We're back...and so is school.

The combination of a busy summer, the loss of our website address, and a busy summer means we have not posted anything in about 4 months. Well we are working on getting the web address back but for now you can just use the blogger address.

A few years ago a bunch of generous friends helped us with money so we could help a number of Liberian children attend school.  We sent out an appeal to largely the same group and were able to raise enough money to pay for all or most of the school fees for 30 children.

In Liberia there are very few "free" government schools, and even the ones that are "free" have expenses associated with them that make it difficult for poor families to send their children to school.  Even if there is no cost for tuition there are still fees for school uniforms, shoes, supplies, transportation, and illegal requests by the teacher or the school for additional fees.  Then with private schools you have all those plus tuition, which usually runs from $100-$300 per year.  A typical family that makes $100 per month really has to scratch and claw to come up with the tuition and fees to ensure that their children get an education.  And I ain't gonna lie, most schools suck and do a pretty poor job of teaching their students, but the alternative of getting no education, and having no diploma, is still far worse.

So we were not able to get pictures of all 30 kids, but here are the smiling, grimacing, and scowling faces of some of the children that your generous donations were able to help.

This is our former security guard Morris' wife and family...along with Grace and Kasen.  We were able to help 4 of his children attend school.

More to come...soon.  Keep praying for Emmanuel and his heart surgery...hopefully we will have good news in the next week...

Liberian Art for Sale

We will be coming back to the States for our vacation in the next couple weeks.  Over the years Jamie and I have made a habit of purchasing paintings when we go on vacations to remember our trips.  When we got to Liberia we were able to connect with a couple of remarkable young men who support themselves through painting.  Below I have taken pictures of paintings by Sam Hwisedeh and Wilson Fallah.

Sam is a self taught artist who started painting in 2005.  His paintings are colorful depictions of Liberian life.  If you came to our house while we were back in the US in 2010-2011 you probably saw some of his work on our walls.  All of his paintings are listed below with the price and sizes.

After Sam's paintings the next 10 are Wilson Fallah's.  You can read a little about Wilson in this Washington Times article from a few years back.  As the article mentions, Wilson was one of Liberia's many child soldiers.  At the age of 9 he was conscripted into fighting in Liberia's bloody civil war that ended in 2003.  So many former child soldiers can be seen around Monrovia begging (and worse), still hooked on the drugs that their warlords fed them during the war. Not Wilson though, today Wilson is an energetic young man who has taken to painting as a means of supporting himself.  

If you are interested in any of these paintings please either comment below or send me an email at rustylaird at gmail.com.  We will bring back with us any paintings that people would like to purchase and all the funds below go directly to the artists.  If you are interested in a painting please let me know as soon as possible.  There is an art show at the US Embassy on June 8th so Wilson and Sam will probably have most of these paintings at the art show if they are not already spoken for and may be sold there.

Jazz - $200 5'x2.5'

Sisters in Unity - $200 5'x2.5'

Market Day - $250 5'x2.5'

Evening Meal - $150 3'x3'

Dan Mask - $50 2.5'x2'

Basket Maker - $50 1.5'x2'

My Sister & I - $50 1.5'x2'

Musical Couple - $50 1.5'x2'

To the Farm - $50 15"x21"

Night Fall - $50 15"x21"

Liberian Music - $50 1.5'x2'

Fruit Sellers - $50 1.5'x2'

Fetching Water - $50 1.5'x2' 

Fish Market - $50 1.5'x2'

Sande Dancers - $50 1.5'x2' (I didn't write down the sizes for these last 4 but I'm pretty sure they were about 1.5'x2')

Liberian Instrumentalist - $50 1.5'x2'

Sande Dancer #2 - $50 1.5'x2'

Sande Graduate - $50 1.5'x2'

Sam with some of his paintings

Below are Wilson's paintings.  They are all about 18"x24" and $30 each.

Family Pictures

Family pictures are never an easy task with 6 children.  It was hard enough with just 3 boys trying to get them to look at the camera.  Thank you to the world famous Joni for coordinating with the sun to make these happen.

