Oh my head Hurts!

Here in the Congo it often feels as if time has stood still for the last 100 years and you are just an observer looking back in time.

Children are taught to carry a hughe amount of weight by balancing it on their heads. Walking is the main way of getting around in the Congo as few people have cars or other transport. It isn't a new idea, in fact it is an ancient idea but here in the Congo some things never change.

Every day you can see people bustling to get to the market. Their pace is fast and their posture erect - must be why they have such good posture.

I remember as a teenager walking with a book on my head trying to balance it. I found it very difficult. I wanted to improve my posture. Posture is not a problem here. I have never heard a mother here say "Stand up straight Johnny, don't slouch.

Enjoy these pictures. I have been collecting them to share with you over our whole mission. It is such a part of Africa.

big or small it doesn't seem to make much difference.

A baby on the back and a full bowl on your head leaves your hands free to do many other things.

Some people can carry everything on their head they will need when they set up their road side stand. Just keep piling it on

It is the way. Many women even carry their purse on their head rather than carry it.

This is full load!


Boiled eggs are a big lunch time treat and in the morning you may see a man hurrying down the road with the eggs piled twice as high as this man has. I keep missing the big shot because I am always so amazed they he will scurry in and out of traffic, balancing this huge column of eggs on his head with out any hands to steady it. I get so engrossed watching the balancing act I forget to take a picture.

Well, you never know when you may need a stool so you better carry one along.

We stopped these ladies in Mweni-Ditu on their way home at night from a day at the marked. I wanted the picture of the sewing machine on the head but everyone wanted their picture taken. When I had snapped the picture they wanted to be paid for me taking the picture. I refused and told them I don't pay for pictures. They weren't happy.

Learning at an early age. That yellow crate is full of soda pop bottles.Heeeaavy!

Nothing is wasted in the Congo. Often you will see people gathering wood from a fallen tree and then they take the wood home and make charcoal out of it which they will use for their cooking fires and sell for some income.

Want a scarf? Get it from the scarf lady. She has at least 100 scarfs on her head any of which she will sell you for a price. The price being double for a mondeli.

When you drive down the street you see people toting their loads on their heads where ever you look.




Aha, they must have got some new chairs at a good bargain.

When you have to tote a baby on your back and carry your bundles you shouldn't forget how handy it is to put one of the loads on your head.

Another crate full of large bottles of beer. We once saw a man carrying a crate of beer on his head and one crate in each hand held only by his finger tips. Again I was so fascinated I missed the awesome picture. I must add he didn't look like it was a very heavy load but we know different.

Women daily gather greens from the garden and tote them to market to sell. These three are dodging traffic as they cross a very busy thoroughfare.

My favorite has to be the bread ladies. Every day, several times a day you will see woman picking up bread at the Victoire (a large bakery). They carry it back to their neighborhood where they sale it Bread is a main stay and often people have a loaf of this bread along with a cup of tea for breakfast. Lunch may be a handful of peanuts, a banana or another piece of bread. The only real meal that is eaten is the evening meal which mainly consists of foofoo, rice and beans with ground greens and maybe a little fish or chicken (but meat only on a good day).



Where ever we have traveled we see people gathering sticks to make the charcoal. It is a very important fuel.

The hardest job is the toting of water for daily needs. It is endless and requires all to participate. It is unbelievable that a child can carry this much wait on their head. It isn't easy and they usually walk/run trying to shorten the distance to home.

The path is often steep and makes it rather treacherous for carrying a heavy load.





This is one of my favorite pictures. I didn't take this one. But I love it, not sure why. Maybe it is because it is just sooooo Africa.

Remember the chicken lady - another favorite from Luputa

Returning home after spending a day at the Marche sewing beautiful Congolese clothes.

Don't you Love it! Very African!

Marie . My Friend . My Sister

Marie Jose. the Mother Teresa of Luputa

Marie is the head nurse of Maternity at Luputa General Hospital. We first met her when she came to the NRT training in Kinshasa in Aug 2007. Armed with a Neonatal Resuscitation Kit, she went back to Luputa and trained all her staff in maternity how to use the skills she had learned in the NRT training and then reached out to other clinics in the area and trained them.

One Sunday morning we got a call from a very excited Marie. She was crying and laughing saying, "Hallelujah, Praise God. Praise the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for teaching Marie Jose how to resuscitate babies. We just had a hard case. They said the baby was dead but I went through the algorithm and it worked, the baby started breathing. Hallelujah,we are saving babies in Luputa!"

We would not have ever started the Luputa Hospital Project if it had not been for Marie Jose. She was the one that invited us to the hospital and showed us what they were working with and convinced us to get the church to help.

On our last trip to Luputa, after the ceremony for the hospital project, Marie invited us to her small clinic she had started to care for the very poor.

The clinic has grown into an orphanage as she finds children without parents who need help. She is often brought children who are starving and need medical attention. She also helps widows with children feeding them and having the mamas help with the orphans. Presently she is caring for 40 orphans. This does not include the widows and their children.

On our visit we held a baby that was so malnourished and weak she could hardly cry.

This child had been found next to it's mother who had died.

No one knew how long the baby had been left on it's own but the baby was brought to Marie and she is keeping the baby at the clinic and caring for her.

This little girl was born in Marie's clinic and has lived there her whole life. Her mother died in childbirth. Her home is with Marie at the clinic.

Tears flowed as we were introduced to the 40 children she is trying to support without the benefits of a real orphanage. We tried comforting this baby but it wasn't until Marie took her in her arms that she cuddled in and found some comfort.

Marie has no where to house the children so she farms them out to families at night so they have a secure place to sleep and then they come back to her clinic during the day and she and her staff care for them.

They feed the children once a day a gruel and as you can see they are anxious to get it.

The clinic is a small 3 room structure with a small office a birthing room/exam room and a larger room where patients lie on the floor on blankets recovering from birthing a baby or from illnesses.

The birthing of babies is done under rather primitive conditions. The room was clean but without any equipment except a birthing table.

The day before we had given Marie a gift from Farrell and me. We gave her a stethoscope and a pair of nursing scissors. She was so excited and showed them to the hospital director and the staff. When we visited her little clinic we noticed that the nurse on duty had the stethoscope around her neck and the pair of scissors were sitting on the side table by the birthing table. It looked like she had found a good use for her gift.

On the wall of the birthing room is the NRT algorithm, handy for those difficult babies.

In the office was a small table that held the medicines she had stocked which were very few. There were also some vitamins. She tries to get vitamins and minerals donated where and when ever possible to supplement the diet of these children. Her supply was very meager.

We sat down in the small room, so close our knees touched. With us was Sis. Livingstone, Sis. Parmley and Sis. Moon besides Farrell and Me. She told us of her desperation for help. She wanted to know if the church could help support her orphanage or build her a dormitory to house the orphans. Both of these requests are outside of the guidelines for the church humanitarian services. We cried with her as she explained her dream of having a safe place for the orphans of Luputa.

Our hearts went out to her and so did some of our personal monies as none of us could think of any other way to help.

Marie is an ministering angel to her fellowman. Her hopes and dreams are all about how to help others. She is very outside herself in her wants and desires always trying to find ways to help those in need.

Marie is my kindred spirit. We are sisters. I love her and her tears about broke my heart. When we return home I will miss her tremendously. She reminds me of the song from Don Quixote, "To Dream the Impossible Dream," as her dream at this point does seem impossible and her task she has taken on, overwhelming.

From Don Quizote:

ALDONZA : Why do you do these things?

DON QUIXOTE: I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.

Whether I win or lose does not matter.

Only that I follow the quest.

ALDONZA What does that mean... quest?

DON QUIXOTE: It is the mission of each true knight...

His duty... nay, his privilege!

To dream the impossible dream,

To fight the unbeatable foe,

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go;

To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,

To try, when your arms are too weary,

To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,

To fight for the right

Without question or pause,

To be willing to march into hell

For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I'll only be true

To this glorious Quest,

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm

When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,

That one man, scorned and covered with scars,

Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,

To reach the unreachable stars!

In the Congo there are thousands of people like Marie who care for orphans. Our hearts go out to them as they try to "right the unrightable wrong" done to these children. May the Lord bless them and keep them safe and may we all find ways to share our blessings to bless others.

Luputa General Hospital - Getting better every day!

Last February we reported on the hospital in Luputa which was providing care for many people with very little supplies and a dilapidated facility. The church approved a project to strengthen the hospital and a second project to support a pre-natal program. The closest medical care to Luputa is Muene-Ditu a 2 hour drive by a 4x4. Of course no one has a 4x4 so it actually means a 2 day trip walking or by bicycle

The biggest problem was getting the equipment we had gathered transported out to Luputa. We aren't talking about a few boxes, we are talking about

20 hospital beds with vinyl mattresses

operating table

4 surgical instrument kits (1 birthing kit, 2 cesarean kits and 1 laporatomy kit)

newborn kits

400 Family Health and Hygiene manuals

ultrasound machine for the prenatal program.

We included 10 pair of scissors, nursing and bandage scissors. We were told on our last visit that they only had one pair of scissors in the whole hospital. Every nurse needs a pair of scissors in her pocket, kind of basic equipment. At least that is what I was told in my nursing class.

Dr. Muliele, a member of the church and an OB/GYN physician was instrumental in helping us find quality equipment to purchase and when we found a vendor for the beds we negotiated that they would deliver the beds to Mbuji-Mayi and then we would have to figure out how to get them on out to Luputa, a 4 hour 4x4 drive. We did know of someone who had a large truck in Luputa, our water contractor, Dominique Sowa. We called and asked for his help. He not only committed to transport the hospital beds and the operating table but had his office in Mbuji-Mayi pick up the equipment at the airport go to the mattress factory in Mbuji Mayi and pick up the mattresses and deliver everything to Luputa.

The week before we went to Luputa we got a call from our water site monitor, Daniel, telling us they were delivering the beds to the hospital and the people were dancing and singing in the streets. Wish we had got a picture of that.

Saturday morning was set as the time for a little ceremony and turn over of the equipment.. Elder Parmley, our Area President, consented to represent the church and give the supplies to the hospital. There was much excitement as we arrived Saturday morning.

