Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Day 2 in Liberia

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Each day begins the same—Teerlink’s pick us up about 9:30 and then we drive a long way to some area or other to check out possible sites for a major water project.  It will probably consist of a few drilled or hand dug wells and even some piped water.  As we travel we notice a big difference in communities, which makes it a bit easier to see what we might want to include in the project.  Some areas are crowded and the homes are humble.  Some areas are surprisingly more rural with lots of space in between and the homes are generally larger and nicer.  It is not hard to decide who really needs the clean water.  Everyone needs clean water of course, but it is obvious that in some areas the people are wealthy enough to have their own wells, and most do.  We saw a lot of dip wells, but hardly a hand pump.  They often treat their dip wells with chlorine so that it could be used for drinking.  Some had such bad water (or none because of the dry season), that it could only be used to wash clothing and such. Yesterday we spent more time with those that seemed needier, and today it seemed that most places were the opposite, with one exception. 



Elder Teerlink is, among other things, a furniture maker.  We brought him wood dowels so that he could teach people to make furniture properly here.  See if you can spot the dowels towards the top that he will be using to keep it all together.  Below is typical furniture that we see in Africa—quite clever, but he hopes to teach better skills than this so that furniture lasts—here it falls apart quickly for the average man so he wants to change that. 



One improvement we noticed is the roads.  They say that they are paving new roads all the time now, and most are being done by European groups.  Not just the main roads are being paved, but so many in the interior.  Yes, we drove on lots of dirt, badly potholed roads, but half of them were paved—my neck is so happy about that!

Each day we begin feeling fresh and ready for the day, but by noon it begins to heat up and I have a hard time putting one foot in front of the other.  At noon Sister Teerlink brings out the lunch that she has prepared for all of us, and it is always so good.  That revives me for a bit before the heat gets to me again.  Today Jim jokingly said that he wanted to eat his lunch under a tree and near the water.  Little did he know that there was such a place nearby—we ate under a tree and next to a very large river, which was so pleasant!  But I always do a ‘happy dance’ in my head when someone says we are heading for the hotel.



While eating lunch near this beautiful, wide river we saw a boat that was dredging sand in search for diamonds, according to Morris.  The men in the barge all had on life jackets, no doubt because of their fear of water.

Today we were close to the beach in the afternoon, which made the heat easier to bear because the wind blew—not a cool wind, but any wind in the afternoon is like a gift.  After finishing our looking we stopped for an early dinner.  We were close to where the couples live and went to a restaurant that we ate at last year—it is on the beach so the setting was lovely.  The best part was being able to use the bathroom to wipe the sweat off our bodies.  We also enjoyed watching the waves pound the shore.  After dinner they took us to a place that serves many flavors of Gelato.  Ice cream always makes me happy when I am hot and we were all hot.  We savored every bite. 


Our refreshing view while eating our dinner.

It gets crowded on the roads in the morning and evening so it took a bit of time getting back to the hotel; I felt sorry for Elder Wollenzien because he had to go all the way back to the heart of town in more traffic. 

There is nothing like a shower when you are hot, sweaty and dirty--we appreciate it so much!  And as I mentioned yesterday, we got back to the hotel early enough for us to actually use the pool.  We were the only ones swimming because most Africans don’t swim.  Luxury at its finest!

The more I visit with Morris, the more interesting it is to know him.  I even found out that he knew Amarachi Cobinah’s family since he served a mission in Nigeria (where she is from) many years ago.  Amarachi is our friend and hygiene trainer in Sierra Leone and is married to Jonathan, our project manager in the Kenema area.  We also found out that Morris knows the vice president of the country and his wife who has a handicapped NGO; Teerlink’s are very interested in this since they will be working with the blind in particular. Then while getting our ice cream we met someone else Morris knew who has become quite famous. Morris said that he is a man named Joshua who used to be a feared warlord that forced young boys to join up and committed numerous atrocities.  He was so feared, even though he only used a big knife, that people ran from him even if they had a gun. He has become famous also because he is now a repentant pastor who saves young men instead of making them into warriors.  He has openly admitted his mistakes and repented and talks about his conversion to a better way of life.  He was such a jolly guy!  They actually called him the ‘butt-naked general’ because apparently he fought that way—life is, if nothing else, interesting…

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


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