September 13, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Life has been busy here the past few weeks.  Since the last week of August preparing for the wheelchair project and then this past week we have worked with Elder and Sister Hunsaker on the vision project.  I have recounted these several times but allow me the recap the results of the vision project.  The Church is donating equipment and training to 3 local hospitals with ophthalmology clinics.  The equipment and supplies will be used for cataract surgery.  The equipment was to arrive in two shipments; one was two microscopes from Australia and the second was from the United States and included all of the consumables and supplies.  The first arrived and the second did not.  The second has yet to arrive and Salt Lake is livid about the lack of support from the shipper, but nonetheless we were without supplies and the things needed to conduct the official training.  There are supposed to be 6 physicians trained from each of the three hospitals and they are to treat 900 patients at each hospital during the next 6 months as their buy-in.

Dr. Kilangalanga from Kinshasa is the in-country champion and has worked together with Jesse Hunsaker for the past 8 years on projects in the DRC.  Dr. Kilanagalanga was super nice and very competent.  Everyone in the medical community knows him here and they really rolled out the red carpet for us wherever we went.  When the second shipment of vision supplies and equipment did not arrive, we adopted plan B.  That was to assemble the microscope at Sendwe Hospital on Monday and the microscope for University Hospital on Tuesday.  Dr. Kilangalanga will return to Lubumbashi next month after the second shipment has arrived and do the training.  This will eliminate the need for the Hunsakers to return to Africa for another trip and the locals will receive training from a champion they already love and recognize.  Jesse and Diane Hunsaker are both from Logan originally and now live in Alpine where he practices.  They have been serving as short-term specialist in vision for 8-9 years and they make 4-8 trips to Africa every year. When they go they spend anywhere from a week to three weeks away from his practice.  They were fun to be with and for the last day and a half they were here, they just followed us around to check on our projects and get a feel for what the work of humanitarian couples is like in the field.  They are planning on a full-time mission in another 3 years.  Diane is 60 and Jesse is 64.  Diane’s maiden name was Karen and we knew her brother Dale from USU.  Jesse is Hedy Eyre’s brother whom we also knew from USU.

Another fun fact from the vision training and luncheons we did have is that we asked for volunteers to say the blessing on the food and we were never disappointed.  Lattelicious provided the catering and did everything for half price and threw in the afternoon snacks.  They treated us very well.  Believe it or not, but Shelley and I are tired of eating out and want some alone time at home.  You see, the Hunsaker’s left on Thursday at the same time as Kenneth Mofokeng, the water specialist from Johannesburg showed up.  We have been chasing Regideso projects since his arrival.  

Thursday we visited neighborhoods in Quartier Congo and Katuba for the water-line extension program as well as the Kisanga General Hospital and a couple of schools.  Friday, we spent the entire day in Kasumbalesa, a border town near Zambia with a population of about 180,000.  We visited the mayor’s office, the local mining company and had a tour of the water source facilities.  Regideso is trying to persuade Kenneth into investing in their million dollar project there.  The general population lives without clean drinking water.  There is an estimated 4-6% of the population that has clean water access.  Hand dug wells and river water are the alternatives.  The drive is very frightening because this is the major semi-truck route from Zambia to Lubumbashi.  It’s a two lane road with far too much passing and driving at night is a nightmare because many cars do not have tail lights.  

Saturday we spent visiting the Kafubu Health Zone with Leon Senga who has supervised this project.  He said they call him prince Leon now when he comes to the villages where he has been instrumental in bring water.  There were 68 wells in the health zone that had been abandoned and we have worked together in repairing approximately 25 with the help of Leon and Immaculee from the Ministry of Health Cleansed Village program.  Many of these abandoned wells had been out of commission for 2-5 years because the village make no provision to save for future maintenance.  The emphasis of our program is to charge for clean water so they will accumulate funds for future repairs.  Sounds so simple but no one trust anyone else to keep their money, they chief often steals the money, or they fail to collect money for water thinking they are doing the people a favor by providing free-water.  We visited 8 wells as a sample and found them in all types of conditions, most were working, but the collection and saving process differed significantly.  We hope this is the first of other similar projects to follow.  It costs as much as $1,000 to repair a well effectively but $15,000 to $18,000 to drill a new borehole.

Perhaps the best thing that happened to us on the humanitarian side was something we had hot planned.  We stopped at Pizza inn by the new Hyper Psaro after our trip to the Kafubu Health Zone.  Nigel is the owner/operator of the Pizza Inns I Lubumbashi.  There are currently two locations.  He helped us with the catering for the wheelchair program.  Bruce, his assistant from Zimbabwe, we wonderful and always on time with hot food.  We complimented him on the service they had provided.  He gave us $50 in Pizza Inn gift certificates but the best thing, he asked us for a listing of candidates from our church to fill 40 new job openings he will have after construction of a new plaza in downtown Lubumbashi.  He said the construction should be completed in about 20 weeks.  We immediately called Mbidi Ilunga, who is the director of the self-reliance center.  Mbidi was just returning from Kinshasa and was on the road from the airport.  He stopped at the Pizza Inn; we introduced him to Nigel and they made arrangements to meet on Monday.  Jobs are very hard to come by here and any kind of job is a blessing.  

With Kenneth’s visit, we were saddened to hear that they are closing four countries to humanitarian service.  Rwanda, Burundi, Gabon, and Ehiopia.  They said that apparently these governments are difficult to deal with and they are concerned for the safety of the humanitarian couples with the instability of the governments.  We believe they are still looking for a replacement couple for Lubumbashi because we are considered a center of strength because of both the current membership of the church and the rate of new member growth.  Steve Mutumbo, our second translator, has been called as the in country coordinator and will assist with the transition.  We will work at qualifying others to serve as site monitors in an effort to provide continuity for our existing projects.  

This coming week we have Kenneth here until Tuesday and then Thursday and Friday Phillip Moatlhodi, our area welfare manager and Sharon Eubank, the worldwide director of LDS Charities will be here.  We are not wishing away the time because we welcome these visitors to showcase what good can be done in Lubumbashi and hope they will continue their commitment here, however, we will be breathing a little easier come Saturday.  

We are trying not to be too trunky and our work schedule has accommodated that.  We are still trying to determine if Steve will be allowed to travel to Johannesburg the first week of October.  He should let us know this week and we will inform you of our travel plans by next Sunday.  In an effort to accommodate those of our family wishing to attend our homecoming address, we will be asking Bishop Taylor to move our Sacrament meeting date from the 18th to the 25th of October.  Our block starts with Sacrament meeting at 1:00.  Naturally we would prefer to have our report date on October 11th directly following our return but with General Conference, this is fast Sunday.  

Sorry to communicate so many administration issues rather than ministering experiences.  It really is amazing how much LDS Charities does worldwide and we appreciate being a small part of that effort here in Lubumbashi.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)