March 22, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s amazing how your perspective changes while on a mission. I have become a real fan of the Tabernacle Choir and as mom would say, Sunday music has become a priority.  It keeps us in touch with Emily and we really look forward to our ritual at the mission home where we watch Music and the Spoken Word with the other senior missionaries.  I’m sure Jason Maraz and Katie Perry will still be there when we return, but for now MOTAB rules. We are sorry not to be following them on their upcoming tour to the East Coast but expect detailed reports from Scott and Emily.

A year ago I was in Spokane, Washington, with my good friend, Trevor Christensen, watching the NCAA tournament.  My friends at Davis and Bott have kept me in touch with March Madness through the office pool and believe it or not, this is the first time u-tube has worked in months, so I can watch the highlights and game summaries.  That has been a fun tradition and yet I imagine the events of Africa will be much more difficult to duplicate.

I know I’m in danger of losing you with a project or activity update but I need to track these events as this is my only form of journal:

1. Katimel is our all-girls orphanage.  We had 8 bunk beds delivered from Ruashi to Katimel which is in Commune Katuba.  A church member, Prince, who owns a transport van, stuffed everything into his van for delivery.  When we arrived about 18:00, the power was out and so we couldn’t assemble the beds.  Prince returned the following morning and worked with Fifi, the Catholic nun director, in assembling all of the beds.  The girls were elated to receive new beds and new bedding.
2. Justin Mukulay is the welder who has made the beds.  He was painting them green as Prince arrived 3 hours late to pick up the beds.  He had not had power at his home workshop, so he rented a place in downtown  Ruashi that had power to complete the 8 beds.  We have 12 more bunk beds and 6 single beds to collect.   Justin’s family has loved to have us come because we have taken pictures of his wife and children and returned with copies for their family.   We also took Justin to the Muslim Orphanage and reminded him how grateful he should be for his family.  They are not members, but should be, they’re great.
3. Muslim Orphanage-the female directors had been benefiting personally from our contributions, so their leaders stepped in and have taken over.  We delivered painting supplies for them to paint the orphanage before we deliver their beds.
4. Peage School is probably the poorest school we have visited in all of Lubumbashi.   They have 300-400 students and only charge 2,500 francs a month in tuition (less than $3)  Most schools are 5 times that amount and the good schools are 20 times.  Odette is the director and her daughter, Mire, is a teacher.  We took the two of them shopping for fabric and notions to sew school uniforms.  Most of their afternoon students don’t have their own uniform.  We are providing the school 10 treadle machines and their buy-in is to make school uniforms that they can sell to these destitute students at a discounted price, the money to be used for the school.  When they complete the uniforms, we will deliver 5 electric sewing machines and two embroidery machines.  Shopping was educational and they are much better negotiators than the white foreigners.
5. Tumaini is an orphanage in Ruashi where we are in the process of providing 100 desks for their school.  The school’s tuition is used to support the orphanage.  Ruashi Mining is completing 4 classrooms the school built 2 years ago.   We took pictures of the desks that had been delivered and tried to make contact with Ruashi Mining to have a joint ceremony to turn over ownership of the classrooms and desks to Tumaini.  We also visited a bundles store looking for used back packs.  The owners are almost all Eastern Indian and half of them are named Ali.  We want to provide back packs to all of the orphans at the 3 orphanages we are working with.
6. Vision Project-Dr. Jesse Hunsaker from Logan is our specialist and has directed us on what needs to be done to import equipment to 3 clinics in Lubumbashi: Saint Yvonne, Lubumbashi University Ophthalmology Clinic and Sendwe Hospital.  We spent time trying to gather all of the requested equipment lists and working with the Ministry of Health to obtain a tax and duty exemption.
7. Water Projects-Steven and Sheryl Bailey are our specialist.  They live in South Ogden and their daughter used to live across the street from Emily.  They plan on visiting us the first week in April but they don’t have a visa.  We have spent a lot of time trying to obtain a visa which should have been done by the church travel department before they left.  They may not be able to enter the country.  We’ll give you an update.   
8. Operation Smile-I saved the best for last.  We have gained a great respect for their humanitarian work and would love to continue that relationship even after our mission.  They are conducting a pilot program for obstetric fistulas and will perform over 40 surgeries.  They bring their medical team and we are providing the volunteers.  There are two 20-member wards where the women are staying.  We have loved visiting the patients, taking pictures of them dancing, singing, doing hair and socializing.  We have really been made to feel a part of their success this time and those who volunteer are changed by working with these patients.

We found time to celebrate Shelley’s birthday with facetime with the family and I bought some pastries and ice cream from La Brioche, our local bakery. We also went to dinner at the Zoo Restaurant, but mom’s favorite gift was time on Saturday for her to sew.  She made herself a new purse, but I’m afraid this will only whet her appetite.  We have been blessed over the years with her love for sewing.  Grandma Edie probably deserves recognition for this.  The new debate is Bernina or Viking upon her return.  She had to borrow the mission’s electric sewing machine because she gave her treadle machine to Tabu Farah, the leader of the handicapped community.  

One interesting tidbit is that our mission according to Elder Draper, President Thomas’ executive secretary, has been the top baptizing mission in the world for the last two months.  I’ll try to get the statistics to share with you in the future.  We’re excited for Barr and Nancy Cannon’s return home from New Zealand.  We’ve loved receiving their letter and will miss them.  Don and Bonnie McCauley, our friends from Northwestern Days in Chicago, have completed their first year in Ukraine.  Bonnie’s letters are a weekly morale boost.  We were so lucky to reconnect with them before leaving on our missions.  

Thank you for all your efforts to connect with us this past week to wish Shelley a Happy Birthday.  It was almost enough for me to decide to join Facebook.  However, it would be more difficult to age quietly and unnoticed.  I like the verse from Abraham 2:8, “My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning: therefore my hand shall be over thee.”  We  have definitely felt that this past week.  Bon Semaine (Have a good week)

Dad (Elder Davis)