Late Sunday afternoon here in Liberia. Joni and I went golfing earlier this afternoon out to the Firestone rubber plantation. The golf course is not one that will host any PGA tour event any time soon but it does offer us the opportunity to just get away to a quiet area for a while with a chance to relax from all that is happening around us.
Upon our return I found out that ELWA is having water issues again with a broken filter so I have no water today again. I came over here to Kendell and Bev’s house to take a shower, enjoy the a/c and use the power so I can get this ready for you.
Most of our staff was upcountry this week. One day during devotions I looked around and realized I was the only Expat there. Our projects upcountry are going well. Several meetings were held with our partners and the reports that are being turned in about our projects are all very good. That speaks very highly for our project managers and staff.
My week “got interesting” last Sunday when I was here working on the article. I was typing away when my computer just turned off. After sitting here for a minute with a look on my face that was probably as blank as the screen, I pushed the power button and it started to go through its opening process. It looked good until it got to the desktop. There I saw just the icons for the basic software package that came with the computer and only a black background. No longer did I see the pretty bird that had previously adorned my screen. Uh oh! Well, I started and restarted my computer several times searching for the files and directories that once were there. I could find nothing. The first thought was I should have backed up my computer more often. (Who can say they have not had that thought before?) Most depressing to me was the thought that I may have lost all the pictures I have taken here and on my vacations to Morocco and Kenya. I kept looking for something, anything that would get me back to the right directory. Finally after several minutes of searching, I accidentally stumbled across the article I was writing that day. Don’t ask me how but I did. I did a “save as” option for the file, found the directory and found all my files under a different directory. My computer was still working very slowly so on Monday our IT man worked on it basically taking all morning to realign the directory to access my files properly again. The computer finally was ready to use at about 1:30 in the afternoon. I got on the computer as quickly as I could accessing email that I needed to respond to or follow up. I had several other procurement projects I was working on that I needed to get to as well. I worked late on Monday trying to catch up. Tuesday morning I got up to find that my computer was not charging and the battery was low. Once again, I got the opportunity to chat with our IT man. He found out the power adapter was not working. He said he could fix it for about $40.00 in parts. Well, he has been extremely busy so I finally got my computer back on Wednesday at 4:00 after spending $50.00. I learned a lot about my work habits over those two days. The first thing I learned is I am very dependent of my computer. I also learned that I had a lot more time to interact with others when I was not sitting in front of this screen. Of course, I was not able to do much of the work I needed to do but the whole situation served as a good reminder of what is important; the interaction with those around us having a chance to interact and find out more about them and their faith. Even when “our plans” are derailed we still have the opportunity to reach out to those around us.
A brief follow up on our team in Haiti. I got word from my friend Roy Harris, one of our two helicopter pilots there, that conditions are worse than anywhere he has ever been. Roy is a Vietnam veteran and was also in Sumatra after the tsunami so I think that gives you an idea how bad it is there in Haiti. Our staff there are currently living and working under very difficult conditions but yet I would be willing to bet they all would tell you that at this time they would not prefer to be anywhere else. SP has listed jobs on its website that it is looking to fill for our new office in Haiti. It will not be easy work but it will be very rewarding to those who go.
Well, that is it for today. Electricity was off for about an hour but is back on now. Hopefully that means I will also have water when I get home to my apartment here in Liberia where my problems are small but nothing is easy.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
my new job
Sunday afternoon here in Liberia. It was another eventful week here in Liberia. Our main problem this past week was no fuel. It seems there was some delay with Total’s shipment out of Ivory Coast so there was a very minimal amount of fuel in Liberia all week long. We had to send our truck out twice during the week looking for fuel. Luckily we were able to find 200 gallons one time and 500 gallons the second after some searching. Unfortunately in those situations we have to pay the duty on the fuel which is 60 cents per gallon. We really don’t have any choice but to pay it to keep our vehicles operating.
I took on another job last week. Dan Spencer, our helicopter pilot, was due to fly back to the States on Friday so he wanted to take his wife to dinner on Thursday night. Unfortunately for him most of the staff was upcountry or had other plans. Sometimes one knows when you are the “last resort”. Well, in this case I really knew I was his last resort when he asked me if I would watch their 4 kids. I knew because after he asked me and I said I would do it, he started laughing. I had to reassure him that I was serious and would do it for them. The kids are ages 3-12. I showed up at 5:30. Cheryl had made potato soup which is one of the kids’ favorites. The table was set and the kids were in the process of making valentines to send along with their dad. I knew it was going to be an easy evening.
