Here are a few photos just for fun: Amelia is 16 weeks pregnant (shown here holding her “Pregnant Woman’s Health Card” from her first prenatal visit to Phebe.) Imagine American women waiting 4 months for their first prenatal visit. Here’s the final school solar set up with the battery bank protected by the plywood enclosure.… Continue reading Photos for fun

I’ve been in a fowl mood all day (yes, that’s an intentional chicken pun and yes, this photo represents me). I’m struggling to move on from, as one Liberian friend called it, “the betrayal” by the chick hatchery. It’s very easy to wallow in my frustration when, in some ways, I’m alone here and no… Continue reading The superfund site option

For those of you familiar with the chicken-centric fast food restaurant chain, Chick-fil-A, you’ll have deciphered the meaning of my blog title. Yes, there has been a delay (“dil-A”). “The best-laid plans of chicks and men” was my other blog title in the running. I made arrangements to visit the farm at LICC (Librarian International… Continue reading Chick-dil-A

Hard to believe it was 28 years ago that you my oldest son, Bryan, put his mother through such pain! And soon he will make me a grandfather. Happy birthday from Liberia!

I jumped out of bed and grabbed a screwdriver, a multimeter, and an idea around 6:30am. The solar lights on the two security booths switched on around 6:30pm. They have both progressively been turning off earlier and earlier, starting from the original off time of around 6:30am to now off about 3:30am. These are both… Continue reading Bottoms up moon

Every day I am visited by Moses. He’s excited to be graduating this year and going into first grade. He does well in math but I still see a great deal of improvement needed in his reading/writing skills. His personal life is becoming increasingly strained now that his grandmother has died. A couple of years… Continue reading Magical catfish

It’s hard to believe that a week from now I’ll be seeing chicks in our poultry house. Tumamee and I went to the BRAC office in Gbarnga today with a pile of cash to pay for 250 day old chicks, three 50kg bags of starter feed, and thirty 50kg bags of “grow feed”…our first flock… Continue reading 1 week countdown to chicks

A very interesting conversation this morning as I sat on the school porch with Tumamee and Patrick. We were discussing the death of Sackie’s wife over the weekend and Patrick mentioned the woman was doing many secret things the family didn’t know. He said she was “in witch” – when an evil spirit inhabits your… Continue reading Being “in witch”