Villages above Kakata

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

It was another long day, made even longer by the most incredible traffic jam we’ve ever been in here in Liberia.  The Teerlink’s also said that they had not seen the likes of this before.  We were returning home when we got stuck not that far from our destination.  It took us an hour to get out of the jam in an unbelievable gridlock.  We found out later that it was caused by an event at the stadium where they hold football games, but this time it was for the President and Vice President, some political speeches.  They just elected a new government so people here are ‘hopeful’ that things will get better.  We presume that in a year they will know if they had a reason to be hopeful.  All I know is that by the time we got back to town, had our dinner and returned to the hotel, it was 9 PM.  Each day has its own way of being exhausting, and we were all very tired before getting stuck!

Every afternoon now it rains.  It begins suddenly and thunders away, raining so hard that it makes rivers immediately.  Then it stops for a bit, allowing us to get back to the truck or a building.  This happened yesterday and again this afternoon.  We ate at a restaurant with good American food.  While there the thunder was spectacular with the rain showing what it can do in a short amount of time.  Again we waited till it was raining lightly so we could get back in the truck and head for the hotel.

Back to this morning: We began our day, departing the hotel at 7:30 AM and drove to Kakata, which takes 2½ hours.  We picked up Aaron, a man that is helping with the village and Chico drilling company.  The difference between the two is that the village drill is using men to hand drive a drill to dig a well.  The Chico drill simply uses a small motor to do the same.  The village drill is used in remote villages where drill rigs cannot get to.  They could be hand dug in hard-to-reach areas also, but there are differences between the two methods and we determine if we want one or the other in a particular area, determined by a great number of factors.  Much of it has to do with how best to get the water.  There is granite, which is hard for anything to get through except for a large drilling rig, and even they don’t always work; hand digging a well into granite requires a jack hammer; the hand and motor driven drills cannot get through granite.  There are ground water problems here also, swampy lands.  Sometimes when you are too close to the beach you get salty water.  Then there are times when you get no water at all, as happened with one of our recent projects.  There are many problems to be solved and decisions to be made at each project site.

Today we spent all of our time in the more remote villages in the hills above Kakata.  I like these best and so does Sister Teerlink.  We love the look of the villages with their thatched roofs, swept dirt (clean of trash), and community feel.  They are all connected and are more likely to work together.  I can’t even remember how many places we stopped, all with Jim, Aaron and me in the back seat quite squished together.  Eventually we were done with our looking and dropped Aaron off.  He will be a good asset for us to work with in the future.  Also accompanying us (but on a day-hired bike taxi) was Steven.  He is a man from this remote area who moved away and now wants to help his former home village areas.  He has built orphanages and schools and now is interested in getting more clean water in these areas outside of Kakata.

It is beautiful here, with incredibly lovely palm fronds, pineapple plants, mango trees, bougainvillea trees, and little rivers.

We looked up John Harmon, one of our site monitors, to look at a spot near his home area for a possible well.  We looked at some recent wells constructed as area projects that the Village/Chico drill company completed recently—they looked lovely.  We are impressed with his work and Aaron will be the man here working when Andy is back in the States where he lives.  He is the American we met with a long beard, hoping for parts in Church production where beards are good to have.  He is the man that drug his whole family here a year ago and lived here with them to give them an interesting experience; it no doubt did them good.

We drove on typical rain ditched, pot holed roads, which motorbikes, not cars, were meant for; we drove over makeshift wood plank bridges, and sloughed through mud and water.  We come home hot, sweaty, and dirty, with sand stuck in our sandals; all we want to do is take a shower, but there are other things to do when we get back like reports and washing.

Above & Below: We trudged over wobbly boards across streams, and paths that I stumbled on.  I joked that if I had a bucket of water on my head I wouldn’t keep slipping off the boards and slipping on mossy rock steps…

Aaron, Andy’s local manager: he got baptized a little over a year ago and recently had his family sealed to him in the temple.  He used to be a Muslim.  He has worked with all kinds of drilling companies in the past, but said he always wanted to preach the Gospel.  He was called to be the Gospel Essentials teacher at church and now feels that he is doing what he has always wanted to do.  Those who know him now call him the ‘preaching driller’.  He is a nice man.  I was glad, however, when after many hours stuck together we finally dropped him off.  It was a tight squeeze!

Steven above, the philanthropist who works to help the villages where he was brought up.  I love that we see many bougainvillea trees with their vibrant color.  Below: we saw pictures drawn on the homes here.  This boy’s name is Gred—all he needed to do was add an ‘ing’ and he’d have it!

Well, exhaustion is complete and I have too much to do tonight, so I am glad for a later start tomorrow and they promised a shorter day…we shall see…it has a way of getting extended!

I’m hear my bed calling me!