Dan and Cheryl left saying they would be home by 10:30. Inwardly, I just laughed knowing staying out that late is not really possible. There is not that much to do around here once the sun goes down. The kids played for a little bit and we discussed what movie we would watch after dinner. We sat down and ate our soup about 6:00. Of course during the meal the kids needed to share with me their best burping skills as well as going through a whole list of “knock knock” jokes. Nicole the oldest is really sweet and helped me clean up after dinner as the others wandered off to play. Reed is a LEGO man and headed back to his room to build. Acacia, second youngest and Hannah, the three year old, sat down at the table and started working on the Valentines to be sent to Grandmas and Grandpas, cousins and other friends back in the States. I sat down at the table with the girls helping them with the Valentines for about an hour. Hannah had to go to the bathroom so Nicole took her into the bathroom. I was sitting there talking to Acacia when we heard Nicole yell from the bathroom, “We can’t unlock the door!” The first thought to enter my head was, ok so I finally get a babysitting job and what happens..kids lock themselves in the bathroom. They will never invite me to do this again!!
I went over to the door and looked at the lock which was a skeleton key lock. I have written before about the poor quality of materials here in Liberia including the locks. I could tell this was a really bad lock. The house was completed only a few months ago and already the lock was broken. The windows of the house have security bars so there is no other way out of the bathroom. I looked at the door and pressed on it in several spots near the lock. It was a hollow core style so knew that if worse came to worse I could break it down. I looked at the bottom of the door and the gap was large enough to slide a key so I told Nicole to slide the key under the door which she did. I tried turning the lock several times with no success. I asked Reed if he knew where some tools were and he said yes. I worked on the door for a few minutes trying to get it to open when Reed came back with what could only be described as a “Jr. Workman” pliers and a tiny screwdriver set. Amazingly the girls remained quiet and calm during this entire time. I took the handle off the door and the plate but still could not get the door to open. By now probably 10 minutes had passed. I took Reed’s pliers and turned the key with as much force as I could without breaking the key or the pliers and finally, thankfully, the door lock released and I opened the door. The girls walked out quietly. Nicole said, “We were praying” to which I replied “So was I”!
Dan and Cheryl came home about 8:00 and we shared our saga with them. I warned him to never ever lock that door again as the next time it probably will not open. The next day everyone knew of my babysitting adventure as the kids could not wait to tell their teacher and everyone else. Such is life here in Liberia where even babysitting is not easy!
I took on another job last week. Dan Spencer, our helicopter pilot, was due to fly back to the States on Friday so he wanted to take his wife to dinner on Thursday night. Unfortunately for him most of the staff was upcountry or had other plans. Sometimes one knows when you are the “last resort”. Well, in this case I really knew I was his last resort when he asked me if I would watch their 4 kids. I knew because after he asked me and I said I would do it, he started laughing. I had to reassure him that I was serious and would do it for them. The kids are ages 3-12. I showed up at 5:30. Cheryl had made potato soup which is one of the kids’ favorites. The table was set and the kids were in the process of making valentines to send along with their dad. I knew it was going to be an easy evening.
Dan and Cheryl left saying they would be home by 10:30. Inwardly, I just laughed knowing staying out that late is not really possible. There is not that much to do around here once the sun goes down. The kids played for a little bit and we discussed what movie we would watch after dinner. We sat down and ate our soup about 6:00. Of course during the meal the kids needed to share with me their best burping skills as well as going through a whole list of “knock knock” jokes. Nicole the oldest is really sweet and helped me clean up after dinner as the others wandered off to play. Reed is a LEGO man and headed back to his room to build. Acacia, second youngest and Hannah, the three year old, sat down at the table and started working on the Valentines to be sent to Grandmas and Grandpas, cousins and other friends back in the States. I sat down at the table with the girls helping them with the Valentines for about an hour. Hannah had to go to the bathroom so Nicole took her into the bathroom. I was sitting there talking to Acacia when we heard Nicole yell from the bathroom, “We can’t unlock the door!” The first thought to enter my head was, ok so I finally get a babysitting job and what happens..kids lock themselves in the bathroom. They will never invite me to do this again!!
