Morning activities

Mornings in Liberia

I have the privilege of waking up each morning to the bustle of the morning chores. In addition to sweeping the dirt to remove the previous days garbage from the compound (it does give it a fresh look), you will see children carrying water buckets on their heads to gather the household water

and some do the laundry early to avoid the heat of the day. Here is a picture of Christie doing her laundry.

I saw a gentleman walking around selling brooms specifically made to sweep the dirt. Not really a rake, but sturdier than a regular broom. If there’s a market for something there will be a product for sale. I guess you’d say this is Liberian capitalism. I won’t get into politics, but it is interesting how that concept works in Liberia. They definitely model themselves after the USA.

Earlier I decided to take a walk by myself with my camera. I don’t have access to the SD card with my phone so I cannot share those photos here. Anyway, I walked east of Emmanuel’s home this morning by myself. For Jenny’s benefit this was the direction that Jenny, Tessa and I walked in 2014 past a large church when it started to rain. Emmanuel and Wintee had left early in the morning to go somewhere and it was a nice morning to go for a walk. I was greeted by many as I walked. Some curious as to what this obvious foreigner is doing walking around their community and others greeting me as if I was one of their neighbors. The children liked to get my attention and would like to shake my hand. The handshake is a big thing in Liberian culture so the kids wanted to be able to shake with the white man. I know I am a novelty now and the longer I am around I truly will be just one of the community. I walked a long ways and was getting hot as even in the morning it is around 80 degrees. I came to a turn in the road and I stopped at a roadside market or center where an older man was sitting under the awning of the porch. He had an extra chair there and he invited me to sit and talk with him. Although most Liberians speak English it is mixed with their colloqua that make communication difficult sometimes (most times). Even though the base language is the same the differences are still great. Last night I was told that one way to say you are hungry is that ‘my teeth are sharp’, but I’ll try to represent this phonetically, they say ‘ma tee ar shop’ but you almost don’t hear the ‘p’ sound. I know that’s not easy to hear through writing, but I want to give you a sense of the difficulty in understanding especially when I don’t know the colloquial sayings.

Now back to this older man, Anthony Eke, we talked for a few minutes as I rested and many children came around to either argue with him or stare at me. After 10 minutes or so I left to head back to Emmanuel’s house. About halfway back I met 3 children from around Emmanuel’s house. Princess was worried so she sent the kids to look for me. I do appreciate the care. I teased her about worrying when I returned. I think because Emmanuel and Wintee were gone she felt responsible as she is the main person to keep the home.

When I got back Princess had ‘tea’ and breakfast ready for me. The tea is Ovaltine with powdered milk and sugar. My breakfast consisted of spaghetti with some bread.

After breakfast as I sat down to type this some

members of the church came over to wash all of the sanctuary chairs for church. They keep them stored and locked away to prevent theft. In the dust the chairs get dirty over time. Such a great way of serving that others may not recognize. All churches have faithful people serving behind the scenes and it is good to be reminded that all service to the King is needed.

I just wanted to give a little more cultural update this morning.

I had to go back and add the pictures that didn’t upload. The upload speed here must have prevented them from uploading completely. Take a look back for the ones that were missing.