LairdBlog: Saturdays

Here is the outline for our day yesterday. Most Saturday's I try to work on a couple of the 100 unfinished projects around the house, but I didn't have much time yesterday. Jamie and I went out for a run in the morning. While I was waiting for Jamie to get ready I quickly jumped up on the roof to try to patch a leak. When I got down Dr. Sacra had come over. He said he didn't know what to do with himself during his rare day off while his family was back home in the states. After visiting for awhile we started our run. I dropped off after two laps (3.2 miles) but Jamie wanted to do a couple more.

After she got back and everyone was ready we headed to Acres of Hope for our usual Saturday visit. On the way we stopped at the ELWA guesthouse to see if we could meet a team that was here from South Carolina. After some tracking down we found out they have endured a nightmarish trip that finds them stuck in Ghana 5 days after they left the states, and 3 days before they are supposed to head back. Back on the road Acres of Hope is only about 5 minutes away, if traffic isn't too bad. On the way we got to see some of Mary Broh's team in action (more on that later), a man selling a dead deer and a fight between a couple boys.

We stayed at AoH for about 2 hours. While we were there a small group from the states stopped by to visit. They are over for a couple weeks putting on programs for deaf children. ACFI has an orphanage about an hour from here that has around 45 deaf children. Before we left the nanny's helped Jamie with the proper Lappa wearing techniques. A Lappa is just a length of cloth that can be used for a skirt or to carry babies. With the baby tied to their back it leaves their hands open to work. Here she is:

We left around 1:00 to run home for lunch. Kobe and I ran up towards Red Light to buy some ice cream while the rest of the family was eating. Vendors push around wooden carts with small coolers full of ice cream for sale. They sell small cones for $10LD (about 15 cents). We picked up a tub for a party we had planned at the Addy's Hope Orphanage. We got back and drove to Addy's Hope along with the Spencer family (Samaritan's Purse) and the wife of a doctor who is here for the month. The Spencers made cup cakes to hand out with the ice cream and juice boxes that we brought (probably creating a few more clients for Keith and Frieda). Here's a few pictures from Addy's

Oh the anticipation...

Christopher and Kobe catching kids as they leap off the porch.

Most of the cupcakes lost their frosting first.

We headed back home around 4:00. I ran up to fuel the ELWA generators while Jamie and the boys made dinner. Then at 6:30 we all headed down to the Chapman's for their bi-weekly Saturday night worship service. Then back home around 9:00 to edit pictures before bed.

I've mentioned Mary Broh a couple times in posts on Facebook. Mary is the acting Mayor of Monrovia and head of a special task force the president appointed to clean up and de-populate Monrovia. That usually means "breaking" down houses that are built illegally on the right-of-way or shanty towns that are home to criminals. My idea was to team her up with Ty Pennington for a special Extreme Makeover Liberia Edition. Ty could be standing there with his megaphone yelling "MARY, BREAK DOWN THAT HOUSE". and then of course build a new one when she's done. A friend made up these T-Shirts: