Long Days, Short Nights

Every morning when we get to the EQUIP Liberia office we spend time greeting the Liberian staff. We always ask one another “How’s the night?” We were asked that one morning last week Kyle’s response was “Too short!” to which one of our Liberian friends responded “Nights in Liberia are always too short.” I wish someone would have informed us of that before we came here!

We have been so busy this past week that we nearly fall into bed at night. We went deep into the bush for a visit to two of EQUIP’s 23 clinics last Tuesday. It was a bumpy ride that ended with red dirt in our ears- the red dust comes in the windows of the car and you don’t realize you’re covered until you look in the mirror! My brain was mush by the end of the trip due to the constant bashing against my skull that it took. We’re gonna have to get used to these bush adventures! They put American 4 wheelin’ to shame!

The end of the week held another first for us! The monthly staff meeting with approximately 30 Liberian staff from all over Nimba county. It lasts for a couple of days and everyone reports on what is going on in their part of the county. We were able to learn the official way that the Liberian EQUIP staff (and Liberian’s in general) clap for one another. We will have to make a video to show you. It is the best clap ever! Although I don’t think that we can exude the Liberian joy with which they do their clap. Kyle and I both agreed we would have made the journey over here just to learn the clap.

You must be thinking, “When did they have time for Thanksgiving?” Well, we squeezed in somewhere in between our trip to the bush and staff meeting. Unfortunately the first day of staff meeting was scheduled for Thursday which put a damper on our American Thanksgiving. Liberians and Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different day so it wasn’t a big deal to them. We managed (along with our co-workers, friends, fellow Americans -Patty, Kristen and Debbie)  to throw together a nice meal on Wednesday evening. It came complete with stuffed chickens that we continuously referred to as “turkey”, mashed potatoes, pumpkin, corn, biscuits, green bean casserole, fried okra and apple spice cake.

 

 

Not the greatest picture but you can tell we had a spread!

This coming week is not going be a slow down for us! We are going to Monrovia for a much needed shopping trip and meetings. When we get back to Ganta we have a couple of meetings and more travelling to do. Pray that our Liberian nights will get longer so that we can get the sleep we need!

Weekly Prayer Needs:

-Pray for our protection and safety as we travel back and forth to Monrovia and the bush

-Pray for our relationships with those that we are working with. Pray that we would be an encouragement to them.

-Pray for us during the holidays that God would work out a way for us to have  a special and relaxing holiday while we are away from friends and family.

-Pray that we would have opportunities to invest and disciple those around us.