Hello From Bo

Kathy-

(I sent this email to friends and family a few weeks ago but since I don’t have addresses for all of you who subscribe to this blog, I thought I would post it here as well.)

Ever since we arrived, we’ve been at a furious pace and haven’t stopped – even to eat lunch. The good thing about that is time has gone fast. In the last two weeks, we’ve held a 2-day mission leader council, had 5 interview days, and 5 zone conferences. We will head to Moriba Town this Thursday and Friday, where we will interview the last 12 elders and hold our final zone conference. So – in a matter of 3 weeks, we will have met all 105 missionaries! Whew! It has been exhausting but also very sweet. Exhausting, because it takes incredible concentration to listen to elders and sisters from 21 countries who all have different accents; sweet because the missionaries here are top-notch. Many of them are converts and are often the only members of the church in their families. I love hearing their conversion stories, the reasons why they decided to serve a mission, and how they have changed because of it. One of the things I was promised before coming here was a deep love for the missionaries we will work with. I didn’t expect that to come so fast, but it has.

There is so much to write about that I thought the following format would make it easier to read.

1.        I haven’t seen very many mosquitoes. We went for a short hike one morning with the couple upstairs (Elder and Sister Ettinger) and I didn’t see one. I had expected swarms of them, especially since it is rainy season. I had expected them to sense the sugar I have in my blood and say, “Yay – dessert!” Maybe I won’t need all the mosquito repellant I brought. I still take my anti-malaria medication every day (Doxy) as not a week goes by when one or two of our missionaries doesn’t have malaria.

2.        The country is lush and beautiful, and the people take pride in how things look. They sweep their dirt yards every day with a small bundle of branches and put trash in piles which they will burn when the dry season comes. They reuse things. For example, they often put items in used water bottles, like honey or nuts and sell them.

3.        I love watching mothers bathe their children. They stand them in a bucket, soap them up until they are completely covered with white suds, then dump water over their heads to rinse them off. They use the same bucket to wash clothes with a washboard. The women spend a lot of time washing clothes. It’s hard work but their children are clean and well-dressed. 

4.        There are no stoplights in Bo or the surrounding areas. There are a few stop signs, but no one pays attention to them. The only way speed is controlled is through speed bumps. There are a lot of them! The main rule here is – the biggest vehicle wins. Since there are few cars, most people yield to us but there are several large trucks we watch out for. The most common form of transportation is motorcycles. They can fit a lot of people on them. Yesterday, I saw 5 grown adults holding tightly to one another to they could all sit on the seat. 

5.        The building we are living in is brand new. However, we are constantly having problems. The second night we were here, I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water before bed and discovered our filter had broken and was spewing water everywhere. There was at least an inch on the floor and in the laundry room. I yelled for Scott, who was able to turn it off while I grabbed some bath towels and a mop. We spent the next two hours (until midnight) mopping up water as fast as we could so it wouldn’t seep downstairs into the office. Luckily, we caught it in time. Only a small amount dripped downstairs, which was easy to clean up. Things could have been much worse because the room below our kitchen houses the server. The internet for the entire mission would have been ruined. We found out the next day the landlord had never placed a regulator on the water tank, which is why the filter broke. It makes sense because the water pressure constantly fluctuates from high to very low.

6.        A few days later I noticed the pipes below the sink in our kitchen were leaking. I placed several buckets under the sink to catch the drips. Over the next few days, the buckets were filling more rapidly with water. Elder Ettinger looked at it and discovered one pipe was ready to burst. He quickly fixed it and kept us from having another flood.

7.        During one of the hard rains, water started leaking through the lights in the Ettinger’s apartment upstairs. They grabbed buckets and bowls to catch it all. He is hiring someone to come fix the roof.

8.        I have learned to not set the clock on the microwave because the power goes out multiple times a day. When it does, Elder Ettinger runs out to the parking lot and starts the generator. We have two generators – one for a backup. However, the people who came to load it with diesel, let water get into the mixture, so it’s not working right now. We are keeping our fingers crossed the first generator keeps working until Elder Ettinger can hire someone to come fix the spare.

9.        Several missionaries were staying the night with us between their interviews and zone conference. They were so excited to have hot showers. When they went to turn on the water, nothing came out. I ran upstairs to check with the Ettinger’s, but they didn’t answer the door. I figured they had gone to bed since it was after 10:00. I gave the elders a large bottle of water so they could flush the toilets and told them we would we figure things out in the morning. Apparently, one of the toilets in the unoccupied couple’s apartment upstairs had gotten stuck and run all night long – draining our water tank. We have a spare tank, so Elder Ettinger was able to pull a switch so we could use that water. (I’m going to have him show me how to do that.) It was such a relief because 24 elders and sisters came to our home that day for zone conference. It would have been hard to feed them, etc. without water.

10.  The mission home/office is full of surprises. You never know what is going to happen next. You open a bedroom door, and the handle falls off; you open a cupboard, and the door falls off; you open a dresser drawer and the slide breaks, the internet is often very weak and sometimes non-existent. Every time something happens, I just laugh. It’s either that or cry and as Sister Hinckley once said, “I choose to laugh, because crying gives me a headache.”

11.  Every staircase is uneven, so you really must pay attention. One step may be just a few inches high while the next step is 8” high. Apparently, that’s very common in Sierra Leone. There are also 3” thresholds you step over when you walk from one room to the next. I spent the first week tripping over them but am now used to them. They are human speedbumps which keep me from walking too fast.

12.  There are 14 bolts which are controlled by three locks on the door between the guest room and the balcony yet the front door to the building is held shut with one small bolt and a tiny screw. There are big walls with razor wire surrounding the building yet over the front gate is a huge gap that someone could climb under very easily. We have guards 24/7 but they often fall asleep at night. I still feel safe, though, so that’s good.

