It was a horrible disaster

Just a few yards down the street from where we held our farm training class last week a fuel truck veered off the road and turned on its side. Fuel began leaking from the tank. Because of their poverty the villagers came over with buckets to collect the leaking fuel. For a reason that has not been determined the fuel exploded.

Forty one people were instantly burned to death. About another 100 have life threatening burns. The pictures that were sent to me showed charred skeletal remains and many people with 3rd degree burns. Liberia is about the last place in the world you would want to have a serious burn injury. There is no real medical care for them. Already a week later the death toll has almost doubled and is expected to rise significantly. Maybe 180 people when it's all over with.

Even though only two members of the church were injured  the church ended up being the first response to the emergency. We arranged hospital care, found medicine, arranged transportation to the hospitals, paid for doctors and provided food to the village. Now a week later the government has stepped in, even the president elect has visited the site.

 There is a mass grave at the City Hall that's just next to the church. Even today they received 11 more bodies of people who had died at the hospitals.  Many people do not having trust in the hospitals and have gone home to receive traditional care. Sadly these people will probably be ending up in the mass grave.

During the first training class we held last week Cheryl and I passed out the graduation certificates and shook hands. One of those who we graduated died in the fire. The local mayor was one of the opening speakers at the training class. We have spoken a lot to him about a future humanitarian project in his town. His oldest son got instantly killed in the fire.  

On a positive note, on Christmas Day we took a commercial jet from Liberia to Ghana. The next day we went on a bus tour. We drove through part of Ghana then into the countries of Togo and Benin. Here we are at the immigration office for Togo.

There were 16 of us. All senior missionaries, all except for us, worked in the area office in Accra Ghana. The area office pretty much shuts down during the Christmas holidays, so it's a good time for people to get out.

This is where we spent our first night. The lake was low so our hotel room was over land. It had a bathroom with running water and an air conditioner so it was okay.

Our first gas stop was next to one of our churches. One of our group went and took a picture of it and these youth in the church spotted them. They followed them over to our bus to say "hi". They only spoke French.

Voodoo is a big part of the cultures and practices of Togo and Benin. The real Voodoo isn't nearly what we see in Hollywood movies. Actually it sounds kind of wholesome with emphasis on doing good and being peaceful. Part of their beliefs involves Python's. We were at a temple for pythons.

This archway on the beach in Benin designates one of the areas where slaves that were destined to North and South America were marched out and put on ships. This place is known as "The Gate of No Return".  There doesn't seem to be hard feelings towards the nations that purchased the slaves because these countries were both the victims and also the sellers of slaves.

This huge statue pays tribute to the women warrior army in Benin. They flourished during the slave trade era.

It tasted pretty good.

Benin was an impressive country. Far more prosperous than Liberia. They have a huge port and a very flourishing agricultural export trade. Large sections of the major cities were very modern. It was good to see that not all of  West Africa is impoverished.

We had a motor boat ride to a village built on stilts in the middle of a large lake. It provided them protection from tribal warfare years ago. All transportation is by small boat. There are no sidewalks or walkways. We had about a two mile boat ride to the edge of the lake where the developed town is.

The barrels in the boats are how they get water from the water tank on shore to their houses

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On another day we took a boat ride through the jungle on a series of waterways that were cut through the lake vegetation growth.  The young men in the rear powered the boats by pushing on their poles.

This is what you'd expect a typical African jungle to look like.

We went to church on Sunday. The services were in French.

This was inside the chapel. Our group of 16 were the majority there.

Even though Benin was quite prosperous you remember that you're in Africa when you see scenes like this. She had over 20 chickens tied on the back of that transport motorcycle.