Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It has been cool here for the past two weeks.  Well, 'cool' is a relative term;  we are still wearing short-sleeved shirts and flip-flops, just not perspiring as much as we usually do.  The nationals are chilled, though.  Our guards wear parkas, the laundry girl keeps a knit hat on all day, and the mommas have been requesting hot tea with supper!  Here is a picture of two of the cooks all wrapped up for the "cold snap" we are experiencing.
Part of the reason for the cooler weather is the harmattan winds.  This is a winter wind (late November through March) that starts in the Sahara Desert and blows west, picking up dust and dirt.  The Harmattan arrived in Liberia this past weekend.  It kind of looks like afternoon winter tule fog in the central California valley, except the haze is not fog, but dirt!  So a better analogy would be like living right next to an almond huller during the month of September!  It is dusty, dusty, dusty.  But the plus side to this weather is that it is cooler, as the dust stops the intense rays of the equator sun from beating down on us.  See?  A silver lining in everything!

Hope this finds you enjoying your weather, whatever it is today!

Dave and Babs

Water World Rules!

On a warm afternoon (oh, who are we kidding? They are ALL warm afternoons!), we huffed and puffed into two blow-up swimming pools; added two large plastic wash tubs, and set them all under two lawn sprinklers. Behold the extravaganza called Water World!





It was a fun afternoon, with much splishing and splashing by everyone. Someone even started a water fight (who would do such a thing!), but of course, the man with the garden hose won!
Several hours later, as sand was rinsed out of swimming suits and dumped out of pools, the day was declared a complete success. Water World will return someday soon!

Look Out, Dakota Fanning! Here's Competition!

The first ever Christmas Pageant here at the orphanage was held on December 24, 2008. We had wise men, shepherds, an angel, Mary, Joseph, and two guys who were the "official star holders". It was a traditional pageant that retold the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.

All things considered, it went very well. One of the star holder guys kept dropping the star on Joseph's head; an exuberant wise man excitedly proclaimed her memorized lines, plus the lines of the other two wise men; a little girl in the audience wanted to hold the baby in the manger; carols were sung a little off key. Halfway through, Joseph and the two star holders decided they were finished wearing their costumes and tore them off. Yes, sounds like a typical children's Christmas pageant to me!

But the songs were sung with great gusto; the children were happy to share the story of the baby Jesus; Mommas were proud to see the children perform. It was a joyful experience and a wonderful gift to the King!

Happy New Year!

This morning, at 5:00am, God treated us to a marvelous display of His fireworks! Liberia had their first storm of 2009, complete with heavy rain and an awesome lightening show, accompanied with grand, booming thunder. When I went to open the dining hall at 6:15am, the rain had lessened, and the sounds of drums and singing were coming from one of the nearby the villages: the locals were officially welcoming the new year!

Our youngest cook wandered into the kitchen at 6:30am. She had been to an all night prayer meeting at her church and did not go to bed until 2 am this morning. Of course, the thunder woke her up earlier than she had planned to awaken this morning. Hm-m-m-m...three hours of sleep. Ah, youth! Many churches in Africa celebrate the beginning of the new year with all night prayer vigils. A pretty cool way to start 2009, but difficult to manage if you have to work New Year's Day.

We have discussed what we would like to see happen this year: Dave is praying that God will grow this village with more children and that we will be instrumental in doing what He has planned. I would like to get some curtains hung in the clinic and lose ten pounds. Yes, I am shallow and Dave is a much deeper thinker than I am! But we all knew that! But we both agree that as hard as it is sometimes to be away from dear family and marvelous friends who support this head-scratching adventure we are living...as confusing as it is sometimes to be separated from everything we know as "normal...this is where we are supposed to be right now. We have full assurance that God is "the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas" (Psalm 65:5). And with that hope, we are O.K.

So we wish you all a Happy, Blessed, Full-of-adventure, Hope-filled New Year! Please excuse me now; I need to go hang curtains in the clinic!

Dave and Babs

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

Monrovia is getting into the holiday spirit. The city is full of people, as folks pour into town from the "interior" for the Christmas season. Purveyors of decorated artificial Christmas trees carry them down the street for easy shopping. Dave is pretty sure this is the perfect way to purchase a Christmas tree...right in the comfort of your car! Don't have to go into any Christmas tree lot and look at 50 different trees before settling on the first one you saw. The trees come to you! Talk about customer service!
Christmas decorations are hawked on the sidewalks and people with tinsel around their necks walk through the massive traffic jams, selling some holiday cheer.

This Santa looks a little different than jolly ol' St. Nick. Makes one wonder what he has in his bag.

Most churches here will have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services, and later in the day on the 25th, the beaches will be full of people.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, as the birth of the Savior of the world is celebrated everywhere, in many different ways.

Dave & Babs

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (that's us, folks!)

1 Timothy 1:15

And We're Back!

It has been three months since Dave pulled the plug on the old satellite dish and began the simple five hour project of assembling the new dish.

Three months, three receivers, two BUCs, two modems, and a partridge in a pear tree later, it is finally up and running! Yea!

It is nice to have Internet access on site again. Although we will miss having the weekly excuse to go to the Firestone Rubber Tree Plantation

Country Club to use their Internet. That visit usually included dinner. We will miss the Chicken MaraBelle (yummy baked chicken on a bed of

Liberian spicy rice), but we will trade chicken for connections with the States any day!

Here is a picture of Dave battling his nemesis. This picture will make any OSHA safety inspector go into full cardiac arrest, but here, in Liberia, where

it is not uncommon to see four men sitting on the hood of a speeding car or two men perched atop a 30 foot metal frame, no ropes, just welding away

without goggles, Dave's safety violations see rather tame. Still, though, we do not suggest you try this at home!

Wishing you all safe day!

Dave and Babs

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things we are thankful for:

--for dry beds at night.

--for English teachers who expected us to use proper annunciation and grammar.

--for children who actually seem to miss us! (or at least fake it well)

--for the ability to read and write.

--for wonderful family and good friends.

--for the health to work hard.

--for a rich Christian heritage.

--for the occasional Pop Tart.

--for hair coloring (thanks, Diane S.)

--for ministers, Sunday school teachers, catechism instructors, Bible leaders who taught us Truth.

--for avocado trees that are actually growing.

--for nationals who like us even when we do something really stupid.

--for internet access.

--for eyesight to enjoy the awesome Liberian sky.

--for the laughter of children.

--for air conditioning at night.

--for Liberians who model such humility and honesty in prayer

--for plenty to eat.

--for indoor plumbing.

--for sunscreen.

--for Adirondack chairs.

--for the assurance of salvation and the joy of life now.

Hoping your Thanksgiving Day is blessed and full of thanksgiving to our wonderful God, the Great Provider of all good things.

Love, Dave & Babs