The trip to Liberia is a long one, especially from Alaska with about 21.5 hours in the air plus layovers and a 9-hour time difference. Meeting an old friend at the airport at 11pm was wonderful and we talked a lot on the 30-minute drive into Monrovia. After a couple days rest and acclimatization to the heat and humidity I was ready to go!
I had a short meeting with the LCL leaders explaining our plans for the year and updating them on two new programs we hope to start. One is called the “Big Belly Program” for expectant mothers to teach them about the changes their body is going through and how to care for their growing baby as well as themselves and what to expect as the child grows after birth. The other program is called “Days for Girls”. When young girls reach their first menstrual period it is often difficult and embarrassing for them especially because they have no sanitary method of dealing with it. Often then they drop out of school. This program provides them with reusable/washable pads that they can use. Churches in Alaska have started making these kits and we will distribute over 100 this year. We can use and distribute as many as we are able to obtain. The whole country needs them!!
Before heading upcountry, I also bought $800 worth of medicines for “our” clinic based on a list we received from the “Officer in Charge” of the clinic, OIC. These are in addition to the medicines provided by the Ministry of Health. I’ve been told that this is the best supplied rural clinic in Liberia.
I flew into Kondesu on Friday, Jan. 12 and had a wonderful greeting. Dozens of kids and many old friends. The helicopter quickly left and returned many times with clinic supplies and well materials. We are adding a storeroom to the clinic and building an incinerator for trash. A new well will be installed in town.
In the evening I met with the village leaders to explain this year’s program and enlist their assistance. By 8:00 AM the women and children of the town had already started to carrying sand to the clinic for use in concrete and plaster! They had quite a pile. I met with the Officer in Charge of the Clinic (the head nurse) and we negotiated the scope of work to meet our budget and materials. Then we negotiated with the town people to purchase wood for the clinic. They agreed to continue to work on the bridges serving the town and the clinic.
Church service on Sunday was exuberant with lots of singing I didn’t understand but the drumming I did enjoy. The service was conducted in the Kuwaa language, fortunately there was an interpreter.
Over the next several days, walking between 3 and 6 hours most days, I visited Gatima, Sasasu, Gorwuma, Fassama, Balama and Mauvordor. At each town I was very warmly received and provided lots of rice and soup with various meats and vegetables. I talked to the leaders of each town telling them of our plans for the year and telling them they needed to finish the bridges. This year we are installing new wells in Kondesu, Sasasu, Gorwuma and Mauvordor as well as repairing as many as we can. It seems that the water table is dropping as several of the wells that we installed over the years are now running dry during the day. We install the wells during the peak of the dry season and have always had at least 6’ of water in the bottom at completion. We can “telescope” the problem wells to increase the depth and provide water. Next year we’ll work on correcting this problem on the wells we didn’t get to.
While I was visiting the local village “smithy” in Sasasu I was called me over to a house where they had just brought a young man who had fallen from a palm tree. He was up cutting down palm nut clusters so they could make palm oil. I do not how far he had fallen or how far from the village he was when they found him. He didn’t seem to be in much pain but he could not move his arms or legs or demonstrate any other signs of intact extremity neurological function. I strongly recommended they take him to the clinic immediately but they insisted on waiting a day. Eventually it was a couple days before they transferred him. I did not see him again but as I put various pieces of the story together by the time we came back to Sasasu two days later he did have a very small amount movement. I’d be much surprised if he walks again. I found out later he was very good motorbike mechanic and driver. I expect both he and his family to suffer because of this injury. What we may consider be inadequate and overpriced health care coverage is still worlds better than what is available here!!
Back in the capital city of Monrovia I had missed the inauguration of their new President. He takes over from the first lady president of an African nation. He inherits many of her problems but also many of her achievements. He won overwhelmingly with a large percentage of the youth vote. As long as he can temper their expectations of overnight change he may be able to make positive changes for the country. This was the first peaceful transfer of power in Liberia in 160 years as well as one of the few in recent African history.
I was fortunate to travel to Sanoyea to visit a friend from my time here in 1997-99 who is now the pastor there and doing a wonderful job. Near Sanoyea is the Lutheran Church in Liberia’s Lay Training Center. The Kuwaa Mission is sponsoring 4 student evangelists this session. Over the course of 2 years they receive 36 weeks of training in such classes as Lutheran Church History, Reformation, Old Testament, New Testament, Pauline letters, congregational development as well as reading, writing and speaking. The admit that the classes require much work but they all are excited with the opportunity we have provided.
