Gathering Place

We have been given responsibility to help with a program in the church called, the Gathering Place. The church has organized different vocational training classes on the subjects of electricians, beauticians, tailoring, entertainment planners, pastry baking and computer skills. They meet at the church. The church provides the instructors and the training equipment and supplies. In the case of pastry baking the church supplies the oven, utensils and food ingredients. In the case of tailoring the church supplies the sewing machine, thread and materials. In the case of the computer class they supply all the computers. Because of the poverty in the country the church is supplying everything or else many people would be excluded.

The classes are once a week and last for 4 hours. At the end of the class the church provides a meal. The picture above is the students in the electrical class. The day I took all the pictures there was a heavy rainstorm and a large political rally which cut attendance down significantly.

Here is a picture of The Beautician class. All of the classes are aimed at young adults from ages 18 to 30. All of the instructors are professionals in their fields and volunteer their time.

 This is the sewing class. Many things in Africa are much more difficult than back in the United States. The classes still haven't received the sewing machines and computers. Things just take a long time. When they receive the computers they will also receive a large safe to store the computers in. Theft is a big problem here.

There are six Stakes of the church in the country here. Five of them have implemented this program. Our job is to audit and evaluate and help with any problems that come up. This program is quite remarkable. Vocational education here is expensive and not available to all. These classes give everyone an opportunity.

Since we were on the other side of town and it was dinner time we decided to try a new restaurant. We found one that looked like it's served western food, had air conditioning and it looked clean.

We ordered chicken fajitas. Instead of tortillas it came with bread. The meal cost $16. The food was good . The restaurant is owned and operated by a Lebanese owner. They seem to own all the significant businesses here such as hotels, restaurants and stores. The food was very good. 

We were invited to speak at the Bushrod stake conference today. This is the scene outside the parking lot. Notice that the stake center is on a dirt road.  Because no one has transportation the different Wards rent buses to get their people to conference.

This is the view from the driveway entrance. The only vehicle in the parking lot is ours. When it got closer to the start time there was a second vehicle there.

This is looking from the podium. The place was packed. About a thousand attended. All the fans were spinning and the side windows were open. 1/2 hour before the meeting time it was about 75% full. It was quiet. Everyone just sat there listening to prelude music.

The meeting lasted for 2 hours. The congregation was incredibly quiet the whole time. Not even the kids were noisy.  Everyone was well-dressed. All of the men's had ties on and all the women were in dresses. It was just like conferences in America except that it was very hot inside.

Cheryl spoke first and was actually able to get them to laugh. They never laugh in meetings. I spoke about the humanitarian projects we are doing in their country. I'm always hesitant to do that because afterwards people come up and want us to do something for them or their Village. It happened again today after the meeting. The problem is that the type of projects they suggest usually don't meet the standards we use to decide on what we're going to fund.

This is a picture of the choir.  Notice that all the men have matching ties. The women have three different colors of dresses. This corresponds to the coral parts they sang. People here like coordinating their outfits. All of the stake presidency had matching ties. All of the stake High Council set together and had a matching ties.

The meeting was impressive. All of the talks were doctorally sound and well prepared. The theme of the meeting was paying your tithes and offerings and having charity towards all. There was an inspiring spirit in the meeting. 

It's still hard for me to comprehend that during the meeting they are so much like Americans, but then after the meeting they walk home to their house that probably doesn't have running water and they may only have one meal today. I imagine it's probably like how some people lived in America in the late 1800s.

Here is a copy of the conference program that was distributed to everyone in attendance. Notice that each item on the program has a precise time assigned. That puts a lot of pressure on you as a speaker because you don't want to mess up everyone else if you go over time. It seems odd that in a land where meetings and gatherings can start so late and were people have a lot of free time that they would be so precise.  I was amazed that everything went exactly to schedule.