The Water Definitely has a Taste...

Some answers to some more questions...

What’s been the best thing and worst thing so far?
Best so far was the time I spent at the Youth Camp I mentioned in my earlier post. Getting to know the kids and know about what life for a none pastors family is like, because so far the schedule of dawn devotional and then another devotional before bed is not the usual schedule for most families, even Christian families, in Liberia. Though I really enjoy the short devotional and worship sessions we have in the house.

Worst thing so far... everytime I'm told to do something by Rev Kulah and I get confused because it's difficult to hear and I think I was told something else, or because they have different expectations. Even when I think I'm going above and beyond with somethings, I still might have done it wrong and they don't really recognize effort, where I see all the effort. So that's discouraging and frustrating, but I get by.

Have you met someone yet who’s like your favorite person there?
No. Not one favorite. I love the Kulah children. I also love John Harris, the guy who handles all the driving. He taught me many things and I hope to learn more. The was the old driver of the van that took us up to the Youth Camp. He looks like seventy, but to me he had the swagger of a 20-something. I met the Kulah's cousin, Natalynn, at the camp, and she was one of the silliest young ladies I'd ever met. She was strangely insistent on me putting mayonaise in everything, though I never saw her use the stuff. Also, I don't trust mayonaise in this environment. She also was persistent on trying to read my journal, so I let her just read my impressions of the Nigerian airport. There was little Linda who plays with the other children in our neighborhood. She's about 3 years old and I have deemed her cutest little girl in the whole wide world.


Do you meet a bunch of new people everyday, or do you see about the same people?
To me I meet a bunch of new people everyday, but from what I've gathered I've actually introduced myself to the same people multiple times. It's just in my first few days I was meeting tons of people, and now I can't remember if I'd already met them. So I just introduce myself. But mainly it's the same people for now, just a couple here and there each day. I met with the principle of a school and some teachers the other day. Because I don't have a full itinerary yet, I haven't been too active with different groups.

What’s your daily schedule, like is every day different?
Every morning I wake up about 7:00 something. Take my bucket shower and get ready. Then we have devotional. Todays devotional went way long because they got in an argument about Jacob and Esau, and Jerry wasn't as in a hurry to get to the office.

Are you still sleeping at really strange times? Do you get enough sleep?
Only on days I'm super tired from the long hot day, then I pretty much hit the sack right after night time devotional, which is right after dinner. I think I get enough sleep. It's just the heat drains me very quickly.

What’s your fav thing you’ve eaten so far?
Favorite thing is probably these donut things they have. Like large dounut balls with sugar sprinkled on top.
My least favorite thing was the super spicy food that made me chug my bottle of water and go lay down a bit. It actually tasted good, just hurt. Also the fish bones I accidentally swallowed that tried to kill me.


Oh Jason and Kristen, a new spider appeared in the shower yesterday. Bigger than the last. Right by my head. I wasn't fully naked yet so I ran out and asked the kids what we should do! They laughed at me and said leave it, because it helps eat bugs. Yeah bugs and Josh. They say it won't bite or hurt you, but I know that it know I tried to kill it's brother back at camp, and it wants revenge.

Yesterday I was given a 'tour' of sort of Monrovia, because there was no work for me to do. So me and the California teacher guys were taken around town. I didn't enjoy it much, because I don't care much about buildings as I do the culture. So I felt very much like I was wasting time. But nothing I could do. We went to this old hotel, that at one point was a five star. Now it has big holes in it from bullets. The UN guards it now because it has radio towers for communication on top of it. While we were there rain started to pour down. And off went the clothes of some children around there. They went into the old swimming pool of the hotel, which had a little bit of water on the deepest end and they would get on pieces of plastic and slide down the slick, wet tiles bottom of the pool into the deep in. Looked fun. They were trying to show off for us, which was very funny.

Some of my favorite things I keep with me while I'm here are as follows...
My Watch: I never knew how much I check the time and it makes a little beep beep when it's a new hour. And for some reason it's like a little party for me in my head, like the beginning of a new year celebration.
My water bottle and SteriPen: It sustains me like no other. It's like my one and only companion, because I really never go anywhere without it. Especially when one individual here told me never to let it leave my sight, and that's all he said.
My Journal: When I have nothing to do or I want to just chill and expell the busy thoughts of my head after a long day, it is there to carry that burden for me. All the children comment on all the writing I do and how amazing they think it is. I'm at about 70 pages now. Should have more, but being too tired prevents me sometimes.
My draw string bag I've gotten from the Kulahs. It carries all my things that I need for the day. I enjoy having a little bag to carry all my stuff so much that I might just continue carrying one in America. I don't care if I get made fun of. It's just so nice to have all these tools at my disposal.

Also the last couple of days another companion of mine has been this book I found in Rev Kulah's office. "Great Personalities of the New Testament." It's been very interesting. Only down side about it is it keeps me from journaling some, but I have enjoyed putting some words in my brain, instead of just pouring words out.

Principle said the other day, there is only one way to speak English. I didn't say anything, but I disagree. That's destroy what makes English so wonderful, is its amazing flexibility. I had a professor once say "English is a whore." And it is. But I see what he's saying, that if the Liberian can speak english more "proper" like the Americans and English of the world, then it would help them to suceed. Just dropping some thoughts on this, because I struggle so much to understand their english sometimes. But honestly I wouldn't want them to be different from how they are.

Ok then, till next time readers...

Uncle Joshua