August 30, 2015 - Shelley

August 30, 2015

I don’t quite know how to describe our week other than it has been a week of miracles!  It started a week ago when Clark went to Kasumbalesa.  He lost his wallet when he was dropping everyone off at various homes in the dark.  It did have money in it, but the most valuable things were his drivers’ license and a copy of his passport.  The police are notorious for stopping cars at random, especially when driven by foreigners – so it meant I had to do the driving!!!!  Not that I haven’t driven here, but it’s not something I usually do – and we do

a lot of driving each day.  This poor plant above shows how dusty things are at this time of the year, as we’ve had no rain since April.  Well, as you may have guessed – someone found his wallet – probably buried in dust on a road (most roads aren’t paved). They took the money, but recognized that the owner was LDS and threw his wallet over the fence into the compound of an LDS church building.  A church member who knows us saw it a few days later and returned it.  Truly a miracle in so many ways!  I like to think that the money in his wallet was the answer to someone else’s prayers.  Maybe there are children who will be able to start school next week because a parent found money for tuition.

We were invited to attend a convention of handicapped individuals last week.  We have had many dealings with the handicapped association and felt so sad to hear that their president had been found guilty of mishandling funds.  This convention was to vote on a new president.  The man in the tan suit – Beya – is the new president and the others are on his committee.  The man

next to him with glasses is blind and is a church member.  There were several types of disabilities represented, including the deaf community – and albinos.  We see quite a few albinos here, but had never thought of this condition as being a handicap.  Clearly it has its challenges, though, especially because of the sun.  We’ve noticed that there are several albino children who attend the blind school.  

Anyway, we’ve been so impressed with the handicapped community because they really band together to take care of each other.  War, disease, and lack of proper medical care have left this country with many disabled people.  In

the previous photo, you can barely see this beautiful woman, but she is also on the head committee.  We met her last November.  She’s a seamstress and was given a wheelchair from the church in 2012 at the last wheelchair campaign.  She told us that her chair is too large to fit in her home, but she uses it to go to town to buy fabric.  She wears her shoes on her hands and scoots on the ground.  Notice her own gorgeous dress – and her ever-present smile!

Well, a TRUE miracle occurred on Thursday!  The wheelchairs were finally released from customs!  The Readers Digest version is that Salt Lake told us that if the chairs weren’t in our hands by THURSDAY, our project would be cancelled!  I’m sure that Clark will tell all the details in his letter, but basically, we were required to pay a substantial fee to an agency to help us get the chairs through the customs process.  It was the only agency that the Ministry of Health recognizes.  SO – what we didn’t know was that this agency (C.E.T.A.) owes money to customs from a shipment of caskets for someone else in April – a lot of money!  Customs refused to release the wheelchairs until C.E.T.A.’s whole bill of $17,000 was paid!  The church should not, nor would not, pay this, of course!

After we had spent all of Wednesday at the customs office without any luck, we were walking out the door when this man appeared.  His name is Iluta and

he has some job in finances at the customs office.  Anyway, he told us to come back the next day – our very last possible day to salvage the project – and it would all be okay.

However, when we returned early Thursday morning, Iluta was nowhere to be found.  His boss – a very mean-spirited gal name Doudou – told us to forget it!  She would NEVER sign the release – which she said while she cracked her knuckles like a sailor – unless they were guaranteed full back payment from C.E.T.A.  We were stuck!

Just as we were once more dejectedly walking out the door – who should appear but Iluta!  (Here’s the truck which has been sitting here for 13 days!)

He sprang into action, worked Doudou over a little, had us wait for FOUR HOURS in his office while he hustled around – and “Voila!!!” – it was signed!!!

At 3:00 Thursday afternoon, we were pulling out of the customs parking lot when they told us we had to pay $120 for parking the truck there for 13 days.  After an hour, a C.E.T.A. guy showed up with the money and we were on our way!  ALMOST!  The ministry (who was supposed to have done ALL of this) called and said that their storage building was full and we’d have to make other arrangements! I’m not making this up!

Well, a storage area at Sendwe Hospital

became the resting spot for our 361 boxes.  Here is the last box being taken

out of the truck at 8:00 that night!  What a total relief!!!  Elder and Sister Dow were in Nairobi, Kenya, (they had just finished a project in Kinshasa) waiting to hear that we had the chairs before they came to Lubumbashi – otherwise, they would have flown back to the US.  Just a side note:  we talked to one truck driver who has been sitting with his truck full of computers in the customs parking lot for EIGHT MONTHS!!!!

So we picked up the Dows from the airport on Friday and spent Saturday getting 35 chairs to the training area and making final arrangements for the training of 28 technicians and clinicians from 14 area hospitals in how to properly fit a disabled person in an appropriate wheelchair.

John and Marcia Dow are short-term specialists in the area of wheelchairs from the church.  They are from San Diego, CA – and this has been their church calling for 8 years.  They travel to various countries in Africa and Brazil about every other month for a few weeks at a time – supervising humanitarian missionaries like us in wheelchair projects.

Well, enough of that except to say that almost as soon as the Dows leave next Thursday, we need to prepare for a vision training the very next week.  And, of course, it involves getting microscopes and other ophthalmology equipment through customs!!!!  Holy cow!!!!  Doudou will really be cracking those knuckles when she sees US again!

In case you are looking for a small vacation home with spacious windows and air conditioning – I found a deal for you.  It’s currently occupied, however.

And I always like to include pictures of the children.  This little cutie was at church last week.  It looked like she had just barely learned to walk.

We’re missing some birthdays this week – Mercedes, Ashley, and Chloe – Happy Special Day, gals!

Have a great week and eat a peach in our honor!!!  Happy Peach Days!

Love,  Mom/G-ma D./Soeur Davis