I went over to the door and looked at the lock which was a skeleton key lock. I have written before about the poor quality of materials here in Liberia including the locks. I could tell this was a really bad lock. The house was completed only a few months ago and already the lock was broken. The windows of the house have security bars so there is no other way out of the bathroom. I looked at the door and pressed on it in several spots near the lock. It was a hollow core style so knew that if worse came to worse I could break it down. I looked at the bottom of the door and the gap was large enough to slide a key so I told Nicole to slide the key under the door which she did. I tried turning the lock several times with no success. I asked Reed if he knew where some tools were and he said yes. I worked on the door for a few minutes trying to get it to open when Reed came back with what could only be described as a “Jr. Workman” pliers and a tiny screwdriver set. Amazingly the girls remained quiet and calm during this entire time. I took the handle off the door and the plate but still could not get the door to open. By now probably 10 minutes had passed. I took Reed’s pliers and turned the key with as much force as I could without breaking the key or the pliers and finally, thankfully, the door lock released and I opened the door. The girls walked out quietly. Nicole said, “We were praying” to which I replied “So was I”!
Dan and Cheryl came home about 8:00 and we shared our saga with them. I warned him to never ever lock that door again as the next time it probably will not open. The next day everyone knew of my babysitting adventure as the kids could not wait to tell their teacher and everyone else. Such is life here in Liberia where even babysitting is not easy!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
1st week back
Sunday afternoon here in Liberia. We returned to Liberia from our holiday time in Morocco early in the morning New Year’s Day. Taya, Justin and I had a great time in Morocco travelling around the country via train, van and rental car. Morocco’s landscape is very diverse and beautiful varying from mountains to deserts to beautiful vineyards and farmland. The cities are both a blend of old and new architecture built with incredible craftsmanship. The architecture is simply astounding with lots of hand carved moldings and beautiful tile mosaics. The country’s population is 99% Muslim. It was my first time being in an environment so heavily dominated by Muslims. You wake in the morning at 5am to the sound of the call to prayer being broadcast from the mosques. The people are reserved but very nice. When taking pictures you must be careful to not include people unless you have asked for their permission to be photographed. It is not uncommon for them to refuse your request for a photo.
We did find a Catholic church in Marrakesh where we went for Christmas Eve service. The entire service was in French which is the second language of the country after Arabic. It was a very old and beautiful church with stained glass windows and beautiful artwork. It was a nice service even though the only thing I could “understand” was the play depicting the birth of Christ and some of the carols the choir sang.
Christmas day was quite another experience for us as we rode by van to the edge of the desert and then traded in our van for camels which we rode for over an hour into the desert at dusk spending Christmas night in a tent there in the desert. We thought it appropriate that our tent was green and red canvas inside. The next day we woke to a beautiful sunrise, had a little bread and tea and then got back on our camels for the ride out of the desert in morning light. It was an incredibly beautiful as well as unusual way to spend Christmas and the holiday season.
Monday began our return to work here in Liberia. All of our staff from upcountry needed to load vehicles and return to our sub offices. All went well as we had no breakdowns on the way back. This past week was very challenging with everyone starting up programs again going back to work. Our fiscal year begins in January so everyone has “new money” to spend. This week I spent time ordering vehicles and motorcycles and placing orders for food, materials and construction tools. I also spent time arranging for and completing repairs on generators, air conditioners, electrical systems and water systems. As I lay in bed this morning after my generator was turned off at 6:30am I thought about how much simpler my life would be here if we just had electricity supplied to our office and residences. I would no longer have to spend time wondering about whether the generators preventative maintenance is being done, whether we need to move fuel for the generators or which one will be next to break down.
Yesterday I spent replacing the water pump for our office. It stopped working before the holiday but I delayed repairs until the new year began. Unfortunately, EWLA who supplies us with water was having trouble with one of their pumps as well so we had no water on the second floor of our office most of the time in the week leading up to the holiday break. After hearing “Buzz, there is no water upstairs” approximately 10,000 times this week, (ok maybe that is a slight exaggeration) I decided it was time to replace the pump. It would seem like a simple procedure but as you might have figured out by now, nothing is easy here. We set out at 9am trying to locate a pump and pressure tank of a similar configuration to our current one in hopes we would not have to rework our plumbing lines to the pump. We went to 5 different stores before finding one with a similar pump and pressure tank. Of course the pump and tank were not the exact same configuration so we ended up having to do some pvc pipe cutting and refitting on the connections.
In addition to the pump we had another issue to deal with. The valve on our 1000 gallon reserve tank was no longer working so we needed to drain the tank and replace the valve as well. The plastic tank adapter was also leaking so Sam climbed inside the tank so we could replace the adapter as well once we had the tank drained. After two trips to town and 4 other trips for parts to local stores we finally got everything together and began to refill the tank at 4:15pm. What should have taken a couple hours took us all day to repair. Ahhh, this too is Liberia where nothing is easy!!! Happy New Year everyone!!!