Side Projects

With our free time here we are always keeping busy working on projects and new ideas.  Here are a few things we've been cogitating:

A solar fruit dehydrator.  We'll see how it works in our climate, but I'm hoping it will be a good tool to allow Liberians to dehydrate mangoes and other fruit to save and sell.

Our guard never likes it when we leave chairs on our front porch at night.  So we made a concrete bench (actually a couple, this is just the first one).  At probably about 200 lbs., I'd like to see the rogues try to cart this one off!

My biggest project, building a barbecue and smoker.  I started a couple months ago but there are a few things I need from the states so after we come back from our home leave in July we'll try to finish it up.  More pictures to come when we're done...

Our Flintstones gym.  There is a store in town with a nice weight set for about $1,000, but we decided to use some 1-1/2" galvanized pipe, various sized buckets and concrete to make our own weight set.  I think our guards like to "eat iron" and use them more than the boys though.

Christopher couldn't let an opportunity to buy a couple rabbits pass when  someone came by selling them.  In a couple weeks it will be a rabbit skinning and cooking project.

One small snafu when we made the weights.  To keep them from falling over we braced  them with the motorcycle.  Unfortunately I think the heat was effecting us and we braced it by running the pipe through the handle bars and foot rest...now I guess we get to cut it off. Or ride around with a weight attached.

And our most recent (and last!!) pet.  The boys bought two but either one escaped or the dog ate it within about 12 hours.

April Update

Today is April 12th, a day of significance in Liberian history.  April 12, 1980 Sargent Samuel Doe walked a half mile from his barracks up the hill in Monrovia to the president's mansion with 17 enlisted soldiers and murdered President Tolbert.  The year before in April the civil unrest started with rice riots spurred by Tolbert's attempt to coax Liberian farmers into producing more rice and being more self sufficient as a nation.  April 6, 1996 was a chaotic day of looting and low point in the 14 year Liberian civil war.  

Now here we are in April, 10 years after the end of the Liberian civil war and the nation is sitting on the edge of its collective seat, waiting to see if todays planned protests materialize.  There have been multiple stories in the newspaper every day this week.  Stories of the government paying off the organizers not to protest, organizers calling off the protest, other protesters mad they didn't receive payments and vowing to still protest, plans to breach the central prison and release all the prisoners, fears of riots, looting, even fears of a coup d'etat...

The country has enjoyed ten years of peace but that doesn't mean everyone is happy.  Many in competing political parties are not happy with the rate progress and level of continued corruption.  Many ex-fighters are not happy with the lives of poverty that they are relegated to after they once demanded respect and lived large on looted and stolen goods.  

Please pray for peace to continue in Liberia and for those who are not happy to channel their dissention through proper channels.

On a brighter note, my niece and cousin arrived last week.   My niece is here for 2 months and my cousin escorted her after my other nieces got stuck in Ghana overnight when Delta cancelled their connecting flight in December.  My cousin has headed back to the US but we got to go around and see a few sites while she was here.  Here are a couple pictures from the old Addy's Hope Orphanage we visited.

Mariah going to play Football with the kids

Jamie and my cousin Jen at the orphanage

My niece took this picture of me with one of the kids...I guess I was trying to crush him or something...

You can follow Mariah's homeschool blog while she's here.  Her post last week talked about the visit to the orphanage.  When we were leaving we told them people had donated money to Mariah so we needed ideas on what clothes or treats they wanted us to buy.  The most vocal of the boys started asking us to bring them bread and butter...what a treat.

One last story.  I went running this morning and after I finished I was walking back home through a shortcut between houses.  I heard someone calling for me.  There was a boy, maybe about 10 years old who was walking fast trying to catch up to me.  I had headphones on and thought for a minute that I would just pretend I didn't hear him and keep going.  I decided to stop though and turned around to see what he wanted.  He came up and with a smile on his face said "Do you remember me?"  I told him no, I didn't remember him.  He held up his arm and there was a scar from what was once a large sore on his elbow and he said "you treated my arm".  And with another smile he said "Thank you" and turned around and walked away.  I remembered then.  He was walking by our house a few months ago with a nasty sore on his arm.  I told him to wait and ran and grabbed some Neosporin and a couple Bandaids.  I had forgotten but I guess he hadn't. And I almost didn't give him a chance to say thank you because I was afraid it was just another request...