Last night was a rather restless night with intermittent sleep after not feeling well from my dinner. One of my Liberian “friends” kept me visiting the bathroom. By noon I felt fine but took Imodium anyway to prepare for the 3 hour ride from Monrovia to Phebe where I’m staying tonight. Although I didn’t each much, I enjoyed my last breakfast with Reinhard (my previous post was wrong…I called him Sebastian…that’s another German at the LCL compound). He has done some amazing projects in Cambodia where he worked for 5 years with World Vision. He started the craft project of creating crosses out of bullet casings after the civil war in Liberia and has brought them to Kofi Annan, the president of Germany, and George W. Bush. Also developed agricultural and literacy programs in Papua New Guinea.
I met with our contractor, Sam Bundo, for over 2 hours to discuss details of the building drawings. Some design changes will be made to fit “Liberian standards” and we prioritized his time over the next couple of months. First order of business is buying tools and supplies to construct a temporary “warehouse” where supplies can be stored safely and 8 workers can sleep…it’s really half warehouse/half guesthouse. One of the issues with contractors is that most do not have any tools…if you have the tools, they have the skills. So 20 shovels, 20 masonry trowels, wheel barrows, a 5kV generator, etc. will be required before his crew can start. Unfortunately, that means a shopping trip back in Monrovia with a truck large enough to carry all of this.
I departed for Phebe around 2pm. A good portion of the road has now been paved but there are significant stretches that just rattle your teeth. Here are some photos from the truck as we drove… you;ll notice the rubber tree plantation which is part of Firestone which has been in Liberia for decades.
I’m a bit tired tonight so this will be short…tomorrow I can share what my guest house is like.
Gbarnga Mission | Liberia - West Africa 