We did find a Catholic church in Marrakesh where we went for Christmas Eve service. The entire service was in French which is the second language of the country after Arabic. It was a very old and beautiful church with stained glass windows and beautiful artwork. It was a nice service even though the only thing I could “understand” was the play depicting the birth of Christ and some of the carols the choir sang.
Christmas day was quite another experience for us as we rode by van to the edge of the desert and then traded in our van for camels which we rode for over an hour into the desert at dusk spending Christmas night in a tent there in the desert. We thought it appropriate that our tent was green and red canvas inside. The next day we woke to a beautiful sunrise, had a little bread and tea and then got back on our camels for the ride out of the desert in morning light. It was an incredibly beautiful as well as unusual way to spend Christmas and the holiday season.
Monday began our return to work here in Liberia. All of our staff from upcountry needed to load vehicles and return to our sub offices. All went well as we had no breakdowns on the way back. This past week was very challenging with everyone starting up programs again going back to work. Our fiscal year begins in January so everyone has “new money” to spend. This week I spent time ordering vehicles and motorcycles and placing orders for food, materials and construction tools. I also spent time arranging for and completing repairs on generators, air conditioners, electrical systems and water systems. As I lay in bed this morning after my generator was turned off at 6:30am I thought about how much simpler my life would be here if we just had electricity supplied to our office and residences. I would no longer have to spend time wondering about whether the generators preventative maintenance is being done, whether we need to move fuel for the generators or which one will be next to break down.
Yesterday I spent replacing the water pump for our office. It stopped working before the holiday but I delayed repairs until the new year began. Unfortunately, EWLA who supplies us with water was having trouble with one of their pumps as well so we had no water on the second floor of our office most of the time in the week leading up to the holiday break. After hearing “Buzz, there is no water upstairs” approximately 10,000 times this week, (ok maybe that is a slight exaggeration) I decided it was time to replace the pump. It would seem like a simple procedure but as you might have figured out by now, nothing is easy here. We set out at 9am trying to locate a pump and pressure tank of a similar configuration to our current one in hopes we would not have to rework our plumbing lines to the pump. We went to 5 different stores before finding one with a similar pump and pressure tank. Of course the pump and tank were not the exact same configuration so we ended up having to do some pvc pipe cutting and refitting on the connections.
In addition to the pump we had another issue to deal with. The valve on our 1000 gallon reserve tank was no longer working so we needed to drain the tank and replace the valve as well. The plastic tank adapter was also leaking so Sam climbed inside the tank so we could replace the adapter as well once we had the tank drained. After two trips to town and 4 other trips for parts to local stores we finally got everything together and began to refill the tank at 4:15pm. What should have taken a couple hours took us all day to repair. Ahhh, this too is Liberia where nothing is easy!!! Happy New Year everyone!!!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Back from Morocco
Hi all. We made it back from Morocco early Thursday morning. I had a great time seeing a very beautiful country and exploring. I loaded some pics today on my Picasa page. Check them out when you have time...I will try to go in and put captions on them but no promises..
http://picasaweb.google.com/Buzzwalkes/Morocco
Hope you all have a great 2009
http://picasaweb.google.com/Buzzwalkes/Morocco
Hope you all have a great 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
another week closer to Christmas!!
Saturday afternoon here in Liberia. It has been another eventful week with the “usual challenges” of generator and a/c breakdowns along with other plumbing and electrical issues. At one point all 3 generators in our Foya office were down. Suzie and I were chatting the other day and she said to me, “Well at least you cannot say your job is routine”! Yes, I agreed, there is always unexpected variety in my days and weeks!
Suzie is the wife of Matt Swenson, our Deputy Country Director. Suzie and Matt came here about 3 months ago. Work wise, they hit the ground running! She has a strong background in proposal writing and development. She jumped head first into our Program Development department writing for several different proposed projects all at the same time spending long hours to ensure meeting proposal deadlines. She is at a point now where she is able to sit back and look at different opportunities within Liberia where we have not had outreach in the past. She and I met on Monday with Dennis, a local pastor, whose church is heavily involved in church planting and community outreach. I have known Dennis for quite some time as he and SP have partnered on several development projects. Recently I told him that I wanted to attend his new church. To which he asked me which Sunday I would like to speak. I ended up sharing with the congregation a few weeks ago. I guess it must have gone ok as he now has asked me to go up country with him after the first of the year to speak to churches up there. I was concerned how much the people in the church here in Monrovia would understand. Their primary language is Liberian English which is much different than “South Dakota” English! I am REALLY concerned about what they will understand when I speak in the rural areas! But you know what, God will get my message through to them as long as I am sharing His words and not mine!!!
