Challenges and Changes

After a frustrating start, and a few challenges along the way, I arrived safely back in Liberia on Wednesday, January 7, just one day later than planned.  The very short version, is that I missed my connecting flight in Lagos, Nigeria, and was stranded at the airport until I was able to get on another flight early Wednesday morning.  Getting stranded in Lagos was a "nice" welcome back to West Africa, and all of the challenges there are in traveling this area of the world.  But it is nice to be back.

Driving from the airport and into Monrovia, I was once again "welcomed" by the Pakistani UN Battalion and their tanks. There were about ten of them heading towards the city.  A fast reminder that I am not in Iowa anymore!

 

A big change in our house, is this little guy... Mr. Bandito.  I'm not a huge fan of cats, and I think this kitten knew that, because I seem to be the one he comes to cuddle with!  Unfortunately we had a small accident with Mr. Bandito and our vehicle the day after this picture... he is alive, but suffering from a badly broken leg. :(  So we are doing our best to nurse him back to health!
One thing that has not changed is the cockroaches. I do believe they are the most disgusting creature of all God's creation.  They range in sizes, but our house mostly has the large ones!  I had someone spray our house this week to get rid of them, and it seems to have brought them out of the woodwork!  This morning I woke up to one crawling on my neck!!! Needless to say I didn't sleep much after that...

Yesterday, Buzz and I needed to make an airport pick up, and decided to go a couple hours early to play a round of golf at the Firestone Rubber plantation.  The course isn't too bad.. a bit rough, and as you can see the "greens' are sand mixed with oil... making it black... but the Liberians call them "browns."

One thing that did not change was the high prices... here is an example to all of you nut lovers out there... a can of almonds for $19! ouch!

I took the time yesterday to relax on our front porch... here is our view:

A HUGE change here is our power situation!  ELWA, the campus we live on, has gotten a new manager recently, and many changes have been made. The biggest one for us, is that we now have power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!  WHAT A DIFFERENCE!  I feel as if life is "normal" when we have power consistently, so it was a big blessing to come back to. They have also returned to ELWA being a "private beach" on the weekends.. so instead of large UN trucks blocking our ocean view, along with hundreds of speedos, well the speedos are still there but the trucks have to be parked at the gate coming onto campus.   So weekends are quieter and not filled with so much traffic.

It has been fun to see everyone I work with at the office again, catching up about the last couple months.  I look forward to what God is going to do with the SP staff this coming year, and excited for the opportunity to document it!