hair done in a similar way, except that the beautician was adding a piece of a hair extension with black thread and then cutting the extension off.

She was very gracious to let us watch!

The lady on the right had hers done in the same way yesterday – so this is how it turns out.  It’s about a two-hour process, costs $30, and will last for about three months.  What we women won’t do for beauty!!!

And another positive thing this week was our involvement in the immunization campaign against polio.  There are 420,000 babies under the age

of one year in the Katanga Province where we live.  Our participation in this vaccination project has been to pay for the transportation of the vaccine and advertising in two areas of the province.  The photo shows the delivery truck being loaded behind the Ministry of Health Building.  This is injectable vaccine rather than drops because they feel it is more effective in this area.

We attended a stake music show in the Lubumbashi Stake yesterday.  We really

enjoyed the enthusiastic hoots and hollers!   A jazzed-up “Joy to the World” was my all-time favorite!  Yes, it is June.  ☺  This little guy looks like he’s had enough, though!

And last night we ate dinner with the other senior missionaries at the Hotel Lubumbashi.  Someone recommended

it to Sister Cook, who was looking for good Indian food.  Just a side note to those of you who have lived here:  The Indian Spice Restaurant went out of business and the mission home bought their generator.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it (I had pizza ☺).

Well, even though it isn’t celebrated here, I must wish Happy Father’s Day to the wonderful fathers in my life!  I have truly been blessed by your kindnesses to me!  My companion, of course, is at the top of my list!  I love him more each day!  --Mom/G-ma/Souer Davis

June 21, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Father’s Day and I need to record a few reflections about George William Davis.  There were many endearing characteristics about my father that drew people to him.  He was an original and never tried to be someone else.  He was comfortable being himself and was pleased when you did the same.  Growing up in a small town, I felt everyone knew him and he knew all the residents of the entire county.  If he didn’t, my mother could supply you with family backgrounds and the latest in gossip material from her ladies clubs.  

I remember on several occasions as an adult going to him for advice.  It was just nice to be able to visit and his common sense, I found out was fairly uncommon.  He had a down to earth way of getting right to the heart of the matter and usually had sage advice.  Mom has replaced him as my sounding board with the same type of wise counsel, but what I wouldn’t give to spend just an hour or two together with him!  Usually your life’s problems didn’t come all at once and it required ongoing installments of counseling and mentoring to cover the full range of challenging situations.  I remember sitting in his office at Brigham Implement or having a hamburger at Murph’s Inn or just visiting on a drive with him in his pickup as he was visiting his friends who were also his customers.  

It’s funny now because I don’t recall many of the exact golden nuggets of wisdom he shared with me, just the fact that he was a listening ear and with a wry smile, I could tell he had been down this road himself.  I do remember how he usually left me with a smile and “keep smiling” wish.  There was always hope in his message and the words of scripture that “know this my son that all these things shall work together for thy good”.  I miss him yet his influence lives on as I try to make him proud of me and my family.  The eternal nature of families and the blessings of the sealing power of temple ordinances becomes more priceless to me every day.

Just yesterday we had a music celebration at the Lubumbashi Stake Center.  It was a song festival where different wards of the stake performed; first the children and then the adults and the missionaries were the concluding numbers.  There is a wonderful tradition here where the audience will not let someone who is performing fail.  If an individual is singing and is faltering, the members of the audience begin singing along as backup.  There can be a trio or a quartet singing and you would think it was the entire ward choir.  The music is a common language and it is so exhilarating to hear the saints here sing the hymns.  They do add some new frills and variations that make the music quite a bit jazzier and the volume is never an issue.   

I took so many pictures of the children singing.  There is no end of great photo ops here and I know they will never tell the story but we have accumulated over 14,000 to this point, so we do have some stories to tell. I also visited the lumber yard again this week.  We are working a roofing project for Kamweneja School where the roof and ceiling tiles are being replaced.  There is not a lumber yard that will accept electronic payments and so we have to pay 100% cash.  The problem is that we are limited to about $1,000 of cash at any one time which means that we have returned 5 or 6 times.  We have become acquainted with the president of the lumber yard association that is run exclusively by women.  When we first showed up they didn’t want me to take any pictures and this time they were all posing and requesting to be part of the picture parade.  The problem is they all want hard copies of their picture immediately.  I tell them if they can provide me an email address, I’ll send them their photos.

It was especially fun this time because there was a beautician at the lumber yard doing hair.  I’m learning lots of lessons in extensions and how they are attached.  Almost all of the women’s hair here is in the form of a wig or extensions.  The women change their hair often and it makes them more difficult to identify if they are wearing their hair in a different style which means a different wig.  We took both still and video pictures and had a lot of fun visiting with the ladies through our translator.   The women who own the lumber yard are Muslim and were just starting Ramadan.  They fast for 36 days which means they only eat an evening meal.  I didn’t ask many more questions on religion.  They always seem to be amazed that we have 7 children because their view of America and Europe is a family of 2 and selfish adults who are self-consumed.

