Underway

We've been busy the last couple weeks getting started on Fatu's house. Here in Liberia the rainy season is also underway and will continue for the next 4 months. We don't have a lot of choice but to build in between the downpours (up to 200 inches between now and October).

We met on the site two weeks ago and helped to layout where the foundation will go. The ground is a fine white sand that is common around Monrovia. During the dry season it is difficult to drive on because it's like driving in quicksand. Rainy season helps to pack it down though so getting to the lot isn't too bad, other than driving through a couple muddy areas on the way.

Here's a picture of the foundation after they had finished digging, and after the rain had knocked a bunch of the sand back into the trenches.

I think I've mentioned before that most rock in Liberia is crushed by hand. There are a couple patches of rock within about a mile of the site where the property owners and energetic children spend the day breaking rock into piles of different sizes. A small pickup truck load of rock costs about $50 with the expense to load it. This is two small truckloads.

Some of the workers hiding from the rain last week in a house that Fatu's neighbor is building.

Alice, Mercy and Rachel have been asking for a couple months to come "spend time" with Aunt Jamie and Uncle Rusty. Jamie picked them up last Friday and they came over to spend the night. Saturday we went out to lunch with them and into town to buy a few things. We were a little surprised when we drove into Monrovia and the girls told us they'd never been to town before (they only live about 10 miles away). It was a weekend of many firsts for them.

Here are a few more pictures of some light urban flooding while we were in town. The Chinese company CICO is repairing the city streets and improving drainage this year. Many have already been repaved (which makes for traffic nightmares while streets are shut down). They haven't fixed UN Drive yet and even after it is repaired I doubt the drainage will handle the deluges they get in the rainy season. Below is one common site though, a child taking advantage of the rainstorm to take a bath. Unfortunately, I believe most of the system is a combined storm water and sanitary sewer system so backup aren't just storm water.

The girls getting ready for bed Friday night.

This picture is from today. The foundation is complete and they are up to window height with the block walls.

The blocks are available to buy about every 100 yards along the side of the road by more enterprising young men. They buy cement and sand and spend the day making blocks with steel forms that can be purchased from the small welding shops that are about as prolific as the "block factories". A typical factory has 3 or 4 guys that can put out somewhere around 300 blocks a day. For their effort they will probably take home around $4 or $5 a day, assuming they can sell their blocks. The 6" blocks sell for between $0.32 and $0.50 each depending on the location and quality.

Last but not least. A huge thank you to all who have donated so far. We are amazed by the outpouring of support for Fatu and her family. So far my parents have received contributions totaling $7,790!! That leaves only approximately $1,200 to finish the house! If we receive over $9,000 we would like to add some basic electrical wiring to the house so she would be able to hook a small generator up to the house for lights at night. We'd also like to be able to get a few basic furnishings like beds and a few chairs. Thank you to all who have donated so far!

Our Adoption Saga Part 1

As many of you know we became involved with Liberia because in the summer of 2007 Rusty and I decided we were suppose to adopt. In the summer of 2008 we were matched with two little girls, Alice and Mercy.
Alice: Mercy:

By this time we knew we were going to be living in Liberia so we decided it best to wait on moving forward with the adoption until we were here in country. The month before we arrived the president of Liberia put into effect a moritorium on adoption. We were still hopeful that this moritorium would be short as the government was working on new laws. During this time we started visiting the orphange and met the girls. They are charming and we have loved going on the weekends and playing with the children. After a few months I really felt God was telling me they were not the right ones for us. We decided to meet with their biological mother and hear her story, hoping this would help us decide what direction we should go. Our meeting with Fatu went well and her story is sad. Like many women she is uneducated, had no job, has no home of her own, has four of five children remaining at home and the father abandoned her.
Fatu:
Martin:

Rachel:
We took Fatu "home" that day to see where she was living. Her home, which belongs to her pastor, is a 10' x 20' shack with grass mat walls and when the rains come water and raw sewage flow through on the floor where she sleeps along with two other adults and about 10 children. No matter how I prayed and tried to convince myself we should take two of her children, I could find no peace. Until the day I finally let go and acknowledge God was saying no I was very troubled. I could see that Fatu very much loves her girls and thought she was doing what was best for them by giving them a chance at a better life in America. We have been here for 15 months and there is still a moritorium on adoption. All children in the orphanage without adoption decrees or a special medical need are to be sent back to family. It is so interesting how God works. We would not have been allowed to adopt Alice and Mercy anyway.

