Today we took care of some personal business. This morning was filled with working on some adoption work for a friend. Nothing is simple or easy but our day was off to a long start. Then we headed over to WACSN (an orphange in Monrovia). James dropped us off and we piled into the WACSN van. A half hour into our trip, the van broke down, everyone just sitting calmly like this is normal. They called for another van but it had no seats. Very simple... just transfer the seats from one van to another and that is easy when nothing is bolted down. :) (see picture below)
We drove past the bridge (where the final stages of the war came into the city), past the President' s house, past Freeport and into the slums. We actually see people cleaning up garbage in the city. There aren't as many open sewers here as in Ghana, and not as many people wear the traditional African clothing here – a lot of American influence. The freed slaves from the US came back and started the republic of Liberia. We even saw workers rebuilding the power lines on the main roads downtown. There is a lot of rebuilding going on and the government is paving the main roads. The population of Monrovia is approximately 750,000. The air is very dusty as the north winds bring the dust off the desert. Some people say it's hotter here than in Ghana, but not really. It's in the low 30's some days but cooler nights this time of year. The skies here are cloudy because of the dust coming off the sahara. Everytime you blow your nose it's black!!
Our day of two simple stops became a 7.5 hour trip. James picked us up again at the orphanage and back home. James and Kathleen run a ministry here called Grassroots Ministry. James disciples pastors and Kathleen homeschools their 4 children and also teaches literacy classes to women.
Josh is teaching Chris the basics on his computer and Les is teaching him how to use the camera needed for sponsorship. We thought the day was over until we decided at 7:45 PM to bring Chris home ourselves instead of getting him on a taxi. So James drove us in the dark (not an easy task here!!) to his home so we could see his place – good idea because there was way less traffic. We dropped James off to make a visit and he let Les drive the rest of the way home, enjoying the use of the horn!! :) I wish you could be here to see the sights, hear the horns, smell the air, etc. Actually we can hear the ocean waves crashing at night if all is quiet, that's how close we are! James and Kathleen have been awesome hosts – James is always ready to drive us around and Kathleen has great meals on the table for us all, trying out some Liberian foods.
Here is a picture of changing the seats from one van to another:
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