Dear Family and Friends:
The time is now very short and soon we will be finished with our mission. We have mixed feelings about that. We are anxious to come home and reunite with our family and friends, but we also feel a great love and bond with the people here and also we will miss the work. We have set our departure date for October 31, 2008. We will do a two day stay over in London where we have purchased tickets to see the musical “Wicked” and also want to do a little sightseeing. We are set to arrive in Seattle on Sunday, November 2, 2008. We sometimes lie in bed at night and imagine what it will be like to drive on the right side of the road, with the steering wheel on the left and on a smooth surfaced road. We imagine the trip from our home in Mukilteo to Pam and Matt’s house in Lynnwood or Brian and Nicole’s house in Bonney Lake and try to visualize the turns while staying on the right side of the road.
The last six weeks will be going very fast and we have projects lined up to cover the complete time. We have been asked by President and Sister Christensen to go with them to the Sudan to check out the water situation there and to see if it is feasible for the Church to drill a few bore holes as a prelude to getting the Church accepted and established in that country. Right now our mission consists of the countries of Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. President Christensen would like to expand that to include the Sudan. We will be leaving on October 1st and will fly into a town called Juba. From there we will take a small plane and land in a village in the interior. From that village we will drive a car to a village called Aweil. We have met with a few contractors and people who have done some drilling in the Sudan and so far it sounds like it is a very hard thing to do. The country is vast, very poverty stricken, totally undeveloped and still has conflicts and wars in many of the areas. This country has not been free of war and turmoil since it gained independence. President Christensen feels there are many people there waiting to hear the gospel and join the Church. President and Sister Christensen have made one trip there and feel it has great potential for the Church to be established.
We are also considering asking the Church to send wheelchairs to be distributed in that area, but we are not sure who we can partner with to get them into the country. There doesn’t seem to be a very solid government, nor many regulations, etc. We will check that out when we arrive. Anyway, we are excited and a little apprehensive, but we will have the honor of being the first missionaries the Church has sent into that country, even though it is basically a fact finding trip.
We had four people visit with us from Salt Lake City this past week, one couple is a large donor to the humanitarian fund. We took them to see several of our project, which included the upland rice project, piggery, pineapple project and several protected springs that we developed in the Wakiso District. We also took them to a handover in the Kamuli District. This is the District where we renovated 25 boreholes and drilled 15 new ones. We also supplied 10 schools with a water catchment system and provided pit latrine slabs and mosquito nets to the community as a bonus for cleaning up their areas and digging pit latrines. Our visitors loved the dancing and music that usually ccompanies these handovers. The district presented the male visitors a kanzu (long white robes that the men wear for formal occasions) each and the women with necklaces and handicrafts. The kanzus were beautifully made, all by hand with tiny little stitches that were works of art in themselves. We visited several boreholes and at one of the boreholes there were African drummers and native dancers waiting to perform for us, as well as local media to report the activities. This borehole was decorated with flowers and ribbon and we cut the ribbon and officially handed over the water supply to the community. The people had also decorated the borehole with two palm branches decorated with beautiful flowers. The flower laden palm branches were planted in the ground on either side of the entrance to the borehole.. We understand that this is a great honor and is only done on very important occasions. For example one is displayed when the President of Uganda visits or some prominent person dies. Evidently the Church was being highly honored because of its contribution of clean water to thousands of people.
A few weeks ago, we also launched the second phase of a water project in another district. This was also covered by the media and an article was printed in the newspaper. We feel that the Church is finally getting a lot of recognition for its efforts and contributions made in Uganda. We are seeing a lot more articles regarding these handovers in the local papers and media. We also know that this helps the young missionaries when they approach people and identify what Church they represent. At Church on Sunday a whole school class of students, about 25 or so, in their nice green school uniforms came to investigate the Church because they had a borehole constructed on their school grounds and they wanted to attend the Church that provided it. A lot more people are now aware of the work being done by the Church here. We meet with organizations on Wednesdays and have also seen an increase in the people that are coming to us hoping to partner and receive help.
We have checked on some of our other projects the past few weeks and we are especially happy with the pineapple project. The pineapple plants are now about three feet high, healthy and flourishing. The price of pineapple has gone up considerably, so our organization of women should do very well. We remember when we first visited their field and it was nothing but heavy bush, trees and thick foliage. Now it is a wonderful pineapple plantation. The women are very hard working and work in shifts around the clock. I actually cried when we left. Rose the leader of the women in this project and the woman we dearly love, was standing in the field waving good bye as our truck pulled away. I fear I will never see her again or that beautiful pineapple field and it was very emotional for both of us. She always gives us something from her garden as we leave. The people here are very generous with the little they have.
Our vocational project to provide training materials to an organization operating in two cities was handed over recently. It consisted of sewing machines and materials, knitting machines, salon hair dryers, and welding equipment. They are so excited to receive the help and their expressions of gratitude are very humbling.
The second rice project is underway and is doing very well with the small improvements we learned on the first project. The Farmers Association won an award that you can see in the attached photo on their presentation to the national farmers association on the methods that we are using to properly farm, etc. Chairman Ben is the agricultural minister to the king of Buganda and Mr. Silver, the project manager, is wonderful to work with. The pigs are doing fine in the piggery and a new batch of little pigs had just arrived when we got there to check on the project. This is also a very fine healthy project and we know that it is sustainable and will help many people in the future and support the organization in their educational efforts. We still have several projects that are not quite completed and many more that we would like to do, but will have to leave that to the new humanitarians.
Our replacements arrive on October 20th and we will have approximately 10 days to show them around and introduce them to different organizations and individuals. They are in for a very exciting and wonderful time and I know they will love it as we do. I for one would just like to leave here in the middle of the night and not have to tell people good bye. We love our Mengo branch and the people in it. I have four piano students that I am going to try to transfer to Sister Nye, another senior missionary, who teaches piano. I have really enjoyed teaching piano lessons. This is the first time any of them have been taught anything about music and they are enthusiastic and so willing to learn.
The three containers of wheelchairs have finally arrived in Uganda and we will hand them over for distribution in mid-October and launch the largest water and sanitation project that the Church has done in Uganda, as well, before we leave.
We are really going to miss being here and will miss the people especially. We love the other senior missionaries and have a very close tie with all of them. They are our tie to home I think. They are wonderful, fun, good natured, and we all help each other very much. We love getting together on Wednesdays for movie night and on Sunday night for Family Home Evening. We even manage to all go out to dinner once in a while. We hope to keep in touch with them when we are all back in the States.
See you soon, Elder and Sister Bean
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