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.