Lots of paperwork...

Saturday & Sunday, April 28-29, 2018

I’ve had some very pleasant days doing the same thing over and over again—the wash, which I for some reason feel great pleasure in doing, my bowl of cereal for lunch (feeding my addiction to cold cereal). I even found one of my favorites at the grocery store—a smashed-up box, but tasted the same anyway, and overpriced, as all things American are in grocery stores meant for Europeans and Americans.  I have been reading my books, watching TV (they have an amazing variety of shows and movies here at this hotel), and working on reports and organizing the hundreds of pictures I always seem to collect while traveling.  I do this while Jim is out there hiking and sweating and being exhausted in the awful heat and humidity (someone has to do it, so it might as well be him).  But in truth he keeps telling me to stay back and he is always glad after a long day that I did—the hikes are not easy, slipping over rocks, going way down and then way back up again.  You can see by the pictures, especially here in Freetown, the rocky hills and valleys they live and carry their water around in.  The people here in Africa are as sure-footed as any in the world that live in these conditions.

A rocky, hilly area, all over Freetown.   

                                                         

Try carrying a bucket on your head over a wobbly bridge…

Today Jim is home with me, having completed looking and being here a little longer than necessary, but then we will get lots of our work done here before we return and have other things on our jetlagged minds.  Yesterday they saw 15 sites, so it was a long, hard day, but it is finished.  Today he is working on his reports from yesterday’s looking.  These are possible projects that we might put into our current water budget for this year.  Since there will probably only be about 4-6 that we will request to do for this year, we can keep others in mind for another year’s budget.

One of the places he saw had a bunch of large poly tanks with taps at the bottom, spaced along one road, and put in by UNICEF.  The community asked them to place these with the intent that GUMA (government) water would fill them.  GUMA only has one truck to fill tanks in the whole area.  We did an area project and even they say that sometimes the truck never comes—the truck might be broken or they can’t get water either.  We thought that we might redo a pump here so that we could distribute water lines to all of these tanks and keep them filled.

We’ll give you tanks; maybe someone will fill them for you!

Other projects that they looked at were sometimes disappointing because of the lack of action by a community.  One group had a 10-year old well with a hand pump that has been broken for a year.  They figured that the only problem was that the pump rod was broken, an easy, cheap fix.  A year?  They were even collecting money there, so why not fix it?  They fixed it once a year before, but didn’t care enough to fix it this time?  Other places we hesitate to work in are those that are filthy or people are fighting.  We know they don’t have many places that collect trash, but we have also seen communities that have the same amount of trash, but they don’t throw it everywhere and still manage to keep the place clean.  Even though we sometimes don’t want to do a project in a dirty area, we do have proof that if you go back again and again they can learn to keep the place clean.  This happened at L/G.  It used to be full of garbage but now, through Brother Thomas’s work, it is a clean place.  These communities will be required to donate 20% of the cost of the project.  If they earn their money and get a bank account, we will do one for them.  We can always do more of the likeable projects in future years.  These people generally have more money than they do in village district areas, where we are requiring 10%.  We will have people hired like Brother Thomas, to keep visiting them, but we want to be sure before we do a project, the possibility of them keeping it up so we don’t have problems later. 

We can ask them to clean up their trash and they will, but as soon as the project is done, it will look like this again, unless we have a Brother Thomas to keep after them…

We are pleased that almost all but one area in the present project are working correctly, but much of that has to do with Brother Thomas’s dogged determination, visiting them twice a month for the past several months.  There are two communities that we will write a letter for requiring them to split their committees when people can’t agree.  Then they will do better on their own and not be drug down by another group that doesn’t work to keep their donation viable.  Why they need an official letter we do not know, but we drafted one that we e-mailed to Brother Thomas to help a couple of the communities out.  We are pleased to be working with such an effective monitor.  We will also be trying out John Conteh, our driver, who also has done work for the church before, as another contractor on this project.  We will give him one to see if we like his work.  He might also work for less than our present contractor, but then a lower price doesn’t always equal good work.  We shall see. 

