Last Day in the Village

 Day 9 Friday July 27

Today did not start out as we would have hoped, but it ended as well as it could have.  When Leroy (our driver for the week) arrived with the van we realized it was having trouble.  This was concerning on several levels.  We were concerned about getting to the village early enough to have a very productive morning as this would be our last morning with the three ministries (woman to woman, teacher training, and business).  It took about 15 min to leave the hotel parking lot as the van need to be restarted half a dozen times.  We had to restart another half dozen times before we reached the main road.  The very bumpy road from the Crystal Palace to the main road was made exceptionally difficult due to the van trouble.  Jessy met us on the way and we filled up at the gas station at the main junction.  As an aside, do you know the difference between a gas station and a filling station?

gas station (with pumps)

filling station (with mayonnaise jars)

A gas station has pumps and is usually only found in town or along a major highway and a filling station can be found anyway and gas is sold pre-measured by the whole or half-filled mayonnaise jar.

Now, back to story... After refeuling we went the other direction away from Balama to find a repair shop.  Granted, we were in the big city of Gbarnga (BAHN-ga) but I was not hopeful to find a repair shop.  We pulled up to a seemingly abandoned building that looked like it may have at one time been a repair shop.  Jessy got out and went inside the house next door.  Hesitant to shut the engine off Leroy followed.  A few minutes later a gaggle of people filed out of the house to take a look at the van.  Meanwhile back inside the vehicle, the team has busted into all things breakfast.  We are eating and sharing granola bars, nuts, crackers, and even Slim Jims.  Not knowing how serious the problem was or how long it would take to repair we wanted to do what we could to cut down on time lost in the village by avoiding breakfast if needed.  As I said a prayer for our "meal" I also prayed for the repair to be quick and easy.  About five minutes and some cleaned battery terminals later we were back on the road with none the worse for wear.

Upon arrival at the orphanage we did eat a quick breakfast before heading down to the school for our morning activities.  The teachers had one more day for training and had an opportunity to share with Lora and Cathy what they need to be able to do their jobs better.  The team will share this information with Jessy. Joanne had a large, captive audience of men and women as many of them were waiting to be interviewed for a business loan.  During the morning she was granted permission to talk directly to the men for about 45 min!  She encouraged them to work with the women to begin effecting cultural change with regards to the treatment of women in their society. I wish I had a picture to show, but I have a great mental image of looking up from the library (blue container below) to the school and seeing Joanne talking to the large group of men and women all seated in desks in front of her.  The best picture I have shows the large group in the background with all the activity happening on the hill.

Joanne's crew

women with Joanne

The guys completed approximately 10 interviews along with Daga and Rufus (seen in earlier blog.  Rufus is the succesful businessman with indoor plumbing from Balama, whose son was injured in a palm tree accident).  Daga really seemed to grasp the concepts and direction of the program.  He and Rufus continued interviews throughout the afternoon.  I know this because they were still interviewing when we returned after lunch to present the Proclaimer.

Moses Catowah-tailor (Kokai Town)

group conducting interviews

 It was the best Proclaimer experience I have had.  As I was demonstrating for Jessy and Daga how it worked the group of people that were gathered around directed their attention to the little black box that was speaking their language.  It was awesome. For more info on the Proclaimer please visit www.faithcomesbyhearing.com  

group listening to Proclaimer

"coal pot queens"-our cooks for the week

sign on wall of Children's ministry in Balama

And so we ended our week in the bush.  With the car repair completed we had an uneventful albeit long ride back to Monrovia.