Transition: complete. Really, this time.

My father recently reminded me that a long time ago, a wise man told me that it often took two years to get a job and fully settle back in the real world after being on the mission field. But praise God: it has only taken us 22 months, for on Friday I was offered permanent employment as Site Manager at a local Christian-run independent school.

Looking back, I can see how God went before me all the time I was working in rain-swept gardens, freezing cold churches, refrigerated warehouses and unheated factories and offices. I learnt a lot about patience, grace, family, friends, church, myself, and my relationship with God.

Thanks to those who stood with us during this period; who prayed for us, distracted us, entertained us, fed us, and continued to support us financially. We love you guys. Olly

Modern Liberia

Someone called blk24ga has posted 1776 photos of Liberia on Panoramio. It may be one of the poorest capital cities in the world, but Monrovia now boasts a huge advertising screen outside the Ministry of Finance:

...a chicken restaurants that boasts "the love of chicken brought us here"...

...an amazing new American Embassy building:

...and a coastguard cutter:

blk24ga managed to get into some very restricted areas, and shows many photos of the President: I can only assume that she was working for the President's office. Some great pictures. Olly

Lost in translation...again

I've just noticed that SKD Boulevard in Monrovia is described as "Eskady" Road by Google Maps. Hah. Wonder how that happened. Olly

Salt making - continued

On 7th November 2009 I made the following blog entry whilst we were in Benin, West Africa.

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Making salt

Across the lagoon from Babs Dock is a very weird landscape:

Dominique told me it is where locals make salt during the dry season. The sand is rich in salt - it is placed in the baskets, and fresh water is poured through to wash the salt out into the collecting bowl below. The salt-rich water is then boiled away over cooking fires, and the salt is collected.

However, like most ingenious things in West Africa there are drawbacks. The cooking fires use up huge amounts of wood, resulting in local deforestation. And the "home-made" salt is iodine-free, so many local people suffer from conditions due to a lack of iodine in their diets, such as Thyroid conditions and goiters. Olly
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Today, 19th January 2013, the BBC News website Africa in pictures had the following entry:

Africa in pictures: 11-17 January 2013 

Women salt diggers collect top soil in the village of Djegbadji near Ouidah in Benin. Afterwards 
they will filter water through the soil to draw out salt and later boil the water to collect the salt 
to sell.

BBC, are you copying my blog (in exchange for all the things I copy from your websites I guess?) Olly

First snow

Overnight we received the first substantial snowfall since we returned to the UK 18 months ago. It is also Libby's first snow! She loved it, and managed to play outside for an hour without getting too cold and wet.

So Libby joins the ranks of the many Liberians now living in the complete opposite to the climate she was born in. D'you know that one of the largest communities of Liberians living outside Africa is found in Minnesota, one of the coldest and snow-bound states in the US. Olly

"Tim Hetherington, his life and death"

There's a brilliant article on the BBC New's website today about the life and death of Tim Hetherington, a British war correspondent who I met in Liberia in 2005. In 2003 he lived with the LURD rebel soldiers in Liberia, filming their advance on Monrovia, which you can see in the movie documentary "Liberia; An Uncivil War" which is available in 4 parts on YouTube. He was killed in Libya in 2011. For full article click here. Olly

Africa Mercy on Google Earth

I found the Africa Mercy on Google Earth at last! Taken whilst the ship was in Lome, Togo, during the first half of 2012. 

Olly

A Missionary Kid in a British school

Our Anna - a missionary kid for 8 years - was asked to compose something today in R.E. similar to what Matthew would have written about Jesus, so she wrote down the words to Chris Tomlin's "Our God" from heart...and received a "brilliant" from her teacher, who had never heard of Tomlin and didn't recognise the song. Ha! How we laughed when Anna told us about it when she got home. Olly

More BBC website photos of Liberia

These two photos appeared on the BBC News website today, "On the Road in Africa". Click here to go to the original article. 

"""This is Broad Street in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, photographed by Cecil at night from his hotel window."

"Hubert Simmer took this photo in Liberia. "I like this picture because of the inscription on the car, as well as because of the condition the car was in at that particular moment," she says, "And, last not least, these people can still smile at the worst circumstances." "

Sand mining in Sierra Leone

There is a great article with slideshow on today's BBC News in Pictures website - click here to follow the link. It seems sand mining is a problem in any coastal West African country with a recovering economy - I have already blogged previously about sand mining in Liberia and Togo. Sure, it's great that there is a building boom, but the effects are appalling with terrible damage done by erosion caused when a beach is literally removed, as the photo below illustrates:

Olly

Farewell Jeremy, welcome Andy.

I love being brought up to date with happenings on the Africa Mercy. Congratulations, Andy, on your recent appointment as Transport Manager, and well done for hanging on in there for 6 years, waiting for the position to come your way.

