July 5, 2015 - Shelley

July 5, 2015

It’s the good carrot season again, and we’re really enjoying it.  They grow so

straight and are really flavorful and HEAVY!!!  I don’t know how these gals  

carry them around for hours on end!  My companion thinks he’s really funny!  I think he is, too.  ☺

Seeing people carrying things on their heads has become so commonplace that I don’t really notice it anymore.  But I’m still amazed at these egg sellers.  Each flat holds 30 hard-boiled eggs, which they sell for a price of 3 for about 50 cents.  So this fellow is carrying roughly 250 eggs plus a jar or two of special dipping sauce that goes with them.  The eggs are covered with a layer of dried salt from the cooking process.  These sellers are everywhere you look.

One fun thing for us this week has been following our daughter Emily and her husband Scott while they are on tour to the East Coast with the Tabernacle Choir.  It has been quite the spectacular adventure for both of them, and they have been nice enough to give us daily updates on all of their exciting activities.  Here is Em at

Carnegie Hall.  And they were sweet

enough to even take us along!!!

And the moon this week has been so beautiful!!!  It’s amazing to think that that same moon is shining over the Wasatch Front – and California – and Texas – and everywhere!

Our house is shaded by our neighbor’s bamboo trees.  Ilunga, the gardener, has been so worried that snakes would be dropping from the trees onto our porch that he risked life and limb to climb up onto this 12-foot tall wall and chop down the overhanging branches.  It’s thoughtful – and I for sure don’t want to have snakes on the porch.  But we have never seen a snake here – anywhere.  I think that anything that moves is considered “dinner”.  But not mine, of course! Haha

And we did get some work done this week!  Everything takes SO LONG to get going that it is an exercise in patience.  Sister Cook and I took the three Stake RS

Presidents shopping for the maturation project materials.  It wasn’t exactly like going to JoAnn’s, but we got the job done!  This store would remind you of

the Smith and Edward’s motto – “We’ve got everything you need – if you can find it!”  haha

We celebrated the 4th of July, Canada Day (July 1st), and the Congo’s Independence Day (June 30) with a pot luck dinner and movie (“Dave”) at the Mission Home.  Fun!

And this Sabbath Day has been a good one.  So often we attend three hours of church without knowing what was said.  Even though we keep plugging along with studying French each day, it’s just difficult to understand when people talk so fast.  Here it is especially difficult because it is intermingled with Swahili!!  Anyway, enough whining!  We attended church in an area of town called Bel Air.  Most people are Swahili speakers there, but the Bishop of the ward is employed by the church as the Seminary and Institute Coordinator – and he speaks good English, French, and Swahili.  A very smart man!  His name is Narci.  Well, he gave the Relief

Society lesson in all three languages – going back and forth so that everyone in the room knew what was going on and could respond to his questions.

It just felt so good to be able to parti-cipate.  But even more than that, it gave us a real sense of belonging to a group of women who may look different than we do – but who share so many of the same thoughts and experiences.  The Congolese women are truly wonderful!  And they work SO HARD!!!!  I’m in awe.

As always, there is an abundance of cute children!

We have two special birthday this week -  Summer Davis, our granddaughter – and Monica Chamberlain, our daughter.  We wish them both our best!!!

Have a safe, fun-filled summer week!  Love,  Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis