Dear Family and Friends:
The month of March has gone very quickly for us. We left for Johannesburg, South Africa on March 3, 2008 for a Country Directors conference. We left from Entebbe Airport on South African Airlines, which flew right over Lake Victoria. It was a very pretty flight. From what I could see out the window of the plane, many of the countries of Africa looked very green and uninhabited. It takes approximately four and a half hours to fly from Uganda to Johannesburg; it is like flying from Seattle to New York. They had a driver waiting for us at the airport to take us to our hotel and since Elder and Sister Pocock, the country directors for Kenya, arrived just a few minutes after us, we waited and shared the car with them. We stayed at The Sunnyside Park hotel, a beautiful old hotel that was built in 1895 in the Victorian-style and had been completely refurbished. It had beautiful staircases and a lot of wood paneling. The most impressive thing about it though, is that we could brush our teeth using the water right from the faucet and I took a nice hot bath in a real bath tub. In Uganda we can only shower and then just a very small spray of water comes out of the shower head. To make our stay even more luxurious, we had a TV.
Since most of the couples arrived within a few hours of each other. We all gathered by the pool to get acquainted. It was so much fun to meet the couples responsible for humanitarian work in the countries of DR Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. We all liked one another immediately and there was much laughter and relating when each told a little something about their country and their responsibilities. At 7:00 pm we all went into the dining room for a wonderful buffet dinner and then the best thing of all, Ron and I went to our room watched TV and I had a hot bath.
The conference lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday. The first day we had a keynote address from President Parmley, who is the President of the Southern and Eastern Districts of Africa. His office is in the compound by the temple. We had two visitors from the Church offices in SLC, one was Brett Bass and the other was Rick Foster. On Thursday we met for half of a day and then vans were provided and we all went to the temple.
The temple is very small and very pretty and is a little different architecture then most. Our group filled up the session. It was so nice and peaceful and we could hardly believe that we were in a temple in Africa, somehow it felt unreal. After our session, we strolled the grounds, took pictures and then we were taken to a very nice restaurant for a lovely meal. Some of the couples were leaving the next day, but Ron and I and the couple from the Congo and from Madagascar stayed an extra day to do some sightseeing. Johannesburg is a very big modern city with freeways, paved roads, traffic signals, etc. You would not believe you were in Africa if that was the only place you visited there. It is very different from Kampala, where there is no doubt you are in Africa. We did a little shopping in the African market and purchased seven bags of tortilla chips to take back to the couples in Kampala, which they had all ordered and were thrilled to receive. I carried them in my lap on the plane so they would arrive whole and uncrushed. They are a real treat here and if we ever receive a bag, we never share with the others.
We had a wonderful time and the conference was very helpful. I hated to leave that bathtub though. We all had a chance to discuss our projects, ask questions and discuss our problems. Rick Foster, who is the Administrative Director of Welfare Services for the Church, flew back with us to Uganda. He had never been in Africa before and we had a chance to show him around and have him visit some of our projects.
We took him to a handover, which was a launching of the hygiene and sanitation campaign and the commissioning of the 34 newly rehabilitated boreholes in the Jinja Water District, located in Butagaya sub-county. We had just completed that phase of it. These handovers are so much fun and are held in very picturesque villages under huge tents. They always reserve the best seats for us and the people we invite and they clap and trill when we arrive, so all the couples love to come with us. It is wonderful to see all the native people in their colorful clothing, and especially to see the little kids who are always attracted to the sights and sounds and come from all over the place to see what is going on. For entertainment there was an African band with plenty of native drumming and they provided the music for the spectacular African dancers. There were many speeches by the politicians and local leaders and we usually have some members of parliament attend. We always have a lot of news media there because it gets votes for the politicians and they do like the publicity.
We had invited some of the missionary couples to attend. Ron was on the program as a speaker and after his speech, he asked all the missionary couples, Rick Foster, Ssimbwa, who always interprets for Ron, and Ali our contractor to come forward and sang “As I Have Loved You, Love One Another”. It was very nice, especially after the wild beating of the drums and the African dancers and the many speeches. The audience seemed to really enjoy it. We were the only muzungas (white people) there and I think the Africans enjoyed us entertaining them for a change. The last speaker talked about how we should love and take care of one another and then said, “God Bless the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and God Bless the United States of America”. It was pretty nice. When the ceremony was over we were all treated to a very nice African dinner. I always ask if the meat being served is goat, and I was assured that it was beef. Ron will eat goat, but I just can’t. The women served us out of huge big pots containing different kinds of African foods that had been cooking outside during the ceremony.
When this total project is completed, the Church will have provided much needed water and sanitation/hygiene help for over 64,000 people in part of the Jinja district. We usually have a lot of important people from the government attend these ceremonies and they always tell us that if they can help the Church in anyway please let them know. So that day we did need their help. A few of our missionaries in the City of Jinja had mouthed off to the police and the police put them in jail. They finally let them out, but not without a lot of problems and threats from the police and they told the guys that they would be watching them closely. The Mission President was sure that from now on the Jinja police would make any excuse to give the missionaries a bad time and they would be targeted by the police. He asked us to talk to some of these members of parliament and ask for their help. Right after the ceremony, Ron mentioned the situation to two of the dignitaries in attendance and asked if they could help with this situation. Both pulled out their cell phones at the same time and made calls. We hope this ends the problem and that the missionaries will not be a target for the Jinja police and that they have learned their lesson, which is when you are in someone else’s country, you better watch what you say.
We were all busy taking pictures at this event. This is the place to come if you want wonderful pictures. Everywhere you aim your camera is a great picture. Rick Foster had brought a bunch of soccer balls from the U.S. and handed them out to the various groups of kids. It was a very nice day. On our way back to Kampala the couples stopped at Bugigali Falls, which are beautiful falls on the Nile River, and a very awe inspiring sight to see. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Kampala and it was getting dark. The roads are quite dangerous because of the crazy way people drive here. We were all glad to be back safe and sound in our apartments
We held a smaller handover the next weekend. A member of our branch had asked us to visit a small spring just a mile or so from the Church. It was really just an old rusted pipe coming out of a hill into a very dirty weed infested ditch. The women in the area came down the hill, laid on their stomachs in the dirt and weeds and put a jerry can under this old pipe to get their water. We thought this would be a nice small project for the Church to do, since a large number of people in the area used this spring and it was the only water for miles around. We wrote up the project and South Africa approved it.
It now has a brand new stainless steel pipe, the ditch is now concrete with nice rocks cemented along the sides, concrete steps leading down to the water pipe and a fence around the whole area protecting it from animals, and the area is nicely landscaped. We found out that the land this spring well is on is owned by the family of the Prime Minister of Uganda and was owned by his grandfather, his father and now him. He named the well after his father and he and his wife came to the handover. It was very interesting because he came with a military guard who had a very serious machine gun in his hands, who stood guard over our proceedings. We were seated next to him and his wife and he and Ron and I spoke during the commissioning ceremony. There were a lot of media attending and of course all focused on him. He had a lot of aids with him who were there to do everything he needed done, holding his paper, his pencil, etc. He was very nice though and thanked us for the Church funding the project. However, we did notice in the newspapers, the Church was not mentioned.
One of the projects we have had approved this year is another big water project in the Kumuli District, which consists of refurbishing 20 boreholes, drilling 15 new boreholes and water catchment systems and providing hand washing facilities for ten schools. Very extensive sanitation and hygiene initiatives are a part of this project. These villages have no running water, no electricity and less than 40 percent even have a pit latrine. Water borne diseases are rampart and our goal is to not only bring them clean water, but to really improve their health and living conditions. We are spending approximately $250,000 US dollars to help the 35 to 40,000 beneficiaries. Just a subtle hint for you to give generously when you fill out the humanitarian part of your tithing slip. We have some smaller projects approved and have submitted project requests for a school and another cow project that will benefit a large number of people, so we are very busy and love the work.
Today we spent part of the day visiting an orphanage and ordering 20 new desks for them and monitoring our piggery program, which is progressing very well.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and all the couples are going to the Mission Home to celebrate Easter together. It is very different to be here and to celebrate Easter without helping family color Easter eggs and celebrate this day with them.
We are expecting and looking forward to Darcy and Mark coming to visit us in April/May and Torri coming in June. We are hoping that Brett and Roger and Matt’s family will also come for a visit. It will be very wonderful to see our children. It is very interesting and humbling to be on a mission in Africa and we feel very blessed to be here with these wonderful people and at this time when the gospel is so new.
Love Elder and Sister Bean
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