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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