Our Area Welfare Manager in Accra for the last several years has been John Buah.  He is the loveliest man and is also a Stake Patriarch.  He finally gets to retire in a few days, even though he’d hope to a few months ago but they couldn’t find his replacement.  We found out that our old AWM, Daniel Yirenya is taking his place.  Daniel has been serving as an Area 70, the ones that serve for about 8 years and then get released.  Others serve for a lifetime, the first quorum of 70.  He just got released and is back at his old job.  We wondered who it might be.  Now we know. 

We had John and Lionel visit us to get paid for the work that they have done for us this week.  We will be working with them yet again.  We really like these pleasant young men.  We are on the home stretch now, but we have a lot of paperwork and figuring to do in the next few days here at the hotel, and of course, Church tomorrow.

Sunday

John picked us up to take us to his Ward, a short distance from the hotel.  Our old friend Marcus is the Bishop there, and he was being released because he is now the Stake President.  So during Sacrament meeting they heard who their new Bishopric was and several of them spoke.  Sunday school was normal and the third hour was a CD training that was apparently prepared by the Ghana Area Presidency about how to mentor, how to do councils, etc.  Then they had a discussion.  For some reason they started this about 20 minutes late, so the meeting lasted another half hour longer.  It was not so hot today and sitting under the fan was helpful, but we were both still sleepy, me especially.  It is hard to hear what they are saying both in translation (accent) and their soft voices and the bad PA system.  We both fell asleep after we got back to the hotel.  Then we continued working on reports and Jim had to decipher which projects we might want to do for this year here in Freetown.  One more day of working, which will be nice to get completed before heading back to Accra on Tuesday.  

Back to the New Brookfield's Hotel, Freetown

Thursday, April 26, 2018

First, a note about home: We were very sad last night to learn of the passing of a lovely man in our ward, Jack Regas.  I don’t think any of us expected him to go just yet.  He is most known for his dancing—he was in those older movies with actors like Fred Astaire, dancing in the background or choreographing.  He was kind and fun and we will miss him, along with his wife and daughters and many grandchildren.  We presume he is ‘tripping the light fantastic’!

As we were leaving Kenema we followed Jonathan so he could show us the house he has nearly finished.  It will be used for a missionary couple when they come, which they expect in about 3 months.  Jim gave Jonathan a list of things he needed to fix, and then we happily drove back to Freetown.

The house Jonathan built for couples in Kenema.  They will be here in about three months.  It is quite roomy, has solar panels and even a garage.  It is just behind the chapel that he also built for the Church.  All are enclosed in high walls with razor wire on top.  It has two bathrooms and I think 2-3 bedrooms.  They were taking care of the details while we were there.  Even some of the furniture was inside.  The workers were using a mattress on the floor.  They had one room just for the generators and electrical equipment.  They had a washer and a dryer.  Not all couples get dryers. 

We arrived at my ‘happy place’, the New Brookfield’s Hotel, in the afternoon.  On the way we picked up a few groceries—lunches for the guys for the next few days, and cereal and milk for me so I don’t have to always order something from the hotel restaurant. 

We slept well and then prepared for the day’s activities.  I made sandwiches for the men: Jim, our driver John, Samuel the contractor, and the site monitor Lionel Thomas.  John picked up Jim just before 10 and they met the others at the Church office.  It took a shorter-than-usual day to look at the present spring box project that was not completed by the time E/S Carley’s mission was up.  Elder Carley hired Lionel to visit each site twice monthly for many months to make sure that they completed all that they had agreed to do, both the contractor and the communities.  We have been pleased with his performance.  As he has sent us his reports, we noted that the water committees have sometimes been changed (corruption or lack of doing their job), and he was making sure that they were collecting fees for the water to sustain the projects.  He also had to make sure the contractor completed all of his work and some of the repairs that were needed.  Some of the projects’ concrete had to be poured during the rainy season so he needed to fix those.  Brother Thomas has done an amazing job, so much so that we will be using him to become a manager of the new spring box projects we’ll be submitting for Freetown and also the contractor.  We plan to do 15 wells in Kenema District, which Jonathan will be managing, and 4 spring box developments in Freetown for the 2018 clean water project in Sierra Leone. 

