April 5, 2015
Happy Easter! Clark and I gave our “farewell address” at church on Easter last year. We haven’t reached our one-year mark yet (April 21st), but it’s close.
As I sit here writing, the air is filled with music coming from a nearby church. Their choir has been practicing every afternoon in preparation for today. Last Sunday I mentioned the people going to church waving palm fronds in remembrance of Palm Sunday. After I
had already sent my weekly letter, we had group after group of Scouts wearing their bandanas march by our house – also waving palm branches. Some of them had drums beating out a cadence and some were just marching along. It was festive!
Our week was full of diversity. On Monday, we took Fifi and her friend shopping for fabric. Fifi runs the Katimel Orphanage where we painted at Christmastime and where we are giving them beds and ten sewing machines. The plan is to have the girls from Therese’s school give sewing lessons to the orphans over the two-week Easter break. So we went to a fabric store that Therese suggested and bought a length of fabric (6 meters) for each of the 30 girls. Fifi is the woman in the center of
the picture. The fabrics are so bright and beautiful! It won’t be exactly like a 4-H class, but close enough! ☺
We know a man named Eduard who works in the church’s construction department. He invited us to his home for Family Home Evening. Here he is
with his wife and two of their three children in front of their home. It was a
great experience – very humbling. They are devoted, spiritual people who are knowledgeable about the Gospel. We had the traditional refreshments of Fanta orange soda and popcorn. Clark took photos at a mass wedding ceremony in December at one of the government offices – and Eduard and his wife were married that day. I just thought it was so amazing that Eduard’s wife could look SO DIFFERENT when she was “gussied up”. I never would have 
recognized that that was the same woman! It’s very, very common for Congolese women to wear wigs and extensions. In fact, the hair business is huge here! I think they’re on to something! Anyway, it can be very hard to recognize people when they have different wigs on. We have a couple of sister missionaries in our English class that change their hair about every week – and it’s very common for the missionaries here to change their names. It must make doing genealogy a total mess!
It was hair-cutting week for the guards at our compound. This is Papi giving Samuel a new haircut. He is using a
double-edged razor blade without any holder – and going VERY slowly!!! They are both wonderful men and always take good care of us.
We had a woman doctor come to the mission home looking for us last week. She wanted us to see her hospital – and, of course, to give her money. So we went to at least see her facility out of respect. The doctor is the tall gal
who is second from the left. The others are her staff (except for Steve and me!)
Her “hospital” is more of a neighborhood first aid station, but she
deals with some pretty complex issues – like cancer, diabetes, palsy, etc. – and I got nervous when she told us that she likes to whip up her own medications. This is one of her supply closets of herbs and spices. It felt more than a little scary to me and I tried to appear healthy while we were there just in case she wanted me to try her special potion! ☺
We found a fabulous “bundle” store!
We have been to three different bundle stores in Lubumbashi and all three store owners have the same name: Ali. This Ali has a very neat and tidy operation, as you can see in the photo. He’s from Lebanon, buys goods from Europe, stores them in Dubai (sp?), and sells them here. Kind of an international wheeler-dealer! Anyway, he bought 1,000 bundles of backpacks in anticipa-tion of the rush for school supplies in the fall. We decided to give backpacks to the orphans at the three places we are helping. The idea for this came from a poem that one of the orphans read at Christmastime in the program we went to. He talked about how orphans only get the things that are left over – the things no one else wants. He said that kids at school make fun of their clothes and backpacks. SO – Ali went through the bundles with us and we picked out the best 120 backpacks we could find. It’s important to note that even these are not new – it’s like getting a bag of goods from the D.I. It certainly has taught me that I need to be more generous when the D.I Drive comes around!
On “P” day, all of the senior missionaries went to a souvenir market. There were three bowery-type buildings full of local jewelry and wares. Sister Thomas got
the “deal of the day” when she haggled a vendor down from $150 to $70 for this cute painting. I hate to haggle!
The senior sisters also had a “Girls’ Night Out”, so to speak! We had a potato bar dinner and watched the download of the General Women’s Meeting. It
was wonderful and the power only went out three times! Pictured here are (left to right): Sisters Cook, Mikesell, Thomas, Vance, Draper, and Anthony.
Finally, we attended a ward we haven’t been to today. It’s in an area of town called Bel Air. Everything that was spoken in French was translated into Swahili – so we didn’t know much of what was going on. But the people were super nice! We drove the only car
but this pregnant woman, her three children, and her husband came on a motorcycle! So great!!!!!
We wish we were watching General Conference today, but we know that it will come our way within a few weeks. It’s always such a boost!
So long for now! We love you all! Love, Mom/Soeur Davis
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