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This morning will be our last
day staying with Shadrach and Gertrude.
We will move to the Baptist Compound they are hosting the full Crown
team (7 members). Gertrude,
Shadrach, Jeremiah, Elijah and the others there has been a tremendous
blessing and do an excellent job of helping us. Unlike the United
States, the idea of showing up at the Monrovia airport,
renting a car and finding a hotel room to stay in is only a dream. You need one or more local experts to
help you from the moment you emerge from customs until you are back in the
airport terminal building. There is
as much value in what they prevent you from doing as in what they help you
do. Liberia is not a safe place to
be on your own nor is it a place that the newly arrived would be able to
drive in. So, even though we are so
used to being served well by Shadrach and his family that we forget to say
it, their help is above value and their hospitality priceless.
Dr. Lincoln Brownell is the
President of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary which administers the
Baptist Compound in Congo Town which is on the edge of Monrovia.
Dr. Brownell is also a member of the Pastor’s Committee and is
providing us three nice rooms in the guest house. We will pay for meals and other direct
expenses while here from the STS event budget, which is only proper. The Compound is, literally, an oasis in
the middle of complete devastation.
When you enter the large metal gates (see, Gayla already liked it
before we even went inside) you find a mown lawn, painted Florida style
homes, a view of the Atlantic Ocean and a host who spent significant time
in the United States (obtained his doctorate from Southern Seminary in
Louisville) and understands how to make Americans feel like they are back
home after a day full of sensory overload.
For the first time visitor to Liberia it is a welcome return
to “normalcy”.
As mentioned in yesterday’s
journal, Gayla and I were up all night due to the church next door singing,
praying and preaching until early morning when the Muslims took over with
their morning prayers over the loud speaker. I had laid down again for a few minutes
but Shadrach knocked on the door about 6:00 this morning because we were
supposed to have a second forklift at the water business to help unload the
Caterpillar generator and then to unload and position the refrigerated
container. Shadrach and Jeremiah
took a cab on and said that Elijah would bring me when he arrived
later. Elijah arrived a little
before 8:00 and we left shortly thereafter for the water business. When I arrived everything was just as it
had been and the second forklift had not arrived. Shadrach had called Pastor Wesley about
the ultrasound machine and had agreed to load it onto our pickup and
deliver it to the Greater Love Medical Clinic this morning (that was an
investment of 3 hours and 4 of our men’s time not to mention several
dollars worth of gas – a real change in thinking in Liberia). So bought the forklift driver that was
there a gallon of diesel and he agreed to lift the 850 lb. unit onto the
back of our truck. The unit was
professionally crated in Memphis (where it
was donated) which was a real blessing as shipping sensitive equipment to Liberia
in a container is not a “tender” process.
The good people of FBC Galt, California
secured the donated machine and paid to have it crated. Chuck & Melissa Clark of Murfreesboro, Tennessee
made the drive over and picked up the unit from Memphis.
Now it’s in Liberia
soon to help with the diagnosis of illness in people here who have little
to no medical care access.
I got Elijah to drop me off
at the internet café near the house and Skipper stayed with me there as my
protector. Skipper was our Monrovia administrator for Liberian Ministries and
returned to school at the University
of Liberia last year
when it reopened to complete his accounting degree. He is a second semester junior now. At the café I waited for them to get the
generator started and then the place filled up almost immediately. The connection speed was, again,
dismal. I’m guessing that 5 – 10kps
was all that I received. I uploaded
the updated journal pages and one day’s pictures (about 18 heavily reduced
images) and it took about 2.5 hours.
On a U.S.
dialup connection this would have been perhaps 10 minutes of time and on
cable only a couple of minutes. So
if you’ve sent me an email and I haven’t responded it’s because I don’t
have the additional 5 hours to download right now. Hopefully I can get on a better
connection soon.
After about 3.0 hours Elijah
came back from delivering the ultrasound machine and we went back to the
water business just in time to see the truck pulling out onto the highway
which meant the generator and container were both unloaded (into how many
different pieces I didn’t know). As
it turns out everything was down safe and sound. Moving the container into position wasn’t
too much of a problem as they used an 8” diameter pipe to roll it on as the
forklifts lifted and pushed. Finally
it was in place but on the opposite side from where we had paid $274 to
have the concrete pilings poured.
Now it is resting on 4 wheel rims instead. But it is here and in place and we are
thankful.