13.  The phrase “rolling thunder” finally makes sense. The thunderstorms here are incredible! I love to hear the rain pound on the roof and listen to the thunder that starts at one part of the sky and “rolls” across to the other side.

14.  I am constantly amazed at what the people carry on their heads! Bundles of sticks, 20-foot boards, bowls of whole pineapple, and large buckets of water. I noticed one young girl carrying a huge bowl of water on her head while holding a second water bucket with her left hand. She didn’t even seem off-balanced. My favorite is watching women walk with plastic buckets on their head containing several dozen eggs. They walk with an elegance that dancers would envy.

15.  Whenever we travel, there are many police checkpoints we must stop for. These checkpoints consist of a rope with various colors of rags hanging from it, stretched across the road. Most of the time, they just drop the rope when they see who we are. We’ve been questioned twice. They ask where we are coming from and where we are going, who we are and what we are doing. One inspector asked for a pen. The only one we had was in Scott’s pocket. He hated to part with it, but the inspector was insistent. When we got back to the mission home, I stocked the glovebox with a handful of pens, some pamphlets, and several Book of Mormons. Good thing because we were stopped again this morning and were able to give away a pamphlet. We aren’t nervous at these checkpoints – everyone is always so nice. They are just curious why white people are in their country.

16.  Last Sunday, we drove 2 ½ hours to Moriba Town to attend church, meet some of the local leaders, and a few of the missionaries. This is the town where Elder and Sister Taggart are stationed (for those of you who’ve read their emails). The last hour of the trip was on an incredibly bumpy road with huge mud puddles. It felt like we were off-roading in a jeep. I am very grateful to have an SUV! I wonder how long it will be until we have our first flat tire. The Taggarts have had 29 flat tires since last November. Our driver, Pascal, was amazing as he dodged chickens, goats, and even children who ran into the street. We had a few close calls. The children always stare because very few cars pass by their villages. I like to smile and wave at them. Most of them smile and wave back.

17.  The children make toys out of random things. This morning, I saw a homemade tetherball. A large stick was stuck into the ground. A rope was tied to the top of the stick and a sock, full of dirt, was tied to the bottom of the rope. Using their hands, the children swat the sock back and forth, trying to get it past each other – just like tetherball. I often see children spinning rubber tires down the road using a stick. 

18.  In the small grocery store here you can buy chicken, fish, beef, or meat. I don’t dare ask what the “meat” is.

19.  Sister Juliet Moses was hired as our mission attendant. She cooks for large groups – like zone conferences, leadership council, and meetings with local church leaders. She knows where to shop for food, which is so helpful as it is hard to find things here. She also helps with laundry and keeps the mission home clean. I couldn’t survive without her. I showed her how to use the washing machine and dryer. She was floored you could just push a few buttons and it would be done for you. Sister Moses loves music and is always singing hymns while she works. Today I joined along with her and sang the harmony. When we finished, we both laughed and gave each other a big hug. She is an easy person to love.

20.  This is an English-speaking mission but most of the residents in Bo speak Mende (the local tribal language) or Krio (broken English). I rarely understand what anyone is saying, and they don’t understand me. We use a lot of gestures and repeat ourselves often. They do the same. Everyone is very patient. I hope with time, my ears will get used to their accents and vice versa.

21.  And speaking of accents, our 105 missionaries are from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda, Congo, Kenya, Ghana, Togo, Angola, Liberia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone Freetown, the Philippines, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the UK, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the U.S. 

22.  One of the missionaries I interviewed yesterday told me about serving in a town called Makeni. There was a food and fuel shortage. He lived on flour and water pancakes for 2 months and lost 40 pounds. He told me he was glad to experience such a hard thing because it taught him to be grateful. He also said he didn’t mind losing the weight and feels better now than when he first came. I was impressed by his attitude.

23.  Many of the missionaries here have had one or both parents die and are living with relatives. Most are the only member of the church in their family. Several are worried about what to do after their missions. They pray that God will open the way for them to get an education so they can have a better life. It is heart-wrenching and humbling to hear their stories. However, I am inspired by their incredible faith and diligent efforts to be good missionaries. 

24.  Outside of one of the tiny grocery stores in Bo sits a group of people. These people consist of an elderly blind man and his wife, a woman in a wooden wheelchair, a badly crippled man who uses two sticks to walk, a man who can’t speak and uses gestures to communicate, and several others who have serious physical disabilities. They hold out their hands, asking for Leones. When I saw them, the first thought that came to mind was, “Oh how I wish the Savior were here so he could heal them.” A second thought followed immediately, “He is here! The missionaries are His hands. Though they cannot heal people physically, they can heal their hearts and bring hope and peace as they teach of Christ.

25.  I have felt the peace of Christ every day. It has been a huge blessing because I am completely out of my comfort zone. At the end of most days, I am exhausted physically and mentally yet there is always something or someone who needs more of my attention. I pray constantly for the stamina to keep up with the demands of this calling. I know He will continue to help me as I exercise faith, diligence, and patience (Alma 32:41-43).

Thank you all for your prayers. I am convinced they are one of the main reasons why I have felt so calm – even when I am asked to speak in church at the last minute. I have also felt great happiness every day. I know I will continue to grow in strength and capacity as “forget myself and go to work.” (Gordon B. Hinckley)

Kyigobima (God bless you in Mende),

Kathy (Sister Wyatt)

This was taken after one of our Zone Conferences.

Elder Forson and Elder Stringham wore these ties to Zone Conference on July 4th. 

Zone Conference in Kenema - about an hour drive away. As you can see, these missionaries know how to have fun!