The Trapani's in Liberia

  We were invited to the Bushrod Island Stake Self Reliance training graduation. In America we were lucky to get just a handful of people for an entire stake for self reliance training. They had to limit enrollment.  People graduated in soap making, pastry making, sewing, general self reliance, finance and starting your own business.  The church provides the instructors, the materials, the place to meet and a meal afterwards. The entire program is free. It's very difficult to establish programs that are actually effective here. Everyone is so poor, resources are so limited, and there are so many circumstances you have to work around. This program appears to be working well. There are only a few businesses here so when people graduate they immediately start their own small business. Classes are only held in those areas where there is an actual demand. A pastry making business can be quite effective here. Many people don't do their own cooking. There are lots of small cooki...

  Many things we've done on our humanitarian mission these last few weeks seems like they've been assisted by heaven.  For example, the shop that builds the desks that we donate to schools hasn't been able to keep up with the demand. It's critical that we have all the desks in place so that we can finish the project and the contractor can get their final payment. We Need 200 more desks in three weeks in order to be able to complete the project. Our current contractor could only commit to 60.  We got a unsolicited phone call the other day from a wood shop owner who said he would like to do business with us. He brought by samples of his chair. The quality of construction surpassed that of our current contractor. The price was the same. He has the capacity to produce all the chairs we need in the time required. On Monday we will give him his first order of 140. Another example was, we were requested by the principal in one of our school projects to install fans in all of t...

 It's been 4 days since the election and no riots, fires or disturbances. Only 25% of the results are in so maybe when all  the votes are counted some of the losing candidates will claim fraud and start some disturbances. Our only precautions are to stay away from any crowds and come into the apartment a little bit earlier each night.  Unfortunately the preliminary results look like no one will get a majority and so the top two candidates will have a runoff in about a month. That means we will go through intensive campaigning and marches all over again. We have sat in a lot in traffic because there are usually so many marchers and campaign vehicles that they block part of the street. This is typical Liberian operations. The local politician arranged to have the hospital get a second ambulance. It is the large one on the right. Because it's so much bigger it uses a lot more gas and the hospital cannot afford to run it. So it just sits there and they use the small one. It h...

This is the Kpallah school cafeteria kitchen. You adjust the heat by shoveling more charcoal in. Everyday the menu is rice with something mixed into it. The food is provided by a charity from America. Without the free lunch School attendance would be a lot lower.  We returned to the Kpallah school to put our sign on the building we constructed. The kids all wanted to be in the picture. We had another closing ceremony at Gloria children home orphanage. We remodeled the two dormitory buildings with new electrical, ceilings and roof repair This is the completed cafeteria and food storage area. We constructed a three toilet bathroom. You flush the toilets by pouring a bucket of water into the commode. The old toilet filled up and became so decrepid that no one would use it. We also fixed one of their two wells that had become non-operative. Here is a close up of our sign. We make sure we state who will maintain the building.  Otherwise people forget that our commitment was for the...

  We save a lot of money on our mission because there's not much to buy here and anything you want to buy has to be able to fit in your suitcase to bring it home. Cheryl did find these cute dolls to give to our children. You can't see it but on the back of the women is a baby that's carried in a traditional wrap. These dolls were custom made for her. They're about 10 in tall and cost $10 a piece.  The lady who sold them to us must have thanked us at least five times for the purchase. She was really grateful to make a sale. The other thing we buy, and the church reimburses us for it, are signs that we put on our projects when we are finished. The wording is meant to convey the message that the recipient is in charge of the maintenance. The signs are made out of aluminum and only cost $25. We will fasten them to the side of the buildings that we either remodel or build. Our other expense is about $140 a month for groceries. Grocery shopping has been a pretty good experien...