Stayed home today.

I’m falling into a routine while being here. I find myself sleeping a little more, which is nice, and feeling quite rested during the day. Today was one of those routine days, waking up, showering, eating breakfast, which was homemade pancakes, and then watching all that happens around Emmanuel’s home while I read and studied outside. It was a very relaxing day.

The afternoon was nice having a chance to visit with Heather and the girls as well as Jenny. I’ll be contacting the rest of the family in days ahead. I found some lizards to show the grandkids so I’ll be sure and show the others when we talk.

One thing I don’t think I’ll ever get over is the kids interest in someone different. While studying today a group of students from a nearby school came to the water pump to get a drink. As they goofed around they kept watching me, waiting for me to say something or react in some way. So, I started talking with them and within a few minutes I had 10 or so children crowded around me looking at pictures on my phone of snow back home, deer and grandkids. They wanted to see whatever pictures I had to share. As they broke up the group started the normal pushing and laughing that kids will do. It was nice to have that break from reading.

In the evening I knew I would be leading the Bible study so I finished up my studying and then headed over to church. A couple of girls, twins, arrived a little early so I took their picture along with Meko’s son, Asher. The twins names from back to front are Praise and Praises. They use many celebratory names like Marvelous who I wrote about before.

After church, at 7:30 or so it was dark and I thought we would walk back across to Emmanuel’s home, eat something and relax before bed. I was informed, however, that a local pastor’s mother-in-law was in a local hospital called ‘Kingdom Care’. I didn’t catch her name, but she has diabetes, hypertension and some other thing that caused her to almost die, but she is improving I was told. This in itself was not a surprise. I’m used to visiting and praying with people who I don’t know and they don’t know me. What made this almost funny was we finally found this hospital using Liberian (old fashioned) GPS by asking people passing which dusty road we needed to travel to find the hospital. As we arrived and Emmanuel parked the car we got out, put our masks on and the lights all go out. Liberia Electric Company again failed to remain on. We weren’t deterred as we used our phone lights, went upstairs and sat and visited and prayed for this lady. We left the room and as we got back to our car the power came back on. We drove home only to find that LEC once again was off at Emmanuel’s home. With the noise of the generator in the background I write this with the boys watching a soccer match on the tv, unfazed by the initial lack of power and the switch to the generator. This too is Liberia. I’m coming to understand it myself. I’ll see what tomorrow brings.