July 19, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, July 19, 2015

We attended the Bongonga Ward Conference today.  The best part of the conference was the primary choir that sang prelude songs in preparation for the beginning of sacrament meeting.  They sang several primary songs without a text or notes or charts and they all seemed to know the words.  It was even more remarkable that when we started singing the hymns in sacrament meeting, they still knew the words to every verse and they had even memorized the page numbers in the hymnal so they could help senior missionaries find the page.  It reminded me of President Robert Steed and his wife Debbie who seldom carry a hymn book and know every word.  President Steed said it is important to learn the words before he loses his sight with old age.  In priesthood meeting the high priests group questioned whether they were teaching their children the gospel well enough.  I shared my observation with them and told them “what better way to teach gospel principles than teaching their children the words of the hymns”.    

Another thing that strikes me is their attitude towards children.  The average family seems to have lots of children; it is not uncommon to meet members who come from families of 10-14 children from a single mother.  We were a little concerned as we attended a USAID seminar this past week that one of their redeeming programs is family planning to limit family size.  These people give little thought to everything they need to provide a new baby other than love.  The family is of premier importance and children are valued as an heritage of the Lord.  I realize as a grandparent it is easier to give advice about family planning than as a newly-wed, but my advice would be to plan your family and plan on welcoming as many children as the Lord will send you.  The Congolese people are exemplary in family planning.

This week was very rewarding for our ongoing and future projects:

1. Regideso is finally getting underway and we spent the entire day visiting all five neighborhoods to announce the start of the project and determine the exact location for the placement of the water stations.  As we have visited these neighborhoods several times, the people recognize us and welcome us.  It’s hard to blend in but as a white person, we are either singled out as “muzunga” or we are idolized because every white person is rich and has money they want to give.  We are asked for money daily in every situation imaginable.  You would like to give more but there is no end of need and yet giving only creates more dependency and so we avoid it.  It is nice to be able to give in the name of the church.  60% of Lubumbashi’s residents do not have access to clean drinking water, so clean water really is the gift of life.  
2. Kafubu Health Zone is still repairing wells.  Leon is the representative from the Ministry of Health with whom we work in coordinating the repairs and arrangements with the villages.  He is an employee of the MOH but has no vehicle and they do not pay for his transportation.  We end up paying his transportation so he will visit the villages.  Somehow we got this backwards.  It seems so difficult to push, push, push to give away money.  We gave him $20 to visit three villages that are 30 miles away and he has to stay overnight away from home to assist in their repair projects; still a small price to pay.  
3. Trinity School Literacy Program (Daniel).  This is a program organized by Daniel, a chef de quartier (chief of the quarter section) who envisioned teaching 600 women to read and write French.  He asked us for help but started 2 months ago without us.  We were so happy that Johannesburg approved helping with school supplies like notebooks, pens and a syllabus for each student.  We went shopping on Friday and had to negotiate the price of reproducing the syllabus with the local one-man service provider across the street from Daniel’s office that is housed at the Kisanga General Hospital.  We used Marcel’s advice to offer one third of their asking price.  They asked for $5 for a 27 page bound syllabus.  Sister Davis beat them down to 1,800 francs or about $2.  Who said Shelley was a soft touch?
4. Kisanga General Hospital is a project that literally fell into our laps. I’ll attach a copy of the letter I sent to President and Sister Thomas describing the background.  We have worked on some projects for over a year now and they still have no traction, but this one has been discovered, presented, designed and funded all since June 10th, a record for us.  We received Phillip’s phone call on Wednesday saying we have to green light to build a water storage facility that will provide clean water to this general hospital that serves 233,000 residents. (see attachment)
5. Kamweneja is a Catholic School that anywhere else in the world would have been condemned.  The roof and ceiling leaked like a sieve, yet they asked for new desks.  Phillip Moatlhodi said we couldn’t be involved in construction but we could provide construction supplies if they would provide the installation.  Our proposal was cut in half last February due to budget restrictions.  We are nearing completion of 6 class rooms where the roof and ceiling have been replaced and had lobbied to extend the project to complete 3 additional class rooms.  Approval was received on Thursday.  

We have adopted a phrase attributed to Elder Packer, “You get what you go for”.  Three weeks ago, Phillip asked us to write a list of potential 2016 local area initiatives.  We included 10 projects and told Phillip, we would love to take on as many as we could before we leave.  We listed them in order of priority.  Of the first five, one was for a feasibility study for replacing a washed-out bridge; a project that the Katanga Province Governor has adopted, the other four have all been approved:

1. Kisanga General Hospital Water Storage
2. Maturation program for 3 stake relief societies in Lubumbashi
3. Literacy program for 600 adult women
4. Kamweneja roofing project completion

We feel so blessed to have these projects approved within the cutoff deadline.  The guideline is not to approve any new projects within the last three months of your release.  I suspect there are budget funds that were not spent in the other 20 countries in the Southeast Africa Area but we have had more projects approved in the last two weeks than we did in the previous six months.  You know how I enjoy being busy.  We have not taken a P-day in months and I’m so happy to be up to our eyeball in projects.  In addition to those listed, we will have visitors from the US for two weeks in August and September with wheelchairs and vision equipment and training.  Phillip and Kenneth are also coming to visit, so the calendar is full.

We did have time for some fun Friday and Saturday.   Friday we ate out at Lattelicious, the best local restaurant, in celebration of Sister Draper’s birthday and Saturday we attended another wedding reception.  Gires is one of our volunteers from Operation Smile and Steve’s best friend.  We obtained permission to bring the other 6 senior missionaries and a good time was had by all.  This is the 4th reception we have attended but the other seniors had never been.  

Odette asked us a difficult question this past week, “when you return home will you ever return to the Congo”?  I told her we came on a mission because we were called by a prophet to come to the Congo and we’re sure happy we did.  We have made many treasured friends who will be our friends regardless of where we are in the world.  We miss you, our family and friends, but we are happy in our calling and life is good.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)