Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Our Two Year Anniversary

Weather: Tuesday the 24th, steady rains all day under heavy, low overcast. Temp in the 70's all day. Winds from the SSW 5 mph. Rain total over 6 inches. Wednesday the 25th begins sunny and dry. Light breeze from the west. Weather UPDATE: Thursday and Friday, rain all day with moderate winds from the west under heavy overcast. Temp in the 70s; rain totals 5 inches on Thursday, 5 Friday.

Yesterday marked two years since our Brussels Airbus landed in Liberia. The day passed somewhat uneventfully. We enjoyed rain for about twelve hours straight, then on and off until sunset. I spent the morning at MPCHS, chatting with Sr Barbara and Joseph about the fall BSW curriculum. We may have twenty five students! Then I was out shopping for charger number four for our solar batteries. The automotive chargers are much heartier than the delicate high tech units designed for our system, but the corrosion still kills ‘em just as dead in the end.

Renita spent the day preparing for her 2:00pm business class. When I got home, she left for class, so I spent the next few hours fixing our fancy-schmanchy solar refrigerator. As great as the horizontal Sundanzer is at keeping things cold will very little dc power, the spring mounted hinges are an engineer’s big idea gone bad. Within the last six month, they both have ripped themselves out of the refrigerator door. So now the fridge has two, plain, heavy duty door hinges. Not fancy. But they’ll work.

On her way home Renita stopped off at the local police station. Four women had gotten arrested for fighting at the market. Two of them are the same women who have been warned before by the FACT people and other women to cool it. They seem to thrive on chaos, even if they have to create it themselves. If I was in the states, I’d be thinking borderline personality disorder. Anyway, after providing some options to the FACT folks at the police station, Renita continued home. As she pulled in the driveway, the exhaust pipe promptly fell off. I’m surprised it lasted this long.

In the evening, kids played and ate coconut in the yard until dark, and with the call “time to reach,” (meaning “time to go home”) most left, but a few remained. We had invited our closest kid friends in for a rare treat— soft drinks, popcorn, Noah’s peanut butter cookies, and a movie. Everyone had a riot watching the African-based classic, The Gods Must Be Crazy. After the movie, we walked the kids home under our 3,000,000 candle power spotlight, returned with a song, cut the generator—and enjoyed a quiet night.

Thus ended our somewhat uneventful 2nd Anniversary.

On the way into town, at the corner of UN Drive and Carey streets, a street vendor, up over his ankles in city runoff water, tries to push it along. Good luck, dude!

Back home, the laundry hangs out to... rinse.

Last night, from left Nowia, Nancy, Noah, Eastman, Trokon, Victoria and Hannah glued to the TV.