It’s been a while since I posted my last Liberia post…this past trip was different then my previous trips to Liberia. It’s taken me a while to process everything that happened, and I’m still processing & learning from it. Not many days go by without me thinking about the trip & looking back at these pictures make all the memories come rushing back. Day 3 was my favorite day of the trip, we spent the day out in the community at Caldwell, getting to see their everyday life & building relationships with the people. Caldwell is about an hour drive from where we stayed at ELWA compound and the drive is not for the faint of heart. It’s guaranteed to make you carsick and takes you through the city where the smells make you light-headed. All of that to say, I wasn’t necessarily excited for the trek when I woke up that morning, but it was so worth it. We arrived at the school and then walked to Pastor Titus’ home behind the school. His wife was preparing lunch and some of their kids were playing nearby. We spent some time with them and then took the bucket water filter systems and started on our adventure through the community. The water filter systems were from and we gave them to the families in the community who had kids in Pastor Titus’ school that we work with. It was such a unique opportunity to get to see where the kids lived and how their daily walk to school was. The past trips, we had never really ventured past the school and I didn’t realize how vast of a community there was behind the school. 

Since our trip fell over the rainy season break for the schools, I wasn’t sure how many of the kids we would be seeing. But on our little adventure, we saw many familiar faces and were greeted by lots of excited kiddos. One in particular, Naomi, I met on my first trip and she has one of the most contagious smiles. When we were walking near her house, she came running out with a group of kids and gave me a big hug! 

After handing out the water filters, we went back to Titus’ house for lunch with his family. His wife always makes us the different traditional Liberian dishes to try. Mainly rice dishes with lots of spice, fish and chicken. They are good but you have to be sure to have your drink nearby because they burn your mouth & ears! 

We were then off to Peace Island for the kid’s ministry with Pastor Kangar and his wife. We had some car trouble on the way but we arrived just in time to watch the kids do their songs, Bible lesson, and we were then able to read a Bible story to them. Peace Island is considered the slum of Monrovia. We had never been before and nothing could have prepared you for the level of poverty we saw. It was one of the hardest hit areas during the Ebola Outbreak and many of the kids in the ministry are Ebola orphans, meaning their parents died of Ebola. 

As we were doing the Bible story, a mother hen and her chicks pecked their way around by our feet. You can’t help but smile and look around soaking it all up. The joy that those kids had, despite their circumstances, is amazing and only from God. 

Day Four coming soon….