August 2, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, August 02, 2015

We attended the Kisanga 1st Ward that meets in the Plateau Building today.  I believe it is the last church meeting house in the immediate area that we had not visited.  I had set a goal this week to bear my testimony and I did.  Reflecting back on it, the words were pretty much the same as those Shelley had printed on flash cards for me when we gave our farewell address.  This time I couldn’t find the cards but I knew the words and the sentence structure and noticed the verb conjugation.  The words had become my own because of the French practice Shelley and I have each evening.  Language study is somewhat like a puzzle and finding new pieces that fit together that you had previously overlooked or not recognized.  The French language is very challenging but rewarding as well.  Although I can’t speak much, I can often understand the conversation our translator is having with our project partners.  Sometimes it is an advantage to play dumb as though you don’t understand a thing and it really isn’t all that difficult to play dumb because most times you are.

I thought it might be beneficial for my record to record our daily schedule with a few editorial comments just for the record.  We get up at 6:30 and during the morning time slot before leaving home we:

1. Exercise-I do some leg lifts, stretches and pushups for 20-30 minutes while listening to the church French audio program that instructs in different topics.  My exercises are a carryover from membership at Physiques Gym before leaving.  They are very simple because of lack of equipment and I hope to return to that routine after returning home.  The language program is outlined into vocabulary, common phrases, a spoken dialogue and then extra-mile vocabulary.  I just listen with it in the background and hope for learning by assimilation.
2. Shower and shave.  The shower is either hot or cold but never a blend.  In our new home at the mission complex we have always had water but at Makemeno we didn’t.  The bathroom fixtures look normal, but everything leaks, does not fit properly or is on the road to becoming dysfunctional.  It is amazing to stay at hotels in Kasai where they have completely outfitted bathrooms which no longer function and they haul water in by the bucket.
3. My staple for breakfast is usually oatmeal or bananas and Special K.  We have found that yoghurt is a staple and we mix in some muffins and sweet rolls on occasion.  During breakfast we listen Le Livre de Mormon in French.  We try to underline or highlight words we don’t understand; this is a new way of marking scriptures.  We will then go back and compare the verses with the English scriptures on our own.
4. We leave the house around 8:00-8:30 depending on our schedule of appointments.

Our daytime routine includes the following not in any particular order and not necessarily every day:

1. We prepare to do lists from our listing of projects.  I usually prepare a separate to do list for Marcel with phone call contacts and translation assignments for correspondence.  Although we outline a schedule it never goes according to plan.  Most of the time you just put yourself out there and pray for some guidance. As we have understood the process and protocol better, we definitely recognize how we were guided in the past with little or no knowledge of our own.
2. Visit project partners, usually governmental officials.  From the projects we have worked with, the partners have been:
1. Ministry of Health (MH), Ministry of Social Affairs
2. Catholic Diocese who runs over 200 schools here and is accountable for over 110,000 studeents.
3. Hospital and orphanage administrators
4. Elected officials, mayors, chiefs of different jurisdictions, just to name a few
3. Visit contractors, vendors and service providers who are or will be working on our projects.  This included the support team at the Church Self-Reliance Center who help us with purchasing, media coverage, physical facilities, construction screening and contractor referrals and logistics.  
4. Visit project sites and beneficiaries.  We track the progress and attempt to identify ways they can put sweat equity into their projects so they take ownership.  Ownership is a big issue here especially for humanitarian projects that are always viewed as being owned by those who built them especially when it comes to maintenance.  

Shelley keeps a journal of our visits and creates the to do list for follow-up.  She records the key contact information and has developed a directory of names, phone numbers, emails, etc.  She lets the translator and me do most of the talking and records the critical items.     

Most days we spend roughly 4-5 hours away from the office with the translator and use the other half day to complete assignments in the office.  Following our fieldtrip-type visiting we return to the office and document and correspond:

1. CHaS is the humanitarian computer system for recording project progress.  I make weekly entries in the journal.  I also set up the project, track the budget and record accomplishments and lessons learned before closing the project.
2. I write proposals for new projects along with pro-forma invoices to estimate the cost and receive competitive proposals for comparison.  
3. We conduct a lot of correspondence with Johannesburg for project approval, cash working fund reimbursement reporting, report preparation for our monthly project report and stay in touch with all parties involved with our projects.  We also stay in touch with family and friends at home.

We generally leave the office around 5:30.  I go walking with Vaun Mikesell while Shelley is fixing dinner and we generally eat around 6:30-7:00.  The evening routine includes:

1. Dinner while watching Fluenz, our French language program.  There is a dialogue and then a narrative before all of the practice exercises.  We review the dialogue and the narrative during dinner.
2. After dinner, we have about an hour to do the dishes, the laundry, read,  clean up the house and run to the office one last time to complete emails or update reports or some other random reason to return to the office (just like home).  When there is no garden work to do, you have to invent something.
3. Generally we study our Fluenz French from 8:30-9:30 and then for the last hour of the day we watch something on the computer.  The previous missionaries, the Clawsons and Sister Anthony equipped us well with hundreds of movies and TV series to keep us entertained.  Mom’s favorites remain Castle and Downton.  Our goal is to retire by 11:00.

Sorry to bore you with the life that has become routine, but I wanted to remember for my own record.  

This past week we were contacted by Marcel Tambwe   who is the Director of Public Contracts and works with the Ministry of the Budget and the Ministry of the Plan.  He has helped us with the customs clearance process.  We have met with him three times in the week.  We have taken him to the Governor’s Office twice in our behalf. We hope he is an answer to prayer.  We have about concluded that the reason things move so slowly with government officials is that they are waiting for some additional money under the table.  Our translator says they follow the money and when there is no money for them in a project it becomes a last priority.  

There is considerable dishonesty in government but I’m afraid it is a national trait and not restricted to a few.  Our last mission president, Phil McMullin and his wife Joy said they never talked about baptisms but focused on being honest.  Our current president Brent Thomas and his wife, Carolyn, have come to the same conclusion. We have to be constantly vigilant to determine ways in which we or the church might be cheated in a transaction.  My auditor mind has served me well but believe the schemes are endless.  Creativity and ingenuity are definitely alive and well in every facet of our lives.  

I never realized what a wonderful legacy my father left.  He always taught that a man’s word is his bond and that integrity is your most prized possession.  We have often pondered what changes could be made that would lead this nation out of poverty.  I know the gospel is the answer, but in everyday life if honesty was enthroned as the guiding principal for all human behavior and conduct, the change would be revolutionary.  “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men…”  I love these words from the Prophet Joseph.  

Have a great week.  We love you.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)