We had been asked to write a letter to Johannesburg with ideas for water projects for 2016.  We sent in our thoughts and a suggested listing of future projects.  Just last week we had visited Kisanga General Hospital that serves a population of 233,000 residents.  They have running water but only in   the mornings and they have no water storage.  They use contaminated water from a shallow hand-dug well during the afternoon and nighttime.  One of the 2016 projects we suggested was to provide water storage at this general hospital.  I submitted the recommendations on Wednesday and Phillip called us at home at 8:45  pm  that evening and asked if we could complete the Kisanga project in 2015 if he could find the money.  It was such a departure from the normal extended waiting process of getting a project approved but we were elated that he read our email and acted on it in the same day.  We have since returned to the hospital twice and are working with Serrge of Regideso to properly design the storage system for capacity and delivery.  We’re excited to be able to see the completion of this project in person and not just on paper.  

My email is going to be cut short because we have been invited to have dinner with Patrice and Christiane.  Patrice is a counselor in the Lubumbashi Stake Presidency.  We need to be there by 3:00 pm.  Electrical power is not usually available in their homes on a consistent basis and most meal invitations are when they sun is shining or before it turns dark which is about 6:00 pm.  

We have enjoyed living at the mission complex because we seem to do more things together with the other senior couples.  Last night we went out to dinner at the Lubumbashi Hotel which is downtown near the stake center.  Almost everything here in the form of business seems to be controlled by Indians.  They either own or manage about every prominent business establishment in town.  It would remind you of the Jewish pension for the management of money.  One good thing about the Indian people we meet is that they speak English and are very accommodating.  We enjoyed our night out on the town.  

We just returned from Patrise and Christiane where we ate a typical Congolese dinner.  We had fish, Bukari (fufu), Sombe, sausage, French fries and juice.  The water specialist from the MTC said anything is safe if you chase it with a coke.  My coke habit will have to be broken upon our return.  These people have been married for 9 years and they have been unable to have children.  They are wonderful people and shared their family albums with us of their dote party, their marriage, college graduation, their subsequent trip to the Johannesburg Temple.  We meet so many wonderful people to whom the church means everything.  The food is to be tolerated but the people are to be cherished.  

Happy Father’s Day; it’s my most treasured title.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)

June 14, 2015 - Shelley

June 14, 2015

I’m sitting here wearing a sweater.  Even though it’s sunny outside, the temperature is a little brisk.  Not like June at home.  You will think I have lost all of my inhibitions in this picture because I have just had my hair cut at a new place – and I’m looking pretty snazzy – haha.  At least I’m not the gal

getting a facial!!!  These are two sisters from India who run a small beauty shop.  Their husbands are here to work in the mines.  Milly, the hairdresser, is on my left.  Besides cutting hair and doing facials, she reminded me that she also uses wax to take hair off of forearms – but I declined!

We paid a visit to the Peage School this week to see how they are doing with the sewing machines we provided.  In a six-week period, Odette and her students have made over 300 school uniforms for the next school year.  Many of the students now can’t afford uniforms, so these will be offered at a reduced price in the fall when the students return.  We felt very pleased with the work they have done.  The photo shows Odette, her husband, and her son and daughter.

Here’s just a random shot that I thought was funny – just a little local 7-11.

President and Sister Thomas’s son Zack is visiting here for a couple of weeks.

Zack is the tallest person in this picture.  He is a medical student in Arizona, so he wanted to see some of the local medical facilities.  Dr. Mikesell took him to a new hospital on Thursday – and we took him to four places that are typical of where the vast majority of people would go for medical treatment.  Our

hearts were all touched at this little baby girl who has been abandoned.  Someone dropped her off at one of the hospitals.  She has only three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot.  We were impressed with how hard medical personnel are working to provide good service with such limited resources – and totally hoping we never have to go there for treatment!  

One of the biggest events of our week was Steve’s (our former translator) official “dote” meeting.  A dote is an assessment that a prospective husband is required to pay to his future bride’s family.  It started out generations ago as a way of symbolically paying the bride’s family with these items:  salt, palm oil, a bowl for washing, and a goat, if the bride was a virgin.  Somehow, over the years the tradition has changed – and families have become greedy.  We’ve even heard of marriages that were called off because the young man couldn’t raise the money to buy what was being asked for.  With 90% unemployment here, it’s amazing that anyone has money to get married!

But Steve has been saving – and he has a job – so he was able to buy what was asked for.  Last night was the time that his family and Matilda’s family met so that these items could be given.

This is Steve and his bride-to-be, Matilda.

These are Steve’s parents and one of his sisters.

And these are Matilda’s parents.

We met at the home of one of Matilda’s sisters.  Steve presented the following items:  salt, palm oil, a bowl, $1,000 in cash, $300 to buy a suit for her dad, fabric for dresses for her mom, blankets – and two goats!

Matilda has 14 sisters and one brother.

Eight of her sisters were there – and her brother.  Matilda is not the youngest, but is one of the younger ones.  And these gals have fun together!

I sent our family a voice memo of this hooting and hollering part.  They also put on a little skit – and had spent the day cooking up a storm.  There were about 50 adults there, but the nieces

and nephews stayed out of sight – except for this cute little gal!

We hope you are loving summer vacation!  We love you and miss you all!

Love,  Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis