SUSTAINABILITY - FISH AND LIPS

This week Russell and I (Eileen) split because we were double booked on projects.  Russell went to Central Java with a short-term water specialist Elder Jay Henrie from Utah and his wife.  They were able to look at some of the new and previous water projects in that area.

On Tuesday I was able to accompany a good friend to have her dialysis at a hospital locally.  Steffie is waiting for a kidney transplant.  She is a positive, upbeat person with a smile on her face and an interest in others.  I enjoyed visiting with her and her daughter Diondra during the time while she was having her dialysis.  Later Diondra went with me and showed me a place to shop fairly near my house.  Who would have thought that I could shop without having to spend 30 minutes in traffic?

Later in the week I went with Sister Beaman to Bogor to work with a cleft lip/palate project.  While in Bogor, I decided to look at an old project started seven years ago by a previous welfare missionary couple.    It was a catfish farm started at an orphanage as a way for them to make money and support themselves. Our church donated some breeder catfish and then also built some dams to prevent flooding of their ponds.

The children at the orphanage were excited to see us. I had brought some stickers from America and some bracelets that my grandchildren had made at our family reunion last summer. The children excitedly gathered around to get a “gift” from us.

The orphanage had a variety of animals there including ducks, cows chickens, and other farm animals.  They also had a number of man-made fish ponds.    We were amazed to see the director of the orphanage feed the catfish.  What was originally a still pond turned into a feeding frenzy of open mouths when he threw food into the ponds.  There were several ponds, starting with baby fish all the way to the breeder fish.  The breeder fish were kept separately and weighed up to 6 kg each.  It was wonderful to see the project not just continuing but having expanded successfully after so many years.  Apparently the children at the orphanage help with the ponds, and the orphanage makes $24/day selling their fish, a significant amount of money here in Indonesia. They sell their fish locally and as far away as Singapore.    

We appreciated the help of two delightful ladies named Ibu Faisal and Ibu Juli that accompanied us on this trip. They both were part of the original group that helped the church start the catfish farm.  When Juli pulled out a picture the following day of her trip to Utah in the year 2000, much to my surprise there was picture of my neighbor in Utah Garry Flake sitting across the table from her. It is a small world.

On Friday and Saturday we attended the cleft lip/cleft palate project.  Our church has helped sponsor this project through the Yayasan Kanari.  The Yayasan is a group of Muslim ladies that believes that they should do good for others and practices what they believe. Each year one of the projects they do is a cleft lip/palate project.  Our church has helped fund the project for the last several years.  We found them to be very organized, pleasant, and great with the parents. The doctors came from a group called the Yayasan Pempina Penderita.  They are from Bandung and are extremely  efficient.  This is their eighth cleft mission this year. They travel all over Indonesia volunteering their time.  I was impressed at the kind hearts of these Indonesian people and their willingness to help their fellow men.

A central goal of almost all of our projects is sustainability, the ability to continue after the missionaries and the church's funds have left.  The catfish farm is the perfect example of "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or teach a man to fish and feed him for his life."  While I (Russell) was in Central Java this week we were able to see several former water projects.  All but one were doing well.  We watched as they both performed basic maintenance and expanded on the originally built water systems.  The water committee of one prior project opened their books to show us how they were making and spending money from the project.  They even had minutes of their water committee meetings they wanted us to see.  Following our turning over the "completed" project to them they have continued to expand their system putting waterlines directly into almost a thousand homes. 

This concept of sustainability has made me stop and think about my role as a parent, grandparent and supporter of philanthropic causes.  Are my actions truly helping build self-sufficency or dependency?  I have also thought about what I ask God to do for me in my prayers.  Perhaps what I want and am asking for are just quick solutions to my immediate problems, whereas a loving Father-in-Heaven may want me to learn and grow to be more self-sufficient.

This week also reminded me that while both Eileen and I can function quite capably on our/individually, I don't want to anymore.  We did it for years prior to coming on a mission and the time for that has past.

EILEEN WITH STEFFIE GETTING DIALYSIS

DIRECTOR, IBU JULI, EILEEN, SISTER BEAMON, IBU FAISAL

FEEDING FRENZY

GETTING BREEDER FISH

I LOVED THIS BOY'S HAIR

IT DIDN'T TAKE MUCH TO ENTERTAIN

THIS PATIENT WAS BRAVE!  DONE WITH LOCAL ANESTHESIA

OUR VERY FIRST PATIENT ON THE TABLE

AFTER SURGERY

ELDER HENRIE, EILEEN AND RUSSELL, READY FOR THE OR,   ELDER HENRIE SPORTING THE SCOTTISH LOOK AND RUSSELL SPORTING THE CHEF LOOK, MY SCRUBS OBVIOUSLY TOO BIG

IN THE OR

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