Wired

Transportation Safety

When my kids were little there was a TV show on called “Magic School Bus”.  It was about the adventures of the teacher Mrs. Frizzle and her class as they navigated through amazing science adventures all while riding on the Magic School Bus. At the beginning of each show as the theme song played Mrs. Frizzle called out “Seatbelts, everyone!”  As we drive around here it often appears as if no one in Liberia has even heard of seatbelts!  They ride around in the most unsafe ways.

Flowers at the Office

Here are a few of the beautiful flowers that I found around the office when we first came to Liberia.  I especially loved the beautiful deep pinky red plumeria tree (seen at the bottom of these pictures.) I love the tropical flowers you can find around Liberia!

Well Used

Alma 17:2–“...They were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.”

The skies of Liberia

So far in the 3 1/2 months we’ve been in Liberia I have found that beautiful blue skies are not the norm.  The skies so far have been quite regularly cloudy and gray with the blue trying hard to break through.  Although I personally am not a fan of gray skies, I will admit that the Liberian cloudy skies have a lot of character. If I was a painter I think these skies would be one of my favorite subjects.

Wash Day

Laundry in Liberia is just a little different than home.  First of all, that’s true for me because even though here in Liberia I'm lucky enough to have both a washer and a dryer, I do only have one plug in the laundry room.  I can wash or I can dry, but not both at the same time.  I know, horrible, right?  First world problems for sure as I see what they have to do for their laundry here in Liberia.

They spend many hours hand scrubbing on a small scrub board in brightly colored plastic bins full of suds (with water that they probably pumped from the local well), wringing things out by hand and then hanging them up to dry on the line...or laying them out on the lawn...or on the roof...or even over a fence to dry.  It’s got to be especially frustrating in the rainy season when you hang all your clothes up to dry and it starts to pour!  Now what was I whining about with my single plug in the laundry room?

Welcome!

Liberia gets a lot of rain, something like 180 inches a year.  With all that rain I often think it would be nice to step through the door and onto a rug you could wipe your feet dry on. Most of the time, though, instead of a nice little rug you get what's pictured on the left: a sopping wet, dirty, nasty, wadded up towel to wipe your feet on, which of course does nothing for getting the wet and dirt off your feet.  After trying to wipe my feet once again on one of those awful towels I snapped a picture of it to send to my kids, thinking “Someone should really find a real floor mat in this country!”   And then, as if someone actually heard my thoughts, this (pictured on the right) showed up at the mission office the next day! It’s funny how the littlest of things can make your heart happy!