September 13, 2015 - Shelley

September 13, 2015

I don’t know if sometime in the future I will miss bouncing around in a truck full of men on dusty, bumpy, unpaved roads all day – but I don’t think so! Haha   I keep thinking that people at home buy 4-wheelers and actually do this for fun.  Alas, no 4-wheelers here!

Our last several days have been spent with Kenneth Mofokeng, who is the Church’s water specialist for Southeast Africa.  He arrived on Thursday to review our water projects – mainly the Regideso water extensions.  If we don’t get a replacement couple, I think Kenneth wants to be able to maintain this partnership and manage it from Johannesburg.  He gave us the bad news that no replacement couples will be coming for four countries in our area – Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Gabon.  We know all of the couples who are currently serving in those places and know that they have all worked hard to make a difference.  (The VanWagoners, who were in Burundi, were taken out several months ago because of political unrest and have finished their mission in Kinshasa.)  I think the main reasons for not replacing them have been difficulties in dealing with the governments and also safety concerns.  Also, the young missionaries are being taken out of Uvira this week, also – it’s in a remote area of our mission.

Our projects have to be within 100 km of Lubumbashi.  Regideso identified two cities that fall within that range that are both in dire need of water – Kasumbalesa and Likasi.  So on Friday, we took Kenneth and drove to Kasumbalesa with the Regideso engineers.  This city of 180,000 is about 90 km away on the border of Zambia and only 4% of the people have clean water.  Regideso’s master plan is to raise that to 25%.  Right now in the dry season, the water situation is compounded even more because shallow, hand-dug wells are drying up – and rain isn’t expected for another six to eight weeks.  We visited the Regideso water pump, which is old and small and looks like it’s on its last leg.  We also spent several hours at a copper mining operation that hasn’t been in production since 1997 – but they have an old well that is still producing water for a small section of town.  Again, the enormity of what it would take to fix everything and bring water to this area is far beyond my comprehension.  In the meantime, people continue to die from water-borne disease because they are so desperate that they will drink water from anywhere they can find it.  

Tomorrow we travel with Kenneth to Likasi with the same purpose.

On a bit of a brighter note, the first part of our week was spent with Jesse and Diane Hunsaker from American Fork, Utah.  Jesse is the ophthalmologist in charge of our vision project.  He and Dr. Kilangalanga from Kinshasa assembled two large microscopes – one for Sendwe Hospital and one for the University Hospital – which have been donated by the Church to aid in cataract surgeries.  The plan was to do actual training of local doctors on the new equipment – but, once again, a new plan was required because the second shipment of equipment still hasn’t arrived.  We have all of the paperwork ready from customs, but somewhere along the way there was a delay.  So the new plan is for Dr. Kilangalanga to return and do the training by himself in a few weeks – hopefully, with the second shipment of equipment!!!

But the Hunsakers were fun and they enjoyed just following us around as we checked on other current projects.  They plan on going on a mission in a few years after Jesse retires.  Actually, they have been to Africa 8 times this year doing ophthalmology training – so it seems like they are missionaries already to me.

Sister Thomas, our Mission President’s wife writes a wonderful blog.  She doesn’t think it’s anything great – but it is!  For anyone who is interested, this is the site: 24monthsinlubumbashi.wordpress.com.  She has a fantastic, self-deprecating sense of humor and beautiful pictures!

Well, Friends and Family, I hate to admit that I’m getting trunky.  But I feel like a horse that has been on a long ride (by “horse” I mean a young filly – not an old nag!  ☺) – and I can see the barn ahead!  We’re still hanging in there, but we’re pretty anxious to be home.  Happy Birthday this week to our granddaughter Avery Davis and to our son Matthew!  We love you all!   Love,  Mom/G-ma D./Soeur Davis

p.s.  I think our “homecoming” will be Oct. 25 at 1:00 p.m. in the Brigham City 18th Ward.