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).

First pictures

We made it! As promised, here are some pictures

The boys sleeping on the plane. This was the last leg (Brussels to Monrovia). Fortunately the boys slept most of the 7 hours.

Here's the view out the airplane window on the way. I think this was somewhere over Algeria.

Here's the coastline of Liberia.

We sprayed the boys rooms last night before bed. We went back into Colton's room an hour later and there were these guys laying dead on the floor. Colton decided he'd rather move his bed to the room Christopher and Kobe were sharing (they only had 3 dead roaches).

Here's the master bedroom

The living room...I think Kobe is inspecting Colton's bug bites.

Jamie in the kitchen.

and the boys bedroom. Beyond through the door is a classroom that the last missionaries added.

There's a termite mound in front of our house.

And there's our house. We have a bamboo fence around the front yard. We need to install a new roof, hopefully before rainy season. It needs lots of other work, but overall it is pretty solid.

And there is the view looking south from our house down the road.

That's all for now. I'll try to get more pictures of the area and Monrovia and post them later this weekend.

Almost there

Well we're sitting in the airport in Brussels, Belgium, waiting for our last flight. 17 hours down, only 8 more to go. We should be into Monrovia around 6:00 PM/9:00 AM pst. Hopefully we'll be able to post an update tomorrow, after we get settled in (and get internet access).

Update

Wow, has it really been over a month since we've posted anything? Well here's the latest:

On the medical front, the doctors found that Rusty has an increased level of a certain antibody. They think that has been the cause of his symptoms. No MS. The condition should be pretty easily manageable with some pretty basic medications.

So with that news, we were able to finalize our plans for heading to Liberia! We'll be departing on February 24th, arriving in Liberia on the 25th! For those who don't know, we'll be working with SIM for the next 18 months. Rusty will be working with the construction services division on the ELWA campus and Jamie will be homeschooling the boys.

More good news, our car made it safely to Liberia about 2 weeks ago! It will be waiting for us when we arrive in 13 days.

Off to get some packing done...

Flood

Here are a few pictures from the recent flood. Luckily, again, the Nooksack River didn't get as high as some of the rivers south of here. It crested a little over 2' above flood stage at Cedarville, which is about 3-4' below our floor elevation.


Here is our backyard. the broken trees are a product of the windstorm we had a couple weeks ago.


Here is the same spot after the water receded

Here is the same spot as above after the water receded. Luckily the water doesn't move very swiftly so it didn't carry away the wheelbarrow the boys left in the yard.

There's the view out the back window.

Two years ago when it flooded in November we ended up with 3 Salmon trapped in the back yard. The boys asked if they could take their BB guns out and look for fish again this year. It is a little late in the year for Salmon though so they didn't have any luck.

Holding Pattern

Rusty had his first appointment with the neuroligist yesterday and we left without a clear answer as to what is going on. The doctor has scheduled Rusty for several more tests. He had to give eleven vials of blood and will go in for an angio CT scan on Tuesday and a spinal MRI on Wednesday. She may also do a spinal tap to try and confirm the occurance of demyelination which is caused by MS.

She did tell us that the symptoms Rusty has experienced are not MS related and are more consistant of blood clots getting through to his brain, which is why he is having a CT scan. The lesions are also not typical in the sense that they are only on one side of his brain but he does have one in the white brain matter that is typical of MS. We basically are still in the "it could be MS or it might not be" stage. Even though they do tests to try to rule out or confirm MS they are not 100% and if the spinal tap comes back normal there is still a 5% chance that he has MS.

Dr. Taylor encouraged us that if Rusty does have MS he can still have a very normal life and going to Liberia is not out of the question. She said that she would put him on a medication that has very little side affect and could keep MS symptoms away or minimal for several years.

I am more optimistic after this appointment then before. God is good and will take care of Rusty no matter the prognosis. I have realized something about myself through this, it would be easier for me if it was my health in question. There is just so much out of my control and knowledge. I am finding it much harder to deal with the emotions that come from watching my husband go through this then if I had to have the tests myself.

Sweet

So I try not to be one to jump onto conspiracy bandwagons. I try to always vet out the conspiracy emails on snopes and wiki (the sources of all internet knowledge) before forwarding them on to everyone in my address book. That's why when people mentioned aspartame as the source of all illness I usually put them in in the same category as the people who forward Microsoft giveaway emails.

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener used in thousands of different foods and drinks. It is marketed under the brand names NutraSweet, Equal and Canderel. It was discovered in the 1960's by G.D. Searle & Company and has a taste that is approximately 180 times sweeter than sugar and consists of two amino acids.

As I mentioned, I've had a number of people over the years chastise me for the amount of Diet Coke, and ergo aspartame, I consume. Since the discovery of the brain lesion mentioned in Jamie's previous post I've had many more people mention the pitfalls of aspartame. While I've looked into the claims briefly in the past, I've decided to dig a little deeper...and this is what I've found:

• As I already mentioned aspartame was discovered in the 1960's by G.D. Searle & Company.
• Searle sought approval from the FDA in the 1970's but were rejected and their studies on aspartame and other drugs were criticized as "poorly conceived, carelessly executed, or inaccurately analyzed or reported."
• The data was so suspect that the FDA's lead counsel recommended Searle be investigated by a grand jury for "concealing material facts and making false statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of the drug Aldactone and the food additive aspartame."
• The charges were never brought against Searle. The United States attorney (Samuel Skinner) who was given the information by the FDA recused himself from the case...because he was hired by Sidley & Austin...who happened to be counsel for Searle. Oh, and Skinner's deputy later left his job to also work for Sidley & Austin.
• The head of the FDA refused to approve aspartame after a three member public board of inquiry concluded that Searle's own tests showed evidence of aspartame causing brain tumors in rats.
• Shortly after Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 he appointed Arthur Hull Hayes as the new head of the FDA. Searle (and their COO/CEO Donald Rumsfeld...yes that Donald Rumsfeld) applied again to the FDA and Hayes approved aspartame largely based on data from a new study done in Japan.
• Arthur Hull Hayes left the F.D.A. a little more than a year after approving aspartame and took a job as a consultant to Burson-Marsteller, which at the time was Searle's public relations agency.
• In 1996 Dr. Ralph G. Walton, a professor of psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine did a study of the 166 aspartame studies conducted between 1980 and 1985. His research found that 74 of the studies were funded by the industry...and all 74 concluded that aspartame was safe. The other 92 studies were independently funded...and 84 of those concluded that aspartame had adverse health effects.
• The Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences concluded a study in 2006 that showed a 16% increase in the incidence of lymphoma and leukemia in their study of lab rats.
• Most of my data comes from wiki and This article from the New York Times.

An internet search for aspartame will reveal all kinds of reported health links (Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain). While I don't think it is the root of all evil, I do think I'll back off on my diet coke consumption. Don't take my word for it though; read the articles, do your own research, make up your own mind. Just thought I'd share what I found.

Setbacks and Confusion

The last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster for me. I am in a state of confusion. We have been so excited to be close to leaving for Liberia. Things seemed to really be falling into place with a home being avaliable for us over there and sending the car.

However, Wednesday night on the way to church we got the results from an MRI Rusty's doctor had done. He told Rusty that they found one abnormality but didn't know what it was. So yesterday, through a series of events, we were told that it is a lesion on his brain. It could be a one time occurance or something more serious, possibly Multiple Sclerosis. From what Rusty has been experiencing over the last year it seems consistant with MS, but there are many forms it can take. We have been blessed to have God watching over us and Rusty is going to be able to see a specialist next Friday. It should have taken 3 or 4 weeks to get into see her. Thank you to everyone who were instrumental in making that happen.

We have put our travel plans on hold for now. This doesn't mean we wont be going, just that we don't know when. It's hard for me to know what to do next and how to plan for tomorrow. I know that we are not suppose to worry about what will happen tomorrow. I don't understand what God is doing but I know he is in control and that this will all work for his good purpose. I am just trying to cope with all the emotions swirling around and stay focused on living my life for the one that sacrificed his life for me.

Please keep us in your prayers.
Jamie