Weekend Update

Where to start... it was a busy weekend here in Liberia.



Christopher and Kobe left Saturday morning with the neighbors and camped up in Robertsport for the night. Robertsport is about 3 hours north of here...not too far from the border with Sierra Leone. It is famous for its surfing and natural beauty. Here's a picture Christopher took from a hill by the beach.






Saturday the rest of us went out to help a team that is out from the states building a new orphanage for Addy's Hope...didn't get any pictures...so you'll just have to trust us...

After going out for lunch Sunday afternoon we came back and went to the beach. There were 4 or 5 other families who had gathered to see off one of the families who headed back to the states today for a few months. While I was out swimming a few Liberian boys were pointing at something about 50' out in the water. I thought maybe it was a fish or something...because nobody seemed too panicked about it. Then they said that it was a boy. I'm not sure how long he'd been under water, but by the time I swam out to him and brought him back in it was at least 30 seconds...maybe a lot longer. Fortunately, two of the other people on the beach were our dentist Keith Chapman and a medical student, Corinne, here from Switzerland. They started working on him and were able to resuscitate him.

Then Sunday evening we were able to visit Acres of Hope's orphanage. The orphanage we visited has the two girls that we are planning on adopting. Right now Liberia has put a hold on all adoptions pending new adoption laws. Since we don't know how long it will take, we thought it would be best if we not tell the girls that we are trying to adopt them. It all went very well, until we got up to leave and one of the nanny's told the girls to go give their new Ma a hug good bye, and asked them if they wanted us to be their new family...oh well. We hope to be able to visit the orphanage weekly until the laws are changed and we can complete the adoption. We were asked not to post any pictures publicly on the internet, but were able to take some, and some video of the children singing...priceless.

So it is almost 10:30 here now. It's been a long weekend...I'm going to bed.

One Month

Hard to believe a month has already gone by...and it has been almost two weeks since we've posted anything. Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.



We went up to a grocery store on the Firestone Rubber Plantation last weekend and found this...kinda makes you miss Costco even more...

Jamie's picture of the rubber trees as we drive by on the rough road. Maybe next time we're up there we'll get better pictures of the whole rubber collection process.

An office building at Firestone.

We went last Saturday and visited the site for the new Addy's Hope orphanage. A team from the US will be here for another week or so trying to get as much of the construction done as possible.

There are a couple houses here at ELWA that are beyond repair.

ELWA Academy. Like the college, they have classes outside sometimes. They currently have about 530 students at the school here at ELWA.

We went yesterday and visited Ma Wleh's orphanage. Another team from Minnesota happened to be there the same day bringing some food and other supplies. Here they are listening intently to some instructions.

Week 2

Highlights from the past week.



The boys have made fast friends with our two neighbor boys. Here Kobe and Caleb are practicing synchronized sand removal. We've had awesome waves here at ELWA the past few days, so the boys have been picking sand out of their pockets, waistband, ears, etc...

Here's a picture Jamie took from our front porch of the sun setting a couple days ago.

Farm equipment along the road on the way into town. I was told these belong to an organization headed by one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons. Libya and Liberia have ties in the past... Charles Taylor and his main military officials were trained in Libya before they started the civil war.

Just like home...almost.

One of the main markets in Monrovia, called Waterside.

A view of downtown Monrovia from the bridge driving back from Bushrod Island.

Here is one of the western style grocery stores. They have most of the items you'd find back home...you just pay more. A few price examples from our most recent trip, Large Frosted Flakes box - $9.00; Pint of olive oil - $12.00; Cheddar cheese - $10.00 for about 2 cups worth; Bush's baked beans - $3.50-4.00/can. Obviously the stores have a lot of expenses though. The cost of importing the goods, generating their own power, getting clean water to the store, housing for employees, etc... Most of the stores are run by Lebanese with Liberian employees.

Randall Street just outside the grocery store. This is one of the main streets. There are a couple grocery stores, many hardware stores, appliances, furniture, office supplies and more.

Another market that Jamie buys fruit and vegetables at.

As the highlight of our week, and probably our time here in Liberia so far, we went and visited Addy's Hope Orphanage on Friday night. Through the internet we met a couple from Colorado who are adopting through Addy's Hope. They took it upon themselves to raise the funds to construct a new orphanage (right now they are renting a building). Kami is out this week getting things prepared for a team of 9 from the states that will start arriving Sunday. They shipped over most of the supplies in a container...that is stuck in the port right now. They are praying it will be cleared by Wednesday.

They have just over 50 children at the orphanage right now. We arrived just as it was getting dark Friday night. We brought with us a favorite of ours back in the states...glowstick bracelets. As you can imagine the kids were very excited to play with them. More amazing was sitting and listening to them sing when we arrived, and again in their nightly devotional right before we left. They sing many of the songs we sing back in the states so it was really cool to hear 50+ little voices belting out the songs.

Kobe, Colton and I handing out the glowsticks.

Kami and Jamie showing some of the kids how they work.

This little guy was glued to Christopher most of the night.

Jamie's hair got lots of attention from the little girls. If we'd been there longer I'm sure she would have come back with braids.

Almost everyone had fun.

Christopher and his little friend again.

While Jamie was taking this picture the boy on the left was saying "I beg you, he choking my neck". Then Jamie showed them the picture on the camera and the boy on the right laughed and said "HA, I choking his neck"

Something old something new

One week is in the books here. I've started working occasionally with the services division of ELWA. The plan was to start late this week, early next week and have the current interim director show me how things function here. Steve has been here for a couple months and was planning on staying through the end of May (he was also here through most of the 70's 80's and 90's).

