In Ghana, Africa, when I first experienced it, I thought to myself, oh this isn't so bad, they have buildings, everything, a big mall, junk food, etc. But when drive into it, it's like ooooooh my, look at these kids walking alone on the streets or they have crippled legs or what about that girl who has only one shoe on. You know? It's overwhelming when we stop in the car because there are plenty of people walking and trying to sell things but they see there are white people so they will stare at you and give you a sad face and it just breaks your heart! But what can we do? Give them money and then what do they do with it? Who knows. Ghana is 10 times different than anywhere I've travelled and I been to a lot of places. It's very dirty, people don't take care of their city. The one thing that broke my heart in Ghana is seeing those kids have so little, they have no mother or no father, no matching shoes or matching clothes, and these kids still have a million dollar smile.
In Liberia, when I first entered Liberia, I knew right away that it needed more help. In my heart I had to let my people know what is going on there. I realized when you are driving in the city or the villages and you see the bullet holes from the war, I can just picture everything and what the war was like. It was like I was a shadow while it was happening ... I can hear bullets and hear the screaming , even though I never experienced the Liberian War, but I just heard stories. It's amazing that I get to see that and experience it. There was one man, he was our waitress and his name is Joseph. The rebels caught him and and his family in the war. He had to suffer watching his sister get oil poured on her and getting a lighted match thrown on her and his family hearing her screaming and suffering from burning to death. If any of them said anything, they will be dead! After, she died from burning to death. It was the family's turn to go and suffer. The rebels brought the family down to the ocean, but someone distracted them and they got away. They are safe today and living and worshipping Jesus.
In Liberia, there are people that sell water for 5 LD (Liberian Dollars) that is like 7 US cents. I asked a young lady, How much water do you sell a day? She says about 25 waters. So 25 x 5 equals 125 divided by 72 to get US$ that equals to about one dollar a day, that is not even enough to live!
I seen and visited a lot of houses in Monrovia. I wouldn't even call them houses, I would call them dumps. I don't think I would even let my dog live in the houses. There is one family they don't even have floors, it is just dirt. They sleep and live in dirt like that. Disgusting.
I can tell the war has messed up their country but they are trying to make it better. Try to find and job and don't suffer or else they make it worse and worse.
These three girls were digging in like a tree trunk and I went over to see what they were doing. They said they were finding food. I was like, what kind of food? They showed me and I almost threw up because it was like worms that looked like maggots and they put it over their rice to eat!
We went to the red light districtn and we asked should we be worried about our stuff getting stolen. Chris and Maurice told us no, no, nooo. We said, why so sure? They said if they do, they will put a tire that is on fire and put it over them as a consequence.
To conclude, I personally think Liberia needs our help more than Ghana. Why? Because they are suffering from the war, they are suffering from low poverty, to me they are suffering from everything! Monrovia looks like a dump site. The pictures you see look nothing like what we saw, because you don't smell what we smelled out here, you don't feel, you don't see with your own eyes, you don't hear people begging for your help and taste the dust that floats in the air and enters in our mouth. Liberia is a poor country. Period! But what can we do to help? We can first help the people money wise. Yes, we did that. We helped some people set up small businesses. Next, we can help them learn how to build houses and get clean water, maybe even give them matching clothes, clean the garbage, there is plenty we can do. But a lot of Canadian sit on there and spend their money on themselves. Turst me, I was like that. I loved spending money on myself, but after I experienced all of this I want to help. I want to come back here and help these kids, these people. They are begging for our help. You just have to look in their eyes or hear them asking, listen to them, don't ignore them; if they need our help, we should give them our help and attention. It will take a lot, but if all of us can pitch in, we can make Liberia a better place and they will teach others. Little comes a loooong waaaaaayyyy... don't ever forget it! Whatever you give, may God bless you bigger, may God bless you with something else, you don't know that, God does though and He will bless you.
Ariel Gienger
Ariel with some kids at an orphanage in Liberia.
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