February 23rd travel day.

Travel time.

Well the last day arrived. Looking back, it’s been a long time, but it feels as if I just arrived. Much like any time away.

Today the only thing on my agenda was to speak at the inauguration of officers at Cyrus’s high school. Of course I just learned about this yesterday so in the morning I needed to prepare for what I would say. I did this and Daniel and I headed out to the Maggie Lamkins Institute. We walked to the junction to get a motorbike taxi. It cost $40 LD to ride us the 1-2 miles to the school. That is around 31 cents USD for both of us. I was told I should be there by 11:00 because the posted time was 10:00 so Cyrus already accounted for ‘Liberia time’. We really didn’t want to be late so we arrived around 10:15. After standing around for 45 minutes or so they told us to head over to the church next door where the service would be held. We did this and we were seated in an area that appeared to be for the choir at the church. It was there the real waiting began. I have learned to be flexible in Liberia, but today I found myself complaining and I really shouldn’t have. The program finally started around 12:45 or so. Their speakers weren’t working so it was rather amusing the switching out of speakers and around 5-8 Liberians working on the sound board. I laugh cause I know from experience when technology doesn’t work it is rather frustrating.

Once it did start between the muffled sounds of a bad sound system, the Liberian accent and my hearing being bad it was an effort in futility to understand anything. Luckily Daniel was there to tell me when I would speak and what was going on. Due to the long delay I already decided to cut my sermon/speech short. I have to say this was the least connected to an audience that I felt in my whole time here. I pray that I encouraged the new officers to lead well.

I thought we would leave after I spoke, but I found out I was to swear the officers in. I was frantically searching the Internet for ‘oath of office’ which I found with the USA presidential oath. A few change of words and I was all set. After I administered the oath Daniel and I left. It was well after 2:00 p.m. at this time. The only reason I cared was that on my last day I selfishly wanted to spend the time with people I knew and not with a crowd that I hadn’t met before and couldn’t understand what was going on. Daniel had to head somewhere else so I got a motorbike taxi back to Emmanuel’s. I had planned on heading to Red Light in the early afternoon, but I wouldn’t have time to do that anymore. That is ok as I know that it’s a crazy marketplace and I’ve seen it before.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting with so many friends and after packing, showering and eating I was ready to head out to the airport. We left around 5:40 and arrived just before 7:00 p.m. Check in went smooth and I am waiting now for my flight to leave in 1-1/2 hours from now at 9:30 local time or 3:30 back home. I am scheduled to arrive in Brussels at 5:05 a.m. local or 10:00 p.m. Friday back home. I leave from there at 11:05 local and 4:05 a.m. back home with arrival in Chicago scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and finally to arrive in Green Bay at 6:23 p.m. that is if all connections and times are met.

Thanks for your prayers as I travel.

Here are some of the friends I said goodbye to.

Cyrus MatthiasWinston Christie, Chris and Maria