Dental Equipment Handover
Wet Missionaries
Children Filling Water Buckets
Children Dancing
Rainstorm in Jinja (What they'll put up with to shop!)
Dear Family and Friends:
An update on what is going on in east Africa.
We are in the rainy season and most every day we have a very substantial downpour. It comes equipped with thunder and lighting and buckets of water pouring from the sky. The roads turn into orange rivers and in some places we have to drive carefully through a running stream of water. It is really fun when another car or truck passes you and covers you with orange water.
Two new proselyting senior missionary couples have now arrived in our mission. Both couples are wonderful and really fun people. A sense of humor helps here. Last Tuesday we all drove to Jinja to pick up some furniture for their apartments. Ron and I went with them because they needed our truck. President and Sister Christensen also went along to help. Jinga is Uganda’s second largest city and is located on Lake Victoria It can be a pretty interesting drive. There are a lot of big trucks loaded with bananas, sugar cane, petrol and such. We wondered how the new missionaries would fare on that road. In fact, upon arrival, Elder Nye, new missionary, was sick and had to stay in bed at the home of the missionary couple. Before shopping we took our three pickups to show the new missionaries the source of the Nile. There is an entrance gate where they charge admission and of course being white, it cost us a little bit more to get in than the locals. We tried to argue that we were residents of Uganda, and ended up paying a little less. We rented a boat and our guide was wonderful. We sailed along the shoreline and saw all these monkeys playing in the trees. They were swinging on vines and chattering and were very curious about us and came down very close to the boat and peeked out through the foliage. I was thinking how much fun it would be for our grand kids to see this. We then saw a crocodile sunning its self along the bank and a monitor lizard lying in the water. They use the lizard skins for the top of their tall drums. There were hundreds of different species of birds of all kinds and colors.
We noticed a huge black cloud forming a little way off and the guide said we better head for shore. We nearly made it. We were just pulling up to the dock when the rain hit. By the time we got out of the boat and up the bank, it was raining so hard we could hardly see. We ran for cover in a small restaurant, without sides, just a roof and there was a craft booth set up by the side of it. The women ran for the craft booth and the men to the restaurant. The men made the better choice because it rained so hard and the wind blew so hard that it nearly took the tarp off the top of the craft booth. There was no way to stay dry. We were all soaking wet, but what was really fun, we took pictures of the soaking wet women shopping and looking at paper necklaces and debating about colors during the worst rain and wind storm they have had this year. We are a hardy bunch. We ended up helping the craft people cover their things and put away their stuff. They were very happy to have us there. When we saw rivers of mud and water coming down the hill sides, we decided rain or not we had to run for the trucks and get out of there. By the time we left, we were as wet as if we had fallen in the Nile. You see, missionaries do get to have fun along with a lot of hard work.
This week Ron and I visited a couple of water projects and an organization called “Invisible Children”. It works with and helps the families and children that are up north in Gulu and other villages that are caught in the war zone. The organization works with these people in helping them with a little business. They are helping these displaced people make bracelets, which are made out of reeds and some kind of sturdy straw like material. The people gather these reeds out in the fields and attach them together with colored wire to make bracelets to sell. The colored wire comes in White, red, green, yellow, brown and black and each has a child’s name on it and signifies something. There are a lot of children who have seen their families killed and are found hiding in the bush. A lot of the little boys are kidnapped and forced into the military service and made to fight or be killed themselves. Little kids like 5 years old and older. There were quite a few people who had escaped from the northern area, and were in the back of the building making these bracelets. They make part of them and then send them up north for the people there to put them together. They are then shipped to San Diego to be sold in America and the money is sent back to the people that make them. The people running this organization took us into the back room and told us we could select a bracelet free and would only let us buy 5 more. There is also a video about these kids. It was a very interesting tour and we asked them if there was anything the Church could help them with. They seem to be a well run organization and keep wonderful records of who make the bracelets and how many. They are doing much good here. We took the man from BYU Idaho with his cameraman to visit this organization with us. We then took them to an orphanage. We have decided that this orphanage should be helped with the Humanitarian Fund. They need beds, mattresses and mosquito nets and a water tank.
After leaving the orphanage we dashed home to change our muddy shoes and meet President and Sister Christensen for the formal opening ceremony of the Mulago Hospital Dental School. The Church contributed the X-ray equipment in partnership with the Canadian Rotarians from Alberta Canada, who in turn got a large grant from the U.S. Rotarians for all the dental chairs for the school. We were invited to represent the Church. Sixty-eight percent of the adult population in Uganda has oral health problems and there is only one dentist for 150,000 people presently. It was a wonderful project and we got to listen to a lot of speeches and it was covered by the media. I guess Ron and President Christensen were on TV, but since we do not have a TV, we never get to see it. We only hear this by word of mouth. We have also ordered 750 wheelchairs from Salt Lake and are hoping that it won’t take long to get them.
