"Don’t let me scare you but I have been hanging pretty close the Shelley. I’m glad we’re in this together. People have been so wonderful to look out for us and make us feel welcome in an environment and culture shock you have to experience. Keep praying for us we really appreciate your love and support. I don’t want to whine. We are healthy and everyday is a new adventure.
Love, Dad"
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Saturday, May 17, 2014
Well it’s official, we finally arrived in Lubumbashi. We have been training for almost a month now; 2 weeks in the MTC with Preach My Gospel and then welfare training. Then we flew to Johannesburg for in-field training. The Johannesburg training was conducted by Brent and Charlene Lee and Melinda and Bruce Kinghorn. We had 12 couples at our conference from all over Southeast Africa. Three couples had only been out for about a month; the Moody’s in Cabon, the VanWagoners in Burundi and the Kinghorns in the area office.
We stayed at the Sunnyside Park Hotel and ate at the same buffet every day for about 10 days. They treated us like royalty but it has been a challenge to live out of a suitcase for a month. The best part of the training was talking with other couples who had experience in proposing and managing projects whether major or area initiatives. The Stevens in Zibabwe had specialized in bore hole water projects and had completed 40-50 and had another backlog of 33 approved wells. They just knew how to do it and had developed a specialty. The Richard in Madagascar were the most creative and had only worked on area initiative which are projects under $25,000. They had involved members and beneficiaries in trying to make the projects sustainable so they would last beyond the term of the Richard’s mission.
It seems like all we have done since arriving is to eat, study and sleep. Our typical routine was up at 6:30, class from 8-5 and then out for dinner and home to study and sleep. The only problem was that after our flight from Utah to Chicago to London to Johannesburg with 14 hours of layovers and about 23 hours of flying, I was wiped out. I couldn’t get any sleep at kept waking up at 2-4 in the morning and was just a wreck after the first 4-5 days with very little sleep. I bought some sleep medication and finally got to feeling normal again after almost a week had passed.I know they try to prepare you for the worst but they told us so many stories in preparing us for petty theft and potential robbery, that I was over pr-occupied with the potential for dire consequences. Shelley an I had been instructed to bring $4,000 cash on our person and we brought both of our personal computers, so we were a sitting target.
This morning finally arrived but we didn’t have the best night’s sleep in preparation. We had been given the humanitarian computer as well as all the training materials and so when we showed up at the airport, we had 5 bags to check and 4 carryon bags. We looked like a circus but Elder Lee and Elder and sister Kinghorn shephered us every step of the way. We had our bags shrink wrapped to avoid petty theft by the baggage handlers, but when we check in they had to weigh our bags.
For Korongo Airlines, they changed the allowable baggage to 30 pounds for 2 bags each and we were 50 kilos overweight. That cost us a cool $500 to accept our bags, what a rip-off, but we had no choice but to pay in order to get all of our provisions and technology to Lubumbashi. Once we had checked our bags we still had to carry the carryons to the boarding area and had to go through a couple of passport checks. Once we were on the plane we were still a little wired about getting everything there safely. Can I just tell you that I have never prayed as fervently as I have this past couple of weeks? We have prayed on freeways, in airports, on planes at night to get sleep and continually for safety. I have kind of been a nervous wreck but it is amazing that the Lord blesses you almost immediately and usually through other people.
Today for example, the Kinghorns sensed our anxiety and stayed with us for an extra hour and a half at the airport, bought us a drink and a muffin too relax and saw us off at the last possible minute to pass the time together. When we arrived in Lubumbashi, Kevin and Teri Clawson met us at the airport with a helping hands person dressed in his yellow helping hands vest by the name of Tom. He handled our passports, immunization cards and luggage like a pro. He knew exactly what was required when it all seemed so chaotic at the airport. We had been told that we would be confronted by guards who would attempt to extort money from us. We had been told that they would attempt to charge us additional money when submitting our passports for immigration, but with Tom’s help, those were all non-issues.
The Clawson picked us up and took us shopping. It was some sort of holiday today, so the grocery store was closed but the fruit and vegetable market was open. We bought several selections of fresh fruits and vegetables for about $10 and then Sister Clawson took us to their apartment and filled three grocery bags with items from their storage. They then brought us to our new home. It is about 10 minutes from the mission home. It is the complex where Elder Wright had lived.
They church is renting the cvomplex and there is another couple living in the apartment where the Wright’s used to live. They are from Kinshassa, a Congolese couple named Mbele who have a son serving in this mission. He is 73 years old and had served as a bishop. They have 12 children, 10 still living. They had a 2-year old daughter die of being scalded with boiling oil from a cooking mishap and another child died of cholera at 19. They had wanted to serve a mission for a long time but had to make sure their youngest child was over 18 and independent.
There is a companionship of two senior sisters who work in the mission home; Sister Anthony originally a Bear River Bear from Tremonton and Sister Riendeau from the Tri-cities, area. She was born and grew up in France but moved to the US when she was about 21. The Clawsons and the sisters fixed us dinner which they served in the mission president’s home. President McMullin was away creating a new District and calling a new District President. Dinner was delightful and everyone had gone all out to make us feel welcome. They had also purchased cleaning materials, bedding and supplies for our apartment. The owner of the complex has moved out of his home and they gave us the home.
It has two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a room for an office, a kitchen, living room with new TV but all the channels are in French and fuzzy with rabbit ears. They really have gone all out to make us feel welcome and it does feel good to finally arrive and begin to become more settled. The compound where we are is gated with three guards and two dogs, a backup generator because the power goes out regularly. We have malaria nets to sleep with, so everything isn’t normal but it is extravagant for DR Congo.
We still feel really out of touch because we are not connected with wi-fi, vonnage or internet. We will work on that first thing this next week. Sunday is tomorrow and I am hoping for another great church experience similar to last week. There is one major difference, everything will be in French. Shelley has her talk which she has worked on for almost 3 months and I can bear my testimony in broken French. We are hoping that being immersed in the language and taking lessons from Sister Riendeau will help. Good night and I’ll write again soon.
Clark
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