Saturday & Sunday, January 14-15, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

We departed for Kenema about 11 AM and arrived in the afternoon in Bo where we dropped off, as promised last year, more items to the orphanage.  We had larger dresses for the older girls, soccer uniforms for the older boys plus a ball, and a smaller ball for the younger boys.  It was a mad scramble with everyone wanting more stuff so we finally left once they were all satisfied.  I have a feeling if the lady they call grandma was there it would have been a lot more organized.  It was especially fun to see the boys play with their new soccer balls.  Jim left them the small hand pump in hopes the balls will last longer. There are a lot of rocks in their dirt.  The boys’ goalie was in a wheelchair—they include everyone.  Most children at this orphanage are handicapped.   

I gave at first all the dresses to this girl, but later distributed them among the older girls when they arrived after an outing.  

The boy holding the ball is always their goalie.  The boy in the left of the picture is wearing his uniform that we gave them last year.

One of the boys showing off his skills while playing with the younger boys’ soccer ball.  

The team manager with the two footballs and uniforms for the older boys.  Last summer we gave uniforms to the younger ones.  

We arrived in Kenema about 4:30 PM and were anxious to get settled into our room.  We had to request three light bulbs so we could see and another towel (why do they always assume two people need just one towel?).  The air conditioner is not too effective but after an entire day and a cooler evening, it worked well enough to allow us to go to sleep.  The power turned off at least five times in 15 minutes when I first went to bed.  Each time the power goes off the air conditioner does not turn back on by itself.  But we can’t complain—the city power has been off for 3-4 days so people like Jonathan and Amarachi have been living in the dark, using a battery powered lantern. 

Last time we got to enjoy the new bathrooms.  Our shower door had already been dislodged and pieces broken that hold it together, so they fixed that the next day claiming that they didn’t know it was broken.  I always feel bad when no one seems to care and let things go to only get worse, and this is interesting that as last year’s fix breaks they are working on building more rooms.  The hand held sprayer for the toilet leaked all over the floor so we had to get another towel to soak that up.  But all things considered, it was just great being in one place long enough to unpack our suitcases.

As soon as we got mostly settled Jonathan and Amarachi and their two girls showed up.  Their ‘adopted grandpa’ had bought a few things for them from the dollar store and also took them for a short swim.  They still couldn’t get used to the life jackets we borrowed that our grandchildren use while water skiing.  These girls just couldn’t seem to stay upright.  Africans don’t have much experience around water. We ate dinner and drove them home, stopped by the store for some food for the little fridge.  I had my kid (Mohamed whose nickname is ‘Dadi’ is really now a young adult) bring me my hot water for a shower.  I have a feeling they will finally have hot water when we no longer will be staying here.  They are beginning here with heating one tank with a solar panel, which heats water for only the new suites.

This afternoon we finally saw one of these rooms when we ran into our young African lady friend who is running a rubber plantation.  She is staying in one of these suites so we took a peak. It is twice as large as our room and of course looks newer and therefore prettier.  The size of the room is unnecessary, but what they do have is a small, working flat screen TV (we have old TV’s in these rooms that haven’t been hooked up for a couple of years), and sometimes hot water in their showers--my personal dream.  She tells us that if you take a shower during the day it will be warm but not at night.  I suppose it is because they only have one panel?  The manager tells us that there will be warm water in all the rooms in a few months.  This will all be too late for us to enjoy because when we do come again we’ll be staying for free (we think) with the Schlehuber’s in Bo, unless we don’t want to drive that far every day (about an hour to Kenema).

Dadi and a Muslim friend told me today that they wanted to go with us to church next Sunday.  I told them they should have gone today because we wouldn’t be here next Sunday, but Dadi knows where the church is and can take his friend next week.  His friend said that even though he was Muslim (Dadi is also Muslim) he wanted to ‘find Jesus.’  We never know of their sincerity.  Sometimes they just see White people and they think we will support them in school or get them a trip to the USA so I’m kind of skeptical.  I’ll check back with Jonathan to see if they actually attend.  They saw the missionaries here earlier and seemed to know who they were.  Perhaps the missionaries talked to them when they arrived. 

We went to church at 9 AM this morning.  Amarachi gave a talk and so did Jonathan.  Amarachi gave the lesson in Relief Society also.  We had brought them an Ensign that I had just finished reading and I noticed that Jonathan used the opening message from President Monson to give his talk.  Amarachi is first counselor in the R.S. presidency and Jonathan is in the District Presidency.  It was great to see Lucia today.  This is her third project as a hygiene trainer and is working out in the Kenema District—it is far away and a very needy area.  When she began as a trainer long ago her husband was not a member of the Church.  By the second project he had joined.  By this project he is now in the Branch Presidency.  She is one happy lady!  And she is the sweetest gal!

Today at church we met an American missionary from Wyoming, another from Samoa, and one new African Elder who had only been here three weeks.  After church the Samoan found out that we were at the Capitol Hotel and told us that we ought to invite them to dinner!  The Wyoming Elder elbowed him in the ribs, but we told them they could come.  They said how great the food is here compared to what they usually get to eat.  First we had a meeting with Jonathan and Amarachi about the project and then the Elders showed up and we enjoyed a meal together.  It was fun.

Here at the Capitol Hotel they are building a tower to hold up the water tank, which is to be heated by the solar panel on the right.  We watched as another man mixed up the mud on a piece of cement and delivered it to the mason in a head pan.  The hot water won’t service our room though in time for us to enjoy a hot shower.  It is only right now available in the suites.

All over the city there has been a dearth of power and therefore water and lights and air conditioning seem to be in hard supply, not to mention cell phones and our new Internet connector.  Today after church we ran the battery power out of our computers and had nothing to do so we took naps.  They are used to using city power half of the day and then their generators.  Without city power they do not want to keep their generators on all day.  When we drove the car the short distance to the church today we realized that the car no longer has air conditioning.  The saving grace of this whole trip has been that it has been cooler.  I never suspected this far inland to have this pleasant of weather this time of year.  Without air conditioning it was cooler outside both for our room and for driving around.  If this weather holds we will be very grateful.  The Capitol used to have the power on every day, all day long.  Not this time.  It even affects our water supply because they can’t pump the water into the tank for us all to use here.  This could be a VERY long week…

Love, mom & dad, E/S Greding, Jim & Karen