August 3, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, August 03, 2014

I think back on this week and wonder what to share with you.  There were several things about our week that involved us more in serving with the mission rather than strictly humanitarian efforts.  This week was transfer week and I became a new driver to shuttle the missionaries from apartment to apartment within Lubumbashi.  I tried to take pictures of the streets leading to apartments, but I would really struggle even finding the neighborhood where many of them were.  It was fun to be with the missionaries and see what they were accumulating.  The sisters are the absolute worst.  This mission time is a time when they live a different lifestyle because they have regular money and regular food.  The sisters accumulate so much clothing that when they go home, they either have to pay significant excess baggage charges or they have to give it away to the poor.  We moved one sister who had 5 bags.

I have also become a regular on the airport pickup routine.  I’ve been shuttling President Thomas and missionaries to and from the airport.  It was so overwhelming when I first arrived, I wonder how in the world I’m able to manage it now.  Kevan and Teri Clawson are being released in mid-September and they mean so much to the mission because of everything they do.  Sister Clawson is the medical officer but so much more.  She orchestrates all transfer logistics, acts as the mission president’s executive secretary preparing agendas, calendaring and organizing the flow of work and scheduling.  Brother Clawson is responsible as the defacto quartermaster who purchases all mission supplies, manages all missionary apartments and is the most fearless driver of all the mission staff.  He is totally familiar with where all the stores are located for finding anything and everything Lubumbashi has to offer.  They are trying to delegate their responsibilities before they leave.

I probably mentioned some of the personnel movement in my last letter but I want to summarize again and how it affects us.  Newly arriving couples include:

1. Mikesells are from St. George and will arrive the second week of September.  He is a retired dentist and will be the new medical officer.  He recently had double knee replacement surgery, is 75 years old and cannot do stairs.  They will be moving into the current home where we are living because it is the best fit for his profile.
2. Drapers are from Calgary and will arrive in two weeks.  They are personal friends of President Thomas.  They will be MLS missionaries who will serve for a time in the mission home and then be sent to Mbuji-Mayi.  They will be succeeded by the Conrads who are scheduled to arrive before the end of the year.
3. Conrads are also friends of President Thomas and will probably work in the office. They will probably take Drapers place in the mission office.

We, as humanitarian missionaries are somewhat like nomads without a home.  We took up squatters rights in the vacant office at the mission home in an effort to have some social interaction.  The other option was to work from home.  We do not have power during the day at home and the lighting is horrible even when we do.  We felt it was essential to our mental health that we have interaction with the other senior couples.  We were given the option of either:

1. Move from our current home to the upstairs apartment in the same compound (no power and no lighting) or
2. Move into the Clawson’s apartment above the mission home and use the downstairs kitchen as our office.  

We chose the move to Clawson’s apartment in order to have social interaction with the mission home staff and other seniors.  This will happen September 11-12.  We will have about 1/3 the space we currently have but that’s not all bad when it comes to cleaning and upkeep.  It will be an adjustment and part of our return to normalcy is having a regular routine that will be disrupted.  We like our landlord, Michael, our guards, Samuel and Pappi, and our late afternoon walks with the Atkinsons.  The move will take us out of our comfort zone once again.

In any event, the Clawsons have had a great impact on this mission and their departure is necessitating some real adjustments with their departure.  We’re doing a lot of shuffling to try to cover for their departure while the new couples are arriving and becoming adjusted.  

During the week we had Elder Hamilton, of the Seventy, 2nd Counselor in the Southeast Africa Area, here.  We had dinner together with the other senior couples and office staff; we also had a missionary conference where he, his wife and President Thomas and his wife were the speakers for 2 hours.  He interviewed all the senior couples.  We were asked to express our true feelings and it was hard not to sound a little negative where we had yet to have  single project approved and have been without a car since we arrived.  Mom really enjoyed visiting with Sister Hamilton who is mother of six and grandmother of 11.  They had a lot in common.  

It is interesting how things are starting to come together.  Mom has followed her promptings in pursuing a maturation project for women.  It has spawned additional service opportunities with other projects. We are currently working with a girls’ school that teaches practical skills like sewing and homemaking skills to 350 girls.  They have added two additional classrooms and are trying to establish a cooking lab.  WE offered to make a proposal to Johannesburg to outfit their kitchen if they provided 25% of the funding and suggested service projects their sewing class could be involved in.  I believe we have decided their best sewing students could teach girls at the all girl’s orphanage we are working with.  The orphanage has 29 girls ages 5-14.  I believe the maturation project mom is promoting with one of the stakes here could also provide similar training to the 350 members of the all girls’ school.

I’m excited about tomorrow because we have arranged for a field trip to visit small villages outside Lubumbashi.  The director of the small village clean water initiative will accompany us along with her best 2 repairmen.  We are trying to determine the feasibility of refurbishing wells by repairing hand pumps rather than drilling new bore holes.  Elder Atkinson is a church construction missionary and he is going to accompany us to review the project. We   understand close to 90% of the bore holes drilled in Africa are abandoned because they have not been maintained and no provision has been made for their sustainability through repair.  It seems futile to continue drilling new holes when refurbishing existing wells would be so much more cost effective.

I’m also excited about Tuesday.  We visited the Ministry of Social Services this past week trying to determine what services they provide for orphanages and nursing homes.  We met with two specialists in addition to the director of programs for the handicapped.  It just so happens that the specialist over orphanages is a member of the church who is on the high council.  He has arranged for us to visit several local orphanages this Tuesday.  We also have a coordinating council meeting for the open house for the new stake center.

We are also helping with the open house for the new Kisanga Stake Center.  Flavien has done some printing and we are the English teachers for the Kisanga zone of missionaries.  President Tshibanda who is our champion for the local bridge project is the stake president in charge.  Shelley and I are preparing the bags for distribution to the local dignitaries who are invited.  

We also had some good news regarding our proposed projects.  We have received conditional approval for two school desk projects and we resubmitted two additional proposals:

1. Ultrasound equipment for Luputa Hospital.  We received the requested statistics and formal letter of request from the hospital.
2. Mapendano School latrine project was resubmitted as a water project for the committee’s review tomorrow.  We’re hopeful both of these projects will be approved.

All in all we had a very good week.  We feel fortunate to be traveling outside the mission office.  We have seen a lot of the community and surrounding areas and have had an opportunity to meet many community representatives.  We love you all and hang on every word we receive from home.  Have a great week and we’ll work on doing the same.

Love, Dad