Througout our walks in the city I do not think I have seen as much barb wire in my life as in Liberia. However the vines growing on the barb wire reminds me of the hope of the future of this country. The country is being slowly repaired. People are excited about the opprotunities that are arising for themeselves and their children. There are many ministry opprotunites for us to get inovolved in.

The United Nations is still present in Monrovia. These are some of the U.N gaurds that guard the port.

As one walks the streets of the city of Monrovia. One will see lots of children. There has been no education for 14 years of civil war making the literacy rate 20%. Ther are countless orphans because their parents were murdered or their parents are displaced to other countries and thus they have not been reunited.

This is a picture of one of the bridges that was detroyed during the war. Currently there is now one functioning bridge into Monrovia. Thus one can imagine African traffic with only one means of entry and exsit in and out of the city.

These are images from at the Dokor Hotel. The pool is empty. The hotel is now the home of many internally displaced people. In Liberia currently there is an 80% unemployment rate. There are one million internally displaced people. Through the 14 years of Civil war, that ended in 2003, their factories were bombed, resources destroyed for electricity and running water.

This is a view of the city of Monrovia from the top of Dokor Hotel. A once beautiful hotel before the beginning of the Civil war.

We arrived Monrovia the captial of Liberia after a glorious sail. We were greeted by singing, drumming and dancing.
The port in Liberia is less busy than in Ghana thus it is quiter and cleaner. In Liberia we have our own dock of 1 km. Where we can walk, run and the children can ride their bikes.

I saw dolphins. This is a picture of only one they were difficult to capture in picture.
At one time I saw ( very briefly) twenty playing in the water.

Oh! The glorious sail. Sunrise, sunset.............. The sail was a glorious experience. Looking out on the VAST ocean one could not but marvel that God created it all for His glory.


 

This is the tug boat pulling the Anastasis out of the Tema port at 2:oo a.m. February 26, 2007. 

Getting ready for the sail........ we had several at sea fire drills and life boat drills. We got to wear our life jackets equipped with a whistle and light that would activate when it gets wet.
 

Before we left Ghana many important officials came to visit. Including the minister of health, the vice-president and president of Ghana. We were also invited to a stand up lunch from the minister of health.

This is a picture of the captain of the ship and the executive director of the ship dressed up to welcome the president.

The Poly clinic was one of the building projects that Mercy Ships completed while in Ghana. When the advance team came to Ghana a materinity ward was one of the needs that was assesed for the Tema area. It was exciting to see the project completed. There was a dedication ceremony where there were many guest speakers including the chief of Tema.

The outreach in Ghana being complete has meant that we have had to say good-bye to many friends we made in Ghana. Including the translators whom the nurses worked closely with on the Ward. "Translators are a very important part of the medical department. All are Christians from the local comunity, and many are pastors or church workers. The main role of translators is to facilitate communication between the medical team and those we care for." We had a good-bye party for the translators and we wore our African outfits.

Getting ready to sail. The deck hands loaded all the vehicles. It was interesting to watch and it seemed that the slings they used should not be strong eneogh to load the vehicles.
 

Hi-ho-hi-ho it is off to the bees we go. The woman walking carrying their bee outfits to the bee hives.