We continue to help the clinic as much as we can. As you can expect their needs in such a remote location is endless. This year they are questing:
- A 3-bedroom staff housing facility with a commons area. The clinic in Fassama has this same need.
- A 2-bed room maternal housing facility for women coming to give birth (the women usually come from distance villages at 8 months and stay until after delivery. The clinic in Fassama has this same need.
- New placenta pit (we may do it this year if enough materials and someone digs the pit!) The placenta is dropped into a deep pit with a steel cover where it simply decomposes.
- Glucose meter and test strips.
- Dispersing bags (small zip-locks they can put pills into for people to carry home).
- Cheap plastic curtains about 7’ tall for windows. These are easily bought in the markets in Monrovia.
We continue to work on the 30+ bridges between the end of the main road into the area. This road served the area before the war but now most of the bridges are down. Timbers and planks have been cut for most of the bridges and all should be cut soon. Now trees need to be felled and hauled by rope and hand through the jungle to the river, manhandled across the river and then the driving surface installed. No small work but all the villages have assured me that they will complete the work this year. I told the villages that with the work both they and the clinic feel they need we must have the bridges complete to bring the cement and supplies in. Not to mention the economic development that will occur!
As noted above, we have many wells that need to be worked on. While not as expensive as new wells, traveling from village to village to perform a small amount of work on a well is very time consuming, especially when it involves concrete work and the carrying of steel forms. We continue to need your help meeting this most basic of health requirements: safe, potable water. The people keep telling us that because of what we have been able to do the children are indeed much healthier than 8 years ago!!
Several of the villages have very nice churches they have built themselves. Some are only mud blocks without plaster but a zinc roof, some are plastered and some even have a concrete floor to go with all the above. In these instances, the people have carried sheets of corrugated metal roofing and bags of cement on their head for up to 7 hours to get the items to their village.
Most of the churches are very old and crumbling down. This year we sent 18 bundles (20 pieces per bundle) of zinc (corrugated metal sheets) and carboline (a creosote type wood preservative) this year that will go to 6 different churches. I strongly feel that any church in America could easily sponsor a “sister” church and provide the funds for the rehabilitation of the facility. Once the facility is weather tight their needs to not end. All of these opportunities provide a chance for churches and individuals to get involved in the ministry to these wonderful people. Please talk to your fellow church members about these opportunities to serve. The interfaith cooperation in the villages is AWESOME!!!
As with the churches, some of the villages have built a nice school building out of mud blocks with a zinc roof on their own. None of the schools have been plastered. None of the wood has been treated with carboline and termites are a constant problem. Most of the schools are pretty much of the same design: 6 to 8 classrooms with two administrative rooms. They all need chalkboards, chalk, copy books, pencils and teacher supplies. As with the churches these opportunities provide a chance for churches and individuals to get involved in the ministry to these wonderful people. Please talk to your fellow church members about these opportunities to serve. If you do not feel comfortable doing evangelism and would rather get your hands dirty and do actual construction work, and it’s ALL manual labor, here is your chance!
I want to express special thanks again this year to the International NGO “Samaritan’s Purse”. Their continued support of our ministry by providing their helicopter to help deliver materials to the villages has made our life immensely easier.
Special thanks also go to my home congregation, Bethlehem Lutheran, where I grew up in Brush, Colorado. Their support over the years has paid for my travel expenses to Liberia. Thank you so much!
As always, the opportunity to come here and talk, eat, work and walk with the Liberians is a wonderful experience and I’m grateful that I’ve such opportunities over the years. The Lord has blessed us with wonderful prayer and financial partners – that means YOU! Our work would not be possible without each and every one of you.I ask for your continued prayer and financial support and urge you visit with your friends and congregations members to seriously consider adopting a church or school.
Please feel free to contact any of the board members with any questions you may have and/or to express you desire to be part of our mission. We will be able to provide you with a rewarding opportunity to serve!!
On behalf of the Kuwaa Mission I thank you greatly for this opportunity,
Stan Olsen
