On one of his visits, be begged Yers Trooly to cut his hair. As you can see, he really enjoys this. As do I.

Another day of tormenting and being tormented behind him, a satisfied Enoch heads for home.

On his way, he passes several cement shells that used to be homes. Now abandoned, gutted and rotting, they testify to fifteen years of instability, displacement and war.

At his Grandfather's house, a small cement block structure, the next step up from dirt floors, reed mat walls and a tarp roof. This kind of house transformation is happening all over Liberia.

Enoch at his back porch with pals. Actually this is where Grandmother does the cooking for the family. Note the two small coalpots to the left of the kids.

The family living room. Here is his little sister, mother, father (he lives in another county and rarely visits.) and grandfather.

Enoch's bedroom. He sleep's here with his little sister and 15 year old aunt-- who by the way also plays in our yard and has the best throwing arm of anyone I know.

From an unfinshed portion of his grandafather's house-- a front yard overlooking the marsh and the neighbors with the Altantic 200 yards beyond. "Welcome to my world."

A farewell smile from a hammock across the waves.

A Teaching Dynamo

Renita is a remarkable servant leader, as anyone who knows her quickly testifies. Back in Grand Rapids, she supervised neighborhood homework groups in our home, was a powerful advocate for community schools, and was always off lending her wisdom at workshops and seminars. Nothing has changed with her move across the Atlantic.

Every Tuesday, From 2pm to 5pm she teaches the LEAD class. This is at Christine Norman's school. Christine is the late president Tolbert's daughter, and a friend of many back in Grand Rapids.

When she gets home, the kids are waiting. Here she uses math flash cards with Ishmael and Sam from the orphanage, and Eastman.

Drawing class-- some of these kids do not know their colors. In addition to Noah,I think we have Obadiah, Eastman, Enoch, Chokon and Ishmael.

On to Reading with Odelle learning Phonics and Leonard trying to figure it out.

From left, Jackson, Enoch and Obadiah taking a quiz on subtraction. They actually ask Renita to give these to her. For Enoch, this is the only schooling he gets.

Last but not least, let us not forget her pet students, Hannah and Noah, who she home schools Monday thru Friday, 8am to 1pm. Talk about productivity!

Chicken News

Noah has been bugging us ever since we got here to get chickens, so a couple weeks ago we relented. However the dogs have been chasing them all over and out of the yard, giving us quite the headache. We almost told Noah we were going to get rid of the birds. We told him we would work with the dogs to train them not to chase the chickens. In the meantime, one of our neighbor kids, a twelve year old named Geeba-- Renita's father got close to him when he visited-- offered to supervise the building of a chicken fence and coup.

The good news is we are finally at a point where the dogs and chickens are actually free in the yard together without the dogs attacking, but the birds have a place to roost and get out of the rain at night. Can eggs be far behind?

Here the chickens are, trying to enjoy life in our yard.

But our vicious Kung-Foo dogs (Pinky pictured here attempting to do a Bruce Lee on Noah) would not let them rest-- chased the poor cluckers whenever they were not tied up.

Geeba (left) lent his building expertise, and along with Eastman, Obadiah and Noah, built a coup out back by the generator shed.

So now Noah's birds, Bawk, Cluck, Richie and lil' Richie, are all safe and sound.

The Thing about Humidity

As most of you know the coast of Liberia is one of the wettest places on Earth. During the wet season-- which has just begun-- it rains for days at a time without letup, and most of the year’s 200 plus inches of rain falls during the next four months. Coming from a moist Midwestern US area that sees 40 inches in a year, it’s an impressive display. But far more impressive than the rain is Liberia’s humidity, which is as high as it gets anywhere, just about 365 days of the year. For humans, and especially me, he thing about humidity is what is does to the body’s natural ability to cool itself. When we are hot, we sweat. Sweat has no cooling powers in itself. However it is designed to evaporate, and as it evaporates, the body cools. In dry climates, like Senegal closer to the Sahara, it is just as hot as in Liberia and often hotter. A person perspires there as much as here, but clothes are never wet and rarely does sweat collect on the brow. A person may not even realize he is sweating. The ultra dry air immediately takes it, resulting in a cooler body.

In Liberia, the air is so saturated with moisture that perspiration simply has no where to go—the body just gets wetter and wetter in a vain attempt to cool off. I go through about five shirts a day here if I’m not in the blessed air conditioning of car or work. At home, ten minutes of activity, like pounding a few nails or taking the generator out, immediately starts a process that drenches my shirt by the time I’m finished. Sweat, with no chance of evaporation, drips off my body or is continually being wrung out of the handkerchiefs I now carry everywhere. And my body just gets hotter.

It really is fascinating. I used to think the humidity caused me to sweat more, but this is not the case. The amazing humidity of Liberia simply cannot evaporate it, so it accumulates. I’ve never understood the mechanism of evaporative cooling until now, when it does not work.

A Welcomed Respite in The Gambia

We just returned from a week in The Gambia with families from Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) and Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). The Reeds have not taken a vacation since 2004, so this was a breath of fresh air, figuratively and literally. We were on the ocean with stiff cool breezes every day, all day. Hannah and Renita were actually cold several times, and I felt great. Noah and I did a lot of exploring, visiting tide pools and collecting shells. It was simply lovely.

Today, I woke up in Liberia. I discovered Henry’s funeral is next week—here they embalm the body for three weeks and more of viewing—and Mary Joyce is still clinging to life, but the doctors want to discharge her, as there is nothing they can do to help. My throat and arm infections are almost cleared up, thanks to 500mg of cefalexin every five hours.

Enjoy some shots of The Reeds in The Gambia.

Our hotel (on the right) at dawn. The winds were brisk and crisp.

Later in the morning, we met as a large group for a time of mutual spiritual support.

After the sessions, Noah and I out hunting for shells. Some days there were thousands of jelly fish stranded by low tide-- here are a few.

One of the jellies that made it to a pool, waiting for rescue from the rising tide.

Yers Trooly in the tide pools, looking for anything interesting.

At the tide pools, a western reef egret.

In the late afternoon, we return home and Noah displays the booty to Mom and sis.

In the evening, the tradition was to have a talent night. Hannah and Noah doing the sing-a-long thing.

An obligatory Reed family photo.

As we prepare to leave, Noah bids farewell to our last day, the beach, and Gambia.

Er, the view out of our hotel window in The Gambia. No cracks about "suffering for the Lord," please! Remember, I'm a sick man!

And Now for This Commercial Message

Some of you have asked about supporting us financially, and we are humbled by your responsiveness and generosity. We now have a link to a page that allows you to use a credit card to give online. Here's how: Click on the link to the right that says "contribute to this work online" and you will be redirected to a secure page. Scroll to near the bottom of the page where you'll see "Missionary Donation." Under that you'll see "Select Missionary from this Menu." If you open it, you will see all the CRWRC missionaries, and at the bottom under "volunteers," there we are! Click on us, then fill out the form and you're all set.

We will now resume our regular program, Blog Update, already in progress:

Item: I am sick again, this time with a strep/staph infection that has me down with strep throat and nasty sores on my right hand. No pictures this time, my mom reads this thing. But I'm on an antibiotic so I hope that will do the trick.

Item: Our friend Henry Tredah died suddenly last week, and his wife Mary Joyce is near death with a completely different illness. Henry was the man who managed the orphanage on the beach. A large but very quiet, soft spoken man, he cared about the kids-- he just did not know how to care for them. He did not have the skills to run an orphanage, so we worked together to make a better home for the children. Henry supported the closure, supported the transfer of the children to Mother Wleh. We are unsure of the cause of death. Mary is in the hospital near death, and likely will die soon. Liver failure. We visited her, and then the family at their home. They have four young children.

Item: The Reeds are in The Gambia! CRWRC sent the whole family to The Gambia for a week of R&R from other CRWRC and World Mission folks, so even though I feel lousy, its a nice place to be sick.

What Are We Doing Here? Part 4

Hello folks. We are told the rainy season is just around the corner, and we know its true, but the weather has been great. Relatively cooler weather, sunny days and best of all, relatively low humidity. We got a gully washer last night, but the plants needed it. If it was like this all year round we’d feel guilty being here.

Our work has taken definite shape. When we say “our work”, we are not including than home life—which includes important activities like home schooling, fixing things, and all chore-type duties. Home life work is important, but the main beneficiaries are the Reeds. “Our Work” is the work we do with and for the people of Liberia—the reason we came. Here is an update, just so you know we are not merely soaking up the sunshine, basking in the ocean breezes, and munching ripe mangoes off the tree.

We divide our work into three categories: 1) Business and entrepreneurial development, 2) Education/curriculum development and 3) Community development.

