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Today is the day for the senior class graduation. Actually there will be no official
graduation today as the Education Ministry did not get the test scores
published and have threatened any school that graduates seniors prior to
receiving their test results with a $1,000 USD fine. I can see their point in not giving out
graduation certificates when you’re not sure that the student actually
passed the government required standardized test. But I can also see a case like the
Children’s Village school where parents have saved and prepared for one
of the biggest events of their children’s lives and suddenly have to put
it on hold because test scores were not processed by the date they promised. The cost of the 7 U.S. guests that have
attended is over $20,000 by itself.
That’s just for this one, small school. So the answer is to have a “recognition
of the senior class” but not an actual graduation. They are very clear on multiple occasions
that this is not a graduation. The
can graduate the 26 Kindergarten II students however so this is a major
event in and of itself.
So we get up this morning to the standard breakfast
of baked bread and hot tea. This
morning the bread comes to us hot out of the “oven” so to speak. It’s warm and good. We sit on the porch nearest the kitchen
and watch the ladies working around the various fires. As usual there is a lot going on. Another huge pot of rice is being
cooked, palm nuts are being pounded and cassava greens are being
sliced. While this is going on
they are also cooking the normal fried bread for everyone else to have at
breakfast time.
We’ve learned a few tricks about when service is
actually starting as opposed to when it is advertised to start (anywhere
from 1 – 2.5 hours later). First
of all, until they crank up the generator nothing of significance is
going to happen because the wireless microphone doesn’t work. So don’t go until the generator
starts. The next test is if the musicians
have left for the chapel yet. If
they haven’t left, nothing of significance is going to occur. Finally, if the two pastors (Shadrach
and E. Harrington Wessah, Sr.) have not left, nothing
of significance is going to occur.
This morning the 10:30am start time is nearly noon. So we ease up there just about the time
the pastors start up.
Today is a huge event. A celebration of what they call the “Kay
Gee” 2 graduation and the first ever 12th grade class at the
school. Fred is the featured
speaker but, as we will find out, everyone asked to say “a word” will
turn into a featured speaker.
Here’s the program as per the handwritten and
duplicated multipage brochure proposes (I’ve photographed each page of
the program and included it in the picture section for today):
Order of Service
1.
Processional –
Kg Graduates and Choir
2.
Opening Song –
Praise and Worship Team
3.
Invocation –
Ms. Susannah Jah/Instructor
4.
Welcome
Remarks – Joseph K. Anomah, VPI/Chairman, CAPE
5.
Selection –
The Choir
6.
Presentation –
Pre-Primary Division
7.
Valedictory
Address – Tina Sahyee, Kg II
8.
Offering/Offertory
– Congregation
9.
Presentation –
Jestine K Dweh/Instructor
10.
Recognition of
1st 12th Graders – Presented by Sponsor – G. Elton
Dennis
11.
Prayer of
Thanksgiving – Rev. George Palmah
12.
Presentation
of Kg Graduates – Ms. Wee (sponsor)
13.
Awarding of
Certificates
a.
Sis. Lynn
Riley
b.
Mr. Joseph K. Anormah
c.
Ms. Syvena j. Wea, Sponsor
14.
Introduction
of Guest Speaker – Rev. Shadrach K. Saywon, Founder
15.
Selection –
Choir
16.
Address – Rev.
Fred Edwards/USA
17.
Academic
Report – Rev. E. Harrington Wesseh, Sr.
Principal
18.
Song – Praise and
Worship Team
19.
Statement – F.
Clinton Gaborlue, 12th Grade
a.
Remarks
i.
PTA Chairman
ii.
Board Chairman
iii.
District
Education Officer
iv.
District
Superintendent
v.
Founder
20.
Announcements –
The Principal
21.
Closing Song –
The Congregation
22.
Benediction –
Rev. Alfred Saywon
Today they have all the “International Guests
seated in the front along with all the visiting dignitaries, etc. The chapel is absolutely packed with
all the children, except the graduates, having to stay outside so that
there would be room for adults.
Even then many adults stood outside and looked over the walls to
see the service.
The service took care of the morning worship,
school chair fund raising and the graduation, all in one short 3.5 hour service J.
Fred was the featured speaker and I think he was
also the shortest speaker. But I
understood why everyone wanted to be a part. This is a BIG deal in Sinoe County as the only other 12th grade
school is in Greenville.
Our plan has been to get up and leave at daybreak
tomorrow morning. But not long after the service starts Shadrach comes to
me and whispers that one of the guests has a government document saying
that some of the bridges between the Children’s Village and Monrovia will
be removed beginning tomorrow and will not be passable again for 10
days. Shadrach says we should
leave immediately after the service.
This certainly changes our plans.
Of course then we sit through another 3 hours of events wishing
that everyone would be brief. No
one but Fred is. I try to stay
focused on the graduation but my mind is one getting started back to
Monrovia. If I had just stopped
and thought for a moment I would have realized that almost nothing starts
on time in Liberia which, I’m sure, also means construction projects. Once the ceremony is completed we rush
down to pack only to hear Shadrach say that we’re leaving at 5:30pm. That’s 2 hours away but still likely to
be questionable given the way things typically go. So we pack everything as quickly as
possible and make it ready for loading into the truck. Then we eat a bowl of rice with palm
better and chicken over it.
