Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Photos

If you are interested in seeing pictures, you can check out my Flickr site. I am starting to upload a few at a time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mountaintopsue/

Monday, October 18, 2010

HOME

The laundry is going, I have showered and eaten, it's like we were never gone. Unless of course, you look at the huge pile of newspapers and mail on the kitchen counter. I don't want tomorrow to come. At least not too soon. I'm not ready to go back to my reality. Liberia has certainly left a hole in my heart. We met some wonderful people and I feel guilty leaving them and coming back to abundance and comfort. This life will never be perfect and whole, but I have seen hope on the faces of those that shouldn't have any and that is enough for me. He is there among them and I was a witness.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Saturday

It was a day of goodbyes and picture taking (not that we haven’t been doing that all week!). Tony and Shelly brought a small photo printer with them and once people around us found that out, they all want a picture of themselves or one with us in it. So consequentially, we have had a lot of knocks on the door this morning. We have also presented some small gifts and cards to quite a few people who we have spent time with.
In the afternoon we were off to see Dr. Sanvee’s house which is in the process of being built. It was about twenty five minutes away from Monrovia. Unfortunately we had to take a smaller vehicle, so we went African style, two in the front (stick shift in the middle) and four in the back of a small pickup. We see everything from small taxis to large vans carrying over capacity amounts of people in them. Houses here are made from cement blocks that are usually made on the site. The blocks on her house were up to window height and even higher in other places. We got a tour of the three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining and living room. It is located out in the country and she has hired a man who lives in a small shack on the property to be security so no one comes and squats on it or buries a body on it (no one will live on it if they do that).
We had a lovely evening at an upscale restaurant for our last evening. I will post a picture later of all of us in our new Liberian attire. If only it didn’t get dark so early, we would have had a beautiful view of the ocean, but alas… I can tell Dr. Sanvee is going to miss us all, especially Gretchen, but she will be visiting the US in May to see her daughter and new granddaughter, so it won’t be long.
I am going to end this so we can get on the plane. Later…

Friday

Dr. Sanvee and her sister Margaret (who has been cooking our meals) came for dinner. It was a nice evening of, good food, listening to their incredibly interesting stories and fellowship. We chatted around the table for quite some time and then eventually moved to the soft chairs on the other side of the room. After a short time, Dr. Sanvee got up and went to her car and came back with some bags. She made a little speech about how happy she was with our visit and then we proceeded to have Christmas! Out of the bags came outfits that she had made us by her tailor Solo. There were embroidered shirts for the men and beautiful shirts and matching pants for the women. We also received some carvings made out of ebony. Needless to say we were all very touched and from what Gretchen told us, this was pretty unusual.
Apparently on the night that Solo the tailor came to take an order from Shelly and I, she told him secretly to size us up. All but one, fit perfectly and they sent it back and it was fixed quickly. Tonight we will all wear them out to dinner. Tomorrow I will wear the skirt I had Solo make, to church. We picked out the material one time when we were downtown, with Dr. Sanvee, I think it cost about two or three dollars. They measure the material in lappas. My full length skirt took two lappas.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Running Out of Steam

As our 2nd week winds down, I seem to be running out of steam. Some of us have less to do and find we are hanging around the house more. Others are trying to finish up computer work on documents while things are fresh in their minds. We probably only needed to be here for 10 days or so, but the new direct flights from Atlanta only go on the weekends and 1 week would have been too short of time. Until recently, you had to fly through Brussels and spend a night there on the way back. That flight was much more expensive and you had to pay for two nights in a hotel, so we are here a little longer than we need to be.
We are lucky that the hospital grounds are relatively large, but they are starting to feel confining to me. We can walk out of the hospital down a narrow street of vendors to the main thoroughfare, but once on Tubman Boulevard we do not feel safe to venture any further (although it is very tempting). I suppose this is especially true for women.
The food has been okay and other than the dried fish in a stew occasionally, we have been able to eat it. We have even had desserts such as pawpaw (papaya) turnovers, cookies and coconuts tarts. I realized today that other than a tiny amount of cheese, I have not consumed any other milk products. Dave has been having milk on cereal in the mornings (that we brought from home) and I have been having oatmeal. As far as fruit and vegetables go, I make fruit salad with oranges and bananas every night and we have had cucumbers and some squash mixed in our daily meat and gravy dish.
Shopping
Yesterday we went shopping with Dr. Sanvee down by the UN Headquarters. It was basically to buy souvenirs to take home with us. It was very interesting to watch Dr. Sanvee negotiate for us. She didn’t let anyone take advantage. It was actually very exhausting because everyone wanted us to look at their merchandise and everyone wanted to give us a good deal. It seemed more like hard work than a fun shopping trip. In addition, the tiny shops were very dark (no electricity – unless they turned their generators on and then the fumes were sickening) and with three or four of us in them it was sweltering and I was sweating profusely.
Today the guys had Bob Harris (driver) take them shopping for safety equipment for the maintenance employees. Their arms were full and overflowing when they returned. The only kink in the trip was that they ended up paying twice for the hard hats, when a man who offered to help carry them to the car, ran off down an alley with the box. They had to go back in and buy another set. So much for naïve Americans.

Sunday in Liberia

The cars came at eight this morning to pick us up for church. We attended Our Sister of Lebanon Catholic Church with Dr. Sanvee. It was a big church overlooking the ocean with a school attached. The service lasted a little over an hour and had contemporary music with drums and a keyboard. I knew that since it was it was a catholic service we wouldn’t get up for communion, so when the usher came and excused our row, I nodded my head no to her. She kept standing by me and finally poked me in the shoulder and said, “Offering”. So Dave & I promptly stood up and followed everyone down to the front where Dave deposited some money in the one of the three baskets.
Everywhere we go we run into someone of importance that Dr. Sanvee knows. Or we run into someone who says, “She (Dr. S) saved my life. On the way here from the airport, we gave a Supreme Court Justice a ride to his home and met his wife. At church we were introduced to the head the International Bank of Liberia. We are starting to recognize people that we have been introduced to earlier in the week, the sisters and some of the brothers from the hospital, etc. For the most part, everyone has been so welcoming and genuinely glad to see us. A few such as woman in the village where we had car trouble, was a little unsure at first (especially after I took her picture), but eventually she even thanked me. I just hope she took the curse off that she sounded like she put on me in the beginning of our encounter.
After church we all went home and changed into shorts. I don’t know why, but that was a treat. Then it was off to Thinker’s Village and Beach for some relaxation and lunch. The resort is owned by a man named Edwin, who after living in the US, came back to help rebuild the country by starting the business at the resort.
It was another beautiful day of sea, blue sky and clouds. Our lunch was ordered from the restaurant and we each chose something that sounded good. There were fish, chicken, sandwiches (which didn’t get eaten  because it had lettuce and tomatoes on it) and even pizza on the menu. It was nice, but it is hard to get excited about food, when everywhere you turn there are very hungry people. Never the less, we had a relaxing day walking on the beach, looking for shells and seeing “The House at Sugar Beach” which is in the book of the same name by Helene Cooper. It was just on the other side of the resort we were at, but we didn’t get up close as there were clearly squatters living in it.

Maintenance Meeting
Dave and Tony held a meeting Monday that has been in the planning stages over the last week. It was for all the people in the maintenance department, their supervisor and the hospital administrator. There was a group of about 12 people in attendance and it was well received. They talked about preventative maintenance and other things in the facilities realm. They also used it as a chance to voice some concerns, which was a big deal because they have never had a chance to do that. After the meeting, word got back to us that the maintenance men came as a group to Dr. Sanvee and told her how much they appreciated what the Dave and Tony had done for them. Apparently this has never happened before. The guys also heard about their need for safety equipment (just basic things like rubber boots, rubber gloves and ear protectors), so someone has donated money to buy those things. So hopefully Tony and Dave will go out today with Ghana Boy and purchase those items

Observations

WATER
Most everyone who does not have clean water available to them drinks it out of individual plastic bags. They just bite a hole and squeeze it into their mouth. Rich people like us, buy it in plastic bottles that pile up like crazy. There are empty plastic bags wherever you look. We wash our dishes in the sink and shower with the water that comes out of the tap, but that is about it.
SCHOOL
School supposedly is free, but from what I understand you have to enter a lottery to try and get in and even then there are costs, like books and uniforms, etc. They attend school for a half of the day, morning or afternoon. Everyone wears uniforms, so as you drive through the city, you see every color, sometimes navy with green or yellow and on and on. The uniform consists of a jumper for girls with a colored blouse and socks and the boys wear dark pants with the shirt being the school color. Everyone is always neat and clean. I don’t know how they do it as the streets they walk in are filthy. They have notebooks that they copy off the board and study from those. Most everything is written on the board with chalk and then learned by rote.
There is also a school for women on the hospital grounds that teaches tie dye, sewing (on treadle machines), soap making, cooking and baking and home decorating. We met a woman there who was taking registration for the next classes offered. Her name is Oretha and she lost both her parents in the war and has no family, but someone had directed her to the Lutheran Church and they paid for her to go to the school for two years. She now teaches some of the classes and is working on learning to read and
WORK
After the mini seminar that Tony and Dave gave to the Maintenance crew the other day, we found out that most of them make $70 a month and many of them have made close to that for the 20 – 30 years that they have worked here. It was a chance to have a grip session which I don’t think happens very often in group setting with their boss sitting among them, but with a least a 70% unemployment rate they pretty much have no choice, as real jobs are few and far between.


Our Days
Depending on our agenda, we can be up and out of the house by 7am. Other days we get up around 7, have breakfast (something made with hot water, juice, cereal, PB,etc.) and head out on our various adventures. Since our lunch is cooked at the Ministry of Health by Margaret, Ghana Boy has to drive through town to pick it up and bring it back, so it can arrive anywhere between 12 – 2. After every meal we wash the dishes (in the water we are afraid to drink) and then hang out or head out depending on our schedule. Then it is back to the house to wait for dinner to arrive, which of course can range anywhere from 6 – 7:30. After dishes, we sit and talk and try to solve the problems of St. Joseph’s or better yet Liberia. As of Sunday, we have started an UNO tournament and that has been a highlight in our evenings.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Pictures

I have very slow internet access, so I will post pictures later. SORRY

Our BIG Day Trip

What a day! Up and out of the house by 7am and on the road to Sasstown Clinic in Bomi County. We had to take two cars today, so Shelly, Tony & Marilyn went in one car with the driver Bob Harris and we went with Gretchen, Dr. Sanvee and driver Ghana Boy in another one. We arrived before the clinic people did and as we were waiting they sang songs, had devotions, and gave a health talk, which seems to be a common theme at most hospitals and clinics.
Eventually we turned off the pavemnent and headed down a VERY bumpy road for about 25 miles, which took us about 2 hours. Arriving in Robertsport, we found that the hospital we were looking for was up a very rough road and we decided not to attempt it. Instead we headed down to the beach to Nanna’s Lodge, which was a group of platform tents that at one time were used by vacationers and is now abandoned. Finally we got to see the ocean that we have been hearing over our big fence back at the bungalow. It was beautiful. There were dugouts and fisherman pulling in their nets filled with fish. It was very picturesque. Pulling ourselves away we drove further down the beach in search of a woman by the name of Christy who has a program called Strongheart Foundation that is a groundbreaking healing and learning guidance program designed to help bright, resilient children from extremely challenging circumstances develop into compassionate, innovative problem –solvers and leaders that can affect significant social change. It was a beautiful, large two story house that is being renovated by the foundation, with bedrooms, bathrooms (no plumbing yet, but toilets and water to dump in to flush) and a nice kitchen set up. The best part was a huge covered balcony on the second story that overlooked the beach and ocean. If you didn’t know better, you would think you were at a lovely hotel enjoying the cool Atlantic breezes on a tropical vacation. Let me back up, the part that I personally enjoyed the most was holding a sweet little three month old girl named Corrie Rose the whole time we were there. When we went out on the porch there were two girls minding her. They were on the internet and she was fussing. The girls had her stuffed in a cardboard box with blankets. They are part of a seven member family whom the director brought over from the refugee camp in Ghana (all children – their father was killed in the war and their mother died in the camp). Corrie Rose is the daughter of one of the girls. Anyway, anytime I get to hold a baby it is a special moment.
Next we were off to find a place to have our picnic, back to the VERY bumpy road and down several miles of road to the shores of Lake Piso, which is a very large lake that empties into the Atlantic. Dr. Sanvee had us pull off to a site by the lake that had several round gazebo looking buildings which she said probably belonged to someone that used it as a vacation spot. In essence we were squatters. We enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches (ham, cheese, pickles and unidentified sauce – rolled up in a large pita looking bread thing), Pringles, peanuts and some digestive biscuits. Also, we had a cooler of Coke, Fanta, beer and water, which we stopped along the road and bought ice for from a street vendor. The breeze was nice, as the heat was somewhat stifling. While we were eating a man came up in a dugout canoe and tried to sell us his catch of fish. Dr. Sanvee asked what they were and then told him she did not like that kind. He got back in his boat and paddled away.
Once again we were bumping along, heading towards Monrovia when in our car the smell of hot brakes overcame us and we insisted the driver stop and check it out. Luckily, we were on a part of the road that had a rural village right across from it called Fandoh and the children were all getting out of school. It wasn’t long before we drew a crowd while the drivers worked on the truck. They asked where we were from and before you know it, they were singing for us and then we were singing together. They knew “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, ABC Song, and “Head, Shoulder, Knees &Toes”. We really enjoy their singing and clapping and when we see children we always ask them if they will sing for us.
After stopping at the supermarket, we didn’t return home until 7pm. It was a long day and by the time we had dinner, everyone was ready for bed.

Inventory & TI

On Thursday, we met with Dr. Sanvee in the morning, and did an inventory of large equipment including computers on the hospital grounds. This took half the day, then there is always waiting (patience is a much needed virtue here) for lunch, waiting for a driver, etc. In the afternoon, Shelly, Tony and ourselves made a trip out to Transformational International. It is a house for boys that a couple named Luther and Christine run with three other young men who are mentors. They teach them Christian principles, show the love of Jesus, feed, house, clothe them and give them the opportunity to go to school. We met about 18 boys with the youngest being 9 years old. Luther and Christine are teachers at a Baptist Seminary with a young family of their own who have taken on this cause.
We took a trip over to the Peanut Butter house which is a project that was put up by First Pres. Ft. Collins earlier this year to serve as a source of revenue for the TI house, to produce fortified peanut butter at a reasonable price to supply nutrition to the malnourished and to provide a skill and job for the boys living there. Our plan is to go over next week and spend more time there and gather some information that Ft. Collins requested.
The fun part of this day was having a young man named Gustavo over for dinner and UNO. He is here for a year staying with the Brothers. He is from Bolivia, but speaks very good English. I think he is working in the office looking at the business processes.

New Kru Town

After a night of little sleep, we were up and out of the house by 7am on our way to a new clinic at New Kru Town, which is a suburb of Monrovia. We drove for 45 minutes in a hospital van that picked up staff on our way there. It is in an area a lot like the slums of West Point, shanties with tin roofs crowded together with people selling their wares out in front.
We heard Viola speak, who is charge of the PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) program. Her audience was filled with young girls ages 13 and up who were pregnant. Some had been there before and some for the first time. She explained all about how HIV was passed from Mother to child and how testing and treatment could have a big effect on whether or not their unborn child would contract the disease from them.
Later in the afternoon, we started taking an inventory of all the larger equipment in the hospital. We went through all the departments and looked for serial numbers, etc. on everything from computers to ultrasound machines. This hospital is located about 150 yards from the Atlantic Ocean and we are still in disbelief about the damage that the sea air and humidity can cause. Almost everything we looked at had rust and horrible corrosion on it. Equipment such as X –Ray machines are rendered useless after merely five years. There is so much broken equipment laying around that I would be totally discouraged if I worked here, but the Liberian people are used to being very patient and they seem to have an eternal optimism that something might start working again, so they better not throw it out just yet. We are slowly peeling the layers of the onion back as we find out more about how things work over here.

Interesting Observations
Food – Palm oil is orange and used in just about everything. They eat the greens of the potato plant as well as the potato. We usually have rice with every meal and some kind of meat or fish or both with gravy and most of the time we can’t tell what it is until we put it on top of our rice and cut into it. We have had meatloaf with a boiled egg in it with potatoes, omelets with ham and french fries, chicken and meatballs in gravy, etc. Dr. Sanvee’s sister cooks for us and the driver’s deliver it at mealtime or within an hour or two of mealtime. The fruit we have eaten includes oranges with very green tough skins (but pretty good fruit inside) and bananas. I have started adding a fruit salad to our dinner menu to give us a little more variety. We did get a tossed salad the other night, but made the decision not to eat it for fear of getting sick. Any leftover food goes to our driver, which he is glad to get. As of yet, we have not had fufu (cassava) which I hear is no treat and all starch and we have not seen barracuda (which they buy dried), but I hear could show up.
Stores – Everyone here has something to sell. You can buy lingerie out of a wheelbarrow (which is a moving store), bolts of beautiful cloth, trinkets, nuts and bolts, coconuts and just about everything in between. Sometimes it is in a big plastic bowl on top of someone’s head or in a large shipping container turned into a storefront. We found out that vendors can find you anywhere. The other day we had a knock at our door and it was a man asking for Dave. He had talked to him at the supermarket about his carvings and he saw our van marked St. Joseph’s. Sure enough he showed up at our door, selling his pieces. Yes, we bought several carvings (it is really hard to say no, although with so many asking it is getting easier) On another day, Shelly and I were found by another man who came especially to the hospital to sell us bracelets. We told him we were not interested, but practically had to hurry to our house so he wouldn’t know where we lived. The word is out that there are white people at the hospital with money.
At the supermarket they had a good selection of food, but basically no dairy products except a few cheeses. It did however have beer, wine and a huge assortment of powdered milk. Quite a bit of what we brought could have been purchased here.
Weather – We have had heavy rain with thunder and lightning, light rain, cloud cover and bright sun. All with lots of humidity, but it has never been during a time that it bothered us or we had to be out in it. We have not opened our umbrellas, yet.
Hospital Compound – There is a hospital, maintenance buildings, warehouses, housing for doctors and some nurses and their families, canteen, housing for the Brothers & Sisters of St. John, a coconut grove, a morgue, laundry, and after school care for worker’s children and visitor’s children. Along the road to the entrance are various vendors selling their wares. Everywhere there is vegetation, including trees and bushes with beautiful flowers.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Home of Peace and Joy

