Lesson Learned - Bigger Not Always Better

A church in Ohio is helping to build a brand new hospital on the grounds of the existing Ganta Hospital. Their pastor confessed they'd learned something critical about missions. At one point the hospital said that they really needed a bigger generator to power the existing "old" hospital. So their pastor went to a church member, the head of Catapillar, who then donated the "biggest" generator they could find. They shipped it over there (at much expense) and when the hospital finally got it, they discovered it wouldn't work at all. It cost so much to put fuel in it that they couldn't afford to run it. So it's sitting in Liberia not being used at all. Cherian Thomas said a better solution would have been to have several generators that were smaller. I think this example typifies the US approach and we don't even stop to consider what might be appropriate sometimes.

The Deaf School

My last day in Liberia I went to visit the deaf school that is run and supported by the United Methodist Church. This school is in a building in poor condition. Sometimes they have electricity and sometimes they don't. Electricity is a rare thing here in Liberia. Chris says that they just don't have the engineers or in-country talent they need to restore the electrical grids and put the equipment in place. Everything has to be contracted out to an outside firm.

The kids "sang" a song to us in sign language. Some of the 4th graders looked like they were about 20 years old. When I commented on that, they said that the students probably were 20 years old. The school is struggling financially. At one point it made me feel very sad and conflicted. I've seen other ministries in other countries for the disabled but this was by far the worst as far as the conditions in which they were being educated.

Barracuda

Tonight we had barracuda for dinner. It was great! We even saw the ladies cutting up this huge fish earlier today. They were outside in the utility area scraping the fish. We could see it from the 3rd floor balcony (amazing what you see up there.)

Today we had another day full of meetings. After the meetings were all done for the day we went to the craft market. I bought another mask for my collection and a cloth hanging. We walked up some big hills to get there and back. It was really hot and humid so we were all drenched when we got back.

One of the guys here who was presenting is on the same floor as me and my roomate. He told us after each day's meetings he goes to his room and just stays by himself and orders room service. This guy's job is to network and get people to give money to huge funds. He's supposed to raise millions of dollars. My roomate and I both think it's odd that someone with that type of job would not be mingling and networking the entire time. Isn't that opportunity wasted?

Health Meeting Day 1

Okay today was the first big day of meetings. I took copious notes. I have a lot of questions about what partnership would/could look like. I met Mary Zigbou and Sue Porter, both GBGM missionaries. During lunch they told me what they are trying to do here and I think I know people that can help them.

Also, the Dir of Connectional Ministries from the Liberian Annual Conference wants to meet with me on Friday to talk about what our staff does. His Bishop leaned over and told me that he wants me to meet with him, so that his Dir of Conn Min knows what kind of things they should be doing. He mentioned training, and I confirmed that our staff does a lot of training and events. So Friday I think I'm meeting with Mary and the Bishop's staff guy. Then I'm flying home. Yea!

Don't Wear A T-Shirt To The Presidential Mansion

My friend Chris Neyor is the Energy Advisor to President Sirleaf-Johnson. That means he's on the cabinet, goes to meetings with her and foreign dignitaries, and stuff like that. So yesterday he picks me up at the hotel and says that we're going to dinner and to see his office. So I ask, should I change? He says, yeah, I'm takin you to the Presidential Mansion so you can't wear a t-shirt. So I changed. It was the least I could do. He was telling me about meetings he'd gone to with Tony Blair, meeting Chris Tucker at some event, and stuff like that. It was pretty cool.

The actual mansion caught on fire 2 years ago and is under repair, so he took me to some other goverment building that's the temporary mansion site. Their version of the White House is actuallya 5 story high rise that's kind of modern looking. Chris' office is pretty small but it is a temporary location. He usually travels with the Liberian president all over the world, but this week he begged off so he just happened to be here while I was here. He used to live in Plano and is a member of our Sunday School class.

Our Balcony View

Theresa and I discovered that the lovely natural area with plants and rocks and a path to the beach is actually the public restroom. I watched about 8 people go to the bathroom there in a period of about 20 minutes. One guy actually almost went to the bathroom on another guy, until he realized there was someone down there. I can see all this activity from the 3rd floor. So my question is how do you do anything with public health when people use the bathroom all over the place? It's complicated.

First Day In Liberia

We arrived last night and it was just fine. The hotel was out of rooms, there was some kind of miscommunication there, but I have a great roommate. She is the Executive Director of Curamericas. Yes Jody the place you went to in Bolivia. They have a project here in Liberia and she is presenting tomorrow. She has a phone too so ya'll can call me if you have to - (011-231) 077-958-981.

So far all I've seen of Liberia is this hotel. We slept until 11:30 this morning. Unbelievable. Everyone else is out touring stuff, I didn't know how to arrange anything like that so I didn't. Others came with groups though.

Happy Valentines Day

My ten-year-old was given an assignment to write compliments for every student in his class. He was having trouble thinking of things to write, so I looked at what he'd written so far. One was "You are not mean." So we decided to "help" him out and came up with others along that line. One of Jack's favorites was "Your b.o. doesn't smell that bad." Now that the class party is over, I want to look through his backpack to see what compliments HE got. He confessed he hadn't even looked at them!

That is one of the things that bothers me about boys. They just don't GET Valentine's Day. Neither of my sons even cares what Valentines cards they get from anyone, it's all about the candy.