Home Sweet Ganta

Well I might be a little overdue for a blog and hope you readers can find forgiveness in your heart. In my defense imagine blogging from Bluffton and trying to come up with entertaining stories every couple weeks. I might as well get the big question out of the way, yes Im doing wonderful over here and still praising God for this awesome opportunity.

Might as well start off with the fam. Alfonzo and Josephy recently started school and both come home with tons of energy that has been accumulating all day. Alfonzo plays football (soccer) with friends in the evenings. Josephy prefers hanging around the house playing with Chu-Ku, Levi Jr., and other neighborhood kids. Chu-Kus english has immensely improved and I can actually understand half of his demands which are easier just to ignore. Levi Jr. is almost a year old and is so close to walking. He still likes to cry at 5 in the morning and I’m worried that when I get to the states I won’t be able to sleep without the now soothing wails. Rose is still the best cook I know in Liberia. Levi is still wheeling-n-dealing out of his shop in Ganta.  Regrettably I don’t have the time, energy, and readers attention to go through everyone who I consider as family here.  

I’m blogging right now from Levis shop because of the current electrical situation at the house. The wire that runs between our supplier, the local gas station, and the house has been stolen twice in the last 3 months. Lots of things are new around the shop. Levis latest venture is money transferring. For the low rate of 10% customers can send money to other major towns across Liberia. Using a complex system with spreadsheets and internet would be way too easy so whenever a customer sends the money we just make a fuzzy phone call which on average consists of 3 whats??, 2 can you spell that? and possibly getting hung up on because the person can’t understand me. It reminds me of playing the telephone game in sunday school. By the time the customer relays the name to me, I relay the info to the head office in Monrovia, they relay it to the field office, the sender relays the secret code and amount to the receiver, and the receiver comes into the field office and demands money. Consequently I now feel prepared to take on customer service jobs.

The LEAD demonstration farm has been filled with both successes and failures. Neighbors are already asking for the corn seed we are producing and multiplying. The pigs are all alive and healthy but growing at a surprisingly slow rate. We recently had a caretaker switch. Yebozee moved to Ganta to finish his last 2 years of high school and a young man named Peter enthusiastically picked up where Yebozee left off. The Cabbage suffered as it ripened because of weather conditions but it pulled through in the end with an average yield. The neglected tomatoes only produced enough to make seeds for next round. Next week we are executing the 3^rd replant. The first try was thwarted by misinformation and the second by the plague of termites.  We are still in search of a farm manager which is ironic given the high unemployment rate.

Things are getting pretty exciting because of the upcoming elections. The big 3 canidates have each made a trip to Ganta. Each candidate seems to have an equal amount of support, however some supporters are crazier than others. Prince Johnson’s supporters consist mostly of youths who ride motorbikes. They welcomed their leader to town by tying palm branches to their bikes and speeding up and down the streets yelling “monkey should go to forest, it is baboons time.” Monkey referring to President Sirleaf and Baboon, which is somehow better, refers to Prince Johnson. When Ellen came to town her supporters paraded through the streets with green hats and Unity Party flags. What few motorbike supporters she had rode around with passengers carrying a bullhorn yelling slogans. George Weah of the CDC party was welcomed by the footballers who worship the ex-star. George played for Chelsea and was awarded the World’s Best Footballer in the 90’s. He is running with ex-president Tubmans nephew William who draws support from the people who benefited from his uncle’s corrupt government in the 60’s. I have been in my share of heated political arguments taking the side opposite of the other debater.  In all seriousness I would appreciate prayers for a peaceful election.

Hopefully I’ll be feeling this ambitious in a few weeks so I blog again.

-Keep your stick on the ice.