A day at the beach

Last Sunday we were just hanging out at home. Not much going on so I decided to lay down and take a nap. 5 minutes later there is frantic banging on the bedroom window with my boys yelling "WE FOUND THE BOMB, WE FOUND THE BOMB!!!" The "Bomb" is an unexploded ordnance that was spotted under water by former ELWA missionaries while swimming in the early 1990's. At the time the West African peace keeping forces were notified but nothing was ever done. Soon the shifting sands buried it and there it remained for over 15 years. The boys were alerted to it by a couple Liberian boys who had started to pull pieces of the tail fins off before realizing what it was. After a couple quick calls we borrowed Joni Byker's underwater camera and snapped a few pictures.

The UN was notified and we waited... After a week it appeared that nothing was going to happen with the shell while it was underwater. It was pulled out and then disposed of in the field next to our house. Here's a picture right after it was pulled out of the water...

So today the PAKBATT (UN battalion from Pakistan) came to dispose of the bomb. They arrived and cleared everyone out of the area around the bomb, including our house. I tried to talk with one of the PAKBATT guys about how they'd dispose of it and what it was exactly, only to get a "no English" response. A little later a youngish guy who looked like he was in charge walked by. He spoke very good English and said he had not seen anything like it in Liberia before, but believed it was an anti-tank round and they would bury it and detonate it with plastic explosives. I also had a conversation with him about cleft lips, as he noticed Blessing had surgery for one. He has been through three surgeries for a double cleft lip that he was born with. So after about 20 minutes of set up, they blew it up.

The boys were at the crater within a few short minutes and collected the still warm shrapnel. Here's a picture of their finds on our kitchen counter. If you ask them, they'll tell you who's pieces are who's.

Here's a video compilation of the weeks events.

Power

Over the past three weeks ELWA has been hosting a group of people from the US that have been helping to make upgrades to the power system. The team consists of former missionaries, former missionary kids from ELWA, electricians, contractors and even a Liberian who used to work at ELWA but now lives in Philadelphia. In total 9 people traveled out from the US to work with ELWA's 5 electricians and an extra 8-10 ELWA services staff that helped out.

The project consisted of replacing all the transformers on campus so the voltage could be dropped from 7,200 volts to 2,400 on the primary transmission lines. The change was recommended a couple years ago after an electrical engineer analyzed ELWA's system and recommended the voltage be dropped to reduce the high voltage leaking to ground and jumping around insulators. We also installed some new transmission lines and changed our output voltage that the generators produce. The old transformers were very old in some cases and the combination of old transformers and poor power lines led to chronically low voltage at the hospital and other locations. Over the past couple years this has shortened the life of a number of pieces of donated equipment that the hospital couldn't afford to lose.

The big switch was made last Tuesday and everything went very smoothly. The rest of the week the crew continued to work on the transmission lines, generator programming and troubleshooting other problems that have plagued the system. Over the course of the last 3 weeks a number of issues were identified that needed correction. These issues necessitated purchasing a wide range of electrical materials. A wide range of electrical materials that cost a little over $3,000. These purchases were paid for by myself and other members of the team to keep the project rolling.

So now we are trying to raise some funds to help pay for these needed upgrades. If anyone would like to help out please go to the new organization, EMA USA, and donate. All donations are tax deductible. Please indicate that the money is for the ELWA Power project (but not on your check memo line as the website explains is not permitted under IRS rules).

Now onto some pictures...

Paul Ruark was our only Lineman and was therefore very busy with all of the new transmission line work. Here he is in the basket of a forklift that we were able to use for the week.

Setting a new power pole.

Alan Shea (on the left and a MK who grew up at ELWA) and Jeff Kennell did most of the electrical change over work that needed to be done in the powerhouse. They also completed some of the finer features of the Intelligen control system that our generators are controlled through.

The forklift was loaned to us to use for the week through a connection of Kevin Kejr. Without it we would not have been able to complete the project nearly as quickly.

One of the new transformers almost finished, still waiting for the wire on the high voltage side.

One of the old transformers. It is a minor miracle that some of them were even working.

