and the anchor holds

and the anchor holds

Another Interesting Day in Liberia

I wrote this letter back in May 2006. I thought it would be interesting to put in this blog.

I went shopping today with Wanda for building materials for one of the schools we are working with. On the way out, past the first gate to get out on the main road, I saw a man walking towards our ship carrying a child. The child was maybe five years old. He must be very ill and the father was bringing him to see our doctors, I thought, as we made our way into the morning traffic. It is a good mile walk to the ship from the main road. At the store I discovered that I forgot my money, ( not a good thing in an all cash society). So we made our way back to the Anastasis. Going past the first gate towards the ship again I see the father with the chld, but this time he is running away from the ship and the child was limp in the fathers arms. I noticed a very swollen belly on the child. I am sure the child died in his fathers arms. If I could have taken a picture of that very moment, the look of despair on the fathers face it would have made the cover of News Week.
Wanda and I continued our shopping by making a stop at the lumber yard, located in the middle of the gerenal market. A very busy place with heavy traffic. We inched our car along until we were almost at the lumber yard turn in, when we saw a large crowd standing in a semi circle near the street. People were staring down at a man that was beaten to death. He layed there with a piece of cardboard covering the lower half of his body. Sometimes the body will lay for days before someone picks it up. Where does it go in a country that has no electric? I do not know. Bodies are often time not claimed because there is a burial expense for the family.
Today I thought I was 'just' going to the store. This is a non thinking event for me, I like to shop. But 'today' God showed me Liberia through the eyes of an Liberian. I saw death, a dead child, a broken father, a man laying in the dirt from a violent death. I saw hopeless, decay, crowded unsanitary conditions. I saw saddness, heartache, struggles that of the world poorest of the poor. Today was not a day to be forgotten by me. Everyday happenings? Maybe.....for Liberia

I am still alive

I am still alive. I just have not written in a long time. I have spent all of 2006 on the Anastasis in West Africa. First in Liberia and presently in Ghana.
Since coming to Africa in Nov 2005, I have worked various jobs all over the ship. I have been been the recepetiontist, artist for the child delevoplment program, ships steamstress, and more, too much to write about.
I have asked God for work in the arts. Guess what? I have done many paintings since then.
Africa was a wonderful surprise for me also. I dearly love Liberia and her people. Liberia has been free of a fourteen war since 2003, but still has not recovered from its hardships. Water and electric are big problems for most of the population. Children are every where with half the population under fourteen. Our medical staff treat the huge tumors that come in daily. Wells are being dug, schools are being built, teachers are being trained, dental teams work daily to treat and extract teeth by the thousands.
The heat never lets up as it daily beats on the land and her people. People smile, never fail to call a greeting, love to touch and sing, are who are so grateful for anything you can do for them, without them asking. They love to return and honor all acts of kindness.
I have walked everywhere, I come to love the sounds, sights and smells! Dancing which I love, is a big part of the African culture. I am so comforable here, fear never enters the picture here for me. I still see pieces of the old world with their belief system in the witch doctors, and other acts that are to appease the gods. Change is slow here, but change is everywhere. It is not only the changes of Liberia that is happening but also in me. Slowly I have come to love the simple life, the jungles, the bush country, the mud huts, the bare feet, the fish and rice dishes, the drums beating sound, the cattle walking everywhere with out fencing, the goats in the market place, the fisherman swimming in the rivers, the emtpy buildings that thousands of people now call home. The needs are so great, it can be over whelming it can stop you all together. I am glad to be here, to have this experience and to carry this back with me to the place I call home. I sometimes feel I have two homes now after spending seven monthes here. Who could have guessed that I would come to love it here so much. Only God knew!!!