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Liberia
(2005-2006)
Oct 28.- The
ship arrived in Monrovia, Liberia today after a ten day sail
that was the
most uneventful in my 15 years of sailing.
We saw a fishing boat, a whale, &
a pod of 100 or so dolphins. Oh, well-a boring sail beats the
alternative. On
the dock waiting
for us was a crowd that included many local
dignitaries,
Senior UN personnel, and several local churches, who performed a few
songs and traditional dances for us. I, however, was too busy to photograph any of
this,...so you'll have to take my word for it.
*
Oct.30- Errr...Went to
the beach today...It
wasn't very exciting, but I got 2 good pics.
*
Nov.4/5- Jon
, Quentin, and I got to do some diving today. We had to rig up a couple of big tires to prevent the ship from rubbing
against 2 dolphins, about 4 meters below the waterline. Jon saw
a
giant grouper on Thursday, & we all managed to get stung by jellyfish
Friday. I also got a scratch from some rusty plate jutting
out....Rusty metal? Filthy harbor? Jellyfish? It's not just a job, it's an
adventure.
*
Nov.7-11- Sorry, not
too many photos this week. Liberia held it's
first ever democratic election, and tensions
ran a bit high. Shore
leave was cancelled all week, preventing us from leaving the ship. And
The winner? Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf-Africa's first woman
President ever to be elected. Here are a few photos in & around Monrovia.
*
Nov.13- Today we
attended church at 'Mama Victoria's'. Victoria is a
large Liberian woman who runs an orphanage in Liberia. We had an
exciting colorful service, after which we spent an hour or so playing
the kids. The deck department will be taking on the orphanage as a
project. Tomorrow we will be discussing what we do, from building
a roof on their chapel and digging a well. The kids were loud, full of
energy, and happy for the attention, as children will be. The parents have been lost to AIDS, civil war, neglect, and many other tragedies.
*
One of the most interesting
features of Liberia is the signs. Everywhere you look
are quirky signs whose messages range from reminding the populace not to
'sell
their vote' to warnings about AIDS, corruption and overloading
your vehicle. I
loved them so much I've started a collection, pulling over and snapping
a photo
of the ones that catch my interest. At bottom left is the HQ of
the 'DailyTalk', a
local rabble-rousing periodical who use their giant chalkboard to air
their 'gripe
of the moment', keeping the government officials on their toes. At
bottom right
is a tragic reminder of the effects of the 14-year civil war that ended
last year.
*
Nov.25-
Fire drill today. Our drills consist of suiting up and fighting
an imaginary fire somewhere on board, and a 'competition'
between us & Fire
Team 2, which we always seem to win. After today's drill, we decompressed
with a
quick game of Two-stick
Cricket on the Aft Deck. The British and Aussies
had a good laugh watching the Yanks try to apply our baseball skills to
Cricket.
*
Dec.2- The Deck
Dept. project is in full swing. We spent the morning at Mama Vic's.
Egbert, Ou Han / Dong Gyu & I
finished putting a roof on the
chapel, while Drew &
Gordon put a coat of paint on the schoolroom. Kim and Katie played
with the kids,
which kept them entertained & out
of our hair. We are also adding on a new 'wing' which will consist
of 4
rooms,
which can be used for both sleeping and for classes.
Oregon's own Johnny Leischner is coordinating
the project.
*
Dec.9- . Our Friday
morning was spent at Mama Vic's, finishing up the roof, painting
the classrooms, building the new dorms,
and preparing new door frames. We always
have a few spots left over, and open those to whomever would like to
come. We
were
joined this week by crewmembers from IT, administration, food service,
and medical,
transforming the Deck Department
project into an 'inter-departmental
project. The kids
find our tools endlessly fascinating, so we're constantly on the search
for
where they've
disappeared to. For lunch we drove to Elwa Beach. We'll return
Friday to finish up the doorframes and painting.
*
Dec.12-
Interesting night. A rally by supporters of George Weah turned into a
violent riot, and police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
'King' George
didn't help matters, spouting rhetoric like 'Revolution is a noble
cause' and
vowing to stop the inauguration. Two of our vehicles were returning to
the ship
and stumbled upon a road littered with rocks and overturned vehicles.
Several
rocks were thrown at them, though nobody was hurt. They took asylum in
the
UN HQ, which was luckily nearby. They were there most of the night, 5 of
our
vehicles in all, finally getting home around 3 am, when the UN declared
it safe.
11 UN vehicles were overturned, and several other N.G.O.
(Non-Governmental
Organization, i.e. Mercy Ships) vehicles were likewise attacked. Our
curfew is
back in effect, and we're not allowed to travel outside the gate except
for official
business. UN gunships have been circling the skies ever since, and
everyone's
weekend plans may get canceled. Keep us in your prayers. Some links
below...
Reuters
story
BBC story
IRIN news.org
AllAfrica.com
*
Dec. 23- The
Deck Department celebrated Christmas at Mama Victoria's orphanage in
the country, one of the sister orphanage's she has in addition to her
main one in Monrovia.
We brought the kids gifts of flip-flops and donated toys, as well as
some cookies we baked.
Many of the kids from her city orphanage were brought over in a minibus
& they competed
against the country kids in kickball, races, and soccer. The kids also
performed a traditional
African dance for us, and I played a bit with 'Reuben', the orphanages
pet monkey. The
temperature was in the low '90's all day. The kids were thrilled and we
all had a fantastic
time, though quite unlike the Christmas's I remember as a kid.
Especially the monkey.
*
Christmas On Board-
Christmas on board the Anastasis is a three week mishmash of foreign
celebrations and traditions.
The Dutch held a party Dec 5th,
including a visit from
Sinterklaas
& his 'Zwarte Piet'.
We used one of the lifeboats for his
traditional arrival by boat. December
13th,
The Scandanavians held a
Santa Lucia festival on the
aft deck, which
included
singing
and the traditional 'tomtenissar'.
Our Julia Lindell played the part of
Saint Lucy. We had
an international caroling
night Dec 14, with each nation
singing Christmas carols ranging
from
Canada to Korea. I joined the Spanish-speakers
(all two of them)
for a chorus of 'Feliz Navidad'.
A door decorating competition was held, with deck department using
cargo hatch 3 to display
a 25-foot Christmas tree we constructed from tarps, pallets, trashbins & our
tools as ornaments.
We were disqualified...again. Apparently,...a cargo hatch still
can't be considered a 'door'.
Anyways,
the kids onboard
also put on
a nativity play each year, and a Christmas ball is usually held, with
dancing on the aft deck until
midnight or
so. A formal Christmas feast is held on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve, we observe the Dutch tradition of leaving your
shoes outside your door, which are then filled with cookies, candies & small gifts. Strangely, Liberians
seem to celebrate
the holiday
wearing crazy costumes and masks, as we've seen many of them around town
the past few days.
Below are
pictures of some of the activities onboard, as well as Deck department's
beautiful 'tree', which surely deserves 1st Place.
*
Dec.27- Last
night a mob attacked and beat a man to death just down the street.
The body stayed there for two days. I was riding by on a scooter this
morning &
stopped to ask what happened. I got a one word answer- 'rogue'. 'Rogue' is an
African term meaning thief or criminal, & most West Africans have
little patience
for the rogues among them. Mob violence is fairly common. By the marks
on the
body, I could tell it was a savage beating. There was a good
crowd
the first day,
but by the second, no one even gave it a second glance. Just
another dead
body
on the
streets of Monrovia, only 100 yards down the street from our
main gate.
*
Dec.29- A group of 9
of us drove out to the
Firestone Plantation. Rubber is Liberia's chief export, and boasts the world's
biggest rubber tree plantation,
about a million or so acres
large, about 4% of the country's land area. Firestone built the
plantation in 1926, and some of the buildings
actually date
back to the '40's and '50's. Rubber trees are scored in a spiral
down
the tree, and the
sap is collected in small cups and hauled to the plant, where it's
ground up, then shipped
to other
countries to be turned into tires. Rubber harvesters receive about $3
per day,
though they take advantage of the housing,
schools, and clinics built by
Firestone. Nonetheless, they are currently involved in a
lawsuit that alleges 'slave-like working
conditions' for it's people. I have to be honest, though...It
certainly looked better than the rest
of Liberia to me.
*
Dec.30- We have the
opportunity to 'adopt' a patient on board the
Anastasis, & I recently did this. My patient was Richard Richardson,
a 36-year-old mechanic from here in Monrovia. He had an egg-sized
tumor that had been growing on his neck for 10 years, and had it
removed on the 21st. I spent time visiting him each day, and met
his wife and two kids when they came for a visit. He was fairly shy,
but when the conversation turned around to football, he lit right up. He's a big fan, and never misses a game. Manchester United is his
favorite team, and his son, Rene, is named after his favorite player. He was discharged today, so I drove him home, met his boss and
neighbors, and got a tour of his neighborhood, Claratown. He's
returning this Saturday for a check-up. Keep Richard in your prayers.
*
Dec. 31- I've
been blessed with the use of a Piaggio TPH 50 scooter while my
friend Trevor is on vacation. I've been riding
all over Monrovia,
exploring every
inch of the city. I've really gotten to know the city, which is nice if
you can look
past the
poverty. Every street you go down seems to have something
strange& exciting on it. Among some of the many things I've
seen are a
garage made of car doors & hoods, the Ronald Reagan Institute, homes/shops
made out of shipping containers,
Refugee camps, several African parades, and
the 'Temple of Justice', although the Superfriends were nowhere to be
found.
*
Jan.22- We played a
football match against a local church today. After
clearing
the field of cement blocks & other debris,
us & a few of
our dayworkers joined
together to beat the locals 5-2. I drove the
scooter
down to Elwa Beach to watch
the
match. About two to three hundred
locals & a half dozen UNMIL personnel
stopped to watch the
excitement. The match
looked suspiciously like exercise to
me, so I stayed on the roof of one of the Land Rovers and watched. And
took pictures.
*
March 11- The Ducor
Palace project continues. Our carpentry shop onboard has offered to
donate
some wood,
and the plans right now are to construct around 15-20 benches and
four or so podiums/chairs for
the teachers.
Currently, the kids are using a few old benches as desks & sitting on concrete blocks...or just sitting on the floor.
*
March 18-- Prince
came to the ship to help build benches with me. He spent the morning
with me in the carpentry shop, measuring, cutting, and sanding.
This helps him to claim
part 'ownership' of the project, as opposed to waiting for westerners to
donate everything.
He thoroughly enjoyed himself, and wanted to stay, despite (as I found
out), he'd been up
all night at his job as a security guard at a grocery store down on
Randall Street. He returns
to the ship to continue working on the benches next Saturday. We've
built 4 benches so far.
*
March 24-
Interesting day! Around 1 pm, we got a call to lower
the Zodiac into the water,
as the abandoned barge at the end of our dock had some 'rogues' on it, scavenging what
they could. We took some Ghanaian
UNMIL
soldiers with us and headed for
the barge. Right
away, three of them jumped into the water, but we quickly rounded them
up and delivered
them to the soldiers waiting on the shore. Crewmembers watching from the
stern reported
two more were hiding on the barge, but a thorough
search of the barge failed to uncover
anyone. Then, just as we were stowing the Zodiac onto the foredeck, we
got the call that the
remaining two swimmers had leapt into the water & were making a
break for the next dock
over from us. Back in the water we went, but they made it to the
dock next door before us.
Nonetheless, we radioed to the
UNMIL troops who were busy
'interrogating' the first three
prisoners, and they quickly sealed off the end of the dock. With nowhere
to go, the rogues
had no choice but to surrender. We found much evidence of illegal
activities on the barge,
such as knives, fire extinguishers, a breathing apparatus or two, and
some clipped locks &
cut wires. The rogues were basically trying to get anything off the
barge they could to sell.
Upon capture, they were more scared than anything, thanks in
part to our 'overzealous'
Ghurka security guard & the bamboo staff he kept trying to whack them
with. I managed to
get some great shots of the whole operation. You know, I could use a few
more days like this.
*
Meet the Deck Department.
We always have people coming
and going in Deck Department, so a group shot becomes obsolete
Within a week or two. Nonetheless, this picture is a pretty
good
representation of us. It was taken February 14th, when we hosted
a 'deck dessert' night & served the crew some desserts we'd baked.
*
March 29-
Another busy day. We started out our day with an early morning fire
drill, which I'm sad to say we failed miserably. Immediately afterwards,
the crew
mustered outside to view an
eclipse. While Ghana had a total eclipse, we
only had
a partial (83%). This was only the second eclipse I've ever seen. We
spent most of
the day blasting portholes with a fire hose for the inspection coming
up, and spent
the afternoon scraping the side of the ship. We were all abuzz with the
news of the
capture of warlord & Ex-President
Charles Taylor. Security was
tightened again in
town, and the UN gun ships are once again circling overhead. Despite
heightened
security, we all went to the Royal Hotel to say farewell to our friend
Scott Harrison.
*
April 2- We took a
trip to Bong Mines today. Once a
thriving source of iron ore,the 14-year civil war has
turned it into a skeleton of it's former self.
The mines
were evacuated in 1990 and never recovered. In the
center is a huge
man-made
lake, where rainwater has filled the quarry cut into the land. It
reminded me of
the Lochs of Scotland, with a steep, lush mountain next to it,
steel blue-gray
colored water, and a vertical
drop of 100-200 feet three steps away from
shore.
The three hour trip to Bong was almost as exciting as
the mines themselves,
especially the last 30 km, which took over an hour to drive. 'Awful'
isn't a strong
enough word to describe the road conditions, and these few
photos below do
them little justice. Of no
help were the Liberians we stopped to ask
directions of. Many had a different concept of time & distance
distance than us, if any at
all. Most
amusing was the woman who, when asked how much further along
the mines
were, told us they were "Two minutes, maybe thirty minutes". We brought
along scuba
gear in
the hopes of getting a dive, but there wasn't
enough time.
Still, there
are worse ways to spend a day than
driving through the African jungle. However,the presence of
land mines kept us
from exploring too much.
*
April 7- Today
was the last day of work for our Segue students. 'Segue' is a program
for college age kids onboard that involves a three month
lecture phase coupled with 2 months of outreach. They are also required to serve three half-days a week
in various departments, so 3 afternoons
a week I've had the pleasure of working
alongside the 5 students that chose the deck department. No matter what I did, from
sending them
up
top to scrub the aft deck tarp to putting them on our unstable, leaky
paint float to
scrape algae off the side of the hull, they attacked each task with
enthusiasm and energy.
They kept high standards for their work, and the ship is in better shape
than it was as
a result. They enjoyed painting so
much, they even did it when I
wasn't around. We
rewarded their efforts today with an extended Zodiac
ride in the harbor.
They leave
next week
for the 2-month outreach phase of the program, which will be spent in
Ghana. They are excited about the outreach, and are
probably happy they'll
never have
to sand the promenade decks again. I will miss their teamwork
and their joyful
spirits.
At the upper left is a group shot of them. From
left, there is Mike
Nagel, Plano, TX, Heidi
Snow, from the
IOC in Texas, Johanna Beachy, from the great state of
New
Hampshire,
Mary
Edmonds,
from the UK, and finally Rebecca Brundage, from Maine. Heidi's
dad
worked for Mercy Ships, & she spent a year on the CBM when she
was twelve.
*
April 11- One of the different things we get to do onboard
the Anastasis is view
the surgeries that take place here. I'd been meaning
to sign up for it
the past few
months, & got my chance yesterday. I saw a hernia operation, a cataract
removal,and a 'maxio-facial'. A
maxio-facial is an enlarged tumor on the head or
face, and
is probably the most common operation we perform on the Anastasis, &
the most
life-changing. The patient had a baseball-sized tumor that had overgrown
his chin
so bad, his whole chin had to be removed
& rebuilt. They sliced open the
skin, then
peeled it back like a banana, all the while cauterizing it to stop the
bleeding. After
two hours
of this, they removed it and used titanium strips to reshape
the jaw. The
hernia was a rather boring operation, but the cataract removal
was easily the most
fascinating of the three. They actually slice open the 'film' covering
the eyeball, cut
around the cornea, and pull out
the cataract, all using a microscope.
Here are some
pictures of the maxio-facial. Hope you have a strong stomach, they're
pretty gross.
*
As Seen On TV-
Documentary-maker
Bill Kurtis was here several months
ago to film a documentary about the Anastasis, to be shown on
several
US cable outlets, primarily the Total
Living Network. It will be seen there &
other channels the next few days. For a list of times & networks,
click
here
*
Holy Week- The ship
was 'on holiday' from Thursday the 13th
until Monday the 17th.
I spent the first two days of my
vacation finishing Mercy School's
benches. I unloaded
them from the ship & varnished them on the dock. Saturday, I
had to 'work' again, by
taking the Harboe's out in the Zodiac. They had won a 2-hour ride during
a fund-raiser
we had
last week so we took them up the St. Paul river a few kilometers
and returned.
We saw some beautiful sights along the
river and giant houses along the
shore. Easter was spent with Prince, as I attended church with him for
his churches 4th
anniversary. I spent Monday decompressing by zipping around on the scooter all
day. All in all, a pretty good week.
*
Friday, April 14- Today I finished the benches for the
Mercy School. Prince showed up just as I
was finishing. We loaded the flatbed, gathered a group together and
headed to the Ducor. When
we arrived, the kids fought over who would get to carry them up to the
school. Prince and I took
the last bench up ourselves. I had been worried about there being enough
benches, but God was
working in advance, and a local AME church delivered ten benches they
had made the day before!
The 'Mercy School' has gone from a couple dozen kids showing up for
occasional lessons to a 100-
student strong school, one complete with 7 teachers, 5 chalkboards, &
more than enough seating
for all. At the bottom right is a picture of the finished project,
along with it's intended recipients.
On behalf of the children and parents of the Mercy School, I'd like to
say a very sincere thank you
to all who helped make this project a reality, either physically,
financially, or spiritually. Bless you!
*
April 20-23- A bit
of a long weekend. We spent all of Friday underneath the water, as the
ship needed a bit of cleaning below the surface.
After 6 hours of diving
and scraping, I was
wiped out. I spent most of Saturday at the beach relaxing, but
early Sunday morning I was
woken by news of a group of 'rogues' who managed to make it onto our
dock and steal a half
dozen oil drums. We launched the Zodiac,
rounding up 2 of the
rogues & 5 of the oil drums.
Looks like I'll be beefing up security on the dock Monday. Sunday night
we said goodbye
to my
friend Kevin Fryatt,
who's been incountry for a year, serving as Financial & Planning Officer
with Equip, another NGO here in
Liberia.
I visited his house which was located at Silver Beach and got to see the
'Equip zoo', complete with dogs, a
duiker, a crocodile,
7 even an
actual tame mongoose, which was
fun to play with until it got sick on my arm. About twenty or so
of us headed to the beach for
a farewell
dinner for him. Kevin is part of the small but active N.G.O.
community here, and there
were friends of his there from
Samaritan's Purse,
Equip, Global University,
and others. Kevin has
also maintained a fantastic
blog about his time
in Liberia. He heads back to Vancouver,
British Columbia this
Thursday sometime . Rogue captures and mongoose vomit made this a much more interesting
weekend than most.
*
April 24- As we near
the end of our time in Liberia, the criminal element is taking advantageof that to step up the 'attacks' against us.
Robberies in town
have increased, & we are also
seeing a rise in 'swimmers'-rogues who try to sneak onto our dock
to steal what they
can.
Crewmembers now travel in groups, usually with a male in the group,
and avoid downtown
after dark. We also avoid taxis, as
several of our number have been
robbed right in the taxi.
Our Security Officer
Mark Elliott bought a couple more rolls of razor wire,
and we spent
the ay stringing it around likely access points onto the dock. Razor wire
costs $60 for a 25 foot
roll, and is as common
in Liberia as white picket fences in the states.
We discovered that the
'mastermind' behind the attempted thefts on our docks is an
ex-LURD
rebel who claims to
have been on our dock many times. The
LNP (Liberia's police force) knows him well and has
been
looking for him for some time. All this keeps Mark on his toes, not
easy for someone
his size. View his blog
here
to see the sort of
security issues we deal with daily in Liberia.
Here below are pictures of us stringing wire, and a shot of some
swimmers in 'action'.
*
April 28- The
Jesus film is one of
the many ministries we have on board the Anastasis. It's a
two hour film showing the life of Jesus, based upon the Gospel of Luke.
Filmed in 1978, it has
been
translated into over nine hundred languages and
shown to
almost 5.5 billion people. It is
often followed by a short word and an altar call. We had intended to
show ours outdoors, and
the crew at the Ducor spent the day getting the viewing area ready, but
a half hour before we
left, a torrential downpour started, and didn't let up for most of the
night. Undeterred, we set
up shop in the Mercy School and showed the film on the wall.
About 300 or so people were
in attendance. I remember watching the movie at my church when it first
came out, and we
screened it often when I was in Nicaragua on the Caribbean Mercy in
1996. It was nice to see
it in English again. The crowd cheered when Jesus first appeared
onscreen, and again every
time He performed a miracle. Their favorite scene seems to have been the
'loaves and fishes'
miracle, judging by the applause, and it was funny to hear the
chattering and gasps that came
from the crowd when Satan appeared as a serpent to Jesus in the desert.
We plan to show
'Jesus' again later this month. Hopefully it will be outside, if the
weather cooperates this time.
*
May 4-
Chris Hondros
is an award-winning photographer with
Getty Images. While his work is
broad in
scope, his specialty is combat photography, and he has covered
most of major conflicts in the past few
years, including
Iraq,
Kosovo,
Afghanistan, and, of course,
Liberia. His work here during the conflict in
2003 earned him a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Chances are, if
you've seen startling images of the
Liberian civil war, they were taken by Hondros. While copyright law prevents me from displaying his
photos here, they really are incredible. To view these
images, visit Chris Hondros'
website.
*
May 11- With only 2
or 3 weeks left to go in Liberia, we have started loading
everything back onto the ship. Everyone's
wrapping up their respective
projects
and re-stowing their equipment before the sail. I suspect the deck
department
will
have its hands full until we leave. We had our hands full today, as
our shakyloading caused a palette to go into the drink.
We had to lower the
Zodiac for a
spot of 'cargo roundup'. We hauled them all into the Zodiac, but about
half the
boxes
were ruined. After loading operations were done, us divers suited
up for
a final work-dive, this time scraping over an
inch of barnacles off the
propeller.
All this made for an interesting day, but not as interesting as the
dental department's.
May 12- You
Know you're in West Africa When...Someone shows
up at the dentist's office you work at & tries to sell you a live crocodile.
*
.
May 17- A half dozen
or so deckhands spent the afternoon at the Ducor Palace cleaning up.
We brought along buckets, shovels, brooms, and a wheelbarrow. As soon as
we arrived, the
kids fought over who would get a tool, but once the tools were sorted
out, they attacked the
dirt with a vengeance. It was funny to see them shoveling the dirt from
place to another...not
in the wheelbarrow we provided, of course. With some leadership and
gentle persuasion, their
energies were focused on the job at hand. Mounds of rubble were removed,
piles of dirt carted
away, and the remaining mess swept up, and the puddles of filthy water
drained. They now
have more room for the children inside. This is really good, as the area
they play now is filthy
beyond belief, with human waste, garbage, and even dead rats. A good
farewell for the Ducor!
*
May 20- Today was by
far the best day I have spent while in Liberia. We took 3 Land Rovers
and 50 people back up to Bong Mines. We loaded up the trucks onto a
flatbed of a train that
runs there daily, spent 5 hours at the lake, scuba diving and cliff
jumping, then took the train
back. Best of all was the train ride, where we allowed to actually
ride up on top of the Land
Rovers there and back, giving us a stunning view of the countryside.
Surrounded by friends,
with the sun bright & the wind in our hair, we spent an awesome 2
hours on top of the train,
passing through tiny villages and massive jungles. I cooked a creole the
night before, so we
ate in style. The diving was dull, but the cliff jumping made up for it.
Pictures posted below-
Some friends and I cooked a
chicken and lobster creole the night before, so we'd have
something good to eat there. Great fun, but the late-night crazies took
over after awhile.
Bright and early saw us at the train station a mile down the road. We
loaded our
cars pretty quick, and spent the next hour or so waiting for the train
to depart.
The train ride was by far the best part of the whole day. A two-hour
trek through the
African jungle perched on top of the
Land Rovers. We all got sunburned,
but no one
could bring themselves to leave the view. Everyone took a turn riding on
the Rovers,
and the two hour trip seemed to pass way too fast. I even took in a nap
up on the roof, as
can you see...
Upon our arrival, we headed straight for the lake,
which is a quarry that's been filled by years
of rain water. We set up a tarp we'd brought,
pulled out the food, and
all jumped in the water
for some much-deserved fun. We swam out to some cliffs close to
the 'beach' and took
turns
jumping from about 25-30 feet up. Due to the loose, sharp rocks (it's a
quarry, after all), we
all cut our feet-some worse than others.
This didn't dampen our spirits,
though, and some
of us even managed to get in a quick dive, though the view down there
was 'uneventful'.
After one more picture, we headed to the station. Even a flat tire
couldn't lessen our enthusiasm
for the train ride home...our jack was broken, but we had enough
manpower to do without it.
*
Liberian Signs-My Favorites-
Since we're getting to the end of our time in Liberia,
I thought I'd post a few of my favorites among the many 'Liberian Signs'
I've captured
on film. From warnings about public urination & rice (bizarrely),
to reminders about
HIV/AIDS, endangered species, and not 'stuffing the child' to the
Junior High School
named after Charles Taylor (of all people) these are the best of the
bunch, in my book.
*
May 29- The last
couple days have been spent loading. Loading containers, loading
cars, loading supplies, and anything else.
I got to spend Sunday night
at the Ducor,saying goodbye. God rewarded us with a fantastic sunset, and the staff
of the Mercy
School got together to thank me. Monday saw us back to the grind,
loading what was
left, and strapping everything down in
preparation for the sail. A
long, hard day,...but the UN tank (well,...APC anyways) that showed up on our dock at
suppertime
did a good job of lifting everyone's spirits. We all grabbed our camera
& headed
for the dock. The APC, which was under the
control of the Ghana
contingent of
UNMIL, stayed there the whole night. Our own Mark Elliott put it
together. Thanks Mark!
*
May 30- Departure
Day! We got up at 6 AM and began loading the few remaining
items left on the dock.
After a 0745 'muster drill', we were ready
to go. Quentin,
Greenfield and I were the last on the dock, as
we had to hook up the
ships gangway.
After the gangway was loaded, they sent down a basket to get us,
and that was the
last things the Liberians saw, my goofy face in midair, waving goodbye,
and shouting
"Thank You, Liberia! God Bless you all!". A crowd had gathered
outside the gate, waiting to see their
friends from Mercy Ships one last time. They
opened the gate at 8, and the crowd poured in. My friends
from the Ducor Palace came
out & saw us
off. There were, of course, many tearful goodbyes, as some
were saying goodbye
for the last time. At 0937, the last line was thrown off, & we are now
Ghana-bound.
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For Earlier news, Including our time in South Africa, click HERE.