One of the things Suzie and I wanted to speak with Dennis about was an interest that we as a group of Expats have regarding the Randall Street area. Randall Street in Monrovia is the main shopping area for Expat Staff. You will see many disabled persons in the area when you go there. They want to “assist” you with parking or anything else they can for a small appreciation fee. We feel called to find a way to reach out to those living, begging and working in the streets there.
It is one of those situations that I have talked about in the past where it is hard to just say no. You know they have needs but you also know that giving them a little money is not solving the problem. In fact, doing so will probably make it worse in the long run drawing more people to the area as well as delaying the person’s assimilation back into society.
Our meeting with Dennis went very well. Suzie asked him numerous questions regarding his church and the work they do. He shared about projects where we are currently partnering together upcountry. We finally got around to the issue at hand with Suzie mentioning to him our primary goal in organizing the meeting. The look on Dennis’ face was priceless as she said the words “Randall Street”. He got a big smile as if he had “heard this one before”. In reality I am sure there are other NGO’s who have tried before to create an outreach in the Randall Street area. In situations like this it is all too common for programs to begin and end quickly in failure. The worst thing one can do in this situation is begin a program without proper planning and give up when we do not see the results we desire.
Dennis spoke to us about the need to create an avenue through a local church where people can come to address spiritual as well as physical needs. He explained the importance of establishing mutual trust with each person individually before even approaching them with a possible solution to their economic needs. These are relationships built over time possibly taking months to years for some people. We, as Americans, of course want to fix things right now! It is not easy to accept that long term solutions take a long time to develop. We wrapped up the meeting with our attention now focusing on finding a church that may be close geographically to Randall Street that may already have a connection to the area. Of course, as Dennis pointed out several times, we always need to be aware that a church may be getting involved only to secure funds from us. It is never easy!
Well, my friends, this will be my last writing for 2009. We are closed for the Christmas holiday beginning Friday the 18th. I along with a couple friends leave for Morocco on Sunday night for 10 days of exploration. I will share our findings upon our return. I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a most Blessed and Wonderful Christmas. Please remember those who are less fortunate this holiday season. Merry Christmas!!
Suzie is the wife of Matt Swenson, our Deputy Country Director. Suzie and Matt came here about 3 months ago. Work wise, they hit the ground running! She has a strong background in proposal writing and development. She jumped head first into our Program Development department writing for several different proposed projects all at the same time spending long hours to ensure meeting proposal deadlines. She is at a point now where she is able to sit back and look at different opportunities within Liberia where we have not had outreach in the past. She and I met on Monday with Dennis, a local pastor, whose church is heavily involved in church planting and community outreach. I have known Dennis for quite some time as he and SP have partnered on several development projects. Recently I told him that I wanted to attend his new church. To which he asked me which Sunday I would like to speak. I ended up sharing with the congregation a few weeks ago. I guess it must have gone ok as he now has asked me to go up country with him after the first of the year to speak to churches up there. I was concerned how much the people in the church here in Monrovia would understand. Their primary language is Liberian English which is much different than “South Dakota” English! I am REALLY concerned about what they will understand when I speak in the rural areas! But you know what, God will get my message through to them as long as I am sharing His words and not mine!!!
One of the things Suzie and I wanted to speak with Dennis about was an interest that we as a group of Expats have regarding the Randall Street area. Randall Street in Monrovia is the main shopping area for Expat Staff. You will see many disabled persons in the area when you go there. They want to “assist” you with parking or anything else they can for a small appreciation fee. We feel called to find a way to reach out to those living, begging and working in the streets there.
It is one of those situations that I have talked about in the past where it is hard to just say no. You know they have needs but you also know that giving them a little money is not solving the problem. In fact, doing so will probably make it worse in the long run drawing more people to the area as well as delaying the person’s assimilation back into society.
