August 23, 2015 - Shelley

August 23, 2015

Well, if your plans for New Year’s Eve in New York City fall through, I’ve got just the place for you!  It will be MUCH less crowded, too!  haha

We’ve been on an emotional roller coaster this week in trying to get every-

thing in place for the wheelchair project.  The Dows are coming from the US next Friday on the 28th.  Things that were promised from the government aren’t working out well – in fact, not at all.  Part of the problem is that the government is in transition because the Katanga Province where we live is being divided into four provinces.  Now no one knows who is in charge and some of their funding has been frozen until after October 1st, when the change becomes official.  I can’t quite imagine how this will all work out, but at least it will be over!!!!!!  (Bad attitude!) And hopefully, some very deserving people will get a wheelchair in the process.  It’s really the people who suffer the most when the government is ineffective – and people here have already suffered enough.  It’s so sad.

On a brighter note, the Regideso water project is well underway in three of the five neighborhoods.

There is always a crowd when there’s action going on.  My able companion

is a charmer with his camera.  Below is a

water station that is almost complete.  The residents now need to dig the trenches for the pipes leading to the station.  I’ve learned far more than I ever wanted to know about wells and water!!  I’m more of a “just turn on the tap” kind of gal, which is very telling about how spoiled I have always been!  I think the greatest blessing about these water sites will be decreasing the possibility of disease due to drinking dirty water.  About 18% of Congo’s children die before the age of five!

We made a visit to Katimel orphanage to check up on how the sewing lessons are going.  We’ve hired a married

couple to teach the older girls how to sew on the new machines the church gave them.  We found all of the girls still

learning how to handle a needle by embroidering their name.  This little cutie is too young to learn, but watched the older girls very intently.

Below is a sample of the paintings that decorate the walls of the orphanage.

A therapist comes to help the girls deal with the trauma they have experienced, and he uses painting as

a medium for them to express themselves.  Some of them are simply beautiful!

Although she doesn’t look too thrilled about this in the picture, this girl is

learning how to work the treadle on one of the machines.  My own experience with this is that it isn’t as easy as it looks!

We actually found the truck containing the wheelchairs.  It’s sitting in customs -

even though we have paid the customs fee!  GRRR!  The two drivers drove the chairs from the port in Tanzania to the DRC border where they sat for one week.  Now they have been here in Lubumbashi for one week – just waiting for clearance.  In the meantime, this

little “stove” is where they have been cooking their meals for two weeks!

We had planned that Kenneth Mofokeng would be here this weekend to look at potential water projects for 2016.  Kenneth is over all church water projects for Southeast Africa.  As happens all too often, he got to the airport in Johannesburg and had difficulties with his visa – so he postponed his trip until mid-September.  Well, we had arranged a trip to Kasumbelesa with the Regideso engineers to see the critical water situation there in hopes that it would be included in projects for 2016.

Clark felt like he needed to make the trip anyway just because Regideso was counting on it.  Kasumbelesa is about two hours away.  This isn’t my first rodeo and I can remember how LONG it can be between necessary breaks (if you know what I’m saying here) – no McDonald’s bathrooms or anything.  I would have been the only woman . . . and, well, I wimped out!  I stayed home and went shopping for fabric with Sister Cook and Sister Vance!

Lucky for me that I did!  They were gone for eleven hours!!!!!  No food (except for the picnic I had packed) and no potties!

Only 6% of the people in Kasumbelesa have drinkable water – it’s a city of 135,000!  It’s on the Zambia border.  Because of that, you can see miles and miles of trucks lined up waiting for customs clearance there.

It’s hard to see, but this lady’s bucket is full of baggies containing water.  She is selling them.  The only problem is that one doesn’t really know where she GOT the water.   Anyway, the situation there is critical and has the potential for many much-needed water solutions.

The health center in this picture only gets water once a week – and then

it’s only for 2 hours.  The three barrels are where they store that water to use during the week.  These gals look pretty

happy, though.  Generally speaking, we have found happy people wherever we go in spite of what we would consider to be terrible living conditions.

Our prayers are with Elder and Sister Draper who ended up having to go home to Canada after all.  Elder’s surgery went well and they hope to return here in a couple of weeks.

The Lord has blessed us in so many ways – in ways we couldn’t even have imagined.  We continue to try to do our best.  Much love,  Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis