Junior

I want to introduce you to one of the guys from Yekepa. This is Junior. The very first time I met Junior, he proposed to me within the first thirty seconds.... flattering? not really... I kindly told him that he does not know me well enough to know that he wanted to marry me! He just smiled.

A couple weeks later, Junior asked if I would come to meet his family. He said it was a 2 hours drive from Yekepa. Oh. That made things a bit difficult since I don’t have a vehicle. So I told him that before I left Yekepa, I would make sure that I was able to meet his family. My last chance was a few weeks ago before the final team left. Bev was up in Yekepa with an SP truck, so it was now or never. We loaded up in the truck and made our way to his village.

Now you have to know Junior's history- Junior was attending school when Charles Taylor's government forces came through and took 25 small boys right from their desks- Junior being one of them. He knew that if he didn't go, he would be shot and killed. He was only 14. He was then forced to be a part of a Small Boys Unit, fighting for Taylor. His major role was to cook for all of the fighters. He said he would cook for over 75 people... the ages were from 12-17. If the fighters would come back and the food was not ready, Junior would be beat with the butt of their guns.

He was with the Small Boys Unit for a year when they finally trusted him enough to go to the market by himself for supplies. It was then that he ran and never looked back. He immediately went to Ivory Coast, to look for his family. It took him three weeks to find them, and when he did, they were shocked to see that he was still alive.

So we went to his small village to meet his family. As we pulled up, his father, uncles and grandfather all came out, super excited to see him. They even greeted him with hugs, which is not something you see in this culture very often. They invited us into the house where we talked about Junior's work at ABC, their stories about the war, and met Junior's brand new baby brother. It was awesome.


As we left the family gifted us with a whole stem of bananas, a pile of plantain, and a live chicken. Humbling. As we dropped Junior off later that afternoon, he turned to me and said "God bless your efforts Joni... thank you for coming to meet my family."

Recently in devotions we have been discussing stewardship. Stewardship of opportunity was one of them. I was asked to share the story from Lucy Swindoll… she went to Antartica to photograph wales… she spent hours looking through her camera for the wales… and they never came. She lowered her camera to find that all along she was missing the penguins on the glaciers. She said that so often we live out lives like that- looking for the wales, the big opportunities, and miss the penguins. I am so glad that I didn’t let this opportunity slip by… it is an experience that I won't forget.

So Many Blessings

As volunteer coordinator, I have many responsibilities as teams come in... making sure their lodging is booked and ready to go, planning meals, making sure we have everything they need during their stay here, scheduling outings, devotions, coordinating the work days with the construction manager, transporting them to and from Yekepa to Monrovia, making sure everyone gets the souvenirs they want, tour guide of Monrovia, nurse, house mom, and hosting the celebration meal.

The celebration meal is done with every team that comes to ABC, culturally sharing a meal with the Liberians before the team departs. Each day the team is here, they are teaming up with 40 Liberian men, working side by side to accomplish the goal. These 40 men and the 4-5 women I work with, are some of the most incredible people I have ever met. I thoroughly enjoy greeting them, talking with them, visiting their families, and working with them. I am truly blessed to know them.

Today we had our fifth celebration meal, and it was close to perfect. In true African form, I was given the opportunity to lead the singing after the meal. After much singing and dancing there was a time of sharing with each other. I hope you at some point in your life, are able to share the bond of Christ with someone whose life is totally different from yours... within such a short period of time. To hear the love pouring out between teams today just made my heart want to burst and most eyes were teary. God was there today. I think we all felt Him.

Just now, one of my ladies came to tell me thank you... "Thank you Joni for the way you work with us. You don't take us for granted.. you remember us... you tell me throughout the day that you are thankful for my work. I won't forget that Joni, I won't forget you."

My cup overflows as I write this. Are there sacrifices in living overseas? Yes, many. But the blessings we receive through relationships FAR out weigh the sacrifices. I have one last team that arrives next week. A team that I was looking forward to.... but now I'm not so sure because that means I will soon be leaving this place- Yekepa. I will soon have to say goodbye to these wonderful people I can call my brothers and sisters.

Pictures of day to day life

Since it takes quite a long time to upload photos here, I tend to only upload them in one spot instead of multiple. So, if you are interested in seeing some "small doses of Liberia", click on the link below! Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19469&l=e1304&id=502928671

Things are going well here in Yekepa, I am on my second to last team already! Things are moving along and the campus is looking beautiful. My last team will leave at the end of July, and so I will be stepping away from hosting teams and looking at a new role for the remainder of my time here in Liberia. Please pray with me as God leads me to the perfect role. Thanks!

