Lukes Mission Blog

This is the short version of our trip, If you want to read more go to the Ethiopia page. 

Ethiopia had a lot in common with other African countries and several differences.

There was the beauty of the land and the sadness of the poverty. We saw lots of buildings being built. The scaffolding made from logs, is much the same as other places but this was the first place I noticed the ramps also built with logs. There were a lot of beggars in the streets and again a lot of traffic. I also noticed several donkeys that were used as beast of burden. Sorry about not taking very many pictures, I would see something interesting and by the time I got the camera turned on we were way past it. The grounds at the church building where we taught the training were beautiful. I did think to snap a picture there. Everyone has their electricity turned off two days a week. They never know which days that will be and they run out of water often. We didn’t have any electricity for our training so used the computer until the battery wore out. The visit to the Leper’s hospital was heart wrenching but they are doing the best they can to provide for their needs. I wanted to take some pictures of the people spinning and weaving but I didn’t have change in burr to pay them.  I took a few pictures of some of the things they have for sale. (those pictures were free) If you want to purchase anything let me know soon. Haptu is coming to Kenya in May and said he would bring anything I wanted with him.

On March 21 we headed for Tanzania. We meet Brother Lyatuu and his council members.  Our training was scheduled for Saturday, but because it was a holiday (Easter weekend) they wanted the training moved up to Friday. We had a good workshop with them and we also learned a lot about their country and needs of the Church there.

Since we would be done early we had Saturday free, we decided to do a little exploring. With a borrowed car, a map and a few basic directions we decided to try and find our way around. We stopped along side the ocean to look at the map and make a phone call and a car pulled up along side us. A guy got out and flashed a piece of paper at us and said he was a policeman and we were illegally parked. He said it would cost us 80,000 shillings. Dad told him we didn’t have that much money so would he take 5,000. He said “No, 20,000”. So Dad told him he would have to take us to the police. He was trying to get out the 5,000 bill without letting him see how much money we had. He pulled out a 10,000 instead. (We didn’t think the guy would give change) He still wanted 20,000.  Dad told him to take us to the police station, so he ended up taking the 10,000. We don’t really think he was a really the police but he had others with him and, we didn’t think it a good idea to make a big an issue of it.

We took a ferry across the bay and visited a few of the “resorts” they have on the ocean. They seemed nice and they were actually less expensive than the hotel we were staying at in Dar es Salaam. So guess what? We decided to stay out there.

The ferry trip was an experience. It cost 1100 shillings go ride it. (about a $1.00) We drove down a dock and through a puddle of ocean water and on to the deck. People carrying anything you can imagine, and cars, trucks, motorcycles etc. crowd on.  I told Dad we are definitely not getting off and walking around on this ferry. (There was no room to move anyway)  We weren’t even sure it was safe to roll down the window. When we tried the exhaust from the diesel engine of the ferry poured in so we had to put them up again. The disadvantage to that was that it was hot and after a few minutes we felt like we were in an oven. It wasn’t very far across the bay maybe five minutes, so I figured if the ferry went down I might be able to swim to shore. So with that pleasant thought we sailed to the other side. Then before the ferry even fully docked, the people started jumping off. Then the cars drove off. They were parked three across, but could only go off single file. So in the mass of humanity and vehicles we somehow made if off without hitting anything.

On our first trip on the ferry, while we were waiting in line to board, Dad saw a little boy selling carvings. They were very primitive, but he wanted to buy one from the boy. So we are now the proud owners of a carving of a lion attacking two warriors, complete with blood dripping from the lion’s mouth.

On Friday we went to dinner with the other missionary couples in Dar es Salaam, the Jensens and the Kinyons. It was starting to get dark by the time we left for the ferry. We had to travel to our motel in the dark and that was very scary. So many people walk and ride bikes and they are next to impossible to see after dark. If another car was coming towards us we were almost blinded. We could just see a silhouette in their head lights. I think it should be a law that all Africans wear reflectors after dark. Somehow we made it safely to the motel. Saturday we had off because of the change in our training. We spent the day enjoying the white sand beach and ocean breeze.This was the view from our hotel room.  We even went swimming in the Indian Ocean. It was the warmest sea water I have ever felt. We tried to find a place that sold sun screen. No luck. We could have tried a camel ride, too, but I had already pinched Dad about three times and he didn’t want me to pinch him anymore.

On Sunday we attended Church at the branch in Dar es Salaam. They have four branches there. Since it was Easter, every talk and lesson was about our Savior and the Atonement. It was great! Again the basic principles of the gospel taught with the Spirit.  They even had us get up and bear our testimonies.

We have been busy with our public affairs work and haven’t taken time to write on the blog. We will try to catch up for the past month. We traveled to Uganda to train the public affairs council in Kampala. We really do spend a lot of time training and getting materials ready and other PA work but it isn’t all that interesting to write about. They have a great group in Uganda and we probably learned  more from them then they learned from us.

