NOTE: This is obviously posted very late, way after the fact. I left my download picture cord in the hotel and had to come home and order a new one. By the time it arrived we were in Arizona for a week...so, that is why this is so very late.
Wednesday & Thursday, May 2-3,
2018
Dear Family & Friends,
We are happily at home now,
arriving yesterday afternoon. It is so
much faster to unpack than it is to pack and have to think of what to
bring. I managed to do some wash before
climbing into the bed that beckoned me far too early. I was happy that I stayed mostly awake till 8
PM, and deeming it late enough, passed out.
I slept for 8 hours, which was till 4 AM. When one gets up that early, one gets a lot
done. I was shopping at the grocery
store by 7 AM when it opened. Even with
a lot of sleep, I still had to fight the desire to take a nap and forced myself
to keep working. It was a good day.
Let me regress: Back in Freetown
at the hotel, we had felt that we were there longer than needed, but when we
got to our mountains of paperwork, we were glad we hadn’t left yet. Jim had to figure costs and desirability of
all the possible new projects that he visited in Freetown—which ones fit into
our budget and which ones he felt we’d like to do first. This took so much time, so it was nice to get
it all done before going home when we have other things on our minds. We also worked a bit on our expense
report. We ended up seeing Brother
Thomas again and our driver to give them what we owed. We also figured on what other things we might
do to give a couple of communities in the old or current project some extra water
storage tanks. It will be for those who
have done so well in improving their project with monies collected from selling
the water. We have been so impressed by
some of them.
In contrast, Jim was very upset
at one area with two sources that are using the same water committee and doing
poorly. He was happy that it was only
one area with problems. He yelled at
them a bit and told them that LDSC would not do anything for them ever
again. A couple of the women laughed at
him. However, the next day they called
Brother Thomas and asked for his help in reorganizing their community so that
they could be successful also. I guess they
stopped laughing! Lionel was going to
invite the committee chairman from the most successful project to speak with
them and teach them what they did to make things work so very well. It was wonderful to see that this did some
good after all.
Tuesday we hired John Conteh to
take us back to the boat as we headed for Accra and then home. We arrived early because it was a
holiday—their labor day—no traffic. This
time we could see that we’d be taking the ‘luxury’ boat across. It reminded me of being in an airplane
because that is the way the seats look inside.
They have glass windows instead of plastic ones, and it is a larger
vessel so it gives a smoother ride. It
even has air conditioning and I noticed that the driver was dressed like an
airline pilot—complete with white shirt and insignia on the sleeve, and
matching hat. I noticed on the way out
that they even had a bathroom!
In the ‘luxury’ boat
across the bay.
We saw women fishing
(bringing in nets—hard work!) and these women doing their wash.
We noticed after departing the
boat and walking the long planking to the beach that they are building a new
structure near the shore but above the water next to the plank. While walking I also noticed many women in
the water that were there with their nets fishing. We usually see just men working the nets—it
is a hard job!
At the airport we met our normal
guy, who helped us with our luggage and got in line for our trip to Accra on
Kenya Air. On each of the flights so far
we were very lucky to get a bulkhead row with no trouble or extra cost. This time we were scheduled in our normal
seats, matching aisles at row 22. While
Jim was trying to change this to try and get the bulkhead as before, the lady
said they were not available so instead booked us on row 15 but middle and
window seats. Jim said never mind, we’ll
keep our seats. In the meantime someone
else got one of our row 22 aisle seats so she had to rebook mine at an aisle on
row 26.
This new structure was
being built just above the water across the bay next to the beach. We wonder what this will be for.
Hmmmm….not much of an
improvement…but I sat first with a younger man who was going to Liberia to see
a football match (happily and comfortably with an empty seat in between
us). He was born in South Africa, and of
what descent I couldn’t tell—he was not African or White South African, a
handsome man. He was working for US
business companies in the States but living in Ghana. He saw my badge and asked if we were
missionaries, to which I replied that we didn’t proselyte but did water
projects for our Church. He asked me if
we went to school to learn how to do it.
I explained that the only school we went to was by doing it (I think it
must be called the School of Hard Knocks), and also that Jim was a contractor,
along with my father and brother and we knew a bit about construction. We discussed the cultural problems and
self-reliance issues that hold back improvements such as clean water.
This was a touchdown flight from
Sierra Leone to Liberia, and then off to Accra.
At each stop people get on and off.
On my next flight I wasn’t so lucky.
Two big African ladies sat next to me.
They knew each other so they didn’t speak to me. All in all, I didn’t mind because this time
the airline allowed us to watch a movie, which made the flight feel shorter.
We arrived earlier than scheduled
in Accra and thus beat the usual British Air flight with a lot of passengers
that comes in later from London. We
couldn’t believe that there was no line getting through customs and that our
luggage got there very quickly. We went
out of the airport, and there was the Accra City Hotel shuttle. This is the fastest we have ever gotten
through this airport to the hotel.
Because of the holiday there was still no traffic. This gave us plenty of down time to get
organized before going to sleep at an earlier hour than usual.
After a good night’s
sleep in Accra, we prepared to go to the office to meet our new (and former)
Area Welfare Manager, Daniel Yirenya. We
figured Redlin’s were not in since she had not e-mailed me back in several days
and she always does. Jim was finally able
to reach her on the phone and found out that they were in Kumasi, Ghana. They suggested that we meet a new couple that
has just arrived, E/S Germane, who are taking Nay’s place. They divide the Africa West Area countries
among them so we won’t be working directly with them, but wanted to meet them
also.
It seemed everywhere we
went, things were being improved. This
is the entrance to the Church offices—they had moved the welcome desk to the
right side of the room, with a fancy, new backdrop and a new wood-look tiled
floor. At each level there was a new
look to the entry as you went from floor to floor.
So mid-morning we took a
dilapidated taxi on the street (for a lot less money than what the hotel
provides) to the office and met Elder Germane.
We had a nice conversation with him (Sister Germane was ill) and found
out that he was a professor over the engineering department when our son Tom
was there studying mechanical engineering.
After a nice visit we decided to
see where Daniel was, and found him in his office as he hadn’t moved upstairs
yet to take the AWM spot. We found him
as he was just about to go to lunch and had a nice visit with him. We talked about what is going on now and he
said he was trying to get up to speed and then will shift to his old, now new,
office.
During this trip I realized that
I had lost my sunglasses, probably leaving them in the mission truck on our way
back to Freetown from Kenema. When I got
to the hotel in Accra I realized I left my camera’s download cord in the
Brookfield’s Hotel in Freetown, so the pictures I wanted to download will have
to wait till I get home along with this last letter. I ordered a new cord
online and then will add the pictures and finally send this last letter. [This trip I had my air head on, obviously!]
We caught another
barely-held-together taxi back to the hotel to eat and relax. We departed for our flight at 7 PM with a
hotel taxi. It wasn’t much better than
the other taxis and as it was, the traffic was terrific, taking an hour to get
there. Also, everyone else was already
there. We should have taken the earlier 6
PM shuttle from the hotel and must have in the past to beat these crowds.
This has felt like a very
productive trip. We did everything we
wanted and needed to do. Happiness!
Till next time,
Love, Jim & Karen, Mom &
Dad, E/S Greding
