sights in Liberia

Today we visited pumps that were installed earlier this year around the Monrovia and Kakata areas in Liberia. The look of the country is very similar to Sierra Leone. The war in Liberia ended when Charles Taylor took over the government and then three years later the country wanted him out so they had to have a bloody civil war again to get him out. That fighting ended 5 years ago and you can see that the people are beginning to rebuild. Mr. Bundor, our contractor on this project has a 19 year old son who is in 7th grade. Elder Greding asked him why he was only in 7th grade and Bundor said they had no school during the war so all the kids are behind. It is little things like this that we don't know about and that contribute to the crumbling of a nation. They are literally starting over.

We drove by a soccer field and saw two teams playing each other. All of them had one leg and one cruch. They were in the military and lost their legs from acts of war. It was really cool seeing them on the soccer field. As we drove down the main road and through the market place I saw hundreds of wheelbarrows that were full of goods to sell. This country uses the wheelbarrow for everything. A person's entire shop can be contained in his wheelbarrow. Not a bad idea because of the ease of moving goods back and forth and being able to search for the better selling location.

In both countries I've been in this trip the Chinese government has been doing massive reconstruction projects. It is a gift from one government to another, but it also comes with an interest in the countries natural resources. After seeing how much money China is pouring into other countries I have lost a lot of interest in supporting humanitarian projects in China. You would think that if they have enough to give millions to other countries that they would also be supporting their own people with basic necessities.

We did 100 pumps in Liberia. One we visited had been taken over by the person who donated the land. He lied and told people that he bought it back from us so that allowed him to charge people money for the water. We gathered the community around and told them the truth. The man wasn't home at the time and he will be surprised when he returns and his neighbors know that he has cheated them out of their money. I hope it is civil but there is a strong chance it wont be. The other sites we visited were functioning great. The water committees were meeting monthly, paying a monthly fee, putting it in a bank account under the communities name and observing the hygiene training they had learned about.

One of the sites that was working well was an orphanage. Most of the kids lost their parents in the war and they were getting drinking water out of an open well that was contaminated and would dry up in the dry season. We walked through the orphanage and played with the kids. This was one of my favorite visits on our trip. They kept the orphanage clean despite it being very simple. I was impressed with their work and the kids seemed happy and content. It was a blessing to be involved with bringing these little angels clean water.

Love ~ Matt