As for lazy and happy me, I did the wash of course, as much as the tub/shower could take; I worked on the trip report for Kenema District; I watched TV, read some of a novel about flying in WWI, and caught up on my reading of Jesus the Christ.  I have no idea where the class is, but presume that I am behind.  I won’t be doing much else, so at first planned on going out with the guys the following day to look at possible future sites. However, my neck was bothering me so I declined. Also, the truck would be too crowded.  The contractor, the driver, Jim, and the site monitor make 4—with me there it would be 3 in the backseat and we have found it to be very tight in this small truck.  I will let Jim sweat for me! (I was glad to be back at the hotel—it was a much longer and hotter day, with lots of sweaty hiking on slippery rocks and Jim was happy that I didn’t go!)

Our driver will be married a week from Saturday.  He has a place that he rents here in the area, which is where they will live, but the wedding will be in Makeni. There will be no honeymoon—there is no money for honeymoons for most Africans.  As it is, he also (besides the dowry) had to buy food for the reception, which he hopes will not get out of hand (invitation only, or else he’d be feeding 500!)

The men returned for the day after having seen all of the spring box projects that Lionel has been working to complete and organize.  At one place Jim was really upset because the people have not taken care of the project.  Some areas were really, really good and he was pleased.  All the rest were doing mostly fine.  A few problems will be able to be resolved with committees not agreeing, separating some into two.  All in all, it is a very good project.  This time of year when it is so dry, people are in long cue lines at some sites.  Some of the projects are really working well and earning lots of money.  Some will do other projects on their own and have already.  Some developed springs have plenty of water even at the end of this dry season.

 This great community enclosed their water tanks in a building with their own money. Their rules are listed on the building.   

Too long a cue in the dry season!

This place never goes dry; people can drive here so they sell lots of water.

 One bad area: filthy, don’t collect money, unorganized, broken taps, but they are still getting water.

Last evening we heard a large commotion and saw that a large group of people were coming into the hotel.  It was a wedding party!!  The groom works at this hotel and they were having their reception here.  I got a picture of the bride.  There is a space outside where they had planned to eat and dance, but shortly after they got settled there arose a huge wind, followed by a thundering rainstorm!  They quickly moved everyone inside the dining area and then called everyone in their rooms to apologize for the loud party, that went fairly late, but it didn’t bother us.  They even suggested that we join them (if it did bother us!). 

The new bride entering the hotel with her wedding party.  I saw the groom earlier—he had on a blue suit with a yellow vest, matching the colors you see in the wedding party.  At first celebrating on the patio, a sudden storm later chased them inside. 

It's hot here! Looking for Kenema District Well Sites.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

We had an interesting night.  The fan worked great and after a few hours I had to turn it off because the air conditioner also began working.  Then I got too cold and had to put on my sweater!  I finally fell asleep about 2 AM. 

I went into breakfast after Jim did as he had eaten earlier.  The breakfast was really good—a slice of pineapple, eggs anyway you like them (I had scrambled), with some veggie mixture with some baked beans and a couple of small, sweet plantains, and 3 slices of good French bread and one breakfast cake.  They had coffee or tea only, so I had a pineapple juice, which I had to pay for. 

Jim, Jonathan, Mohamed (of SALWACO) and of course the driver, left about 9 AM and the power went off.  I was thinking I could do work in the room but when they didn’t start the generator I asked at the desk.  (When the city power goes off, hotels use their generators to keep the electricity on).  I found out that they don’t turn their generators on till 1 PM and turn it off at 3:30 PM.  They turn it on again at 6:30 PM till 8 in the morning.  Dog on!  I thought maybe I should have gone with the guys if I couldn’t get work done at the hotel and Jim almost had them come and get me.  (As I learned later, Jim wouldn’t want me to ever do the trip that they did, so it was just as well I stayed back at the hotel.)

I finished the Trip Report for Liberia and eventually sent it later on to Teerlink’s for correction before sending it on to our bosses.  At 9AM I was already hot in my room.  When I went outside I saw how cool my room actually was in comparison. 

I had lots of wash to catch up on, so I worked on that till 10:30.  And then I sat and sweated and read a book and sweated some more.  I poured water down the front of me to try to keep cool.  I changed to cooler clothes.  I read a book and tried to think cool thoughts!  I wet my clothes, still no relief; I got down to my underwear and wet it also, but that still didn’t work.  I realized that unless you have something blowing on you it doesn’t work and I was washing my underwear on my body….duh!  Then glory be, the city power came on at 11:00!!  I was so relieved.  I put on the air conditioner and fan and basked in the cooling room!!  I charged my computer and phone!  I was so happy!!

I finally got hungry enough to leave my cool room, and went to the top of the restaurant (you eat below in the AM and the rest of the day above).  I ordered a small meal and was pleased to feel a slight breeze.  The city power went off and then they turned on their generators again so I was cool and happy till 4 PM.  I was amazed how quickly I was sweating again so I decided to go outside and maybe order a cool drink.  As I did, Amarachi and her children showed up—perfect timing.  We all had a cold drink and waited till almost 6 before the guys got back.  We ordered dinner and when the power came on again, I hurried down to the room to turn the air conditioner on again.

After listening to the story about what the guys did, I was glad I stayed here after all.  The best news is that we will be going home in the morning!  I did a happy dance in my mind!  I was complaining about my day till I heard about theirs.  The roads were made for bikes and not cars, and the rotting boards over water were dicey (they all got out of the truck and hoped the driver’s wheels would stay on the boards!)  They went up and down incredibly steep hills, having to use 4-wheel drive.  Then they’d hike down long paths to streams or watering holes (that made one very sweaty) to see where these people get their water—pretty bad.  There was only one stream that seemed almost okay, but the rest looked very dirty.  Some of the places that they wanted to put wells in this area of the District weren’t accessible.  Only something like a Village Drill would work so that equipment could be carried in.  So, I’ve stopped complaining (well, maybe a little bit).  It is stinking hot here!!

Getting the wheels on the right boards that weren’t rotting was dicey enough so that all the men bailed out.  At one point one of the wheels was only half way on the board.  Jim said the trip was hard and doesn’t want me to go with them on any of these trips.

Showers never feel better than at the end of these hot and sticky days!  We said farewell to the Cobinah children (they call us grandparents because they don’t have any living ones here in Africa), but Jonathan and Amarachi will be here in the morning to say goodbye once again.  We hope these projects will begin this summer.  Jonathan and Mohamed have to go in again to find more places we can work.  The Village Drill will be used for another project in the future. 

Every available water in this area was filthy like this one above, except for one stream, shown below.

They hiked up and down jungle paths, a sweaty time.   

                   

Typical dress for poor village children.  If we gave them good clothes though, 

they might just sell them so that they could buy more food.

Sweating it out in Kenema

Monday, April 23, 2018

We departed Freetown at 9 AM and found many improvements along the way.  We were so surprised to see how many more roads were paved since our last visit; the Chinese even made a toll road and we kept getting to these checkpoints to pay the fee as we went along.  The roads were so much better that it made our usual 5 hour trip to Kenema into 4 hours.

                                                                                           

 Fancy toll roads by the Chinese!  So many more paved roads in Sierra Leone!

As I said, we were going to try another hotel, the Paloma.  It is actually right across the street from one of our Church buildings.  It looked pretty good to us, but the rooms were a bit small and it was making me feel claustrophobic.  Also, it seemed the air conditioners didn’t work so well.  But we said we would take the room (the ‘closet’ was a few pegs with hangers on the wall).  We turned on the air and finally it seemed to be working okay; in the meantime we found a slightly larger room down the hall in the outdoor corridor, and changed to that one.  It actually had a couple of shelves and a cubby hole to put the suitcases in.  Then we tried the air conditioner and it just didn’t work very well.  By this time we’re getting a little embarrassed.  The owner took us to a nice room downstairs and we tried the air and it seemed to work just fine.  It had more room and so we moved our suitcases for the third time!

A typical ‘closet’ in the rooms in this hotel.  Our fancier room was similar except that they had a fancier piece of wood that had a shelf on top holding the pegs.  The management was very accommodating.

We went to dinner and visited with the Cobinah’s and Mohamed, the guy from SALWACO that always goes with us on well projects.  He helps pick communities where the District Water and Sanitation people want wells to be.  We also have criteria though, so Jim and the guys will go looking at half of them tomorrow.  We have a couple of days to look at 15 sites.  These people will also be expected to give 10% of the cost of the project.  We keep requiring more because it is the only thing that makes them sustainable. 

We bought a few things at the dollar store for Cobinah children—a jump rope, a few coloring and activities books and crayons.  For mom and dad we brought them a couple of card games that we had.  Amarachi will be again doing the hygiene training and community development with her team, and Jonathan will be the Assistant Project Manager for the 15 wells.  In Freetown, Brother Thomas, who has been watching the completion of the spring box projects, will be managing the about 4 springs we’ll be developing there.  A couple will be coming in June, probably just before the project will be approved.

The outside of the hotel was nicer than the rooms.  This is the upper dining room.  The food was really quite good & reasonable.

After we went back to our room we realized that every time the power went off so did the air conditioner and so it was hot in our room again.  We turned it back on and noticed that it really was struggling.  When the city power was on it worked, but when the generator was on it kept struggling to power up.  I suggested that they bring a fan in, which they did and that worked very well.  I was still so hot though after my shower that I couldn’t bear blowing my hair dry, so I didn’t.  My hair droops ugly awfully fast anyway even when I do fix it properly—the humidity is not kind to my hair. 

Taking a shower was really quite the experience.  I turned on the hot water and it got hot fairly soon, so I added the cold water, but then it got too cold.  It went back and forth this way (too hot, then too cold, then too hot, etc.) until I realized I could just fill up the big bucket that was in the shower instead.  Obviously, that was going to work best of all and the showerhead spurted a few thin lines of water out of it because of the low pressure anyway.  In order to flush our toilet we have to take the lid off and pull up on the thing inside—the handle, which is supposed to be on the top of the toilet lid, is missing.

The good thing is that they have a nice variety of food and it is cheap and good.  Also, the Internet surprisingly works very well here too.  Still, I can hardly wait till we go back to the New Brookfield’s Hotel…

John Conteh, our driver. 

                                                                               

The Cobinah family visiting us in the open air dining room.  

                                                             

The jump rope was for Alberta, but Jim and Amarachi also gave it a try.

Painted on the wall of the hotel.

Last Day Liberia pictures

Next to Sister Teerlink is Love Freeman.  She just got back from a mission in Sierra Leone and is cute as a bug.  Next to her is the well caretaker and then Morris.

This is the chairman of the well project and his English is perfect because he went to school in the States.  He is the one that said he was sorry for all those who contributed wells and they weren't taken care of.  He said that this one will not be spoiled and they will make sure it continues to serve their community for many, many years.

This is one of the committee members in charge of fixing the well.  He is ceremonial handing over the keys to the caretaker.  The keys went round and round till they ended up with her.

The widow woman with the school.  This is where the children all meet for a devotional before classes begin each day.  Isn't this nice?

This is some of the construction going on to add more classrooms to the school and a library.  She is the lady that has 26 people living with her, some children not even related.

We had lunch here in the park-like area at the Paynesville City Hall.

Next to one of the kiosks we saw the children playing this game, kind of like jump rope.  They take two long, thin ropes and hold them up while someone jumps in and out.

One of the kiosks or taps where the pipeline project goes to.  The problem is that the city can't always provide water to them.  We have several in the Rock Hill area that at the moment are dry.

We saw the city water and sewer people working on the pipeline project.  It is just like in America--two people standing, and one person digging.  Then I realized that the person digging was a girl!  Chivalry is alive and well in African countries...the women do all the work!

Jim was fascinated by the metal shards on this wall.  But I have noted that they can somehow get into a complex anyway--maybe they use a mattress over the shards, or just wait till the gate opens and then they come in.  There is always a way...

Last Day in Liberia

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Today was our last in Liberia.  Tomorrow we fly out to Sierra Leone for another trip with more travel.  I liked today’s schedule again as it was lighter and we got to come back to the hotel for a couple of hours before going to dinner.  They found a new restaurant in town called the Hub that serves American food.  I am surprised at the high prices here.  The food is at least as expensive as at home in the restaurants, and Sister Teerlink said that to buy a good American towel it is about $50!  No wonder the hotel doesn’t have enough!

Our first stop of the day was to go back to the well that had a little pothole on the stoop where they put their buckets, for a turnover ceremony at 10AM.  Before the festivities began Jim had a little meeting with the site monitors and the contractors telling them that if things did not improve they’d all be without a job.  They had lots of excuses, but none of them were valid.  He told them that they would do concrete our way or we’d get someone that would.  This meeting took at least 15 minutes and then finally they had the turnover ceremony.

Jim and Elder Teerlink having ‘the talk’ with the site monitors, technicians and contractors.  The contractor is in the brightly colored, striped shirt.

John Moore, one of the site monitors and Branch Presidents, was conducting the meeting.  Teerlink’s told him to keep it short, and I was so impressed—it was a little less than 1 hour!  In Kenya the shortest turnover was half a day, and many were ¾ of a day long—quite an endurance test!  He had a local pastor give an opening prayer, said a little bit about the project, had Teerlink tell how we ended up there doing a well (as there are so many places that need them, he told them it was because they had leadership there and felt that they would keep it working), introduced the entire water committee, and had the chairman speak (he had been to school in America and you could hear it in his perfect English).  He asked if any woman would want to speak and finally the pastor’s wife praised God and thanked us for this clean water.  They lived just across the way and were grateful that they didn’t have to send their children to the swamp to get the water.  The Chairman said that he was sorry for times when communities have let their donations get spoiled and he pledged to keep the pump working.  It is another very deep well and so the water comes from a spring and is very clean.  He had anyone speak that wanted to and then they closed the meeting with another prayer.  This one was from a young woman who just returned home from her mission to Sierra Leone where she served in Freetown and Bo.  Then they did the key turning over from one to the other till it landed in the caretaker’s hands.  Then the contractor took the first ceremonial drink of water to show that it was good.

This lady is married to the pastor and she praised the Lord and LDSC for bringing water close to her home.  Her husband gave the opening prayer.

Karen Teerlink remembered that she needed to see a lady in the area that she had met before that was requesting a well.  I really like this lady.  Her husband died 5 years ago and with the money he left her she built a school. Not only that, she has 26 people living with her!  Three of them are children in the neighborhood whose parents can’t care for them.  The rest are related to her in some way.  As we went inside the school we saw that they were building lots more classrooms and a library.  She had a dip well that was clean that she kept chlorinated.  Everyone is welcome to come and get her water, but it is dry 3 months of the year.  She is asking for a hand pump.

 

This is the widow that owns the school and has 26 people living with her.  The young man on the right is her son.  His smile reminded me of one of my grandson’s smiles. 

Afterwards we drove to a place so that we could eat our lunch.  There was a public building with a park-like front that was blocked and there was a guard.  Sister Teerlink told him what we do here and just asked if we could eat on one of the benches, so he decided to give us permission.

Lunch on government property—we had to get permission to eat here.  Every day Karen Teerlink made us wonderful lunches!

We got back on the road to go to Rock Hill.  This was perfectly named.  Indeed, the whole place is almost solid rock and therefore there isn’t too much desire for people to want to dig for water here.  Some years ago the church put in a water point where city water was supposed to come into the taps.  The problem is that it has the same problem as elsewhere—when it is dry so is the water.  We stopped at the first kiosk and saw that recently she had gotten the water and filled dozens of Jeri cans, and then the water was off again.  There was a 5,000 liter water tank but it was never hooked up.  All the kiosks up the hill from there were also dry, but it appeared that they didn’t have any saved water sitting around.  After visiting with them Elder Teerlink commented that it seemed that the people weren’t too bothered by the fact that this was a problem and wanted someone else to solve it for them. Why would we care if they cared less than we did?  So, this is just one topic we will discuss over dinner. 

A former LDSC water project, kiosk with city water, which they call a pipeline.  This goes dry a lot.  This day the taps had no water but apparently recently they did because all those buckets were full.  They fill them when they can and then sell them when people come get them.  Up higher all the water points were completely dry and they didn’t have cans with water in them.  We saw one water pump that was private they said.  Since this place is full of rock, it was good to see that someone was able to dig for water there.   

                           

We’ve seen all the current projects and looked at ones that we might do in the next project if we get a couple to come here.  Sister Teerlink says part of the problem is that they don’t publish the blue sheet anymore where couples could see them and get inspired to serve a mission.  They have made a website for this purpose but perhaps it is not completed yet.  She said she couldn’t find anything on that site and hoped they just weren’t done with it yet.  So, couples, you’ll have to get inspired on your own!

Tomorrow, Sierra Leone.