Our meeting with Dennis went very well. Suzie asked him numerous questions regarding his church and the work they do. He shared about projects where we are currently partnering together upcountry. We finally got around to the issue at hand with Suzie mentioning to him our primary goal in organizing the meeting. The look on Dennis’ face was priceless as she said the words “Randall Street”. He got a big smile as if he had “heard this one before”. In reality I am sure there are other NGO’s who have tried before to create an outreach in the Randall Street area. In situations like this it is all too common for programs to begin and end quickly in failure. The worst thing one can do in this situation is begin a program without proper planning and give up when we do not see the results we desire.
Dennis spoke to us about the need to create an avenue through a local church where people can come to address spiritual as well as physical needs. He explained the importance of establishing mutual trust with each person individually before even approaching them with a possible solution to their economic needs. These are relationships built over time possibly taking months to years for some people. We, as Americans, of course want to fix things right now! It is not easy to accept that long term solutions take a long time to develop. We wrapped up the meeting with our attention now focusing on finding a church that may be close geographically to Randall Street that may already have a connection to the area. Of course, as Dennis pointed out several times, we always need to be aware that a church may be getting involved only to secure funds from us. It is never easy!
Well, my friends, this will be my last writing for 2009. We are closed for the Christmas holiday beginning Friday the 18th. I along with a couple friends leave for Morocco on Sunday night for 10 days of exploration. I will share our findings upon our return. I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a most Blessed and Wonderful Christmas. Please remember those who are less fortunate this holiday season. Merry Christmas!!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
ABC update
Sunday afternoon here in Liberia. I just finished having lunch with my good friend James who is the construction manager at ABC University in Yekepa. He and I went to church this morning. There are 10 ceiling fans in the church and they had two turned on. It was incredibly hot in there. And like most Liberian services it was Long and Loud! We are sitting here at the restaurant cooling down and using the internet.
I just got a brief update from James regarding construction there at ABC. James has had 8 volunteer teams come and go through Yepeka this year working on different campus structures. Currently there 16 structures completely finished there on campus. All of these buildings have been completely rebuilt in a nineteen month period. The national staff that James has been working with has done tremendous work while learning building skills using power tools they had never seen before. I remember when we went to Yekepa as volunteers in April of 2008 working with the locals there who had never seen, let alone operate a cordless drill or power tools. The teams that have come to work this year for the most part have served more of a support role than anything as James, and Dave previously, have done an incredible job of working with the locals training them while building beautiful structures with sometimes less than desirable building materials. Looking back over the past year and a half we can only stand in amazement at the transformation that has taken place at the university and give thanks to God for all he has allowed us to do through His guiding hand.
Christmas season is upon us here in Liberia even if it does not have the “Christmas feel” like it does in the States. We are making progress though. New this year are Christmas lights on one of the grocery stores! We even have a Christmas tree and decorations at the Staff House.
It has been incredibly hot and humid this week. Any physical exertion causes one to perspire heavily. Think of a hot day in July there in South Dakota and that is what the weather is like right now. So, what did we do for our Christmas party last night? Just what you would expect..tackle football in the sand on the beach. There were 6 of us who decided that it would be a really good idea. Unfortunately we came up with the idea after eating! We all waddled across the road to the field where we battled it out along the shore in the sand for an hour or so. One of the more creative plays by our opponents was a reverse where two players were to cross behind the quarterback. Apparently somewhere in the design of the play they forgot to include who would go nearer the quarterback so they ran head first into each other, both falling to the ground. The game ended in a tie (or so our opponents say) and we all ended up sweaty and sticky coated with sand. We headed for the water to rinse off and then to the faucet on the outside of the house to rinse off the salt water. After our cleanup we held a gift exchange which was limited to 200 Liberian dollars, or approximately three US Dollars. One of the “best” gifts was a pair of Obama flip-flops. It is hard for me to believe that they were only 200LD!! I was trying to get them but ended up being disappointed as I lost them at the last minute. I ended up with a couple hand-woven hot pads which are nice but they are no Obama slippers, that’s for sure..haaa!
It is difficult to stay focused on work now as almost every North American Expat is looking forward to either returning home for the holidays or going somewhere else. Our office will be closed from December 18th through January 3rd. I along with a couple of my coworkers am headed to Morocco for Christmas. We are not certain what we are going to do and probably will not make any definite plans. We just want to go and make our plans as we go from day to day. One thing that we all would like to do should we have the chance is to snow ski. We have read where skiing is possible for a brief time during the Moroccan winter. It is not the skiing that we are looking forward to as much as the donkey ride up the hill which is used in place of a ski lift. I think it would just be one of those, “yes, I did it” activities to be told to others somewhere down the road! I still have two weeks to go until then here in Liberia where nothing is easy!
