The spirit of Sunday

Today started for me with a man on the water tower listening to his radio.  Unfortunately it was only 343 am.  After two tries of asking he finally left.  Nevertheless I was awake.  I spent the next long while texting with my lovely partner.  As we were communicating I heard the first rooster crow of the morning.  Then at 500 sharp the Muslim prayer began.  They are probably the most punctual group in Liberia.  The women who haul water to fill the tanks arrived about 630 and the place just came alive from there.  Sleep over.

I dragged out at about 800 and immediately joined the water hauling crew.  We took three 55 gallon drums to HANDS, an NGO concerned with agriculture and women/child nutrition, where they were kind enough to let us harvest water from their well.  It took about 40 minutes to load the drums bucket by bucket.  We then loaded the water bucket by bucket into the tanks.  Between the women hired to haul water and those of us who just pitched in we hauled 1600 gallons of water.  Hopefully enough to last the day and night.  It is feared we have a plumbing leak, so we will see.  Word is we will have a bore hole dug next week so the hauling can stop.  

After hauling Dr. Joe and I went to the Lutheran church.  Andrew is the pastor and I met him when we took the bikes to Jayproken where he has another congregation.  He was fire and brimstone style without the hateful dialogue.  He preached self reflection and responsibility.  The singing was excellent. Lidya, one of our nurses from Monrovia played the sassa, the gourd with the beads tied around them, her face was beaming and her body was moving. If I have ever seen anyone lost in the grace of God she was it.  Gorgeous.  

Here is a picture of the inside of my room.  Notice the fine shelving courtesy of Dr. Joe, the furniture and creature comfort guru.

This picture is specifically for Jean.  This is Benedictus, the man who devised the garbage separation system- organics, cans, and trash.  Large plastic bottles are saved for reuse in town.  Cans are treated somehow to enhance rusting.  The rest is burned.  Anything we can do to decrease burning is excellent.