Only in Africa...

Thursday, April 27, 2017

This was the easiest day ever!  We got to stick around our hotel where the CRS (Catholic Relief Services) gal Annisha came to tell us what type of work they do here in Liberia in case we want to partner with them in the future.  At the present moment we have such a great couple and a great site monitor that we are doing quality, sustainable projects on our own.  But we liked what she told us even though some of what they do doesn’t fit our program. Their hygiene training and community development would fit what we do.  She was very knowledgeable and nice to visit with.  Teerlink’s didn’t know about the WASH meetings, so they will coordinate with Annisha who will let them know when they are having the next one.  It was a very productive meeting that took only about 1½ hrs.  She is originally from New Zealand.

Annisha from CRS, making her presentation.

After she departed we went to the restaurant and over lunch went over everything that we’d seen and discussed our feelings about each one.  Most of them we will do.  A few will be put on the back burner for future consideration.  Tomorrow we will see one more on the way to the airport.  Then we go to work (after we get home) putting the project together.  This will probably take a few weeks before we can turn in a project request.  We will be using piped city water, drilled boreholes, hand dug wells, and probably use the hand drilled well for a couple of the projects.  It might also include a latrine or two.

It was about 2 PM when we were finished and then went for a swim.  It was so refreshing!  We came back to the room to work some more, eating our dinner with some previously saved meals out of the fridge (not great, but filled us up), and worked on reports.  To break this up, I alternated typing with packing for our long travel day tomorrow—it will start at 9 AM; we’re headed to Sierra Leone.

Friday, April 28, 2017

We departed our hotel at 9 as planned.  Elder Teerlink was in his truck with Morris, and Sister Teerlink picked us up in the Mission President’s car—she was to leave it at the airport so that he could drive it back after he landed that afternoon.  As we drove a ways out of town it became unusually crowded and there was quite a jam.  I thought it must be a wreck, but happily it was just a parade that the kids were doing in the middle of the busy main street.  It slowed us down for a long time so we were happy that we left so soon, giving us enough time to get our work done and get to the airport.

I just love a parade, except when it causes a huge traffic jam…  

   

They were pretty cute.  One group of guys were playing drums.

We finally got around the parade and headed to a community that Teerlink’s wanted us to check out to see if we could add this one to the project.  They really like this community.  It was very clean, they were quite organized and cohesive, and they had already begun to collect money!  Above this group (they were a little low-lying) was another one further up on the hill.  They already had a hand pump, but it goes dry and there was a lot of rock, which is probably why they stopped digging and didn’t go far enough to get more water.  The group leader was angry at first, but Elder Teerlink calmed the guy down.  When we visited with the other group, we realized that they were worried that only the lower group would get a well.  We found out that the lower lying area does not share and wouldn’t let them come to get water.  No wonder they were upset.  They all had dip wells, but hand pumps produce cleaner water, even if they add chlorine to the dip well.  We might do wells in both areas.  They have enough people there.

We saw this guy up in a tree, hacking away at the thing—not sure what he was doing but he was way up there. 

Once again Karen Teerlink had a marvelous lunch prepared for us and we stopped at a place that had a bamboo bench and sun cover.  Soon a guy walked by, looking rather dirty so Elder Teerlink gave him a bag of water (they sell little plastic bags of water, and he brings some along to pass out).  He also ended up giving him a little food, which brought a couple of other guys…there are always more people around than you think.

Eating our wonderful lunch that Sister T fixed for us once again.

Afterwards we went to the airport and said our fond farewells.  When we got there the air was not on in the terminal and all of a sudden as we dropped off our luggage I noticed that I was wet all over.  Jim said the sweat was rolling down his leg!  It is rather humid—no surprise!

It was luckily air conditioned in the waiting room as we waited for our flight, which was really quite on time so we were loaded early. Just as we were set to take off, we didn’t, for nearly an hour before they told us why— they said that a ‘delegation’ was late and they were waiting for them!  Later he said, ‘wouldn’t we want them to wait for us’?  We all laughed—no one has ever waited for ‘us’ if we were late getting on a plane!  We wondered what group this was and why they waited for them---only in Africa…

We were an hour late but arrived safe and sound and met the guy that knows when Church people are coming; he was there with our tickets to the boat that takes us across the water to Freetown.  While waiting to get on the boat, who do we meet but a guy who introduced himself as a member of the Church.  This is not unusual, except that we found out that this was Kevin Turay, Mustapha Turay’s brother!  Turay was our project manager for years in Sierra Leone and is now living in the States.  It is a small world for us, no matter where we go!

A chance meeting with our friend Turay’s brother, Kevin Turay…

E/S Carley were at the dock and took us to our hotel; we had dinner with them and planned our day for tomorrow.  Later we happily unpacked and washed off the sweat and dirt of the day.  We are so happy to be here; we like this hotel and the food they serve.  And I always get happy when I get to unpack.

Till tomorrow…