Cleaning up some of the pole hardware while the power was off. Everyone got into the action, this is actually one of our staff plumbers helping out.

Making connections at the step up transformers. From L-R Alan Shea, Justin (on loan from Samaritan's Purse), Kevin Kejr and Paul Ruark

Alfred, one of ELWA's electricians.

Eric Lewis and Steve Kejr setting the new transformers at the hospital

Mel Kejr moving a transformer into place at the hospital.

The new step up transformers ready for action.

David Frazee came and stayed at the house he grew up in from 1960-1976. He is now an electrician in TN.

David Tyler and ELWA electrician Henry.

The team photo.
Praise God that the work went so smoothly, we had all the technical know how to get the project finished and nobody got hurt. And a big thank you to everyone who came out to help.

Buchanan

So I'm a couple months behind in stories and adventures. We've had Jamie's sister and family visit in December and my parents visited in February. I plan on having a post soon about those visits, but first one about a trip we took last week with my parents. On of our security guards, Morris, has wanted us to visit his village near Buchanan for months. We took the opportunity to visit the surrounding area and show my parents a little of the Liberian countryside.

Before we get to those pictures, a boy came by the house last week with a small sea turtle he wanted to sell. Here's a picture of it in one of the boys hands. Colton went and got some money from the Sacras to buy it, and then went down with the Sacra boys and his brothers to release it on the beach. Cute little guy...

Back to Buchanan. The route to Buchanan takes you past the airport and briefly through the Firestone rubber plantation. After you leave Buchanan you hit some road construction. There are a few miles of beautifully paved roads...then back to reality. About halfway there you get to this bridge...

The heavy road construction and other trucks have taken their toll. Here you see a beam that supports the road decking is loose.

The truss supports on the sides have also taken a beating.

But there was a crew there reattaching the decking. We had to wait 15 minutes while they finished their welding.

Here they are straightening out some of the decking before they weld it.

We made it across the bridge and to the junction to drive to Morris's village. Unfortunately, we found out the bridge was out to his village. We decided to visit his sister's village instead because it was closer to the road. So we turned around and spent a little time at the market along the highway before heading to his sister's village. As usual, Blessing drew a pretty good crowd.

People wanted to know where her parents were and why she was with white people. Here's Jamie explaining about her cleft lip.

The crowd eventually grew until they were blocking the road and we had to move on before someone got run over.

So we headed on down the road towards the village. We had to travel around maybe 6-8 miles of dirt road to reach the trailhead.

We hiked about 20 minutes to get into the village. It was a smallish village with 10+/- houses. As usual they were excited to have visitors. Here's Blessing saying hello.

Kobe and Colton waiting in the village palava hut.

Our host Morris.

Walking through the village checking out the houses.

Like usual, we handed out some glow bracelets. The kids enjoyed them in the daylight, but I'm sure it was more exciting in the village after the sun went down.

A few of the houses in the village.

The village photo...

Many of the houses had some sort of paint decorations. Some were handprints, some footprints. This one looked like they took a chicken and dipped it in paint before smacking it against the wall...just a guess.

The boys and grandpa in front of a termite mound on the way to the village.

After visiting the village we went onto Buchanan and had dinner before heading back home. Around 8pm, after the sun had set, we got a flat tire. Luckily the area we stopped to change the tire was wide and left plenty of room for working while all the dump trucks flew by. By the time the car was ready to go again there were a group of children who had gathered around and were dancing to a small radio they had. Morris asked them what they were listening to and they replied French English. More to come...

One week post op

Before the after pictures, we'll start with a series of pictures from before. Here she is the night she was placed with us. Her impossibly big eyes.

This one is a little graphic. She was very "dry". She also had neonatal breast hypertrophy, a condition that corrects itself over the first couple months of a babies life.
getting fed through an NG tube at Benson Hospital.

Blessing is a HUGE University of Washington fan

2 hours post op

3 days post op, with her hair platted.

1 week post op, with all her stitches and scabbing gone.

She still has lots of drool though.
She still has a few surgeries to go to fix her palate and nose but she's off to a good start.