West Africa, again...

                                                                                                                           Saturday, April 22, 2017

We departed LAX Friday afternoon, flying through London, onto Accra, Ghana, and arriving by 7:30 PM the following day.  We were in our hotel room by 9:30 PM.  We received bulkhead seats on both flights, so it was comfortable except that it was so cold in that part of both planes that I bundled myself in two blankets; knowing I would soon be wishing for ‘cold’, I tried not to mind.  Sure enough we departed the airplane to 29 degree Celsius temperatures—now that is hot!  And it was nighttime!  After a scary wait for the last piece of luggage (mine), we enjoyed a new and beautifully improved airport.  It is as modern now as any we have been in.  There was a lot of earth moving equipment on the runways, so they are continuing to make major improvements here in Accra. 

We slept long and soundly, with Jim waking me up just early enough to get ready to eat and then head for the airport.  The departing terminal has not yet been remodeled, but I imagine some day when we get back to Accra we’ll see a newly remodeled building.  We flew to Liberia and there we met the office couple, Elder & Sister Allen, who just happened to be in the area so that they could take us to our hotel.  The Roberts International airport is considered to be in Monrovia, but it is an hour out from our hotel and even further away from the city proper where the couples live. 

The flight was fine, but just as we landed it began to rain, hard! I had an umbrella in my backpack but thought going the short distance from the stairs to the bus and from the bus to the terminal, it would be no big deal.  I was wrong.  By the time we ran through the 1-2 inches of standing water plus what poured from the sky, we all stood dripping wet as we made our way through customs and onto baggage.  My shoulders and back were soaked through and Jim’s shoes were solidly wet.  My sandals fared better.  It felt like it was still raining as the drops kept falling from my head for the next 30 minutes.  Once again my luggage was last off the carousel, causing me great anxiety.  I am SO beyond grateful each time our luggage shows up!

The Allen’s told us that Elder & Sister Teerlink, who took the place of the Wollenzien’s who did a great work here, were every bit as good as the last couple.  We soon made the same assessment.  After we decide on a project, we know it will be in good hands with them to help implement it.  Our main goal in Liberia this trip is to turn in a major water project.  Wollenzien’s had already picked out a possible project in an area with really bad high water problems.  The ground water is polluted and the area is swampy during the rainy season.  We will be drilling boreholes so that clean water aquifers can be reached deeper than hand dug wells can go.  We will also be doing piped city water, extending the lines to kiosks down one main road and in other places.  Morris, the local man on the ground that is doing such a great work here for the church, will be guiding our steps.  He is tireless as he goes back on his own when he finds a community that is not doing what they said they would do to sustain their projects, often not collecting small amounts of monies for their clean water.  Sometimes people move so he also helps reorganize water committees to get fresh people in them who are excited to keep things working.

We made contact with E/S Teerlink and invited them to visit with us in the hotel over dinner.  They brought Morris with them.  He is doing such a great job that the projects have finally become sustainable.  I told him at dinner that he needs to train more teams on the ground till we have a large network of workers—the better and larger the teams, the more work that we can do because we know it will be here for a very long time and our monies won’t be wasted.

We usually ask the couples if they want us to bring them anything and mostly they ask for foods that they can’t get here.  This couple instead ordered and had mailed to us canes and glasses for the vision training, and wood dowels and tools for better furniture making. 

   

A couple that we met in Kenya years ago have continued to serve missions in various places across the world.  The last time we were in Ghana we met up with them again as they were serving in the area at the time, their second time in West Africa.  She told me that they’d been taking ‘no jetlag’ medicine and that it worked.  I found it at Whole Foods and took it for the first time on this trip.  I can say that although I am travel weary, I do not feel as much like a ‘whipped dog’ that I normally experience after these long flights.  This could be a promising benefit to our tiring travels—crossing my fingers.

Sister Teerlink was so appreciative of us bringing so much stuff to them that she brought us large bottles of cold, clean water and homemade muffins!  We are so excited to work with them!

In dealing with a slow Internet, pictures might be hard to load, but eventually I will be able to put them onto the blog.