Business Development— This is Renita’s work. She is the consultant to LEAD, Inc. which offers business training and matching loans to Liberians with view to creating new jobs. Lead has just successfully completed its very first class, with about 22 business men and women in attendance. The most successful students will receive three-to-one matching loans, thanks in part to Partners Worldwide and the Nehemiah-Liberia Group, in order to expand their businesses. With the Liberia economy hobbled by 85% unemployment, LEAD’s efforts to get Liberians back to work are a great gift to this nation. Class number two begins in May, so Renita and her Liberian co-worker are out, meeting business people throughout the greater Monrovia area.
Education/curriculum development— This is my work. Liberia has very few professionals trained in social work or mental health, yet the foundational structure of the culture, the Liberian family, has experienced significant trauma because of the war and because of the clash of traditional and Western values. I am a consultant and guest instructor at Mother Patern College of Health Sciences. It is my honor to be working with MPCHS to develop Liberia’s first professional Social Work program, which we hope to launch fall 2007. The exciting recent development is that faculty members from two US colleges—Calvin College and Kuyper College, will be visiting MPCHS in July to help with curriculum development and consider ways to partner in the future. International NGOs, National NGOs, and the Liberian Government are making psychosocial support of families a high priority for strategic planning. Future social work graduates of MPCHS will be the leaders of these efforts. I feel privileged to be a part of this effort.
Community development-- For a long time now, Renita and I have believed in helping communities organize themselves to meet their needs and realize their dreams. In this community, we have started as slow as we could, getting to know people and first simply trying to be good neighbors. Over the nine months we have been here, we have seen two Liberian elementary schools embark on partnerships with two American schools, worked with a local school in getting tuition waivers for about fifty area children so they could attend classes, and been active in offering some training to a few area churches. Also, a few weeks ago we hosted a community meeting with a few folks which has developed into a Liberian led series of large meetings. Last week, about sixty neighbors were in attendance, and this week, they expect to elect a “community leader” and officers to further organize activities. Some of the dreams in the works are a marketplace and a playground.

So there you have it as of today. I brought along a few photos of us at work and a map of where we are.

Get your maps out people-- here is our world. The Reeds live in a little village officially called Foster Town, though everyone here uses "Thinkers Village."

Renita, at the LEAD class graduation.

Most of the LEAD graduating class. Renita and LEAD will continue to work with these grads while teaching a new class.

Here is Yers Trooly with the legendary Sr. Barbara Brillant. Dean of Mother Patern College of Health Sciences. An amazing woman of God.

This is Joseph Kpukuyou, the director of the Social Work program at MPCHS. He and I will be working closely together over the next couple years.

About half of the folks who attended the latest community organization meeting. Next time, we'll get the rest.

Back to Barclayville

Last August-- maybe it was September-- the family drove forty miles into the interior (two hour drive) to attend the opening of a church, affiliated with our local community church and part of the new "Christian Reformed Church in Liberia." Last Tuesday, I drove out there again to visit with church leaders and answer their call to do some teaching on reformed doctrine like I and Renita's father did for the local branch. I had a great time, and afterword enjoyed dumboy with bene seed soup and boneys, as well as palm butter and boneys over rice. Yum!

This was how the Barclayville "CRC" church looked in August when we first visited. A brand new place of worship for the community.

And how it looks today. A mud structure with hard mud floors. Love the paint job!

Another view-- the palm leaf structure in August...

And today. I love this building.

The interior of the church, with our Barclayville friends attending the workshop.

Photo Essay: People and Dogs in My Life By Noah Reed

My Dad said I could take some pictures, so I did. I hope you like them. Noah.

My Oma and Opa are here-- that's grandmother and grandfather in Dutch. Here they are with African clothes Deacon Reeves gave them.

Oma is helping Mom paint the porch.

UN gunships flying over our house. They fly over every day.

Here is Dad and Mom putting up the solar flood lights Oma and Opa brought. Dad would kill me if he knew I took a picture of him without his shirt. So don't tell him.

These are the three dogs in my life. This is Survivor, Pinky's sister. She is Deacon Reeves' dog, but she's always at our house.

Pinky. The barker. She is fearless and will go after anyone who comes in our yard she doesn't know.

Nikki. Mom and Dad say she's worthless, but I thinks she's cute. Isn't cute worth something?

Hannah chasing Andrew. The whole neighborhood can hear her sceechy squeal.

I love trying to catch kids in mid air. I don't know why. This is Enoch.