Friday, June 18, 2010

Journal Entry 2

Monday
A screaming monkey or chimp woke me up before the alarm went off this morning. I’ll have to check that out later. No running water, I’m glad I took a shower last night. The toilet won’t flush.

After breakfast we’re going out to see the countryside and do some shopping in the city. Maria said to be ready early, we are going to have a full day of sightseeing and shopping. We wanted to sleep in, so we told Ervin to have our breakfast ready at 8:30ish. Breakfast was great, this is the first mission trip I’ve ever been on where we have had a privet chef prepare our meals :o)
After breakfast we met some new friends, Zimah and Konah twin eight year old boys and Elder Ross a spry 70 year old who are here at the compound. Leah, Ginger and I along with several other from the compound walked down to the beach which is just a few yards away. I had my picture made with the twins and got a little wet by an unexpected wave. The beaches are vacant other than our little group. The people here are afraid to the ocean. Elder Ross came with us today because he had never been to the beach and he lives right here at the compound?!?

Willette told us to be ready early, we would have a full day of shopping because this would be our last chance since the other days would be filled with the conference and other duties. By 10:00 we were back from the beach, no one is here to take us shopping, 11:00 - no one here, 12:00 - no one here. I tracked down the monkey. Word came that we would have lunch at 1:00 before we went shopping. Africa time, gotta’ love it LOL! I had tried to explain to the girls about Africa time when we were traveling, but I don’t think they believed me, now they do LOL!

After lunch we packed goodie bags for the ladies attending the conference. Later this afternoon the driver came and off we went! We went to one of the business districts in downtown Monrovia and visited several shops. We got a small tour of the city and saw several government buildings. I saw a white woman and her teenage daughter out side the American Embassy, it was the first white faces I’ve seen all day other than our own. The next stop was at an Art Shop which was filled with beautiful African art. The owner gave each of us a woven fan when we left his shop.

I have befriended the noisy chimp that woke me up this morning and interrupted my Bible study. I gave him a sucker, I hope he doesn’t throw poo at me! I think I have made a friend for life but I’m not sure. I’ll bring him something else tomorrow.

No electricity or water. The generator was started up about dark but we are not sure when the water situation will be corrected. They brought us a large plastic trashcan filled with rain water to flush the commode and told us to take a sponge bath using the rain water. This is the sweatiest day I’ve ever had in all my 56 years and all I get is a sponge bath?!? You have never experienced heat until you have been in Africa. This is the rainy season and the humidity is almost unbearable! But God is good, I’m sweating toxins out of my body and we almost have air conditioning tonight.

Another great meal tonight. We were served a wonderful fish dish with a white sauce. Ginger doesn’t like fish and even she loved it! There was also a slightly spicy okra dish with rice, a veggie dish with green beans, carrots and zucchini. The salad was tomatoes, avocados and onions with a special dressing Ervin made. I forgot to mention lunch, it was a chicken wrap with potatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes with a special sauce inside. Yum!

Tomorrow is the first day of the conference, I need to get my crafts together, study my speech, pray, pray harder and try to get some sleep. The conference starts at 8:00 and we need to leave early to adjust for the bad roads, traffic and driving time. TIA

Frankie

Our bathroom

Here is the compound where we stayed while in Liberia

At the beach with the twins. Shortly before this photo was taken, we were soaked by a large wave.


Here is the chimp, her name is Trouble. If they let her in the compound she causes all kinds of trouble. She will do things like loosening the wires on the vehicles and stealing jewlery from the rooms. She has also been known to raid the guest ice box and drink the sodas.

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