Freetown

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Last night Elder & Sister Sitati picked us up and took us to the new hotel that was just completed that is near   the Novotel where we stay while in Accra.  They had walked through this fancy place previously but wanted to try the restaurant.  It was built by an Arab sheik that obviously has a lot of oil money.  The hotel is quite large and beautiful.  The enormous lobby had impossibly high ceilings and artwork and sculptures lining the walls, encased in glass.  The meal was very good but highly priced, but then they were taking us out to dinner.

After checking up on the whereabouts of the Sitati children we learned something new.  We were talking about the reasons the Priesthood was withheld from Black men early in our church and that we knew it had something to do with Africans, not African Americans.  We felt that it was because the church simply could not afford to set up churches in Africa because of the great cost.  He instructed us otherwise.  He said that it was because the Priesthood could not work for a people who were under bondage.  Africa had been under the rule of Europeans for a very long time.  He said that independence had to take place before the Priesthood could function here.  When he travels around and Africans complain to him (since he is Kenyan) that ours is just a White church, he explains that America was set up to be a free land and that this was the only country where the Gospel could be restored; and because of the constitution that was inspired by God, it was a place where slavery could be completely abolished so that all would have their agency in America.

We learned something else.  Elder and Sister Sitati met while they were young and so they grew up in the same area.  While the English ruled Kenya they had a simple health program that kept them from getting sick.  They were taught, among other cleanliness practices, that each family (they were extremely poor, living in mud huts with dirt floors) had to plaster their floors with cow dung.  This somehow kept down the bugs that would make them ill (go figure!).  The English would come and make sure that this was done at each hut.  Elder Sitati told us that his mother did this religiously and they did not get sick.  They also had a dip well in the area that was kept clean, probably with chemicals and other practices that kept debris out of the wells.  Sister Sitati said that there has been a hand pump well on a hill where they grew up that has worked for 50 years!  We remembered how much easier it was to work in Kenya to get a sustainable project than it has been for us in Sierra Leone—an entirely different culture where you have to lock your pump head to keep it from getting stolen.  This would never happen in Kenya.  It also means that they take care of fixing the pump when it breaks down.  It makes me envious of our old days in Kenya where our work there is still mostly functioning.  Trying to change a lack of cleanliness culture here has been difficult.  It was interesting to realize that the lack of hygiene happened after the Europeans left. 

I woke up in the middle of the night obviously suffering from jetlag.  We still had to travel to Freetown on Kenya Air and then take the Eco motor boat to cross the waters.  I felt like sleeping at the wrong times today.

The Schlehuber’s arriving at the Freetown dock, ready for their 23 month mission to Bo, Sierra Leone.  Even the mission president assured them that they could remove their jackets!  These people are tough!  They’d been traveling for days.

Yesterday a couple arrived that we traveled with to Sierra Leone.  They will be serving in the Sierra Leone mission and be sent to Bo, where we often have worked and where they have many branches of the church.  A couple of years ago no couple could be sent there.  We remember  being with Elder Petersen who served a few years ago when he got threats from members because they saw that he was looking at their fuel (i.e., they knew that he knew that they were cheating).  Apparently things have drastically improved and it is now safe for a couple to serve there full time.  Right now many faithful, young returned missionaries are serving in the District and local Branches, which has changed the Church there in a hurry.  The name of the new couple is Schlehuber.  I am usually pretty good at pronouncing names but I didn’t have a clue about this one.  It is pronounced Shhh-lay-huber.  Obviously it is German.  In the short time that we have known them we feel that they will be perfect for this assignment.  They are peppy and upbeat and not thrown by their new experience. 

We got a warm welcome from the Mission President and his wife, and also the Randall’s.  We met them first while they were serving in Kenya as the employment couple.  This is their third mission and serve as the office couple.  Great people!

Night: we are finally in our hotel room after a long and grueling day.  The Mission President and the office couple greeted us and we got the many pieces of luggage into the two cars and we dropped ours at the Country Lodge and then joined the couples at the Mission President’s home for dinner.  Homemade food always tastes special when you’ve been eating out a while.  I am especially exhausted from lack of sleep.  The shower, then the bed, is loudly calling my name…

Love, mom & dad, Jim & Karen, E/S Greding

PS: While visiting with the Mission President he told us of the incredible growth of the church in Liberia and Sierra Leone.  They average about 200 baptisms every month.  The last time we were here there were two branches in Kenema.  Now there are three.  This is the case all over Liberia and Sierra Leone.  He also told us that all of our water project workers are serving as heads of Branches and in the District Presidencies.  Turay is in the District Presidency in Freetown.  Jonathan is in the District Presidency in the Bo/Kenema area.  Some of our site monitors are also serving in similar capacities.  We remembered thinking that once local missionaries returned and were committed to living the Gospel, they would change the attitudes of the members here.  No longer do I hear women complaining that their leaders are not keeping the commandments.  This has allowed the church to grow so much that by the end of the year there will be Stakes here, not branches.  This is quite incredible since just a couple of years ago there was nothing but corruption.

We also learned news that will affect us greatly: they are finally going to have a humanitarian couple serving in Sierra Leone.  That means we will be training couples here and advising them on how to do water projects, which means we will not have to work so hard.  We will have someone on the ground turning in their own water projects and watching the work as it unfolds.  What a concept!  This will allow us to work more in Haiti to develop our own projects there.  Onward and upward…

Want to take a swim at the beach in Freetown?  Yep, what you are seeing is a pile of garbage.