This is a wonderful assignment and we just want to thank everyone who contributes to the Humanitarian Fund. We receive the blessing of seeing what this money accomplishes in a very poor country, it eases a lot of suffering. I think all you senior couples should put your papers in right away. This is a wonderful mission experience. There are hardships here, but the blessings outweigh the sacrifice
Love Elder and Sister Bean
We are in the rainy season and most every day we have a very substantial downpour. It comes equipped with thunder and lighting and buckets of water pouring from the sky. The roads turn into orange rivers and in some places we have to drive carefully through a running stream of water. It is really fun when another car or truck passes you and covers you with orange water.
Two new proselyting senior missionary couples have now arrived in our mission. Both couples are wonderful and really fun people. A sense of humor helps here. Last Tuesday we all drove to Jinja to pick up some furniture for their apartments. Ron and I went with them because they needed our truck. President and Sister Christensen also went along to help. Jinga is Uganda’s second largest city and is located on Lake Victoria It can be a pretty interesting drive. There are a lot of big trucks loaded with bananas, sugar cane, petrol and such. We wondered how the new missionaries would fare on that road. In fact, upon arrival, Elder Nye, new missionary, was sick and had to stay in bed at the home of the missionary couple. Before shopping we took our three pickups to show the new missionaries the source of the Nile. There is an entrance gate where they charge admission and of course being white, it cost us a little bit more to get in than the locals. We tried to argue that we were residents of Uganda, and ended up paying a little less. We rented a boat and our guide was wonderful. We sailed along the shoreline and saw all these monkeys playing in the trees. They were swinging on vines and chattering and were very curious about us and came down very close to the boat and peeked out through the foliage. I was thinking how much fun it would be for our grand kids to see this. We then saw a crocodile sunning its self along the bank and a monitor lizard lying in the water. They use the lizard skins for the top of their tall drums. There were hundreds of different species of birds of all kinds and colors.
We noticed a huge black cloud forming a little way off and the guide said we better head for shore. We nearly made it. We were just pulling up to the dock when the rain hit. By the time we got out of the boat and up the bank, it was raining so hard we could hardly see. We ran for cover in a small restaurant, without sides, just a roof and there was a craft booth set up by the side of it. The women ran for the craft booth and the men to the restaurant. The men made the better choice because it rained so hard and the wind blew so hard that it nearly took the tarp off the top of the craft booth. There was no way to stay dry. We were all soaking wet, but what was really fun, we took pictures of the soaking wet women shopping and looking at paper necklaces and debating about colors during the worst rain and wind storm they have had this year. We are a hardy bunch. We ended up helping the craft people cover their things and put away their stuff. They were very happy to have us there. When we saw rivers of mud and water coming down the hill sides, we decided rain or not we had to run for the trucks and get out of there. By the time we left, we were as wet as if we had fallen in the Nile. You see, missionaries do get to have fun along with a lot of hard work.
This week Ron and I visited a couple of water projects and an organization called “Invisible Children”. It works with and helps the families and children that are up north in Gulu and other villages that are caught in the war zone. The organization works with these people in helping them with a little business. They are helping these displaced people make bracelets, which are made out of reeds and some kind of sturdy straw like material. The people gather these reeds out in the fields and attach them together with colored wire to make bracelets to sell. The colored wire comes in White, red, green, yellow, brown and black and each has a child’s name on it and signifies something. There are a lot of children who have seen their families killed and are found hiding in the bush. A lot of the little boys are kidnapped and forced into the military service and made to fight or be killed themselves. Little kids like 5 years old and older. There were quite a few people who had escaped from the northern area, and were in the back of the building making these bracelets. They make part of them and then send them up north for the people there to put them together. They are then shipped to San Diego to be sold in America and the money is sent back to the people that make them. The people running this organization took us into the back room and told us we could select a bracelet free and would only let us buy 5 more. There is also a video about these kids. It was a very interesting tour and we asked them if there was anything the Church could help them with. They seem to be a well run organization and keep wonderful records of who make the bracelets and how many. They are doing much good here. We took the man from BYU Idaho with his cameraman to visit this organization with us. We then took them to an orphanage. We have decided that this orphanage should be helped with the Humanitarian Fund. They need beds, mattresses and mosquito nets and a water tank.
After leaving the orphanage we dashed home to change our muddy shoes and meet President and Sister Christensen for the formal opening ceremony of the Mulago Hospital Dental School. The Church contributed the X-ray equipment in partnership with the Canadian Rotarians from Alberta Canada, who in turn got a large grant from the U.S. Rotarians for all the dental chairs for the school. We were invited to represent the Church. Sixty-eight percent of the adult population in Uganda has oral health problems and there is only one dentist for 150,000 people presently. It was a wonderful project and we got to listen to a lot of speeches and it was covered by the media. I guess Ron and President Christensen were on TV, but since we do not have a TV, we never get to see it. We only hear this by word of mouth. We have also ordered 750 wheelchairs from Salt Lake and are hoping that it won’t take long to get them.
This is a wonderful assignment and we just want to thank everyone who contributes to the Humanitarian Fund. We receive the blessing of seeing what this money accomplishes in a very poor country, it eases a lot of suffering. I think all you senior couples should put your papers in right away. This is a wonderful mission experience. There are hardships here, but the blessings outweigh the sacrifice
Love Elder and Sister Bean
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