Thursday, June 24, 2010

Journal Entry 6



The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121: 7-8

Friday
Today we’re went back to the church at the orphanage where we had the conference yesterday. It was another good service and very long one. Ervine sent us a wonderful lunch of fried chicken smothered with tomatoes, zucchini, onions and carrots steamed with melted butter and seasoning.

Even though the weather is a little bit cooler today, It’s still hot! I really enjoyed our time with the ladies singing, dancing and praising God. The organist gave me a few lessons on playing my gourd instruments. The shaker, beaded gourd is made locally and use at all the church services. The other gourd piece shaker is made in Guinea by the Fula tribe from the Futa Jalon Highlands.

On the way home, a drunk man walked out on the four lane highway in between our two lane of traffic to get a cab. He was in the road with his back to our van trying to stop the cab that was right beside us. He stepped back into our van and pitched forward hitting the cab and hanging on for a few seconds as it traveled along. Thank goodness traffic was moving slow at that time. I thought I was going to see him thrown under the wheels of our van or the cab. But he staggered around and managed to right himself. He grabbed our van door and kept shouting, “Why are you trying to kill me?” over and over again.
A crowd was beginning to gather and it could have turned really ugly. But a policeman was really close and headed our way. Everyone here tries to avoid the police. The drunk leaned in our passenger side window and spit in the face of our driver and Maria, who was riding up front. He left then so the police would not come to see what the commotion was. We drove a few feet and another man came running up to the van and apologized for the actions of the drunk. The rest of the way home was pretty uneventful, thank goodness.
We arrived back at the compound much later than usual, it will be dark soon. They will start up the generator then and we might have some air conditioning. I hope ours decides to work tonight. I also hope our shower works, but at least we have running water for the moment. I was thrilled when I flushed the toilet and it actually flushed a little while ago. The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is take a very long very hot shower :o)

I’m so glad that God has not called me here on a long term or permanent basis. With God’s help, I guess I could do it, but I don’t think I would like it! Liberia has not been able to pull it’s self together since the war. There are bombed out buildings that still have people living in them. They have no money to fix them and nowhere else to go. Debris, dirt and lots of litter are everywhere. This is a very dirty and poor country, the infrastructure has collapsed. The president has her hands full trying to get the country back to it’s original state before the war.
The ladies, all of them, just throw trash on the church floor! After craft time there were piles of litter in the floor. They walked out and just left it there. I suppose someone will come and sweep it out the door later and the wind will carry it where it will. It’s hard to understand the mindset of the people here. I’m very thankful for our litter laws and our sanitation system back home. Sewers and septic tanks now hold a special place in my heart.

Frankie
Photo's of Monrovia














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