Fatu took the girls from the orphanage several months ago after finding out we were not going to adopt them. Mercy is living with Fatu but Alice has be staying with another woman and we haven't had a chance to see her since Fatu took them out of the orphanage, until today. It is very common here to send you child/children to live with other family or friends if you do not have the means to care for them.

After visiting with Fatu and getting to know her we felt we should do what we could to help her get on her own feet. We decided to set her up with a market close to where she is living. While she doesn't make a big profit it is better than nothing. We also started discussing other living options with her. We really want to leave her with something of her own, where she doesn't have to worry about how to pay rent and/or feed her children. Like I said the market doesn't provide much of an income but it should be enough to feed her family. So we have been hunting all over Paynesville in search of a lot to build her a small home on. The "land business" is very difficult here. There is no title company or land registry in Liberia so it is quite common for people to sell land to multiple people or sell land that doesn't belong to them. We have looked at about half a dozen lots and none of them have been legitimate until last weekend. I think we have finally found a lot that is dry and actually belongs to the guy wanting to sell it to Fatu. We took Fatu and her children to see the lot today and get some pictures. Rusty should close the deal tomorrow!

Fatu and her children (plus the small girl who belongs to her pastor and his wife)

Walking to talk to the neighbor to be sure the property is legitimate. Fatu wanted to bring her pastor's wife and the women Alice has been staying with to see the property.

We can not single handedly save everyone in Liberia but we can change the lives of this single mom and her children by giving them a dry home of their own. Rusty estimates we can buy the lot and build her a home for $9000 USD. On one hand this is quite a bit of money, but on the other it is a small amount to give a family a home of their own. If you would like to help us make this a reality for Fatu, Martin, Rachel, Alice and Mercy, you can send a donation to us at:

Jack & D'Linda Laird

1468 E. Smith Rd.

Bellingham, Wa 98226.

This is not a project through SIM and so is not tax deductable.

Overdue

So I see from the date of my last post that it's been almost 6 weeks since we've blogged. Really I didn't have to look though, I could tell by the emails from my parents complaining about our lack of reporting. So lets see...what's happened the last 6 weeks.

About three weeks ago we went out to a potluck for missionaries at Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). They have potlucks occasionally and this one served to say farewell to our neighbors the Sacras as they head back to the US for a couple years. CAM provides support for medical clinics and has a feeding program for orphanages. To facilitate all that support they have a large warehouse with pallet racking. But pallet racking can be used for more than storing pallets of rice and medical supplies, it can be used for climbing and jumping off. Which Kobe did, and broke his wrist.

While it was hurting that evening Kobe decided he didn't want to bother Dr. Sacra as all the missionaries thanked him for his medical care over the past 15 years. We actually waited two days until Monday to go get x-rays and confirm that it was in fact broken. Don't worry though, it hasn't slowed him down.

One thing you see everywhere are children (and adults) walking around with baskets of various foods and goods to sell. One of our favorites are what the Liberians call "flour chips". I like to call them funions though because they vaguely resemble Funions with a slight onion flavor. One of the girls who sells them, Jackie, was sitting by my office looking very sad about a month ago. I stopped to buy some and she, almost in tears, asked if I could help her find somewhere else to live. Over the next two weeks Jamie and I met with Jackie a few times and learned her story.

Jackie's story is very common in Liberia. A child from the village is sent to live with relatives in the city so they can get an education. What ends up happening is the child becomes a servant for the family in the city. Instead of getting to go to school Jackie was walking around selling flour chips so her auntie could go to school.

Jamie and I were trying to figure out a better option for Jackie. We talked with some friends but were having a hard time finding somewhere safe for a 14 year old girl to live. We were just about to give up looking when we found out that a Liberian friend was just moving into a new house (and had some spare room). We tried to call this friend a couple weeks ago, but our cell service was down due to a lightning strike. It turned out, this friend was also trying to call us the same weekend to talk...she didn't know why, but just thought there was some reason she needed to talk to us. We ended up driving to this friends house and she agreed to meet Jackie and the two hit it off almost instantly. Jackie moved into the home last week. Here she is standing on the porch.

