Loose ends

Edwin stopped by yesterday, he was the vegetable seller who ran down the street jumping for joy about the seeds. He said he had planted the okra, corn and something else and they were already up. Warm soil, rain and sunshine will make seeds jump out of the ground I guess.

Kobe and I would have lost the bet, Jerry, the contractor in the dispute, showed up and worked on Moses' home Saturday. He said he should finish Moses' house this Saturday, and only have a little left on Mamosa's. Even undependability is unpredictable here.

I was up typing the last blog until about 5:00, then I had just gotten to sleep and the dead rooster started announcing rise and shine. Jamie said that Rusty is under orders to do something about it before sunrise.
An old man that they call Poppy, what they call all old men, came by today to sharpen the tools. The same ones that he sharpens every week, that don't get used very much. Jamie and Rusty were gone so we had to find the tools so he could sharpen them. He is nearly blind and this is how he supports himself. I told him I was Rusty's father, he thanked me profusely for Jamie saying she was "all right". He told me that she had paid some medical bills for him. They had told me that while he was in the hospital his neighbors stole all his belongings, I guess they thought he wasn't going to make it, all he had left was his little bench with a sharpening wheel. When I first told him that Jamie was gone he thought I meant she had left the country and he was real disappointed, but when he understood she was just in Monrovia he was relieved and very happy.

A man came by in the morning just after Rusty had left for work, so Jamie went out to talk with him. I saw him take off his cap and talk with Jamie. When she came in she said he had a growth or tumor on one eye. He had come down out of the bush to find help. He had gone to a clinic, but couldn't afford the treatment. He was hoping they could help him, I think she was going to see if she could get him to Dr. Sacra.

Generator #4 is running, that is the one that they were rewinding on the dirt floor in the goat shack. They had a little trouble getting it going, but it seems to be working well now. Wow 3 out of 4 running, and Rusty said they did some work on #1 and are going to try and get it running today!

The mechanic called and thinks the problem with the car is fuel injectors. You can't get new ones here, but he thinks he can clean them and get it running smoother.

There was a potluck dinner last night and I got to spend some time with Dr. Sacra. I had hoped to spend more time with him, but he is always working. He is head of the hospital and they are presently two doctors short so he is filling in all the time. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to corner him. He stopped by the other day with a shirt that said Liberia needs blood, so I asked if I could give. He said he would let me know when he had a blood tech available. I might as well give blood here I won't be able to back home for at least 3 years and maybe the rest of my life. He is leaving in May for two years, but plans to come back. When he comes back he is hoping to be able to make ELWA a teaching hospital, and train resident doctors. He said that the University of Liberia is turning out some good medical students. Along with all his other duties he teaches some classes there, just another of those remarkable people that seem to be all over around here.

Rusty and Jamie had to go to the US Embassy to get their fingerprints updated. I didn't know that fingerprints have a shelf life, but they have to keep current ones for the adoption file. They said that they were the only ones there, but it still took over an hour.

The potluck last night was for the electrical team. There are six of them here now, and some more are coming in on the flight we are leaving on Friday. They all are volunteers, and just more of those remarkable people I keep telling you about. Paul, Steve and Mel's cousin, is a lineman from Mississippi, he is the one that shipped the package Fed-Ex. The package has a couple thousand dollars worth of tools and supplies that he plans to leave here. Along with his flight, expenses, and time off of work that makes a pretty substantial contribution.

About the Fed-Ex package, Rusty got the fellow who had been waiting for his Department of Finance release to add our packages to his request. I was wrong, I thought Rusty had said he had been waiting a week, he has been waiting a month. He went and spent 8 hours there yesterday, and was successful in adding our packages to the release. He even got it signed. He has to go back today to pay the fee for the release to not pay duty? His name is Uriah, I asked Rusty if Uriah knew what happened to his name sake when they sent him off to battle on his own. I'll let you know if he actually gets the release today.

Well the allegedly dead rooster must have overheard Jamie, he waited until 7:30 to start crowing.