August 2, 2015 - Shelley

August 2, 2015

Our friends Bonnie and Don McCauley are serving a mission in Ukraine.  Bonnie recently included a quote by Ritu Ghatouery in her weekly letter. “Beauty is hidden in everything, just learn how to observe.”  I really needed to hear that since everything here is so dry and dusty at this time of year.  I was struck by the

strange beauty of this tree, however.  The trunk has few branches until it gets close to the top.  It looks a little like a giant Christmas tree up in the air.  Santa would have plenty of room for lots of BIG presents underneath that bad boy!  ☺

We’re still treading water on several projects as we WAIT.  Our translator has suggested more than once that it would help if we could just slip a little bribe under the table at some of these places, but of course, that’s out of the question!  ☺

We visited our friend Therese, who owns a school for girls.  It was so refreshing to

find some of her students at the school sewing school uniforms for students in other schools.  It’s a summer job for them.  Therese is a person who truly loves her students and has been so successful in helping them find their way out of poverty.  As a reminder, this was one of our first project recipients – the church outfitted a cooking lab so that Therese could prepare girls to find work in restaurants.  Her husband is a carpenter and makes all of the desks and cupboards for the school.  The girls who weren’t sewing were knitting

beautiful baby outfits to sell.  While other kids are wasting their summer away doing nothing, Therese has caught the vision to help her students earn money.  Obviously, it means that Therese is spending HER summer at the school, too!

In stark contrast to Therese’s school was our visit to Katimel Orphanage this week.  We have tried repeatedly to organize sewing lessons for the older girls here and have provided several new sewing machines (which are still in their boxes). Therese even volunteered to help them.  However, the orphanage director has been difficult to work with.  Instead of finding girls busy doing something productive and interesting, we found them sitting around their “front yard” doing hair (previous picture).  The director is dismayed that the girls complain so much about having nothing to do during the summer!  Well, we finally just hired a husband and wife to go twice a week for the next month to set up the machines and get them started – so we’ll see how it goes!

We taught our last English class this week.  We’re having to give this

assignment to the senior sisters because our upcoming schedule will make it impossible to fit it in.  I’m sad because I really enjoyed teaching them, and it’s one of the only contacts we have with the young missionaries.  

Our wheelchair project is coming soon and the specialists from the US will be arriving in a few weeks to help train technicians and clinicians from 14 local hospitals on how to fit disabled people with wheelchairs.  It’s actually quite stressful right now for us because the 225 wheel-chairs have been shipped to the port in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – but the governor here hasn’t signed the tax exemption waiver as of yet that would allow the chairs to come duty free into the country.  We have spent HOURS at the Ministry of Health trying to track down the necessary paper work.

Well, last week we had a small break-through of sorts.  This man - Marcel

Tampwe – actually contacted us!!  He’s a government employee who is in charge of tracking shipments and maybe getting exemptions (I’m a little fuzzy on his actual job, but I think it’s something like that.)  Let’s just say that he’s helping us!  The best thing about him for me is that his office is in a real office-type building that’s CLEAN and appears to have power most of the time!  We’re getting down to the wire on time and want to have all of the arrangements made for this project.

Right on the heels of the wheelchairs is the vision project – actually the very next week (first week of September).  Vision equipment is coming from the US and will be given to three hospitals here.  So that’s more equipment to get through customs!  Yikes!!

Now just a few random things.  This ad

for Pure White make-up is everywhere – billboards, transport windows, etc.   It just strikes me as being funny!

This is Merdi.  We have some thumb suckers in our family, and I thought he looked so cute in his little wicker baby seat.  His father has been a translator for us occasionally.

There is no shortage of cute children, as seen above.  This was taken at church today.

My heart has been so full this week, as we have heard that my mother’s health is declining.  I trust in the Lord’s timetable and have felt His comforting arms around me, knowing that our children and grandchildren are there watching out for her.  No words can express how much I love and appreciate you all.

Love,  Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis