Sometimes I don’t think Liberians have any idea how strong they are. For over twenty five years, they have watched their homeland fall apart around them. Almost every Liberian over ten years old has lived through and remembers displacement, fear, violent and terrible things happening, horror, disruption, poverty, sickness, and hopelessness. Liberians are used to adapting, surviving, and making the most out of a bad situation. Yet so many—like the 25 in this workshop I’m leading--are actively working to build communities of compassion and justice.
The workshop participants are men and women of various ages from a variety of organizations. They want to improve their social work and counseling skills. Every work day for eight weeks they have been meeting in a classroom from 8:00am to 3:30pm. After the eight weeks, they will work on site with humanitarian organizations putting their learning into practice. The workshop I am leading is a two week section called “basic counseling skills." It’s the equivalent of a semester long upper level undergraduate course crammed into sixty hours over ten days. I’m having a great time with these truly world class heroes. There is much we are learning together—they about Western people-helping, me about West African people-helping. There is much laughter seasoned with a bit of hard brain work and a lot of practical activities. You ought to have been there when we discussed gender roles in Liberia. They could hear us in the next building with the air conditioning on.
Everyday I am awed by their resilience and strength. Everyday I feel humbled to serve them, and I never drift far from the awareness of the price so many have paid on their journey to our classroom.
The continuing saga of Bob, Renita, Hannah, and Noah-- four ordinary Americans trying to figure out what Dancin' with the One Whut Brung 'Em means. Currently, it means being servants to the people of Liberia, and being served in return. What does that look like? Pay attention and find out with them!
1 comment:
Unca Bah, I like that. Hello Reed Family. Thank you for your blog. We are, God willing, going to be your neighbors real soon. We are in process of starting to prepare for our transition to Liberia. I would like to email you or call you if at all possible to gain some more insight into the preparations for our life there. I know that sounds like a huge open ended question, but it's not as bad as you might think. We've done some homework and your blog has also been very insightful. We have contacts there but would like more. If you would be so kind as to please contact me at davidfelando@hotmail.com so that we might be able to exchange information and start some offline correspondence that would be great. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and yours in your work there.
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