Saturdays

Here is the outline for our day yesterday. Most Saturday's I try to work on a couple of the 100 unfinished projects around the house, but I didn't have much time yesterday. Jamie and I went out for a run in the morning. While I was waiting for Jamie to get ready I quickly jumped up on the roof to try to patch a leak. When I got down Dr. Sacra had come over. He said he didn't know what to do with himself during his rare day off while his family was back home in the states. After visiting for awhile we started our run. I dropped off after two laps (3.2 miles) but Jamie wanted to do a couple more.

After she got back and everyone was ready we headed to Acres of Hope for our usual Saturday visit. On the way we stopped at the ELWA guesthouse to see if we could meet a team that was here from South Carolina. After some tracking down we found out they have endured a nightmarish trip that finds them stuck in Ghana 5 days after they left the states, and 3 days before they are supposed to head back. Back on the road Acres of Hope is only about 5 minutes away, if traffic isn't too bad. On the way we got to see some of Mary Broh's team in action (more on that later), a man selling a dead deer and a fight between a couple boys.

We stayed at AoH for about 2 hours. While we were there a small group from the states stopped by to visit. They are over for a couple weeks putting on programs for deaf children. ACFI has an orphanage about an hour from here that has around 45 deaf children. Before we left the nanny's helped Jamie with the proper Lappa wearing techniques. A Lappa is just a length of cloth that can be used for a skirt or to carry babies. With the baby tied to their back it leaves their hands open to work. Here she is:

We left around 1:00 to run home for lunch. Kobe and I ran up towards Red Light to buy some ice cream while the rest of the family was eating. Vendors push around wooden carts with small coolers full of ice cream for sale. They sell small cones for $10LD (about 15 cents). We picked up a tub for a party we had planned at the Addy's Hope Orphanage. We got back and drove to Addy's Hope along with the Spencer family (Samaritan's Purse) and the wife of a doctor who is here for the month. The Spencers made cup cakes to hand out with the ice cream and juice boxes that we brought (probably creating a few more clients for Keith and Frieda). Here's a few pictures from Addy's

Oh the anticipation...

Christopher and Kobe catching kids as they leap off the porch.

Most of the cupcakes lost their frosting first.

We headed back home around 4:00. I ran up to fuel the ELWA generators while Jamie and the boys made dinner. Then at 6:30 we all headed down to the Chapman's for their bi-weekly Saturday night worship service. Then back home around 9:00 to edit pictures before bed.

I've mentioned Mary Broh a couple times in posts on Facebook. Mary is the acting Mayor of Monrovia and head of a special task force the president appointed to clean up and de-populate Monrovia. That usually means "breaking" down houses that are built illegally on the right-of-way or shanty towns that are home to criminals. My idea was to team her up with Ty Pennington for a special Extreme Makeover Liberia Edition. Ty could be standing there with his megaphone yelling "MARY, BREAK DOWN THAT HOUSE". and then of course build a new one when she's done. A friend made up these T-Shirts:
I'll avoid the deep politcal discussion, but you can check out John's thoughts.

Graduation

One of the guys I work with in services invited me to come to his niece, Elia's, Kindergarten graduation ceremony today. He is very proud of his Elia. Much of his salary goes towards her school fees and he takes his lunch hour every day to walk her home from school and make sure she's safe.



Here she is waiting to give her speaking part...she's the letter 'R'. The ceremony was 4HOURS! long. Singing...or maybe watching me take a picture of her.

Here is Patrick with Elia and her little sister Danielle back at their house.

Danielle and her unique hairdoo.

They brought out some speakers and started playing music. It didn't take long for 50 or 60 kids to gather around.

And a few random pictures at the party.

Sitting on top of my car...

When I was editing the picture above I noticed I could see myself in her eyes...

And two more random pictures. There are tiny frogs all over in the services yard right now. Africa is known for its large insects, but I've never seen frogs so small before. Here's a picture of one in Kobe's hand.

And a strange looking spider the boys found at one of the orphanages.

A new family member

So we finally broke down and let the boys get a puppy. And a small puppy it is. The man selling it tried to give it to us when it was about a week old but we told him it was too little. I don't think he's much more than a month now, but the man selling him said we have to take him...so here his is. The boys haven't decided on a name yet.


At the start of the rainy season the lagoon fills up and breaks through the beach into the ocean. The boys were there along with the neighbors to ride the rapids.

Kobe's boil. Wish we had shot some video of Rusty draining it. Very impressive.

We went last week and put a small soccer clinic on at the Rafiki Orphanage.

Happy #40

Sorry we can't make the party. Hope you have a good B/D-day.

May

Hard to believe it has been over three weeks since we've posted anything. I guess things are starting to get more routine here and there aren't as many exciting things to write about. So, here's a quick run down of the last couple days.

Kobe gets the distinction of having the first Laird birthday in Liberia. We had a couple other families over yesterday afternoon and had a small birthday party for him. Here he is opening up the present some of his relatives bought for him.

and here he is playing a new game with an audience.

Saturday a team of 8 engineering students arrived from Cedarville University in Ohio. They've come the past three years to work on projects. This year they are working on the water system mostly, with a few other projects squeezed in during the 2 weeks that they'll be here. Here's a picture of a couple of them at morning devotional in the Services conference room.

Another college visitor this month, Charlie, is here to help out with central services work.

A couple Cedarville team members working on a water tank.

Our Academy project is finally getting started. They are starting to build the trusses this week and the new classroom building.

A homemade ladder the carpenters built for the job.

Of course as soon as I walk onto the Academy grounds with a camera, there is a chorus of "Whi Man, Take my picture". How could you resist.

And children are the same the world over, as soon as you start taking pictures they have to do something goofy to get your attention. These guys broke out into a wrestling match.

We've been continuing to go to Acres of Hope on the weekend to visit the kids. We try to think up an activity every week to bring with us. Last week we took sidewalk chalk, which was a pretty big hit. Only a couple of the kids ate theirs. Which made for some good pictures of yellow mouths.

Other than that, I (Rusty) got pulled over twice in the past week for mystery traffic violations, almost got hit by a tire that flew off a taxi that was driving down the road (it took out a money changers umbrella and smashed a taxi door before coming to a stop) and had to transport three people to the hospital in the back of my car after another taxi ran off the road and into a crowd.