Gbarnga Mission | Liberia – West Africa

A little over a week ago our new friend, Lyn Gray, from Liberia Reads came to visit with Sumo and our teachers. She toured the GLTC campus and discussed program details. I asked if she would take a few photos for me so I could get an update on the new library bookshelves being made and to see how foundation work by Lavela’s crew was coming along.

Here’s the beginnings of our library with some of the books we’ve been shipping there over the course of my last couple of trips. I’m very pleased with how they turned out and excited to see shelves starting to fill with reading material. Our next step is to construct window awnings using “clear zinc” (clear corrugated roofing) to prevent the driving rain during the rainy season from spoiling the books.

Foundations for the poultry structures are looking good. There will be three 2-room chicken houses for a total of six pens that will accommodate 1,500 birds – that’s a lot of eggs! We’re also building a feed storage and egg processing building. The buildings are arranged in a square configuration with each having a porch such that workers can walk around the entire complex under the protection of covered walkways. This will be quite valuable during the rainy season as sacks of feed are distributed and trays of eggs are collected. A drive-thru porch will allow the truck to load/unload without getting wet. In the last photo you can see our water tower in the distance (top right corner). Pipes will be run directly to the feed storage building which will also have a small office and bathroom for the farm manager, Tumamee, and his staff. With future funding we can pipe a water spigot to each chicken house to make watering easier and more sanitary. We’ve already made arrangements with the local carpentry shop in Gbarnga to acquire their saw dust and wood shavings – for free – to cover the pen floors. I can’t wait to see the first buildings go up once our Rotary funding is in place early 2018.