Those plans changed though when Steve's wife Carol woke up Sunday morning with eye problems. They both left for Abidjan, Ivory Coast Sunday afternoon, then onto the US to have doctors reattach her retina. Carol won't be able to travel for 3+ months so Steve's return is uncertain. I'll be working with the ELWA staff to try to get up to speed now.

I went with a couple of the Liberian services guys to the hardware store on Tuesday. We needed some electrical supplies to make a few modifications in our house. On the way back we stopped along the roadside to buy a bag of cement so I could secure a rebar cage around an outdoor AC unit. While we were waiting for a receipt I walked over to a young Liberian boy (about a year old) and said hi to him. The boy SCREAMED and leaped towards some older children while giving me a terrified look. Every time I looked at him he would grasp for one of the other children. I found out later that Liberian mothers often threaten their children with "if you don't do this/that the white man will come eat/get you".

Here's a picture of our water filter. It is a plastic bucket with a sediment filter, that then drains down through an iodine filter into the lower bucket. ELWA's water is actually pretty clean. They had it tested and it came back cleaner than the local bottled water. I'm not sure if that means our water is good or the bottled water is that bad. Some of the missionaries here drink it straight from the tap but we've been using our filter system so far.
We brought over a weather station from the states. So far the temperature has been in the upper 80's/low 90's with humidity between 60 and 99%

On the way to the downtown area of Monrovia you pass the University of Liberia. There are always lots of classes outside under the trees.

We stopped at a very modern aluminum window manufacturer to get a quote on new windows for our house.

Here is a less modern approach to construction. As they typically do in many areas around the world, they are using sticks for falsework to hold up their concrete forms for the next floor.

Some nice looking Cat equipment being sold along the road. It is surprising to see this big equipment when laborers can be hired for $90/month.

Here's another very new and modern building. It is part daycare and part apartments.

Across the road from ELWA is Rock Hill. Men, women and children work breaking large rocks into gravel.

Christopher and Kobe are getting used to the heat. They braved some time playing basketball on the court next to our neighbor's house.

Can't have a blog post without some of the local wildlife. Here's a picture Jamie took of a bug they killed in the house. Some sort of large wasp with nice sized pinchers.

all for now.

Day 4

So we're starting to settle in here. Yesterday I was able to get by with only soaking 2 shirts...a new record. The temperature has been around 90 degrees with humidity around 60%. We went to the church that is located on the ELWA compound today (ICM). We'll have to remember to bring some water next time. Both Christopher and Kobe started feeling a little dizzy after sitting there for a little over 2 hours.

Yesterday we went back into Monrovia to get a few more supplies. Of course we forgot to bring the camera, so I didn't get any pictures of town. After we got back I dropped Jamie off and drove the SIM Landcruiser back down the road a few miles to fill up a gas can for our Landcruiser (we can't take it off the compound for a couple months while we're waiting to license it in Liberia). So I took a few pictures along the way.

This is the swamp behind our house, as seen from the road. You can't actually see the swamp from our house because of all the brush. We've heard there are crocs from time to time in the swamp. Yesterday there were a couple kids swimming in it though.

Just beyond the swamp is the ELWA Youth Camp.

Continuing on up the road you get to the ELWA Hospital. Right next to it is the Dental Clinic.

Here is the office for Services.

The entrance to ELWA Academy. Back in the 80's before the war it was a good sized MK (Missionary Kid) school. Now it is a school for Liberian children.

A view into the ELWA Academy campus.

Here's the entrance to the ELWA Radio Studio. They've been broadcasting since the mid 1950's (other than a couple periods during the war when it was destroyed)

There are a few other NGO's who have housing and offices on the ELWA compound. Samaritan's Purse is one of them. This is their main office.

Tearfund is another. They will be moving out shortly though.

Here's the view of services from the main road. I'll get some better pictures later. Most of the metal buildings are perforated with bullet holes.

The Chinese are working on paving some of the main roads ahead of a large woman's conference next week. Oprah and Michelle Obama are supposed to be here (among others). The Chinese have an asphalt batch plant set up at the corner of the ELWA compound. This is their safety sign that they posted next to the entrance. A little different than the safety signs you see in the US.

Here is an ELWA house that is waiting to be repaired. A couple that just moved here with SP will be fixing it up shortly. Unfortunately even the foundation is bad so they'll be starting from square one.

These are called Christmas birds here. They show up right around Christmas time every year.

As I was taking a picture of one, Colton walked up and said "now take a picture of me chasing them!" He didn't quite catch them.

The next few pictures are of some of the buildings along the road on the way to the gas station. Some were left unfinished when the war started. Many have people living in them for shelter.

Here's a typical gas station. The man in the chair has a hand pump that he uses to fill glass 1 gallon jars.

Here's a couple of welders about 20' up a tower they are building.

Samuel Doe Stadium. It was renovated after the war and looks very nice...and very out of place.

And just before we got back to the compound I pulled over so Colton could get this picture. The cars and taxis pull off the road and drive down through this creek bed to wash there cars. (don't know if the DOE would approve of this back in Washington)

and here is a map at the entrance to ELWA. We are right next to the crescent shaped swamp in the middle of the picture (just to the right of it).