While there we stayed a couple of nights with Elder and Sister Giles, (Liberty’s parents). They treated us to a trip to the head waters of the Nile. We took a boat ride out on the Nile to the place where the water bubbles up out of an under river spring and Lake Victoria becomes the start of the Nile River. We watched some fisherman fishing for Nile perch and stood on an island were Lake Victoria becomes the Nile. Then we drove down the Nile River to Bujagali Falls. We were in a hurry so we didn’t have time to pay the natives to float down the river and over the falls holding on to Jerry cans. (They really wanted us to).

We also visited the Equator. We saw the water go down the drain one way on the South side of the line, straight down the middle on the line, and go the other way on the North side of the line. We are not sure if it is really that way of if the funnels were rigged. Uganda has lots of food and the people there seem to be a little better off than some other African Countries, though because food is so plentiful some don’t feel the need to work. They have lots of bananas though they have different names. One kind they fix and serve like mashed potatoes. I thought I would try some for dinner one night. They brought out a mound bigger than a softball. I could only eat about a fifth of it. At lunch we were served a fried banana. It was sweet and delicious. I could have eaten more of those. We bought some paper beads. Some of the PEF students make them to sell to earn many to pay back their PEF loans. We also visited a Friday market and found a few items to take back to the grandkids. Dad even found an African print shirt. We found things are much less expensive there then anywhere else we have been.

I am afraid we are going to come home with lots of bruises though. We keep pinching ourselves to make sure we are awake and not just dreaming. What fantastic and unbelievable experiences we are having.  So far we have found out that going on a mission as a senior couple is work but there also have been such fantastic experiences as a result of the mission. We laugh, cry, shutter, sigh, hold our breath, gasp, shake our heads, and that is all in just the drive to work. Really it is our daily experience with the way things are here.

Elder Luke and Elder Giles on Nile boat ride. We didn’t worry about the torn life jackets, figured the crocks would eat us before we had a chance to drown.

Our trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo was an experience I don’t think we will soon forget. We flew to the city of Kinshasha. Just getting out of the airport when we landed was a challenge. A man named Antone, who helps the members with flights, met us there and helped us or we never would have made it. They speak French in DR Congo. We noticed on our ride from the airport that the streets were filled with people and litter and litter and litter. First Brother Kumangila took us to his new home. He said it was in a new subdivision. We met his wife, some of his extended family and an American couple who were living in the Congo to learn French and work. Then we stopped at the mission home. They told us about the bullet holes in the building from the last war. The building just happened to be in-between the headquarters of the two opposing armies and so has battle scars from two wars. Next we headed to the motel. We had to stay in one by ourselves. It was after lunch and we were hungry so we went down to the restaurant. We didn’t speak French and they didn’t speak English, so we had a difficult time communicating. The only thing they had for lunch was a meal for $25.00. We found out that things are very expensive there. I tried to ask them if they had the same menu for dinner and they said yes. When we went down to dinner they had a regular menu with several items on it. (They were all still very expensive.) There were very few people there. The next day we did our training at a meeting house. It went well even though we had to have a translator. We stayed at the same motel again that night and when we went down to dinner that night the whole restaurant was filled with people. We had dinner and when we walked around the pool we noticed they were busy decorating for Valentines. They had red table clothes, confetti, lighted hearts, and red Christmas lights all over. And a band was setting up directly below our window. At about 9 that night we looked out and noticed that there weren’t any people at their party. We felt bad for them after all the work they had gone through. And then we went to bed. A little while later we heard the band start to play and when we looked out the window there were lots of people dancing. The music had the same melody and beat played over and over and they sang/shouted/yelled along with the music.  This is a video sample of the music.  Enjoy! (We did all night long) The band played until 5:00a.m., which was the time we had to be up to get ready to head to the airport. Needless to say we didn’t get any sleep that night. With the help of Antone we made it through the airport. It seemed to me that everyone was yelling and arguing and the whole place was in chaos. The guards just grabbed people they didn’t think should be in the airport and threw them out.
We flew on Hewa Bora air lines (Swahili for Good Air) to Lubunbashi. It was a little nicer than Kinshasa. The motel had raised it prices so high (They like American money 2003 or newer only) that we were a little short on cash for all of us to stay there so we volunteered to ask the missionary couple (the Parks) in Lubunbashi if we could stay with them a couple of nights. They were happy to have us and we had a great time with them. We spent Saturday training. The electricity was out at the first meeting house we went to so we went to another. The electricity lasted for about an hour, and then it went out there, too. The next day we went to church with the Parks and attended two sacrament meetings and a baptismal service for three men and a young boy. The photo is of the Parks, the people who where baptized and the bishop. We were impressed with how beautiful and with gusto the congregation sang hymns. It is the first time I have sung “How Great Thou Art” in staccato. At the baptismal service it sounded like there were at a lot of people there singing, but when I turned around to look I was shocked to see there were only a few. There must have been angels singing with them. The church is growing rapidly in Congo. The two missionary couples have baptisms weekly. People just come in off of the street and want to be taught the gospel. We flew home Monday morning and arrived in Kenya about 4:00 p.m. We were grateful to be back. Kenya is fantastic compared to what we saw in the Congo.

We found a KFC in the Congo. (Katanga Fried Chicken)