Today Dr. Sanvee arranged for the women in our group to visit Missionaries of Charity (Mother Thersea’s order), where the Sisters of Charity are called to serve Jesus in Monrovia. It is a place where adults and children can go who have HIV or AIDS to get drugs, food and care. Families can bring in their children who are malnourished and leave them there while they are nursed back to health. There are five sisters who serve there, two of which we met and spent a little time with. One was from India and the other from Connecticut. It was a pleasure to talk to Sister Mareja from Connecticut and be able to understand everything she said. She gave us a tour of the men and women’s ward and then we got to go up and see the children, which was the highlight of the trip.
There were probably 25 children, mostly toddlers with a few older ones mixed in who were hanging out before lunch time. We were able to hold them and talk to those that wanted to talk, take pictures and pass out small gifts. One boy could not believe that I had not brought balloons and kept asking me where they were. I had stickers, hair things for girls and rubber bracelets to pass out. At one point, I told them I had nothing else to pass out and someone reached in my outside bag pocket and found gum, which brought big smiles.
Lunch was fascinating. They brought all the children into another room, took off the small ones’ clothes –down to their diapers and sat them in two lines on the floor, facing each other. Each child received a tin plate and spoon, full of rice and gravy with chicken to follow. Those that were picky eventually got fufu (cassava). These tiny little people sat up and for the most part, fed themselves with only a few ending up with dinner on their brown bellies. The majority of us sat there with our mouths open, watching the whole procedure in awe.

Pictures to come later as they may take too long to download.

First Day News

We stepped out of the airport into the blazing hot sun. We were quickly ushered through immigration and customs. Apparently Dr. Lily Sanvee, our host and the hospital director, had notified someone about our arrival, so we had no hang ups in getting through. The doctor and two vehicles were there to escort us and our volumes of luggage to the hospital compound. We are staying in two bungalows equipped with bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room. We take care of our morning and noon meals and Dr. Sanvee’s sister, Margaret cooks our evening meals. Over the compound fence is the Atlantic Ocean, so there is a pleasant breeze most of the time. It is the usual tropical humidity, but not unbearable. I have to admit we don’t have to sleep under mosquito nets either as our house is equipped with air conditioning. We are in the lap of luxury compared to our surroundings.
On Monday we had a tour of the hospital and later had a driving tour of Monrovia. We visited Star of the Sea Clinic which is located in West Point, a small area of the city where 70 – 80,000 displaced people live. Lots of standing water, corrugated metal roofing over makeshift rooms and something for sale in front of each one, even if it was only a few plantains or a day’s worth of palm oil, everyone has something to sell. When driving through the city, you saw all kinds of government buildings, lots of NGO’s (non government organizations), many other buildings (some were only shells and others that have been rebuilt) and stores, and people everywhere, most on foot, but many on motorcycles and in cars.
As in many third world countries, Liberia is one of stark contrasts. Even the very poor have cell phones and there are scratch cards (phone cards) for sale everywhere. Clean water and electricity are scarce, yet hospitals are open 24 hours a day. It amazes me what can be done with few resources. I have seen labor and delivery rooms that look like prison cells (so stark and filled with ancient equipment), but compared to the services in outlying areas, the women using them probably feel grateful.


Friday, October 1, 2010

We're Off






One Suitcase full of clothes,a drill and tools, one carry on full of clothes, two rubbermaid action packers full of more tools and filters for generators, one gym bag full of food, gifts, school supplies, frisbees, etc., passports and visas and two round trip tickets to Monrovia, Liberia.