Things I Love about Liberia

• - the crazy driving
• - road signs- example: wash your hands after you pu-pu.
• - the people!
• - plantain chips
• - liberian praise songs
• - the weather
  
• - Liberian English
• - Proverbs they use:
  
• -"There is a war in central Africa" ... (i am hungry!)
• -"Airplane don't blow horn"... (we are not going to wait for you... airplanes don't!)
• -"Belly bust before good food waste"
• - the beach
• - the mountains
• - fresh papaya with lime
• - palm butter soup on my rice
• - Jollof rice
• - the Liberian handshake
• - the fact that the grocery store owners know us and call us "samaritan" when we come in... and give us free gifts for spending so much money!
  
• - to be able to live and experience a place so distant and different than where I come from, yet appreciate it the same.
  

Past and Present

Last week someone told me I should check out the videos of Yekepa on YouTube.com. So I did, and found some amazing footage from before the war. I was able to see the olympic sized swimming pool in use by Liberians, Americans and Europeans. I saw footage of the LAMCO Golf Course, the go-kart track, the LAMCO (Liberian American Mining Company) mine in operation. There was even aerial footage of someone who flew over the city... I was just flabbergasted by the things I saw. I knew that before the war this place was booming, and was a vacation spot for many people, but to see those videos from 20 years ago, and to see the city now... its heart breaking.

I pulled Oretha, my cook in to see the videos, and we started discussing more about the war and Yekepa before destruction took place. She shared that no one from Yekepa would even go to Monrovia, because the people in Monrovia said that Yekepa was just like America, so why would they come to Monrovia!? She also talked more about how her and her family fled to Guinea when the rebels came through. Everything in their house was stolen. They returned to their homes to find both the front and back doors open and everything inside gone. Televisions, clothing, money, EVERYTHING.

Many of the Liberians had thousands of dollars in the bank. Gone. At one point the government said they would repay that, but now that won't happen. She said they all still have their bank books just in case. To think, those in this community that lived so comfortably 20 years ago, now live with nothing. They have had to completely start over.

I asked her why she came back... why come back to a place that has been destroyed? Why not stay in Guinea? She said that the conditions in Guinea were so bad, especially the water. It was muddy water and all they had to drink. Her young children were sick, she was sick, and children were dying all around her. She had heard that the rebels had left Yekepa, and decided that it was better to return there than to stay in these horrible living conditions. She was able to keep her refugee card, which enabled her to get food in Guinea, but the rules stated that when you received your food in Guinea, you had to stay in Guinea to eat it. But her children were in Yekepa, so during the night, her and a group of women (8-10) would travel through the bush to bring food back to their family. At times rebels would find them and demand that they give up their food. Oretha tells about the time where they were carrying rice, and in order to not make it look appealing to the rebels, they mixed sand and rock inside. The rebels would open their sacks and see the dirty rice and not take it.

As we drove through town and past the river, she talked about how awful war is, and how she hopes she dies before she sees another war. She talked of the sorrow and the loss of respect that they faced. As we passed the new ECO bank, which used to be the main LAMCO security building, she told another horrifying experience. The security building had been taken over by the rebels, and they were stopping anyone and everyone and demanding that they hand over all of their money. If anyone refused, they were killed and thrown into the river. Oretha and two of her friends had heard of the killings but didn't want to believe it. They got special permission to enter the security area and saw the atrocities for themselves. "Joni, I couldn't eat meat for over a month. It was just disgusting to me. It was ugly. They did very, very ugly things."

One of my favorite things about Oretha is her joyful spirit. Almost all day long you can hear her singing and praising God, and if you peek around the corner you will find her dancing as she is sweeping the floor or cooking the meal- its great! So many times it makes me stop and think about what the people of Liberia have gone through...and how they are still a people of hope, and a people who have not turned their back on God even through everything they have lived through and seen in their lives.

Today during lunch, a handful of our Liberian staff were gathered on our back porch, singing and dancing. One team member turned to me and said, "do black people have more fun than white people? They sure seem to." I started thinking about that question. Why is that? Why do Africans, that have considerably less than we do in the States, seem to have more joy than us? I think that because their life is simpler than ours.. not filled with too many "things" that keep us busy or that we allow to convince ourselves we will be happy if we possess them. I think Africans are able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life... fellowshipping together throughout life, and being able to praise God in the process, no matter what circumstances or living conditions they find themselves in. Maybe sometimes the joy they have in God is what they need to focus on to get them through.

Which leads me to ask myself when was the last time I celebrated my joy in the Lord? When in Yekepa, I join Oretha and Betty daily in singing Liberian songs (I let them do the dancing). But when I am not around them? At home? How about you? Can we be content in God alone? Could we be content if everything we own on this earth was taken from us and God was all we had?

Some may look at the wars that Liberia went through and ask God "why?" God always has a plan. Always. He is sovereign and always will be. That is what we can rejoice in.

"I am over my situation
All my problems are under my feet
When Jesus lifts me up I will rise
I will rise forever more."
(a Liberian Praise song)

Food and Floods

The living accommodations here at ABC are really great. I stay in a newly rebuilt home, equipped with internet and even satellite TV. Its very cush compared to the living conditions I have had previously in Africa. I definitely don't take that for granted. I am in a community that is surrounded by they poorest of the poor. At most they make $5 a day, but in a country where 80% of the population lives off under $1 a day, its not likely. And to think that a bag of rice now costs close to $40. How they make it, I don't know.

Every time I am in Monrovia and go grocery and supply shopping for my teams, I am amazed at how high the food prices have gone. Weeks back the talk of the worldwide food crisis was all over the news, and that is a very scary thought for me, especially in a place like this. Most Liberians will tell you that if they haven't eaten rice today, they haven't eaten. If rice would become even more scarce or prices continue to rise, troubles could come very quickly.

Just to give you a little idea of what the prices are in Monrovia:

a box of cereal- $8
a can of tomato sauce -$2.50
a small can of pork and beans -$2
Milk (one liter) - $2
450 g block of cheese- $9
eggs- 6 for $1

Please remember this world-wide food crisis in your prayers. There are so many places in this world that are hungry already, adding a food shortage on top of it will add even more problems. "A hungry person is an angry person."

It has also been a little strange recently, when I can turn on the television here in Yekepa, Liberia, and see images of the flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the International CNN channel. My heart goes out to all who are affected by the flooding, whether that be homes, businesses, farms and crops. I will continue to pray for you also.

I'm Back!

If it seems as if I have fallen off the face of the earth, well that is what it has felt like recently! Team number two has long come and gone, and went incredibly smoothly. They were able to accomplish not only the dining hall but many things in the unfinished dorms as well. They were a great group, from all over the US (Alaska, Georgia, Oregon, Ohio, SC, NC, Florida). Once again we celebrated with a big dinner, and one was crowned the African chief, and another the African body guard- they were ceremoniously "gowned" in the African ware and looked mighty fine!

The last week of their time here I was experiencing extreme exhaustion, and couldn't put my finger on what the problem was. I had talked to my friend who is a nurse here in Liberia, and we were thinking it was that I was anemic. But then I figured out the real problem to my extreme exhaustion, exxessive sleeping, headaches and stomach aches. The fumes from our diesel generator were not escaping up and over the roof, but getting trapped between the tin and the ceiling tiles in our house. So when the winds would pick up before a storm, tiles in my room would blow off and all the fumes were coming into my room. I didn't realize it until I finally found something tall enough for me to stand on to replace the corner tile I couldn't reach all week! It was like an instant change in odor in my room. Not good-oh! So since then we have moved the generator and placed an exhaust pipe that moves the fumes up and over the roof.

The morning we were to return to Monrovia with the team, I woke up with flu like symptoms. I knew I just needed to make it back to Monrovia, get the team off safely and I would be able to rest. I did just that, but as soon as I arrived home from dropping the team off, my body gave in. I fought malaria that whole week, and since my body was already worn down from the diesel fumes, it didn't have any strength to fight the malaria. I'm telling you, it was miserable. I had had malaria while I was in Niger, but it was VERY minor compared to this, and is something I never want to go through again, that is for sure! But I am very thankful that God healed me and i've been gaining my strength back every day.

While I was down with malaria, our Monrovia office had their annual staff retreat. Unfortunately I had to miss out, I had been looking forward to socializing with my fellow staff outside of the office. I was telling my friend Bev that it reminded me of when I was in kindergarten, and I had the chicken pox and had to miss my very first track meet. I was devastated! I begged my mom to just let me go and do the running long jump. She finally convinced me (well I don't know if she totally convinced me) that it was best that I stay home, and it would only hurt to land on my feet with the chicken pox. Oh the memories. So now I have a new memory- the time I couldn't talk or move because I was so sick with malaria... and a new lesson... don't forget to take your doxicycline!

Sunday night, June 1st my third team arrived safely. It is a smaller team, from a church in Arizona. We traveled up to Yekepa yesterday, and arrived safely last night. The school is progressing and I'm happy to be back in the beautiful mountains of Yekepa!

Also, I just wanted to say thank you for all of you who prayed for me while I was sick, and for all of you who prayed for me even though you didn't know I was sick! A few times I heard from people who said I had really been on their heart, and they had been praying for me, and I hadn't even told them I was sick. As my friend Dave says, "prayer is the least you can do for me, prayer is the most you can do for me, and prayer is the BEST you can do for me." And in the words of a Liberian friend, "Prayer is FREE!"

Thanks for those prayers!