Containers and Trucks

Ah, a fresh new month. Full of possibility and opportunity. Our lives have temporarily become occupied by sorting boxes and boxes and more boxes, full of clothing, medical supplies and books. We were so happy with all the wonderful things sent in the container. Saturday I woke up, and remembered, today is the day we unload the container. I was so thankful that I was feeling better, after being sick with strep throat all week. I heard a few pitter patters on the roof, and sent a prayer up that it would be sunny for the unloading. By 10 am all the work crew and offical observers were here, and ready to get to work. The sun was shinining, by far the hottest day we have had since I have come. Kathleen even got a sunburn. Because I still wasn’t completely recovered Kathleen didn’t want me moving anything heavy, so I was in the kitchen cooking, split pea soup and rice for 30. Every thing went really smoothly. ELWA hospital came, and took a whole lot of medical supplies and 8 hospital beds. An Orphanage, Suzy Gunther came and took some boxes that were for them. Everything else is in our garage, front porch and living room. It is a bit overwhelming. So, that was Saturday, in a nutshell. Sunday, we sorted all the boxes of books, seperated from office supplies, teaching supplies and clothing (after church of course).
Monday. I woke up to the alarm at 6:35am. Joy got up, and I fell back asleep. Till glorious 8:20 am. Oops. I am trying to make up for last week. So, I got up, had breaky, (oatmeal) then asked Kathleen if it was okay for me to study, unless she needed me. She said she was okay, so I headed to Anatomy and Physiology land in my room. Now today, we were supposed to take the empty container to the property, which is about 10 miles down the road, and off the road about a mile, on sandy, muddy, not even developed into a road yet ground. James has been worried about it for weeks, knowing the day would come when we would have to move the container there. The worry being that the container and semi will get bogged down and stuck there. So while I was studying, it started just pouring rain, and I thought to myself, it is like someone up there has a bucket, that they are just pouring over Liberia. Then I thought wishfully, maybe there is a small area over the property where it isn’t raining. Anyhow, back to muscles in the body when the house sort of shook. I thought, probably thunder. A while later there was some flashes of lightening and rumbling of thunder, so I thought, it must of been it. Well, not too long after, Joy comes running in the room. “Aunty Bec, you have to come quick, mom says you have to bring your camera, and there has been a head on collision, and some man has his legs broken and you have to take pictures.” Aunty Bec replies “Calm down Joy” and thinks where is my camera, and I don’t really want to take a picture of some horrible accident scene. Well, I found the camera and walked out, still just pouring rain. There are about six people on our porch. I look out, I can’t take my camera in the rain, so start looking for an umbrella. No umbrella. Finally Morris, the childrens tutor comes and I take the umbrella from him.
The first thing I notice, our front gate is now just a wide open gaping space. I walk out in my barefeet, as the water is up past my ankles with all the rain. Two Dump trucks have had a head on collision. One is sprawled across the road, the other, has smashed through our cement fence, taking out the gate and quite a strech of fence. I was thankful when I made it out, the man with the leg broken was already gone to hospital. The drivers apparently both fled the scene. Doesn’t look too good. Yep, so I walked out there took photos of everything. The we had lunch, after lunch some friends came by, so we were out on the porch looking at the damage, when a yellow taxi swerves off the road and lands in the ditch, right between the fence and the truck on the road (its engine fell out, so the truck is still on half the highway) Apparently no one in the taxi was injured and its brakes had failed. Seems to be a lot of that going around. Unbelievable, two crashes in one day. Needless to say, the container is not being moved to the property today. Oh, and it has stopped raining.
No wonder Monday has such a bad reputation, what a way to start the week. Untill next time. BEC