The Trapani's in Liberia

Today we were invited to speak at the Bushrod Stake Conference. This picture is 15 minutes before the conference started. People get here early. The talks, the choir and the format of the meeting is just like in America. The only thing different is that all the people in the audience are very very poor. Probably a third of them cannot read. Nobody's very old because medical care here is very modest. Everyone is dressed respectfully but in second hand clothing. These people seem a lot more cheerful than Americans.  The conference was great. Inspiring talks. Their was a great spirit in the meeting, we were glad we were there. Many of the wards in the stake will rent a bus to take members to the conference. They are  humble busses and never have air conditioning. There were several busses parked down the side street also.  This is the stake center parking lot. Other than our truck and the mission president's car there was only one car here for the entire stake. To get to the...

  We visited our project at Tubmanburg Government Hospital. It's about two and a half hours away from here. The picture is some of the equipment that we supplied. Lots of beds and cribs and lots of basic medical care equipment such as incubators and ultrasound machines. We also put a new roof on part of the building and new doors and new windows for most of the rooms. We replaced all of the broken tiling throughout the building.  This is almost a perfect project. The contractor performed well. The things the hospital needed should make a significant improvement in their ability to help the community. The building improvements and equipment additions should last for a long time. We were asked to speak at "The Gathering" graduation ceremony. The gathering is a job training program where the church supplies instruction and supplies free of charge to teach young single adults employable skills. For Liberia those skills would mean soap making, pastry making, beauticians, compu...

  This is the temperature outside of church today at 11 a m. Because of the high humidity it had a "feels like" temperature of 108 degrees. The church has no electricity and only a modest amount of windows. It was hotter inside than outside.  I've had lots of good experiences here in Africa. Comfort in Church is not one of them. During the second hour of church Cheryl has been meeting with the primary. It's out on the patio so it is a little cooler if there is a breeze. With her cell phone she plays the music for the primary over a small speaker that we bring. We had a picture painted for us. It's the African version of the Book of Mormon story of the Tree of Life. It was painted by an award winning and pretty renowned artist in the country. Unfortunately for him there is not much of a market for good artwork when everyone's just trying to feed themselves. He cannot support himself on his artwork alone and so he also is a farmer. We are having a challenge with...

Today was general conference. Because no one has Internet or even a smart phone everyone comes to the church to watch conference. Even with the fans it was so hot. When the speakers finish the congregation all joined in with a loud amen. When the Tabernacle choir sings a song that the congregation knows they all join in.  For the closing song the choir sang "We Thank thee O God for a Prophet". It was touching to hear the congregation sing along with them. There was a nice spirit in the meeting.  The Dolo's Town Branch joins with the Harbel Branch for the meeting. Afterwards they take a traditional picture. Cheryl is in the back on the left hand side. I took the picture.  This was a pretty good turnout when you consider that everyone had to walk, it was really hot and at best they can only understand about one half of what the speakers say because they're not used to American English We had a turnover ceremony where we officially completed our project with the city of ...

This is a lady in the Harbel Branch. Cheryl found her a pair of reading glasses that was her correct magnification.  She was quite happy.  Every Saturday we sweep and mop all the tile floors in our apartment and on our balcony. They are surprisingly dirty. This time of year there's lots of air pollution from burning of fields and dust because it's the end of the dry season. I have to change the water in the bucket about six times because it gets so dirty. The balconies are really bad. We never have our windows open and yet it gets dirty inside. This was the temperature during our church time today. 90 degrees with a feels like temperature of about 108 degrees. Luckily they had fans inside of the building so there was a little relief. The surprising thing is that some members of the branch had suit coats on. When we get home from church we are tired. Ansu Dulleh, the executive director of the National Disaster Management Agency made an appointment with us to get acquainted. The...

 We are buying a trash pickup vehicle for the city of Totota.  This is the one they want. Diesel powered with a three ton lifting and dumping capacity. The problem is we just can't directly buy it. The purchasing department in Ghana has to purchase it through one of our registered purchasing companies in Liberia who then have to purchase it from the actual store. The problem is that a few weeks ago they had 7 and now they're down to two. There is no new shipments for a few months. The city would really like the vehicle before the rainy season starts in one month. They have lots of old piles of trash to pick up. We are also purchasing them twenty four sets of rain boots, shovels, raincoats and 12 wheelbarrows.  5 years ago in Timor Leste we taught English classes. The couple after us did the same but no one has done it since then. A new senior missionary couple has started them up again. It's been hard there because of visa restrictions. Couples can only stay there for 30 ...

This pepper is called pepe. A hot pepper that's extremely popular here. Many of the farmers in our farm training project are raising it as one of their crops. It has good resale.  The farmers either sell it themselves at local markets or bag it in larger quantities and sell it to wholesalers.  Currently we're in the dry season and it's harder to grow so prices are higher. One of our project's training topics was field location selection and watering techniques. When done properly you can raise a good crop in the dry season. Farmers usually struggle to afford seeds for future crops. Our training class taught them how to efficiently produce their own seeds. The effective farming techniques the participants learned  has allowed them not only to produce productive farms but as a byproduct they are able to hire a lot of the local villagers. Here are the villagers weeding. Villagers make about $3 a day and have their lunch meal provided.  Few of the fields we visited were ...