To show appreciation to the friend for taking Jackie in we helped to provide some furniture and shelving for the house. Jamie and I put together some shelves for the kitchen and a bookshelf to take out this weekend. You will also note the new license plate in the windshield. After living here for 15 months we finally have a license plate that isn't paper.

Work has been busy too. We've started to build a fence around the ELWA campus for security. Here the guys are mixing the concrete. The drum in the middle of the picture is the water.
The contractor wanted to pose with the footing.

Jamie working on Blessing's hair.

Blessing continues to grow and is 10 months old now. She's crawls faster than I can run and is on the verge of walking (running?). We are trying to start the process to adopt her as a special needs case but progress has been slow. I think I will leave that post for Jamie. One of the highlights of our time here in Liberia has definitely been our visits to a couple local orphanages. It has also been challenging though as we go through the ups and downs of international adoption along with a dozen +/- other families who are trying to bring children home. Maybe I can get Jamie to write a little about that journey too...

Kpatawee Waterfall

This weekend we visited the Kpatawee Waterfalls near Gbanga. We drove up Saturday morning with two other missionary families. The drive is about 3 hours of driving on paved but pothole filled roads until you reach the Phebe Hospital, then about 10 miles to the north on dirt roads to the waterfalls. We arrived and started to set-up camp to the background noise of thunder and lightening. Luckily it didn't rain too much, since a couple of the tents we were provided with were not equipped to handle rain.

We got up Sunday morning and had an Easter service. Here's a picture of the service and one of Blessing taking a picture of herself during the service.

Making water for coffee Sunday morning.

The area we camped near the waterfall had a large Cotton Tree. I've mentioned the Cotton Tree before when we visited Marshall for the first time. They are large softwood trees that have large buttress roots and similar to north america's cottonwood sheds large cotton seeds. They are often the center point for villages and the location for village sacrifices.

The surrounding area Sunday morning.

Here is part of the main waterfall by where we camped. It was difficult to get the whole waterfall in with the trees around.

We also hiked upstream for 45 minutes to a second waterfall area.

Christopher and Jared posing for their waterfall picture.

One of the most interesting features of the upper falls was a series of holes that had been eroded through these rocks. The water shoots through from up above.

And a picture on the way home. Efficiency in transportation.

Mount Coffee

I posted a couple weeks ago about the team that came out from the US to help with the power grid here at ELWA. The first weekend they were here we took a trip up to Mount Coffee to tour the old hydroelectric dam. Before the war the Mount Coffee facility powered Monrovia and much of Liberia. During the war the staff had to flee the area as the fighting reached the dam and water breached the earthen dam around the spillway and destroyed it. In the subsequent 20 years much of the facility has been looted.

We started off the trip Sunday morning and stopped on the way at an SIM affiliated church in the Todee area. Here are a few pictures of the church service.

Jamie and Blessing attracting a crowd as usual.

Then it was onto the dam. The pastor actually served as our navigator to reach the dam, when we got to the front gate we picked up a local friend of his to give us the tour. Here we are approaching the building that used to house the turbines.

Inside the building. There were 4 turbines that used to fill the large holes in the floor.
Underneath the main floor are 3+ basements full of stairways and passageways.
Dr. Sacra checking out one of the turbine holes.
Plenty bats in the basement levels too.
Here's a good shot of the edge of the hydroelectric side, post washout.
Looking back at the building that housed the turbines. They said the large overhead bridge crane was still in the building until 2005, when rogues came and stole it. They cut it and let it drop from overhead, leaving a large impact spot on the floor below.
After looking at that facility we headed out on an almost 2 mile hike to the other dam that controlled the river level. It was a hot day...
More hiking.
And we finally reached it. The large gates controlled the water level behind the dam.
With parts from Wisconsin.
Everyone relaxing after we made it back to the car. Did I mention it was HOT.
And one picture I couldn't resist on the way back home. We're still trying to figure out what "Open Free Defecation Town" really means?