To Kpayellay and back

Today we went to Kpayellay Town. I (Rusty) work with a man named John Eddie at ELWA Technical Services who's family is originally from that town. A few weeks ago John asked us for some help with a project in his home village. The village is remote and he has been trying to fund a school for the children that live there. We asked if we could go see the school and village, and John happily agreed to take us.

For most of the month of December Jamie's sister, brother in law and family are here visiting. We decided while they were here it would be an excellent time to take the hike to John's village and explore a little of the interior. The 11 of us, along with John Eddie and our neighbor boy Kelvin (who watched the vehicles while we hiked to the village) headed out around 7:30 this morning.

To reach the village you pass through the Firestone rubber plantation. Firestone has operated a rubber plantation in Liberia since the 1920's. They have almost 200 square miles of rubber trees that are tapped for natural latex. Here are a couple pictures of the rubber trees and the harvesting of the latex.

The end of the car road comes at the Farmington River. From there you have to set out in a canoe that ferries people and goods across the river.

Once on the other side of the river you hike about 45 minutes to get to Kpayellay. Along the way we crossed 5 or 6 creeks, saw a trail of army ants and lots of other flora and fauna.

Newly planted rubber trees near the village.
Army ants
One of the stream crossings.

Once we reached the village we were greeted by the town administrator. He took us on a tour of the village and surrounding area. Then we were treated to a traditional Liberian meal of rice and pumpkin soup. Afterwards we gathered for a discussion with all of the town people (around 100 people live in the town). They let us know how excited they were to have visitors. Nobody there could remember the last time they had white people visit the village, if ever. They were very gracious hosts, and concluded by giving us a large rice bag full of plantains and a dead monkey that the chief had just brought back. We decided we didn't know any good monkey recipes so we took the plantains and left the monkey with the chief.

A floral arch they had decorated for our arrival.
The village. It is ringed with banana, plantain, Kola nut, and breadfruit trees.
Niece Cori resting after the hike.
The boys resting with some coconut they gave us to drink and eat.
Where the town performs blacksmithing.
The school. Approximately 29 children learn with no books or writing instruments. They do have the small blackboard that the teacher uses to give the lessons. The teachers are a couple men from the village who sacrifice valuable farming time to provide this basic education.
One of the boys enjoying some stick candy.

Our host and guide, John Eddie.
Exploring the village with Cali while we waited for lunch.
Roofing material waiting to be used. Like all roofing in Liberia, it is called Zinc. In this case it is called "Country Zinc".
Visiting with the locals in the palava hut
A great picture that Royce took of one of the local women with her twins, Prince and Princess.
And last but not least, our monkey...

Liberian Artisans

Through our adoption journey we've met a number of incredible people. There are a couple different online groups that we've been members of the last few years that have put us in contact with dozens of other families who either have adopted or are still waiting to bring children home. We were able to meet one of these families, the Glanvilles, a couple times before we left for Liberia. They have since started a non-profit to help Liberian artists sell their wares in the US. You can visit their website at www.fourcornersmarket.com. With Christmas just around the corner, I'm sure everyone can find something on their website and help to support Liberia.

I recently visited some of the people that Peter and Amber purchase from. here's a picture of the wood carvers busy making different projects.

The finished products.
Some of Yassa's baskets.
Some paintings from vendors near the US Embassy.

I almost walked past these without taking notice. One of the vendors is making these cars...out of old slippers (what Liberians call flip flops). They are really pretty neat.
A helicopter made from slippers. Complete with a working rotor tied to the wheels.

A few other non-artist pictures from my travels this day. There are no ready-mix concrete companies in Liberia so all concrete is mixed by hand with 50kg cement bags. The bags are delivered by vendors who load and unload hundreds of bags from trucks like this, typically into roadside shipping containers that serve as retail stores for local vendors. The guys that provide the muscle typically pack the bags on their head. It is a little hard to see, but the guy on the right looks like the typical laborer...covered in cement dust by the end of a hard days work.
An interesting ministry name.
and an even more interesting business name.

squirt guns and bubbles

November Update

Greetings from Paynesville (who's motto I just found out is "Sanity and Greatness" ...hmmm). We're starting to have more days of sunshine as we transition from rainy season to dry season. By most accounts we're having a wetter November than usual, but most of the rain comes in the evening or overnight. Even with the rain, my plumber last weekend told me "the ocean was looking dry". Take a little while and see if you can figure out what that means...

We don't have a lot of pictures from the last few weeks. The latest STS container arrived with all kinds of things that we had shipped over for ourselves and for our orphanage visits. We brought bubbles to Acres of Hope a couple weeks ago and a fresh supply of glow bracelets to Addy's Hope. Unfortunately while we were at Addy's I also locked out keys in the car. The orphanage is about a 20 minute drive from our house so it added a little time to our stay while everyone waited for me to catch a ride home and return with the spare.

The boys have been busy working on their video skills taping Blessing. They brought me the camera today and it had 70 clips they wanted me to upload. Most were too dark or shaky to see much, but I've uploaded a couple that turned out pretty good. The camera also had a few clips from the past couple months so I've added a couple clips from the Tae Kwon Do ceremony and a bonus clip from a few months back...

Bomi Lake

I took the day off today and we drove up to Bomi Lake. It is an old iron ore and diamond mine formerly operated by an American company about 2 hours from Monrovia. It almost got a lot longer when we were stopped at a checkpoint and realized we didn't have passports for Jamie and the boys. Luckily the Immigration official let us through with a warning.

The UN now runs a couple operations out of the area. A battalion of Pakistani troops is stationed in the area (Pak Bat) and fixed up an observation point and recreation area. Both are starting to fall apart now, but still provide good areas for pictures and swimming.

Here's a view from the "Pak Point"

The swimming area. The water is very clear and there are quite a few Tilapia swimming around through the rocks. There's even an old wood diving board that we were able to dive off.
The sign says "Pakistan Gazebo, const by Pak engr 7"
They even have a Pineapple orchard...or at least used to.
The boys playing in the water.
A group of Nigerian and Pakistani UN staff came by and wanted pictures with the family. You can see one of the Pakistani soldiers holding Blessing. He said he has a one year old boy back home that he's missing.
A view of nearby Tubmanburg from the Pak Point observation area.
Christopher and Colton...not sure what they were doing.
The view north into Gbarpolu County.
An old sign in Tubmanburg on an old Bomi Evangelical Church. SIM started as "Sudan Interior Mission" but later changed to "Serving In Mission".