Shadrach has hired a big
truck to pick up all the goods that arrived on the container and were
stored at the Seminary. He wants to
go there and wait for the truck so that the contents can be taken back to
the Monrovia
house. Elijah is going to take Dave,
Gayla and me by the Baptist Compound and then he and I will go to the
Seminary to help with the sorting out of items. There are some items for SIM, Mark Carr,
the Baptist Convention and others.
When I arrive Shadrach and Gertrude are looking through the various
items and are very excited about how the school items are going to help the
children at the Village. Gertrude
had earlier told Gayla, “Maybe there will be enough so each child can take
one home”. As it turns out there’s
about 3,000 composition books. They
should go a very long way. All the boys
who have come to help load the items on the big truck are riding around on
bicycles.
The truck arrives and the
loading begins. I take Dave and
Gayla on a tour of the Seminary grounds and we find a cool place under the
trees to sit. Soon Pastor Wesley
arrives for his computer that was shipped.
Then Debbie Sacra arrives with David to pick up all the items for
SIM. Shadrach will take Mark Carr’s
cases of Bibles to him as he lives near the house.
Elijah, Elijah, Jr., David
and I leave at about 3:00 for the airport to pick up the Crown manuals and
Matt Elsberry and Carol Chambers. Matt will help with the Crown conference
and Carol will spend the school year at the Children’s Clinic serving as a
teacher and nurse.
The road to the airport is by
far the best in Monrovia. It is about 30 miles away and we make
good time. We have to stop for gas
along the way and the first place Elijah says they are charging too much so
we move on (the gage shows “E” and people don’t stop and help you along the
road here because every other car is broken down). The second place has gas at $175LD per
gallon which at 58:1 is an about $3US. We make it over to the airport and ask to
go into the DHL office. I had
previously called to ask how late they were open and to say we would pick
up the books late this afternoon. The
DHL person said we would have to pay an $80 fee before we could have the
books. So upon entering the office I
was trying to find out why. “We will
talk about it after clearing customs”, he said. So we went out and looked at the
packages. While doing so I see Ben
Amos, our port broker. He comes
along to “help us” since Dave and I are a couple of white guys that are
about to be taken advantage of. The
manifest said there were six packages and there were six there which looked
alike from the packaging but one had someone else’s name on it. We tried to look through the outside cover
to see if they contained Crown materials but couldn’t see into them well
enough. So we have 5 of the 6
packages. One of the seemingly hundreds
of people standing around turned out to be something within the customs
office. They wanted to know what was
in the packages so after explaining that they were books for the conference
we were having, they asked if there was anything electronic. “No, they are books.” So we had to open them to show that they
were actually manuals for the conference. They took 2 out and we had to walk a
couple of hundred yards down to the real customs office. The guy that has to approve them is
somewhere else so we walk down the hall and he’s in the break room. “Missionary books?” he asks. “Yes.”
“Approve them.” Well, I
think, now we’re getting somewhere. We weren’t. After we returned to the original place
the DHL guy (or someone affiliated with him) takes Ben aside and wants some
money to release the packages. I
tell Ben that I’m paying him $20 to help us and what he does with the money
is his own business. (I am aware
that I was simply transferring my responsibility to another person.) Things were moving very fast and people
were talking and causing confusion and I believe that I made the wrong
decision but felt swept along by the process. Now we go back to the DHL office to pay
our $80 fee (we’ve already paid DHL a fortune to ship them from Nigeria)
but they say it’s a fee from the airport and they have to pass it along to
me. I said I would require an
official receipt and I could tell he didn’t want to hear that. Then he looked in his receipt book and
said he didn’t have any left so he would have to come by in Monrovia and bring it
and collect the money. That was fine
with me. Ben whispered that I could
just give him $60 in cash but I finally took a stand and said no. So far he hasn’t been by.
The next part was even worse.
The bundles of boxes were likely
125lbs each. So I asked about
borrowing a hand truck. “We have
people who will help you.” Now I
could hear the meter clicking again. So there are 3 of them and I give them $1
each. They didn’t look too happy
with that but that’s ½ days wages for most Liberians. As soon as they get outside with the first
bundle at least 25 other young men rush over and start loading the
packages. There’s no stopping them
and I know dollars are flying. Finally
they get them loaded (the back of the truck is full) and I give $3 to the
guy who looks like the head of the group (if you don’t find the leader and
pay him you’ll be pestered by each of them). Apparently 3 of these guys are not “in the
group” and the follow us running beside the truck yelling for their money. We drive around the block and back to the
parking lot and they are still with us demanding payment. So I asked “Who’s the boss here and they
all pointed to one guy”. “Okay then”
and I handed him the $3.
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