Suzi is a gifted Canadian tutor who
has come to Liberia to teach our children. She
brings big smiles, creative learning, and laughter
to our home. Here is a portion of her journal.
Wuostown
(“Wooztown”) -
the setting of one of my best memories so far
in Liberia: March 30, 2006.
Wuostown is a collection
of mud brick homes, recovered leprosy patients,
and gorgeous children. It is a setting of tall
cottonwood trees, open skies, and God’s
love. Kevin, Riana, (Equip staff from B.C.)
and I hastened to Bethel Church on a Thursday
afternoon to attend an EQUIP Health workshop
for children. As we stepped into the shadow
of the doorway, the assembly of over a hundred
children leapt to their feet and burst into
an enthusiastic, clapping rendition of “Brother
you are welcome, Sisters you are welcome.”
We were thus welcomed and invited to join them.
A gifted EQUIP CHA called Andrew Gomah educated
the children about proper health practices through
skits, songs, and stories. What power truth
has. A community that used to be the showcase
for children dying daily of preventable diseases
now has a choir of kids literally singing a
new song. These kids will now change their families’
hand-washing practices and their toileting habits.
These kids will spread the message of health
and wholeness that EQUIP was created to spread,
and will change their future in the process.
We in Canada are not even conscious of how we
wash our hands; in Wuostown, it’s a revolutionary
procedure, and a child who otherwise would have
died from diarrhea, worms, or Hepatitis A, to
name a few killers, will now live to see tomorrow.
As
the workshop concluded Andrew drew our attention
to four malnourished babies who are commencing
the “Come Eat at my Table” program.
It’s hard to gage whose eyes are more
heartbreaking: the little boy who barely has
the strength to lift his head, or his mother,
still a child herself, who knows she cannot
afford to feed this infant she bore. The women
humbly accepted the bags of baby food handed
to them; I just wondered what their stories
are…
We were left in the
church with fifty wide-eyed kids who stared
at Riana and I like we were Christmas morning.
I shepherded the whole lot of them into a circle
on the floor (alright, I confess, it was rather
egg-shaped) and in my best Liberian English
I explained the basics of Duck-Duck-Goose. It
was by far the loudest, liveliest game I’ve
ever participated in. The moment someone was
labeled “goose” everyone started
shrieking encouragement, cheering, and just
creating general pandemonium. They were tireless.
Riana and I obviously got picked on more than
the rest and I just laughed and laughed every
time I had to stand up, pry several kids off
my legs, and sprint around the circle once more.
I do believe they would have played forever.
I led a group of older girls outside and for
whatever reason I began to dance. They followed
suit without hesitation, mirroring my increasingly
ridiculous gestures. In a matter of moments
the rest of the kids spilled out of the church
and started jumping and singing with us. Dave
Waines arrived and led us all singing through
the streets of Wuostown. The scene was reminiscent
of the pied piper coming to town: children came
from everywhere to follow him, skipping along
through the huts. It was an amazing picture.
In a free Liberia, an “army of children”
can finally be described as a group of gleeful,
innocent kids parading around spreading smiles,
rather than a veritable army of gun-wielding,
drug-smoking ten-year-olds spreading terror.
A new day has come.
Gbuyee
(“Boo-ee”) – a town
in the bush, a twenty-minute drive from Ganta
down a “passable” road. Gbuyee is
still in the clutches of the oppressive Devil
Bush. This is the first town Dave and Audry
worked in.
We arrived in Gbuyee at nightfall in the company
of a light rain. A few people hopped into the
back of our truck and we made our way down a
steep, narrow dirt road to Bopa, the sight of
Gbuyee’s school. The school building is
a renovated pig barn. Damage to the school pained
Dave as he saw the roof non-existent on the
far end of the one hallway, exposing an entire
classroom to nature. But as we wandered through
the school a spectacular lightning display reminded
us who is in charge. Just beyond the school
is the “Queen Bee house,” which
Dave built for his bride. It’s a two-storey,
hexagon-shaped mud house which I would move
into tomorrow, given the chance. On the outside
wall Audry painted the very applicable words
of Luke 7:22: Finished with our tour, we drove
back into the heart of Gbuyee and held a candlelit
meeting with the locals on the front porch of
a shop. The message that every voice echoed
was one of craving change. We saw frustration,
passion and need. Now we can only pray about
what EQUIP’s role will be. God is not
finished with Gbuyee, despite their hard hearts.
This is the setting
where I see my future. Where the kids climb
up your legs and the adults hasten to shake
your hand and welcome you. Where the people
grow their own food and build their own homes.
Where people are content with less. Also, where
the need for development, for medicine, for
protein, for clean water, for hope, for Christ,
is so profound. To provide a solution, one must
understand the problem; to understand the problem,
one must experience it. This is where I want
to teach, but more importantly, where I want
to learn. This is where I want to live.
The trouble with
this kind of life is that it ruins you for anything
else.
