A Rainy Day in Liberia

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Last night I was frustrated with the incredibly poor Internet and ended up staying up too late just trying to send tiny but important e--mails.  When I told my problem to the lady at reception the following morning, she had a man bring me my own modem—gee, I wouldn’t have fretted if I’d known that.  This late night made me feel sleepy all day because I woke up too early.  They didn’t even pick us up till 11. 

Today turned out different than usual because it started out cloudy, so we hoped for a cooler day.  Soon little drops began.  We visited another possible well site in a crowded and smelly marketplace.  It is one that is covered but open, and all kinds of foods are sold there.  In the back is the fish and meat market and of course that’s what smells.  They requested a hand pump well just past and behind them, and as we left they also noted that they didn’t have a latrine in the area.  As we visited with them it began to sprinkle a little bit more.

Just behind the fish part of the open marketplace.  A bit of garbage, but at least they tried to put it in one place.  The food market is not usually a very clean place.  

The girl is holding the eyes of her sister so she won’t be afraid of those scary white people.  They are sitting in front of the market area.

This is looking sideways at a knife sharpening tool.  It had a good stone on it and perhaps was shared by many or owned by one, we don’t know but you can see the handle to turn the stone. 

We drove to the next area that had lots of open space.  While there it began to rain in earnest so we sat on a veranda or used umbrellas or just hats to look here and there. Then it began to pound, so much so that we didn’t go anywhere till it let up.  We stayed quite a while till we could brave it to get back into the car.  Our shoes were muddy and we were a bit wet.  By the third area it let up a bit and then stopped when we drove to see the well driller we might use for part of the project.  He is from India and has worked in Liberia for about a year or so.  The well driller we used to use in Kenya was also from India.  This is a bit unusual though because most of the shop/restaurant/hotel owners in Liberia are Lebanese.

Interrogating the Indian well driller that we might use for part of the project.  

We arrived fairly early at the pizza place so that we could meet up with Andy Jones, who drove his motorbike out of the bush so that he could present his hand drilling NGO to us.  This method could possibly be used as an option along with a hand dug or drilled well.  Each has its drawbacks and each has its strengths, and depending on the conditions, each could be used for water projects in the future.  What is so interesting about Andy is that as an experiment, he and his family committed this school year (he has 4 children ages teen down to elementary school) to living with him full-time, being home schooled and learning a new way of living so as to appreciate (I suppose) what we have in America and sort of save his family.  He said there was a bit of kicking about it the first month, but all fell in line and worked it out; one daughter has even embraced it.  They don’t live finely here but as I understand it, live the ‘real’ life of a Liberian.  His humanitarian goal is to work in the bush to get clean water where it is harder and more costly for NGO’s to go.  He helped develop the drill and has worked from home for a number of years, and also had an orphanage.  As a sidelight he sells authentic African drums and teaches students to play those drums, and sometimes works as an actor on Church productions; they even have a performance of dancing (his wife) and him playing the music; I think he is a former BYU engineering student.  I hope I got this right.  They will all be going back home in a month to Utah.  He will continue to monitor his product and his humanitarian work, but not full-time here.  We liked his method of community development and his concern to give jobs to local people and puts out a good product that will last.

  This is Andy Jones, the man who has a hand drill and lives with his family in Liberia. 

We arrived back at the hotel at 7:30, dirty, a little muddy, and tired.  We were just not as sweaty as we usually are.  A shower is the only thing I can think of after a long day.  

Bye for now.