I just got a brief update from James regarding construction there at ABC. James has had 8 volunteer teams come and go through Yepeka this year working on different campus structures. Currently there 16 structures completely finished there on campus. All of these buildings have been completely rebuilt in a nineteen month period. The national staff that James has been working with has done tremendous work while learning building skills using power tools they had never seen before. I remember when we went to Yekepa as volunteers in April of 2008 working with the locals there who had never seen, let alone operate a cordless drill or power tools. The teams that have come to work this year for the most part have served more of a support role than anything as James, and Dave previously, have done an incredible job of working with the locals training them while building beautiful structures with sometimes less than desirable building materials. Looking back over the past year and a half we can only stand in amazement at the transformation that has taken place at the university and give thanks to God for all he has allowed us to do through His guiding hand.
Christmas season is upon us here in Liberia even if it does not have the “Christmas feel” like it does in the States. We are making progress though. New this year are Christmas lights on one of the grocery stores! We even have a Christmas tree and decorations at the Staff House.
It has been incredibly hot and humid this week. Any physical exertion causes one to perspire heavily. Think of a hot day in July there in South Dakota and that is what the weather is like right now. So, what did we do for our Christmas party last night? Just what you would expect..tackle football in the sand on the beach. There were 6 of us who decided that it would be a really good idea. Unfortunately we came up with the idea after eating! We all waddled across the road to the field where we battled it out along the shore in the sand for an hour or so. One of the more creative plays by our opponents was a reverse where two players were to cross behind the quarterback. Apparently somewhere in the design of the play they forgot to include who would go nearer the quarterback so they ran head first into each other, both falling to the ground. The game ended in a tie (or so our opponents say) and we all ended up sweaty and sticky coated with sand. We headed for the water to rinse off and then to the faucet on the outside of the house to rinse off the salt water. After our cleanup we held a gift exchange which was limited to 200 Liberian dollars, or approximately three US Dollars. One of the “best” gifts was a pair of Obama flip-flops. It is hard for me to believe that they were only 200LD!! I was trying to get them but ended up being disappointed as I lost them at the last minute. I ended up with a couple hand-woven hot pads which are nice but they are no Obama slippers, that’s for sure..haaa!
It is difficult to stay focused on work now as almost every North American Expat is looking forward to either returning home for the holidays or going somewhere else. Our office will be closed from December 18th through January 3rd. I along with a couple of my coworkers am headed to Morocco for Christmas. We are not certain what we are going to do and probably will not make any definite plans. We just want to go and make our plans as we go from day to day. One thing that we all would like to do should we have the chance is to snow ski. We have read where skiing is possible for a brief time during the Moroccan winter. It is not the skiing that we are looking forward to as much as the donkey ride up the hill which is used in place of a ski lift. I think it would just be one of those, “yes, I did it” activities to be told to others somewhere down the road! I still have two weeks to go until then here in Liberia where nothing is easy!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Happy Tubman Day!
It is late on Saturday afternoon. The long weekend has officially begun. Monday is a national holiday here as we celebrate the birthday of President Tubman. He was President of Liberia from 1944 until his death in 1971. It is always interesting to read the biographies of the political leaders here in Liberia. President Tubman is no exception. As a senator, he labeled himself the "Convivial Cannibal from the Downcoast Hinterlands,". I have no idea what the label might refer to but it certainly is a catchy “nickname”! President Tubman is also known as the Father of Modern Liberia. He was very successful in bringing about incredible growth and development to this country. However as with all politicians here, there still are those who say he was a corrupt individual who treated his political opponents with incredible cruelty. All I know for certain is that his face adorns the national currency and we get Monday off! This will be the 4th day off this month. Earlier in the month we celebrated Liberian Thanksgiving. Then the second Tuesday was a senatorial election for which the President declared a holiday. You would think that it would be really important for Liberians to vote knowing their recent history with corrupt politicians. I read in one of the local papers that less than 8% of the eligible voters ended up voting in that election where there were 10 candidates on the ballot. Of course there are claims of corrupt election officials and problems with polling places. Since no one got more than 50% of the vote 2 weeks later we had the runoff election with the top vote getters from the previous election on the ballot. So, we had another voting day holiday. I heard that fewer people voted in the second election than the first for a variety of reasons. Some said they needed to return to the farm for harvest and some said they just took the day and watched movies with friends or went to the beach. Most thought that the outcome was already decided before election day. I had one of our drivers say that the ruling party always wins. Well, such was not the case as the opposition party won this election. It will be interesting to see how things progress as we get closer to the presidential election in 2011.
