Yes we are still in Africa but have been so busy we have neglected our Blog.
A few weeks ago we had the privilege of going to the villages where the Church will be digging wells for clean drinking water. The Senior Couple in Yaounde will be overseeing the well project. The villages are about an hour from Yaounde. There are three small villages strung along a 6 to 7 Kilometer area. The wells will be dug in three places where there is a concentration of homes.
The people are so poor.. A few homes are on concrete slabs but most sit right on the ground. A rectangle of woven poles and sticks covered with mud. They have no running water. Most roofs were made of corrugated tin. At each corner or along the front were large pans and barrels catching rain water. The water was full of dirt and rust from the roof.
Even at the little hospital clinic run by the government, that was how they collected water for drinking, washing and all other uses.
This was rainy season so they are able to get enough water but in the dry season the village has no source of water except for a hand dug well that had water like thin mud. Often it is necessary to walk to other areas to find water, carrying their water jugs home on their heads.
They were so excited about getting wells dug. We were treated like royalty. The village chief met us and we sat in his yard on wooden chairs set among the graves of his family.
Most of the homes were surrounded by graves, some with quite elaborate monuments, some concrete slabs and some mounds of dirt.
We were given gifts of avocado and mangos. And we could have joined the toast of palm wine. The drilling crew located the three well sites with electrical current and divining rods. We were followed up and down the roads, all very interested.
School let out and we were mobbed by laughing children.
We watched the villagers make palm oil by shelling the palm nut and then pounding or smashing the seed.
One old woman let us take her picture only if we let her change her clothes. She took off the long pants under her skirt, smoothed her hair, took off her old canvas style high top tennis shoes put on clean sox and she was ready. Pounded and smiled for us.
Their life will be much easier when the wells are completed. Infant mortality rate is high, in part because of the unclean water that causes dysentery. The little clinic was neat and clean although not modern by our standards. The pharmacy was a tiny room with 4 or 5 shelves of a few boxes of medicine. The Doctors office consisted of a wooden table and two wooden chairs.
Outside the clinic compound we watched the men sharpen their machetes on a large stone. The stone was worn down with a long four inch deep concave dip in it where the blades were drug across the stone surface.
We watched children playing soccer (they say football) with empty plastic bottle in place of a ball.
This village is so grateful and thanked us many times for giving them a well. As we left the Village chiefs approached us wanting to know what kind of church is this that would dig a well for us? We had an opportunity to give them a few Book of Mormon in French. We can not preach the gospel there as they are too far from a church center, but the seeds are sown.
On the way home we stopped to buy the four workers from the well digging company something to eat. We stopped at one of the many roadside places where food is served from little wooden tables or from trays carried on women’s heads. The workers chose African delicacies that didn’t look very good to us. We were offered deep fat fried termites, grilled lizard on a stick and dried fish. We ate our peanut butter sandwiches.
The church humanitarian department is spending about three million dollars digging wells in the DR Congo mission alone this year. Wells in these poor villages is a great blessing for the people.
Elder and Sister Willis