One thing that drives me crazy about Liberia is the
failure to plan ahead by most people.
The morning after we arrived the front
tire on the Toyota leaked down.
You would have thought that it would have been fixed before now
but apparently not. So key people
are tied up fixing a tire rather than getting ready to leave. Also both our truck and the Toyota have
been sitting there ready to fuel since we arrived but it’s only now that
the fueling is being done. This
kind of stuff kills me. When an
emergency does spring up a ton of other problems get piled on top of it
due entirely to lack of planning and discipline (I’ll take my share of
the blame for not telling someone to fuel our truck). As we’ll find out later there was
another major job that should have been done while we were relaxing
during our stay but this was left for even later.
Finally everything is fueled, fixed and ready for
loading. Our bags are put into the
trucks along with a live duck and 10 more people then were with us when
we left. Anytime a vehicle leaves
for Liberia everyone that can possibly fit in wants to go (and they can
fit a lot into a vehicle in Liberia).
So now we have about 1,500 more pounds of going back than we came
out with. And this in overloaded
vehicles making a 15 hour (as it turns out) trip over incredibly rough
roads. Oh well, it’s no wonder
vehicles here are completely ruined in such a short time.
We’re off and excited that we will go through the
very worst of the mud holes while there is still daylight. But the balance of the trip back will
be during the dark time. We make
really good time from Karmo Town to the first
turnoff but the roads begin so get bumpier and more
muddy as we go. The, by
far, longest segment is from the turnoff to Buchanan. This part will be approximately 10
hours. The grueling part begins
and you quickly are reacquainted with every sore part of your body
(mostly in the lower portion of your trunk). Your mind dulls quickly but your nerve
endings do not. It’s a shame it
doesn’t work the other way around.
After about 3 hours of this we stop at a little
cluster of huts that have a store and a bar in them. There’s music playing (at a reasonable
level if you can believe it) and a few people are hanging out including a
number of children. As is his
gift, Carl soon has all the children around him and Lynn joins in to take
some video of them. Duane attracts
the attention of a couple of little girls and he chases them around as
they squeal and giggle (Children either think Duane looks like Santa
Claus or Jesus due to his white beard).
I notice that the Toyota truck is having its right front tire
taken off. “Oh great” I think, “It’s
gone flat again.” But that’s not
the case. The bearings have gone
out. Of course this was known all
week but for some reason it was left to replace them during the trip home. So they pull the parts out and fall out
into the road to repair it. The good
news is that they have both the parts and tools necessary to replace the
bearings. So two hours later we’re
ready to go again.
The balance of the trip is, and it’s impossible to
overstate this, painful. I know
now why the prior trips to the Children’s Village seemed worse than the
trip out last Wednesday. It’s
because we made them at night.
Travelling at night combines a horrible travel situation with your
body’s desire for sleep. Sleep is
impossible on these roads so you end up getting more and more agitated as
the night wears on. By first light
no one loves the Lord and marriages are in jeopardy. It’s bad. This leads me to remember that Shadrach
makes this trip once every month as he comes into town to pick up
supplies and to receive the teacher’s salaries from Carl. It would be nice if Liberian Ministries
could get ahead a month on salaries so that Shadrach could make
bi-monthly trips instead. This
would save a lot of money on gas (approaching $250 per round trip) and
also a lot of wear and tear on his body.
Finally we get to Buchanan and I’m excited since
this means we only have 4 more hours.
On this trip milestones are very important. The next one will be Firestone, Harbel. What’s
exciting about getting to the Firestone plantation is that you will have
good roads for the rest of the trip.
Did I say “exciting”? I
meant “ecstatic!”. The road from Buchanan to Firestone is still
very bad so we keep our teeth clamped shut to keep the fillings from
falling out… again.
Finally we reach Firestone where we change from
short bursts of speed and sudden stops to a constant 50+ mph pace. You can actually hang you head and get
a minute or two of sleep at a time during this portion of the trip.
It’s been daylight since shortly after we left
Buchanan (I called my mother on the cell phone from there and let her
know her favorite son [Fred] was now back in communication range). So I guess I’m writing into another day
but I’ll continue just to maintain some level of continuity.
There are some very worthwhile things to see now
that the morning has arrived but only Cathy has enough energy to look. We begin to come into the outskirts of
greater Monrovia as we get to ELWA, turn right onto Tubman Blvd, pass Dupor Road and take a left onto Police Academy
Road. We arrive at the Norman
compound and are warmly greeted, as usual, by our gracious hosts. We unpack and the guys help bring our
stuff into the rooms. We tell
Esther that not to worry about breakfast but we may be up for lunch. With daylight coming I tell Gayla that
I don’t think I will be able to sleep but will at least lay down for some
rest. That’s the last thing I
remember until Fred wakes us both up and says that lunch is ready.
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