Meet 'n Greet

It took me about a week to adjust to jet lag; the rest of the Reeds got used to the time difference much quicker. We are about a third of the way through our visit to the Americas. All of us are still finding adjustment to the world around us taking longer. As we try to figure out exactly what being here feels like and means, we will pass along the observations to you.

In the meantime, we are going, going, going. It makes life a roller coaster. On the down side of the ride, we are a bit tired because every day we are getting together for work meetings or seeing friends. On the up side, we get a rush out of everyone we meet. There are so many that we love and love us. So we leave the place we are staying droopy, then we get a big boost when we see the folks we are meeting, then we dip down again until the next meet n' greet. The pics below are some of the highlights of our first week.

Our friends the Katerbergs throw an open house just after we arrived. It was great to see a bunch of our friends and co-laborers, and we got a chance to tell 'em what's going on in Liberia.

The Katerbergs own a golf cart so Noah, Hannah and the other kids got a chance to do some wheelin'.

A few days later, Yers Trooly gets to meet with Calvin College social work chair Cheryl Brandsen and BSW instructor/friend Stacia Hoeksema with son. Discussing the future of the MPCHS BSW program. Soon we hope to "hang head" with the folks from Kuyper College, the other US school working with MPCHS.

Later in the week, we attended a conference hosted by CRWRC. There we met our old friends Zakka Chomock and John Orkar. Interestingly, they work in Nigeria, we work in Liberia, but we've never seen each other in either country. We met in Senegal, the last time we were together was in Mali (insert), and here we are in the USA.

Sunday, we went to our home church, Madison Square. This is one of three services. We gave 'em the five minute update, then I asked 'em to say "cheese."

After church, we got the biggest treat of all-- walking down the street to our old house, now owned by Stacia and Tom Hoeksema. Chatting with Ida Reid and Mabel Jones.

One of our deaest friends in this big old world. This is Glenda Quinn, our former next door neighbor, sharing an African fashion moment with Renita while Yers Trooly gloms on for attention.