Photo below of the Africa Mercy Transport Department in Conakry, Guinea: Andy (standing) and Jeremy (outgoing manager, seated), with Mathieu in the black and blue shirt and Lamin in the blue t-shirt.

Photo below of Andy at my old desk. Funny thing is the office hasn't changed one bit since we left 18 months ago...

Photos courtesy of Andrew & Jodie Rothwell. Olly

More ship visitors

Earlier in December we received a visit from ship friends Murray and Candace, who stayed a few days with us en route from Guinea to Cape Town having just left left the Africa Mercy. 

It was lovely spending time with you, guys. Come stay again on your way back to Indiana. Olly

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all PeetBlog readers. 2012 wasn't the best of years for me personally: constant rain, no real summer to talk of, and no real job continuity or job security. Praise God though, that we have food, and a warm dry house, and health, and a generous welfare system, and honest cops, and free and helpful hospitals, and family close at hand, and a great church, and good friends all over the world. Olly

Book review: My Friend the Mercenary

I read this book a few months ago. James Brabazon, a British war correspondent, travelled with LURD rebel soldiers into Liberia twice - in 2002 and 2003 - as part of the battles to overthrow Taylor's government. He was accompanied by a South African mercenary, who acted as his bodyguard...

...an amazing story. You've got to read it. Olly

Happy Birthday Libby

I know this entry is late...but Libby was 8 on 22nd December. She continues to be a strong Liberian girl who is head and shoulders above the rest of her class mates. She's doing great in school and can read well and we're proud of her. Olly

TV show review: Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Liberia

I've finally tracked down Series 6, Episode 16 of Anthony Bourdain's TV show "No Reservations" on the Travel Chanel, about his trip to Liberia in 2010. Click here to watch it.

Mr Bourdain's blog entry about his trip to Liberia begins "I’ve been to what? Eighty, ninety countries? I’ve seen a lot of things. But no place has so utterly confounded me, intimidated, horrified, amazed, sickened, depressed, inspired, exhausted and shown me – with every passing hour – how wrong I was about everything I might have thought only an hour previous". Click here to read the full entry.

He spent time with my old boss, Dave Waines, who was one of the few aid workers to stay in Liberia for most of the war years. Click here (and open link in new tab) to watch Dave telling one of his stories on YouTube.

Mr Bourdain's comments reminded me of something a friend said, when she visited us in 2007 when we lived in Liberia. She was responsible for 17 countries on behalf of one of the UK's biggest aid agencies, and said Liberia was in the worst condition of any country she had ever visited.

Mama Liberia, we continue to pray for you every day. Olly

Book review: Chasing the Devil

I'm reading a brilliant book by the Daily Telegraph's Tim Butcher, about his journey on foot through Liberia in 2009, following in the footsteps of Graham Greene and his cousin in the 1930s.

If you are interested in Sierra Leone or Liberia, you MUST read this book. Olly

Liberia's prisons

Liberia's state radio yesterday reported that 60 inmates have just escaped from Zwedru Prison in Grand Gedah County (South East Liberia, on the border with Ivory Coast). I can't blame them. Liberia's prisons are amongst the worst in the world when it comes to overcrowding, sanitation, availability of medical supplies, and quantity and quality of food. I spent a few hours in Monrovia's Central Prison in 2007, and it has been at Number One in my "Top Ten Worse Places In The World To Go, EVER", since then. Click on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14993991 to read the BBC article with photos about Monrovia's Central Prison. The prison cells I visited were so overcrowded that people were hanging from the bars in hammocks made from rice-sacks, whilst the other cell mates had to sleep in shifts. When they were unlocked, scores of desperate men charged to the stinking latrines to relieve themselves...

God bless the guys of the Prison Fellowship world-wide, as they visit prisons like this one every week! Olly

Pox of the Chicken

A couple of weeks ago, Anna came out in Chicken Pox. Inevitably, Libby came out earlier this week, and with no previous resistance she has suffered much worse than Anna, and has been awake until 3 or 4am every night scratching. So after a couple of visits to local pharmacists, we now have a cupboard full of anti-itch ointments and medicines, and a bottle of mild sedative which we hope will today knock Libby out for the night. Deep sleep here we come!

Anna's back:

Libby's face (with trade-mark cross eyes):

Olly

2012 Dutch Festival of Ice Cream and Pringles

We're just back from 2 weeks in Holland, where we house-sat for Sally's sister and had a great time cycling around, and eating ice cream and Pringles. We also met up with Dutch and German friends...the Samarawera's (ex-Caribbean Mercy and current Africa Mercy): Rick and Noah eating ice cream below):

...the Eveleens (ex-Anastasis and ex-Africa Mercy): Sally, Libby, Norah, Anna, Joyce, Danique and Annette eating ice cream below:

...and the Kronesters (ex-Caribbean Mercy, ex-Anastasis, ex-Africa Mercy and currently with Mercy Ships Germany): Jana, Anna and Kim Anna eating Pringles below:

Olly