Little did I know when I woke up that morning that I was about to enter a world so utterly and completely foreign. And yet, one I’d dreamed about visiting for a very long time.
This is the chapter that I've been waiting for! This and the ones to follow.
well........ I've been waiting for
all of them, but especially these ones.
Once upon a time, when we first became open to the idea of leaving for a foreign mission field,
How long ago was that?
We went through classes and trainings, raised monthly support, sold or gave away most of our stuff,
Wow. I don't know if I could do that. I really doubt it. Just... too much stuff now.
I truly, truly desired to go to W. Africa and thought we’d wind up serving with our friends, but ended up in a place about as different from tropical Senegal as chocolate ice cream is from oven-roasted turkey- Central Asia.
So why or how did you wind up in Kazakhstan instead?
now it was time to leave that behind for a time and take the eastbound highway toward the interior jungles of Sierra Leone.
Oh boy! Just how excited were you at this point?
Or was that tempered by annoyance from the delays?
Oh! I didn't know you were doing that too. I thought it was strictly medical supplies. That's a nice touch.
Did you bring other things besides rice and medical supplies?
probably not good enough to keep the precious cargo from getting wet should it rain.
I was really glad to read further on that that wasn't foreshadowing. How terrible it would have been if... "Here's your rice. Sorry it's ruined! Maybe in a few years when we do this again, we'll tie the tarp down."
the lack of coordination and amount of wasted time was glaring and irritating to even the local staff.
That surprises me. That even the locals were getting irritated. I was kinda under the impression that delays and delaying were kind of a way of life for them.
by now you have probably guessed that there are no such “ideal” circumstances in West Africa.
I'm getting that, yes.
So, he made a few “placards” made of regular printer paper with the NGO logo on them.
Good idea! I like it.
By tradition, convoys there travel with their lights on,
They do that here for funeral convoys. Do they do that where you are, too?
Ahmed also asked each driver of the vehicles to stay together,
George’s #1 Wife (I’ll get to that in a later chapter…)
Oh?
The convoy lasted approximately 2 miles. We never saw the truck again until we reached the village
"Stay together" "Yes sir!" zoom!!!! "Later gator!"
Awww! Look at all those smiling faces!
The heat was oppressive, but for the most part, the AC was on- something I was overwhelmingly grateful for.
Picture 8 people in a van traveling from central Canada to the west coast and back via Yellowstone.... in the summer.... with no AC.
Been there. Done that.
Gorgeous and.... certainly demonstrates just how humid it was.
The highway eventually became a brand new paved, striped, modern roadway recently built by the Chinese.
Really! I had no idea they did that! How long ago did that happen?
Perhaps the tolls that were collected at many points along the way will keep it nice. Then again, given our experience at the Port Authority, I’m more than a little skeptical.
Yeah.... I was thinking the same thing.
Around 4:00, Ahmed pulled our car into a gas station and filled up where he also discovered a flat tire.
Discovered it? He hadn't noticed when he was driving? I take it that it wasn't completely flat, then, just going down?
He sent another employee to get it fixed while the rest of us baked in the roadside gas station parking lot. As the car drove off,
Wait... the employee drove off with the tire going down... or they took the tire off and they put it in another car?
I realized that my camera was in it (of course it was) and I chuckled to myself that this was just like California, but not.
No! You didn't!!!
Who took all these shots? I thought they were you, but.... no camera (in car) and... I see you're in this one.
It wasn’t long before the car was back, but it also wasn’t long before the tire pressure light came on and a horrible scraping sound was heard from the driver’s side wheel.
Sounds like they did a really good job of repairing that tire.
Back to the roadside repair kiosk we went and in 15 or so more minutes it was “fixed”.
Hmmm... "fixed" in quotations.... More problems later?
About twilight, Rebekah noticed this cloud formation building and remarked it looked like Barney Rubble.
Nope. But I've already posted that.
Actually I was surprised she'd think of Barney Rubble. I would've thought she was too young for that connection.
It was enough, however, to completely destroy the convoy placards that were on the windshields where the wipers obliterated them.
They... they.... were on the
outside????
It was on this highway, past the new Chinese section that I literally feared for my life. Cars were passing with dangerously too little distance between, there was no speed limit, no painted stripes, no guard rail....
I'm familiar with that. Very. Almost died myself a few times under very similar circumstances.
Gorgeous shot!!!
It was also not long that we got our first reminder that we were entering a world where all semblance of modern anything (except cell phones) were far, far from us.
Wow.
I'm guessing you were thrilled by that.
I cannot lie when my first grass hut sighting made my heart skip a beat.
I think mine would too. That's only on TV!
I nearly peed myself at the thatched roofing that I would soon discover was “the new normal”. Of course, the car hadn’t pulled over for hours either, so I nearly had an "accident" from that too.
