Arrived in Yekepa

Today was a travel day so I woke up in the morning and planned what I needed to take along. Since I have one suitcase almost exclusively for the clinic thanks to the generosity of so many back at Country Bible Church. I also passed on the eyeglasses sent from Jeremy and Faith. It’s interesting how prescriptions are filled for glasses over here. I laugh to myself as I write that since I am told most people don’t ever see an optometrist and if they have trouble seeing they try on glasses that help them to see. If one helps they will keep those glasses and their eyes adjust to the prescription. I’m sure there are doctors over here, but the vast population will do what I described due to lack of means. The eyes are less important than feeding themselves every day.

I get sidetracked easily. I was packing and I ended up taking two suitcases and my backpack while Emmanuel and Wintee took a bag slightly larger than a Walmart bag for both of them I believe. That doesn’t mean that we had room in the car. They had so much stuff for the orphanage that Wintee, who allowed me to sit up front, was packed in with everything else. She had things all around her. The original plan was to have Abraham come along as a driver, but those plans changed when the car filled up so much.

We got on the road just before 11:00 a.m. which was really good timing. You never know where you might stop on the way. One stop I’ve always been able to plan on is in Ganta to fuel up at the Total station. Anyone who’s been on this trip will remember that stop. I was also able to connect with an old friend, Abraham Gardour, who lives now in Ganta. It was good to see him again.

In Ganta we went to a store where Emmanuel and Wintee know the owners well. We bought some things there and ended up having some topigee or bitterball soup over rice. It was good. Emmanuel told me if it was truly topigee there would be more peppers in it. I’ve been warned that the peppers in topigee can give some stomach issues so I was glad it was milder than normal. Ganta is the end of the paved roads for the most part and you travel by ‘dusty’ roads as they say. We got as far as Sannequellie, which is about 1/2 way to the orphanage from Ganta, when police waved us off the road. We knew the Liberian President was traveling to Yekepa today as well and we were directed to clear the main road for his passing. It turns out that his plans were to stay in Sannequellie after his visit to Yekepa, but they were clearing the roads. It is a good thing that Wintee’s mom and dad live in Sannequellie so we took the back ‘roads’ to their home and stayed there until we could head out. Once we were able to get on the road we stopped by a school we visited last year to see Wintee’s brother and sister-in-law. While there I decided to go see a group of kids that were staring at me. As I walked over to them it was like a chain reaction that one ran and then soon 6 children were running away from the big ‘white man’. Some of the other, older kids were laughing so hard at them. One brave girl, still younger, maybe 7-8, came up to me and shook my hand so most of the group that ran came back to shake my hand. I love to interact with the kids. I ended up showing them pictures on my phone from home of snow and my family to break the ice. I then encouraged them to ask me questions about America. One question that I got was do I know George Konah? Evidently he traveled to America and lives there now. The concept of how large America is doesn’t set in when their lives are so community connected.

After leaving this group we heard President George Weah had passed our location so we were free to go. We arrived about 40 minutes later. Now as I sit outside typing this on my phone it is very cool outside. The stars are brilliant in the sky. God’s universe is so amazing. The coolness is so different from Monrovia. I’ll take the break from the heat. I’ll see what tomorrow brings in the morning.