Keeping you Updated

It's always difficult to know where to start my entries because there seems to be so much that goes on in a week. I suppose the theme this week would be "breaking down". It seems like everything was breaking or not functioning properly. Two of our coffee pots went on the fritz, which if you know the staff here is disasterous. The airconditioning broke down on Thursday, and lastly our internet was out for three days. None of these things were any big deal on their own but collectively made us wonder what was going on! I'm happy to say that 2 out of 3 are back up and working, and we've resorted to using a French press for our coffee addiction.

Otherwise, it was work as usual mixed in with a whole lot of rain. Strategy meetings, coordination meetings, ...you get the picture. It was a good week though, and the weekend has been even better. I wouldn't have said that waking up yesterday, as the night before was one of the most terrible sleeps I've had since arriving. I woke up at 2:30 with an uneasy feeling and it kept me awake for quite a while before I was able to drift off to sleep. I must have been quite tired because everyone woke up yesterday morning talking about the big commotion that took place at 5:30 am. I remembered waking up to some lights flickering around outside and a few loud voices, but had assumed that it was our security doing their routine checks. Turns out that our security had captured 1 of 3 rogues who were trying to steal/break into a house on our compound. In true Liberian fashion mob justice came into play and they gave him a good beating. The positive in the situation is that they turned him into the police before they beat him to death.

The rest of the day went well...in fact it went great. We had a guest that had been here for four days this week over for a pancake breakfast before I was able to drive her to the airport. (That drive is one of my favourites by the way...good paved road and beautiful scenery) Then upon my return, I discovered both our air conditioning was being fixed, and our internet was back up and running. I capitalized on the internet till the power went out at 1, and then crawled into bed for a good afternoon nap. The evening was spent at a gathering for our visiting Canadian ambassador from Cote d'Ivoire and a member of the Trades Commission, and then off to watch football/soccer.

As mentioned in a previous blog, the feeling around world cup here is fantastic. The restaurant that we gather at to watch was packed with people. We walked in 20 minutes into the game and luckily found a seat in the back of the room. Italian fans more or less on one side with American supporters on another, and a whole lot of controversial calls. It was fantastic! Everyone left feeling like it was great atmosphere and a great night.

Tomorrow I hope to take the UN chopper up to the north part of the country. I'm going primarily for an assessment of the area. This will be an area of the country that we will be focusing more and more of our work on in the area. Currently, we're working with the community to rehabilitate swamps, but will expand to more and more program activity. Part of that will be placing an intern there for church reconstruction projects, and also I'm going to assess whether or not we can be doing something with HIV/AIDS education. So, I'll hopefully be on the flight tomorrow and returning on Wednesday. It will be a quick trip, but a much needed one. I'll be sure to post my findings when I return.

Till then...HAPPY FATHER's DAY!!!