We arrived early as we wanted to set up the equipment for the ceremony and make sure everything was in good order. A crowd had already started gathering.

Elder Moon unboxed the operating table and proceeded to put it together. He had a lot of help as all the hospital staff wanted to be in on the excitement.



Dignitaries started arriving including the Territorial Health Administrator and several government people who the hospital had invited.

The children gathered at the gate and wanted also to be in on the excitement. We gave them pieces of the bubble wrap from the packing boxes and they had a lot of fun popping the bubbles.

Sister Moon and Sister Parmley kept them busy by teaching them songs and had them singing in English without much difficulty.

The hospital looked much different this trip as they had painted and cleaned and it was looking very good and much improved.

The ceremony was conducted by Daniel Kazadi, our water site manager and by the hospital administrator.

The District Health Administrator spoke at the ceremony and thanked the church for remembering the hospital and their needs. He said that because of the attention of the church to these needs the health department of the province was trying to help the hospital also to upgrade their supplies and improve their system.

Then Elder Parmley spoke and Farrell translated his comments into French.

Elder Parmley told the people about his career as a Cardiologist. During his career he was president of the Cardiology association in the US and head of a large hospital in San Francisco. He praised the hospital staff for their good efforts. He counseled them to take care of the gifts they were given and improve the health care of their community.

I remembered when we first started dreaming about this project. We could see so many needs and wondered how we could strengthen them and help them improve the communities health. The Lord truly inspires us as we do this work. We took their wish list and soon narrowed it down to what we could do in an area initiative and it didn’t seem like much. But when we saw the improvements they were making in anticipation of getting these new supplies and saw that the district health officials were taking note and starting to support the hospital with some help, we realized that what the church provided was a catalyst for the community to help themselves.

The program included a tour of the hospital and this was an experience for those who had not yet seen what this hospital was working with.

We needed to do some training with the ultrasound machine but before we could do the training Elder Moon said he could hear something loose, rattling in the machine. He immediately dismantled the machine and found a screw had come loose and needed to be put back in its place. He also tightened up all other connections. Our driver Alphonse was itching to get his hands on the machine. He told us he was a technician and he could fix it. Elder Moon graciously allowed him to tightenp some of the screws. He was very serious as he worked on the machine and was very proud of his assistance.

Much more is needed here at the hospital but the few things the church has supplied will help considerably, The morale of the hospital has increased and has helped the staff take pride in their work. Just having the church recognize their needs and offering some help gives them hope that things can get better.

This was a shining star experience of our mission. A dream, a lot of work and finally success. And yet again we are reminded how impossible this mission would be without Heavenly Father's influence, opening doors, providing earthly angels to help us and guiding us in the direction we should go. Humanitarian work is working hand in hand with our Savior. We realize we are limited in our ability to see the big picture. We have learned to rely on the promptings of the Spirit to guide and direct us in His work.

Anna Iola Evans Sanders

When we left on our mission to Africa we left behind our aged mothers - aged but in good health. You always worry about what you will miss being gone on a mission for 18 mo.

This week I was notified that my mother had fallen and was deteriorating rapidly. The last few days have been sorrowful, joyful, tender and sweet. I have seen miracles happen. I have seen a brother who not so long ago struggled with his own relationship with his Father in Heaven bless my mother with peace and tranquility for her last hours here on earth. I have seen my children band together and bond in a sweet collaboration of caring for their grandmother in their mother's absence.


I had thought first that I must quickly find a flight back home to help with my mother's care and be a part of this experience but after much prayer and contemplation I realized I should stay in Africa.

I remembered when I left Utah my mother, suffering from dementia, struggled to make sense of all that was happening with us leaving and going to the other side of the world. Our last goodbyes were sweet as her mind cleared and she very firmly hugged us and told us to go and enjoy our experience. She would try to be there when we got back but she was 90 yrs old so she wasn't making any promises. She confirmed what my heart had already known telling us she supported us fully and wanted us to go and have this mission experience. She told us not to worry about her, that she would be just fine. All this was said with a very clear mind and without any hesitation.

I remembered all of this as I made the decision not to return home for her final hours on earth. It was the right decision, I knew it at the time and I have had it reaffirmed now that she has gone.

I have monitored her care and kept my own vigil through our SKYPE connection. This morning as I had full view of her bed and was observing her breathing, I was chatting away with Nathan who had come to sit with his grandma. My other children had left the room. Very peacefully her breathing just stopped and together Nathan and I witnessed her departure from her earthly body. Sweet . . tender . . . peaceful.



I feel so blessed to have witnessed this departure. I feel blessed by my children who have shown such sweet tender mercy to their grandmother. I feel a boundless love and gratitude for my brothers who have sustained my mother, watched over her and cared for her in my absence.

I am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who guides us, directs us, teaches us and refines us as we strive to get through this life in a manner that will be pleasing to Him.

Thank you my sweet family for your tender mercies. Thank you for loving my mother. Thank you for loving me. And mom, thank you for loving me also.

Anna Iola Evans Sanders

Nov 15, 1915 - Sept 2, 2008