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)