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.