On My Mind

August 10, 2006


This week I have been going through the files of all the people we have interviewed at Coconut Plantation and the Group of 77. I am trying to pick out 10 families or individuals that will be candidates for our resettlement package, which will be supplemented with some building supplies. (This will be done through Grassroots Ministry, some of the people have greater needs, and the package we have will not be sufficient....and so the Group off 77 will try to help these other people in different ways). It is hard for me. I start reading a file, and I look at the photo, and try to imagine what it will be like for this family or person to go home. I have been to a few different villages now, and to different homes around Monrovia. This past week I got a glimpse into what it is like to be disabled in Liberia. We went to see where one lady lives, we'll call her Dee. Now, she has two club feet and walks on the sides of her feet, or really, her ankles. Her job is sweeping at a government office. I am not sure if she is paid by the government for this, or if people just give her money that are walking by. Whatever she makes, it is not enough. When we went to her house, we parked on the side of the road. Then we walk down a rocky hill, I think I had to use my hands to get down. Then we walk along a path that is flooded with water and full of large jagged rocks. It takes us 10 minutes as she can’t walk very quickly. A few places she needs a hand to manover over some water or what have you. This is bad enough when you have two good feet, but when you can barely walk on an even surface it is just not right. When we arrive at her “house” I wonder what is holding it together. It looks like just a bunch of zinc sheets propped up in the shape of a house. There are rocks on the roof holding down the roofing, rusty zinc. Not only that, when I walk out the back door, it is only a skip and a jump and you are in the water, I believe a lagoon. There are no wheelchair ramps or nicley paved walkways here....I know, though I would like to imagine otherwise, her living situation is not an isolated one. People are living in unbareable conditions. I can’t even try to relate to this. This land is a lot her mother bought and gave to her. Many of the disabled people, they don’t want to go back to the interior, where they are originally from, becuase life is that much harder there, perhaps there is no access to medical services, or they are afraid when they can no longer hustle on the street, they will have no way of getting money. But life in the city, as I see it is not a very good environment. There is so many people living in cramped quarters, and so much garbage and pollution. They don’t have designated dumps here, so garbage just gets dumped here there and everywhere. Back to the files of people, several of them own a lot within the greater Monrovia area, but how do you send someone home, when they have land, but the house was burned down or destroyed int he war, or there is no structure on the land at all. Many of these people are in wheelchairs, how are they going to build any sort of structure, and what if the lot doen’st have road access, or is far from the nearest road. I wish I could wave my wand and provide housing for all these people. I have been on the internet looking at Low Cost housing alternatives, special dirt bricks and aerated cement .....it would be so amazing to help build houses here for these disabled people. Well, we will start with the few that we can give some help to, that have family they can go and live with, or have some sort of home to return to, and have some skills that they can run a business or do some trade. They need confidence to go back home, that they can do it, that they have the ability to do something more with their life then exist by begging. They need encouragement and prayer, and support. It is hard in a country, where even the able bodied people are barely getting by. I have no answers, but I hope that in some way, the small thing I have done in interviewing some families, and putting together files, will lead to something greater for them. Please pray for wisdom for Kathleen and I as we choose 10 families, that the packages will be a blessing to them and that they will be happy to return to their homes and extended families.