Ah the wonders of “just add water” cooking. I reconstituted some freeze dried peaches and mixed up some Aunt Jemima “Complete” pancake batter for some delicious peach pancakes to start the day. Mmm mmm good! Then off to Ganta to meet my friend Nathan about corn growing and poultry feed.
Along the way I asked John 2 to take a short detour to the Baptist Clinic on the north side of Gbarnga. The head of the clinic is a physician’s assistant named Dr. Steve. People in Deanville took me to see him once when I was ill and they felt the “white doctor” would understand me best. I wanted to repay his kindness (please refer to my previous blog and add him to my “angel list”). With Marsha’s connections at Johnson & Johnson we had two “Missionary Packs” full of medications and other J&J products. Dr. Steve’s clinic is known as a quality healthcare provider and supplies are always short so I felt he would be a worthy beneficiary of this medical booty. After a quick photo we were back on our way to Ganta.
I love some of the village names and wonder their origins. Along the way to Ganta we passed through “Tomato Camp”.
My visit with Nathan and Konah, one of the agriculture program teachers at LICC, was interesting and full of potential. We may begin corn farming and LICC would be a guaranteed customer of our harvest. They agreed to match their current supplier’s price. This takes one risk away from this new venture plus has the added benefit of bolstering the supply of poultry feed we buy from them. Konah and his team would teach up to 30 people Liberia-specific effective farming techniques. Throughout the growing and harvesting seasons they would return in a mentoring role with refresher training and advice.
On our return through Gbarnga I stopped to visit Mr. Barbar and buy a few small items to make a plumbing repair in the girl’s bathroom. Mr. Barbar knew I had been here for 2 weeks and wanted to know why I hadn’t stopped by or called yet. He even questioned why I didn’t come with my wife (he knows everything that’s happening in this town!). We chatted for a while and he expressed heightened concern about the corona virus and started requiring his customers to wash hands before entering. Ebola memories are not buried very deeply.
I spent the afternoon with Amelia doing more home visits to complete our community surveys. I met more cute babies that Kathy might have stashed in her carryon bag back to the States.
The sun was again, in my New England vernacular, ” wicked hot!” so we quit before 5:00.
Gbarnga Mission | Liberia - West Africa 