Jon and I made it home Monday night. It seems strange to be home and it seems as if we should be moving into fall rather than spring. I guess b/c of the cold rainy weather in Michigan and after spending 2 months in very hot, humid conditions.
I do miss the students in Liberia, they were so eager to learn and were thirsting for knowledge. Let me end this blog by posting a picture of the my students.
Jon told Chris that we would post his story on my blog. This happened while we were in Yekepa. This is the story told to Jon by Chris Mendin, Yepeka, Liberia. Here is a picture of Chris who is on the right.
After working at ABC, Chris returned to his home in Yepeka, which he shares with a relative and her two small daughters. Chris is finishing his HS education and was studying from about 8pm to 11pm. He has no electricity in his small home in Yepeka so he has to study by using artificial lighting. At 11pm he decided to go to bed , he went outside to use the restroom and as he returned to his house he heard an unusual sound coming from the corner of his small home. Using his cell phone as a flashlight he looked into the corner and was surprised to see a large spitting cobra. After placing the cell phone in his mouth so both of his hands could remain free, he grabbed a four foot piece of board and tried to pin the cobra’s head to the floor so he could kill it with his machete. Chris missed the snake on the first try and the Cobra rose up and spit into his right eye. (This type of Cobra spits in the eyes of its prey to blind it before killing it.) Now blinded in one eye, Chris’s fight or flight instinct kicked in and he was totally focused on this deadly snake and knew that he had to either kill the snake or it would strike and kill him or one of the others who were in the house witnessing his battle with the snake. The cobra kept striking the board, each time just avoiding Chris’ hand. Not wanting the snake to spit in his good eye, Chris closed both of his eyes and slashed out with his machete finally stirking the snake - lashing at it until the snake was dead. Hearing the struggle, his neighbors arrived in time to dispose of the snake’s body. Needless to say, Chris was a hero in his home that night.
Chris did not sleep well that night because of the pain in his right eye. At ABC the next morning, he was instructed to wash his eye out with milk, and after a short time his sight returned and the pain went away. Jon watched Chris tell his story to many of the workers during the day and they were all amazed that he was not bitten.
So life goes in Yepeka Liberia.
The snake measured 25 cm around and was over 4 foot long. Chris stated that “God being so great, He gave me the power to finally kill the snake”. “Praise God that I am well”.
have two more snake stories to share. I will share one now and another later. Last Thursday, Jon was working on restoring the chapel with the USA volunteers from “Steppin Out”. They were taking a break to drink some water and get in some shade to cool off. Jacque, who is from the Ivory Coast, also was part of the team. He is use to dealing with snakes and killing them when needed. Jacque squatted down and leaned against a palm tree and Jon was next to him. Jon heard a plop, looked-up, and grabbed Jacque and jerked him away from the tree. Jacque looked at Jon knowing that something had happened and he needed to move quickly. A green mamba had fallen out of the tree right next to Jacque. Unfortunately, they could not find the snake to kill it. It wasn’t very big and had moved very quickly.
Liberia is a lush land that grows beautiful flowers and fruit . Right outside of our door is a mango tree, a cashew fruit tree, palm tree, and coconut tree. A block over is the college garden that grows such things as peanuts, pineapples, cassava trees, beans, potatoes, potato greens, cabbage, and they have just planted moringa seeds to grow trees.
Cashew Nuts
I was fascinated by the cashew tree at the back of our house. The Liberians eat the cashew fruit and seem to care little about roasting the shell to get the nut. Jacque, an Ivorian, told me that you cannot eat the cashew fruit and drink milk in the same day or it would kill you. I found that interesting so I did some research on the web. I did not find out that it would kill you, but I did find that both the cashew fruit and milk have a common substance that can cause an allergic reaction, including severe asthmatic attacks. I am wondering if this is what has happened to a few people thus the belief that eating the two in the same day will kill you.
The chemical found in the cashew fruit can irritate the skin, while the sap from the nutshell can cause skin irritations which are similar to second degree burns. When roasting the nuts fumes are emitted that can irritate the skin and even lead to blindess.
Potter Clay
When we went to the market, I asked one of my students what the gray chunks were and he told me it was potter clay. He said that women like to chew on it in Liberia. I asked him what nutritional value that it had and he said he did not know. I decided to do some research, b/c I thought this might be a case of pica, an eating disorder when an individual physically craves usually an earth substance. I was fascinated when I found out the following information.
There has been research by Haydel and Williams out of the Arizona State University finding that certain types of clay may be antimicrobial in nature. These clays can be used for wounds and indigestion. They also may help reduce bacterial growth and fight superbugs such as MRSA and may help with flesh eating infections.
The term for using clay as a healing property is called “pelotherapy.” Eating the correct type of clay might help prevent pica. It also may help in the healing of gum disease and in some West African communities have been used to prevent a mycobacterial disease known as Buruli ulcers, which is common in children and women. Isn’t it fascinating that cultures throughout generations have been able to find that such substances may be beneficial. One caution, it has to be the right type of clay or it could make you sick.
Bitter Ball
This is a bitter green fruit grown in Africa, called jilo, bitterball, or garden eggs. They are usually sautéed with other vegetables, broiled, or grilled.
Kittely
These are very small eggplant shaped fruits, which are often used in African stews.
I still have problems with all of the the meat/fish laying out all day at the market. Some of it is dried, but most of it is fresh (if that is the word you want to use, by the end of the day it does not look to fresh).
Below are seeds from the moringa tree. They have just planted some moringa trees at ABC, to be used for food and medicinal purposes. I wrote about the trees in an earlier blog when I was in Kenya.
Teachers Can Change Students Lives
BY Johnson Aloysius Geekor
As a normal routine of my early childhood life, I would go around the neighborhood playing while my peers were all in school. At the age of seven, I had not begun school. During one of my routines on a Monday morning, I fortunately stopped by a school that was in session. The school window was very low so I managed to catch a full view of the entire class. A female teacher had just written an arithmetic problem on the blackboard that needed solving. The teacher asked for volunteers to solve the problem. All the volunteers failed to give an answer to the problem. She asked again whether someone else would try. There was complete quiet in the class until I broke the silence by saying, “I am able to solve the problem.”
“Who are you and what are you doing over by the window wanting to answer questions in my class?” the teacher asked very harshly. She reluctantly invited me to give the problem a try. I walked in with confidence and solved the problem, which I knew very well. The teacher and the class were amazed, so she ordered them to applaud me.
After class she demanded to know who my parents were, why I was not in school at my age, and how I knew how to solve the problem when I had not started school. I told her that I had a single mother who did not have money to let me start school yet. The teacher asked me to take her to my mother’s house. My mother was shocked to see me with a stranger at the house. The teacher introduced herself and they talked lengthily while I looked on. In two days, I was in school with a brand new uniform.
The teacher took a keen interest in me as a mother and a dear teacher. She always wanted me to study very hard so as to make my mother a proud mother. The teacher sometimes paid my fees when it was difficult for my mother to pay. The teacher always said I had great potential.
Geekor is in the middle. Evelyn is on the left and is a reall firecracker and Ruth is the oldest student on the right. She is a gracious woman and has a real love for K-2. Because of the lack of resources she has developed a number game and an alphabet game, so children she teaches can do interactive learning.
It is critical that people start getting an education that is why ABC has spent the last three years trying to do repairs to buildings so that they could open up again. In one of my earlier blogs I noted the problems that have occurred in education and other professional areas b/c disruption of K-12 education and not many options for college It also is a problem b/c people can't afford to go to college. Students are worried about having enough money to pay a cab to drop them off at a campus, yet alone pay for tuition. If you make a wage of $5 a day, you are just surviving and this is considered a good salary. Well paid teachers only make $70 a month and most do not make that much. Many teachers have no college education and need training, that is why I was willing to do the 3 teacher workshops over the last few Saturdays. They were a good group with which to work.
My students have an assignment to write about the difference between discipline vs. punishment. The H.S. is right across from us and my students were very upset with what they were seeing. When students come late to school they are forced to kneel in gravel on bare knees for a period of time. Another punishment is putting a chair on a student's head and caning. These teachers are not bad, they are just treating children the way that they were treated when they were in school. Anyway, back to some pictures of ABC University.
This is the administration building. I actually have my very own office. It is the last window on your right.
This is where classrooms are located and the computer lab. Right next to this building is another classroom building that is being renovated for next year.
The library has just been completed. The students are so excited about this. I think it is one of the nicest buildings on campus.
Here is some of my students working on the computers in the new lab in the library. They now have two computer labs they can use. i can't tell you what a big deal this is. Most of them have never used a computer before they came to college. The H.S. have no computers, they don't even have texts for students to use. ABC is unique in the fact that they use texts for all of their courses; many universities in Africa do not require texts. They just do rote work.
This is the back of the faculty house where we are staying. There are about six faculty/staff houses right now. It is expected if you work as faculty that you will receive housing. Housing is a big deal b/c so many homes were destroyed during the war.
Mountains surround the campus. If you see what looks like fog or haze, it is actually fine particles of dust that come off the sub-Sahara desert. The winds are called "harmattan" meaning winds that blow from the Sahara. They are primarily from December to March. At sunset, the dust particles can make the sun look three times bigger. By the way, the building you see in this picture is the gymnasium, which was gutted by the war and probably will be one of the last buildings to be repaired.
I love this picture. We were driving home from the orphanage one afternoon. It had just been pouring rain and then the sun broke through.
ABC is in Yekpa, Liberia which is in the NE part of Liberia. Yekpa use to be a thriving vacation spot before the 14 year war, but now it is literally just a shell of buildings. It had supermarkets, a movie theater, a major ore mining company, etc. . .
ABC has 22 buildings on campus, with over o1/2 of the buildings restored and work is being done on the rest of them. Below are some pictures of sites near the campus to give you an idea of what the campus looked like before they started working on its restoration 3 years ago.
Notice all the tropical growth and the large ant hill in the middle. All zinc roofs, wiring (for the copper), etc... was starving and they took anything to sell to get money for food. Plus people from Guinea would come across the border and strip buildings.
Notice the electrical poll but not wires anywhere.
This is an ABC classroom that they are now starting to work on and hopefully will be done by fall. They just put the windows in.
Below is a picture of the chapel being restored. Steelworkers from US have come to work.
THEY ARE GETTING READY TO TURN OFF POWER SO I WILL POST OTHER PICTURES LATER.
I watched the game last night with seven guys. I talked most of them into being MSU fans for the evening. Four of them were from Ohio and said since it was MSU and not Michigan they would root for my team.
It was an exciting game. I was hoping I could watch the game Monday night, but doubt it b/c it won't be on until 1:21 am here and not over until after 3 am and that is a long time to keep on the generator. TRESSA BE SURE AND DVR THE GAME FOR ME.
