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.

Alcohol

Last Thursday I met with one of our Individual Volunteers that lives in Guatemala. I asked her what problems she was seeing with teams coming in and their training. She said she was having problems with alcohol. This is a pattern I keep running into over and over.

She asked me how to get the teams to honor their pledge not to drink. She was surprised to learn that the Covenant form that we have in the VIM Team Leader Handbook was not something they were required to submit to the conference office before leaving on a trip. I recommended that she make it a requirement for all teams that they submit it to her in advance. That way it will be absolutely clear to all team leaders what the expectations are.

In Guatemala it is not acceptable for Christians to drink alcohol. She usually does not have a problem until they get to a restaurant and then the team members order it. They also think the pledge means only while they are working and then when they get to the R&R portion of the trip they think suddenly it's okay. They don't realize that it impacts the IVOL's position in the community to even be seen with them and it also ruins their own Christian witness.

I guess now my question is do I email the churches that I know went to Guatemala over the summer?