Around 9:00 PM we saw some shimmering lights. My head was heavy (so was the bag on my lap), and I wished we could stop for the night, but this was only a quick stop. The local police chief, a woman by the name of Gloria,
Did she light up a candle and show you the way to the bathroom?
had offered to supply us with an armed security team the next day for our proceedings.
Hmmm... Do you think that was necessary? Or did you guys pay for that "escort"? i.e. was it graft? Or custom?
She was also kind enough to allow us to use the toilet in her home.
Guess you can't really say mean things about someone who lets you use their facilities.
when Ahmed tried to start the car to go, it wouldn't. A dead battery at 10:30 at night was not exactly a thing anyone wanted to have happening.
Oh, crap.
But... then you write about the last bit of travel. How did you get the car going? Had jumper cables along? Or?
You know the kind of bumping that you get on the Safari ride at Disney? It was absolutely every bit of that and more. The red mud, the deep ruts and holes. I’m telling you!!!! It’s JUST like that!!!
It may have been uncomfortable at the time, but.... you really had an adventure, Liesa!
There were parts that had large (very large) water filled holes that had to be forded.
This is so cool. We're talking
National Geographic stuff here, folks.
Every couple of miles we’d pass through a village of clustered grass roofed huts and through each one, the villagers waved and yelled to us. We saw many, many smiles as we bumped along.
Wow.
Just.... Wow. So..... amazing.
What I didn’t say before was, at one particularly poignant moment, he, with tears in his eyes, said, “Liesa, tonight I’m going to sleep with my father.” I knew he meant that tonight he was “coming home” to pay his respects and truly grieve. That he would come back to his roots and re-visit some memories that were distant. I was touched that he would allow me into his reverie and share in this significant event about to pass.
That is indeed a very heartfelt and special moment.
The cars stopped at a home where a HUGE gathering of villagers was singing a welcome song. Ho-leeeee cow!!! A HUGE long-time bucket list item was now happening; hearing native Africans singing an acapella song of jubilee IN Africa.
Soooo happy for you! This is so wonderful!
Well, it was a welcome song, but it was also one of lament.
Ahhh.... tempered with mourning. And yet... still such an incredible experience.
She was sitting on a rough plank bench wailing. Weeping with long, gut-wrenching sobs, wailing, crying. Someone showed us where to sit while Ahmed embraced his grandmother and cried with her.
Oh dear. But... part of the tradition... the custom...
I felt like an intruder into a very intimate moment.
Yes, I can understand that... and you can see it too.
I rewound part of the accompanying video a few times where you are visible.
You are sitting with your head respectfully (and yet a bit self-consciously) down and when that child comes to sit beside you, you look up and give a small respectful, yet welcoming smile.
The video itself is quite something. Very far from my experience... and fascinating and wonderful at the same time.
Liz sent me a translation along with this video.
“Ahmed has returned to us our son and brother. He did not come only with life, but he brought 3 white people with him to show that there is Light in their village that night. White people, you are really welcome!”
That's.... very nice. Very welcoming.
I was humbled beyond belief. For reals, you have no idea. In that moment, every minute of feeling like crap, the hard work of preparing for the trip, the heat, the malaria pills, the hunger…. It was all worth it.
After all was said and done, it was around 1:00 AM.
You must've been so tired.
But the day had taken a toll on us and to say we were exhausted is a gross understatement.
Yes. I can certainly see that.
we ate a hasty meal of bread, cold spam, and butter.
Which... I'm betting was absolutely wonderful. You hardly ate anything at all that day it seems.
use of the toilet. I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions there. Clean, albeit sparse
Was it a North American style toilet?
On one bed, a woman was nursing twins, and I assumed she was the mother. I was wrong. The mother was in the labor room where new moms stay for a day or two before leaving. The woman with the babies was a sister-in-law charged with wet nursing the twins until mommy's milk came in- a practice that, in some parts of the world, still makes a whole lotta good sense.
Totally foreign to me, but I have heard of the term. I have no idea (other than villages in Sierra Leone) where that might still be done, however.
One double-sized bed for 3 exhausted women. I was happy it had a net, and happier we are all petite.
Eep! And yet... I'm thinking much better than most of what the villagers have?
I was far more… concerned, however, about the cockroaches in the bed.
Um..... ew.
End of school, loud music, all mean an all-night rave next door. I did not sleep one minute all night long.
Oh, no!
The music muffled any sounds of the roaches and mice, but it also muffled the sound of my occasional crying at being utterly exhausted with no hope of sleep.
Oh, geez.... this is just... heart breaking.
I'm so sorry, Liesa. I just feel.... awful for you.
Despite the sad finish... I am very much looking forward to hearing of the upcoming days.
But... was that what you meant when you posted this?:
Another "transparency moment" in the next chapter...
I am decidedly NOT a techie!
....)
Hope it's as short lived time of being under the weather. And you're doing all the right things to stay healthy and if you do get sick... ummm, you're in the right place! 