Last Friday I went “rag” shopping for the first time. You cannot find rags to purchase like you can in the States. I went with a couple local staff members down to the waterside district. It is an area that is near the port. There you find bundles of clothing, shoes and anything else that can be bundled and sold. It is quite the experience. I had gone there before and I always make certain to take little cash or anything else of value when I go there.
I thought probably the wisest thing for me to buy to use as rags would be women’s tee shirts. It seemed like the probability of them being taken and worn by our staff would be minimal since most of the rags are used by the male staff. I ended up purchasing a 100 lbs. bundle for $55.00. When we got back to the office, I told Wilson, the warehouse manager, to make certain to put a large “SP” on each shirt with a permanent marker before giving them out. We even created a sign out sheet for the rags. I thought I had pretty much covered every possibility of seeing them just “disappear”. On Saturday I walked over to where the mechanics were working on a vehicle. I looked at Pascal, our somewhat vertically challenged head mechanic. He was wearing a fairly snug white striped v-neck tee shirt with a large red hand written SP on the front. I was laughing so hard I had to just turn around and walk away. To his credit, he was covered in grease and dirt from head to foot so he had indeed used it as a rag! Later in the day Wilson started splitting the seams on the tee shirts. Hopefully we have resolved the “problem”.
This week when Dorothy from our finance department went to the bank to get cash; the driver double parked by the bank. As he was sitting there waiting, 2 police officers came up and stuck ice picks in all 4 tires. So, there he was sitting with 4 flat tires when our finance person came out with our security chief who had gone along. The security officer immediately got involved and tried to get everything calmed down. I lost part of the story in translation but do know that they ended up having to take all 4 tires off the vehicle, roll them down the street and get them repaired. I think we also got a fine for double parking. I think this is a pretty standard procedure when we go to the bank. I guess the police must be cracking down on it in that area.
I received my first “my Christmas on you” greeting this week. It is similar to Black Friday in the US. In the States we go shopping to kick off the Christmas season and here they begin to let other know that they are expecting a gift from the other person for Christmas by making sure they get in the first greeting. Ahhhh, Liberia, you got to love it..where nothing is easy!!!
Last Friday I went “rag” shopping for the first time. You cannot find rags to purchase like you can in the States. I went with a couple local staff members down to the waterside district. It is an area that is near the port. There you find bundles of clothing, shoes and anything else that can be bundled and sold. It is quite the experience. I had gone there before and I always make certain to take little cash or anything else of value when I go there.
I thought probably the wisest thing for me to buy to use as rags would be women’s tee shirts. It seemed like the probability of them being taken and worn by our staff would be minimal since most of the rags are used by the male staff. I ended up purchasing a 100 lbs. bundle for $55.00. When we got back to the office, I told Wilson, the warehouse manager, to make certain to put a large “SP” on each shirt with a permanent marker before giving them out. We even created a sign out sheet for the rags. I thought I had pretty much covered every possibility of seeing them just “disappear”. On Saturday I walked over to where the mechanics were working on a vehicle. I looked at Pascal, our somewhat vertically challenged head mechanic. He was wearing a fairly snug white striped v-neck tee shirt with a large red hand written SP on the front. I was laughing so hard I had to just turn around and walk away. To his credit, he was covered in grease and dirt from head to foot so he had indeed used it as a rag! Later in the day Wilson started splitting the seams on the tee shirts. Hopefully we have resolved the “problem”.
This week when Dorothy from our finance department went to the bank to get cash; the driver double parked by the bank. As he was sitting there waiting, 2 police officers came up and stuck ice picks in all 4 tires. So, there he was sitting with 4 flat tires when our finance person came out with our security chief who had gone along. The security officer immediately got involved and tried to get everything calmed down. I lost part of the story in translation but do know that they ended up having to take all 4 tires off the vehicle, roll them down the street and get them repaired. I think we also got a fine for double parking. I think this is a pretty standard procedure when we go to the bank. I guess the police must be cracking down on it in that area.
I received my first “my Christmas on you” greeting this week. It is similar to Black Friday in the US. In the States we go shopping to kick off the Christmas season and here they begin to let other know that they are expecting a gift from the other person for Christmas by making sure they get in the first greeting. Ahhhh, Liberia, you got to love it..where nothing is easy!!!
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