Old, but slow

It's unanimous, I can't keep up with any of the boys. Kobe finally went running with me, he was a ways ahead of me near the end so he was waiting for me. When I got beside him I started sprinting, anyway that's what I'll call it, I got 4 or 5 steps on him and as he was just about up to me I shouted "finish line I win". I'm sure I learned that from one of my grandkids, so if it works for them it should work for me. It doesn't seem that long ago that I could beat them all running backwards.

The single man fishermen were not going out this morning, even though it seemed calmer, but larger 2 and 3 man boats were. They look a little more sea worthy and they had nets on them. We didn't stay and watch though. Rusty informed me I was wrong, Liberia does have a Coast Guard. It consists of 60 men, 9 of which can swim and no boats, I stand by my statement, Liberia has no Coast Guard.

I had a totally uneventful day, no new experiences. I stayed home all day with the boys. D'Linda went shopping for fabric with Jamie and another lady. She bought lots of colorful fabrics. She said it was way to hot though, she felt light headed at one point, Jamie told her she was dehydrated and bought her some water. She drank it all and said she felt better after sitting a bit.

They had a little excitement on the way back, Jamie ran into a young girl pedestrian. Every Thursday and Friday they have football (soccer) games at the fields at ELWA. That draws a pretty large crowd. When Jamie turned into ELWA there was a crowd in the street, she was honking and driving slow, but one girl didn't move and she hit her. Jamie felt terrible and apologized, but a man came up and accused her of doing it deliberately. Jamie talked to the girl and she said she was alright, so I guess everything will be okay.

I guess I did have one new experience, after dinner Rusty couldn't get a hold of Morris, a security guard who had invited us to visit his home village. We drove over to his home to see if he was available to take us there today. He lives in a community just north and across the road from ELWA called Rock Hill. It used to be the site of a rock crushing operation before the war, now it is full of homes. The roads, more like heavily rutted trails, wind all around and it is hard to find places because there are no addresses. The residents there earn extra income by making crushed rock. They dig up big rocks and break them into small rocks with hammers, there are lots of piles of crushed rock in front of the houses. They dig the big rocks up where ever they can, including in or beside the road. You have to be very careful so you don't drive in one of the holes, some where 8' deep. Rusty said it is particularly treacherous in rainy season because the holes fill up with water and you can't tell if they are just mud puddles or caverns. I was surprised at the amount of traffic, with the condition of the roads and the obvious poverty of the community. There was a old dump truck ahead of us and quite a few taxis coming and going, with motorcycles with usually 3 people on them passing us. We hit one hole where I was sure Rusty must have tore off his oil pan, but he must have a skid plate on his Rover. He found Morris's' house, we met his wife, Manny, and she sent one of the children to get him, he was at a neighbors. It was dark then and we sat there while Manny was bathing the children in a small washtub with maybe 2 gallons of water in the front yard. Rusty was asking the children their names, when he asked one boy about 6, Manny said he doesn't talk. Rusty asked if he could hear and she said yes he could hear. They were in the dark except for a small battery powered light just inside the door to the house. Morris came and thanked us for coming to his house, that seemed to please him that we would visit his house. He told us that he had 7 living children, 2 girls and 5 boys. Rusty said he had tried to call him, Morris said he had lost his phone. Rusty asked him if he would take us to his village tomorrow and he was thrilled and said he would. We talked for awhile, he said he liked living there away from the water, because it is to cold down where Rusty lives. He is one of the night time security guards, he said it is very boring, just sitting there trying to stay awake. When he is off he comes home and breaks rock, which he said he liked to do. When we left we drove by the community well and there were about 30 people all with 5 gallon plastic jugs lined up waiting their turn to get water. When you flip your light switch and flush your toilet tonight say a little prayer for Manny and Morris and their seven living children.