The Peets in Liberia
Friends of ours have a new blog. They are missionaries in Liberia West Africa! Below is a copy of the newsletter I just recieved from them. This will give you insight into their work in Liberia and daily life in a developing nation that is recovering from years and years of civil war. I miss them terribly; especially NOAH! I love you buddy! : )
"Dear friends,
Hello again from Monrovia, Liberia. We hope you are well and enjoying early summer or early winter depending upon where you are in the world. May we update you on our lives in Monrovia? Some of it is simple family news, and some of it is about the lives of the Liberian people we work with. Please read on.
Fierce dog…I forgot to mention in my last update that we now have a trainee guard dog, who will one day learn to bark at intruders, and wake up our security guards in the process. Noah is very much into Star Wars at the moment, so he named the dog “Yoda”.
Police brutality…Despite the best efforts of the UN, police brutality remains a daily issue here, and one night in late February I was called out of bed to the local police station, to try to get one of Equip’s employees, Mohammed, out of their cells. Mohammed had been brutally beaten and handcuffed by six policemen at the request of a spiteful neighbour, and dragged to the police station where they proposed he should wait in their dark and stinking jail cell for 48 hours during which time he would be charged with illegal sand mining and disorderly conduct, both of which were made-up charges. During the arrest, one of the police officers put his hand into Mohammed’s pocket, and stole his phone. I spent 3 hours negotiating with the police before we reached a “settlement” of $20, and Mohammed was released, very shaken up, just as the police station’s generator ran out of fuel and we were pitched in darkness. We are in the process of seeking legal advice and making a formal complaint.
Public brutality…The flip-side to police brutality is of course public brutality. In mid February I was phoned by a man celled Moses, who I barely know, who was in Monrovia Central Prison for beating up a woman. I visited him at the local Magistrates Court when his trial was due, and met with the Magistrate who expected me to pay for his release. Moses was guilty by his own admission, and I refused to pay $30 for his release. They listed the case again 2 weeks later, and mindful of the fact that prisoners can get forgotten in prison for months by the legal system here, I attended the court hearing and paid $30 for his release. Moses is a changed man – he said he cried himself to sleep every night in the prison, and has been praising God for his release ever since. Although the perpetrator of a brutal crime against a woman, he is himself a victim of abject poverty. He is one of the hundreds of Liberians stevedores who load goods into trucks from ships at the port – which is very physical work - and earns less than a dollar a day, which is not enough to buy food to keep his strength up.
Nappies…On the home front, Libby has out-grown every size of nappy available on the Liberian market, so we had to emergency toilet-train her. She has done very well, but still can’t see the point of wearing clothes and would rather run around starkers.
Garbage dump kids…I know that many people have been praying for the kids that live in the garbage dump near us. God moves in many incredible ways, and late last month the house next door to us was taken over by a Liberian Christian organization called “Lost Rescue Ministries” who have started twice weekly programs for these lost kids. 250 at a time are given some hi-nutrition food, and then receive some basic health education and encouragement, before a morning or afternoon of entertainment and Christian worship. We can hear their clapping and laughter and happy little voices from our house, and its great to see them shake off their terrible burdens for a few hours as they become children again, before they return to their garbage dumps, or their burnt-out and abandoned buildings where many are the main carers of other, younger, children. Through our neighbours we have met children who are now disabled through being victims of road accidents which occurred whilst they were trying to sell water to passing motorists just to support their little brothers and sisters. We will continue to support their good works, and explore with them how to develop their programs in the speech & language area (which is Sally’s expertise) especially with children who have little communication skills, caused I suspect by the traumas of the war here.
Mercy Ships…The Mercy Ship Anastasis returned to Monrovia at the beginning of March for her final outreach. It is great to see the ship and so many friendly faces again, and we have enjoyed entertaining our friends in our own home. Many are coming to stay with us over the next seven months, and its great to see Mercy Ships crew and Land Rovers on the streets of Monrovia again. Today, someone sent us this link: http://www.mercyminute.org/vol26/mmv26-35.htm which is a brief comment about us on one of Mercy Ships’ websites.
Liberia Donor Conference…in mid February, a conference took place in Washington DC, to raise funds and the profile of Liberia. It was attended by the US Secretary of State and the Liberian President, Vice President, and all the Ministers of Liberian Government, and representatives of NGOs working in Liberia, including the Country Director of Equip Liberia and my boss, David Waines. The outcome of the conference was overwhelming - 3.7 billion dollars of debt going back to the 1970s has been written off, and over 2 billion dollars of aid has been promised to help rebuild the country. It is a tricky time for the government here, as the country moves from its status as a “disaster” to its new status as “stable”, so this funding is vital to continue the development. I can see improvements every day – there are fewer and fewer man-size holes in the road, and the electricity line is inching its way closer and closer to our house…
Musu…I mentioned Musu in my last update – she is the dear lady who helps around the house whilst Sally is teaching the children. She is in her 60s, has been a widow for over 20 years, who gave birth to 12 children, who lost 2 at birth and lost 5 during the war. She is very sweet, totally illiterate, and completely ignorant of sexual health issues, just like most of the Liberian population so it seems. Recently some very wicked men have been telling her that she must have sexual relations with them or she will get sick, having not had sexual relations during the past 20 years. Fortunately she shared this with Sally, who told her these men were lying to her and that she can remain healthy without having sex. And all this time the STD and HIV/Aids infection rate continues to increase despite the massive campaign to prevent it from doing so.
Me…This month I have enjoyed meeting with UN in its many formats - UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, WHO & WFP - and numerous NGOs, mostly with regard to the crises just over the border in the neighboring country of Guinea which, praise God, appears to have gone quiet now.
I have also been challenged in my role in procurement and logistics, as we try to send a container of food, medical and water & sanitation supplies to Equip clinics and projects along the Liberian coast in rural Greenville on a UN chartered ship…the ship left our container in Greenville on its last supply run, so we have been unable to send vital supplies recently, which has a terrible effect on our teams and the population of Greenville.
We have enjoyed a visit from Brian Jose, our Missions Pastor from our home church in the UK, and during this time Brian, Noah and I traveled the 5 hours to rural Nimba County to visit some of Equip’s projects…the work is astounding, and it was great to remind myself of what its all about. We visited a village where one fantastic lady has led a health revolution by teaching the villagers to burn garbage and bury human waste, and has now built a church over the site of the old garbage dump and had latrines and wells installed – the village has been transformed, and infant mortality and constant “running stomach” are now distant memories. We traveled with the Equip Malnutrition expert to visit a girl who looks like a 6 month old but is actually five years old…the girl suffered oxygen starvation during birth, during which her twin died, and since then her parents have been neglecting her so that she would die.
We also hosted a team of nine from our home church in Luton, UK, and they, too, spent some time in Nimba County will Sally, observing Equip’s work there before returning to Monrovia where we spent a week renovating an orphanage. We had a wonderful time together and still miss them - they were a great encouragement to us.
Sally is still, surprisingly, enjoying the challenges of teaching Noah, Anna and Cameron-from-down-the-road. She remains determined that our two years in Liberia won’t leave our children behind their UK friends. Meanwhile, she attends a bible study group on Tuesday afternoons, made up of ladies from the missionary community, which is very rewarding.
Crime…we became the victims of crime only this month, after over two years (on and off) in Liberia. Our car stereo was stolen, and in another incident Sally’s cell phone was stolen. We are increasingly aware that the population is getting more desperate as time goes on with no obvious increase in jobs, hence the rise in these petty crimes. We are praying that crimes against ex-pats won’t become violent.
Website…I’ve been working on a website (well, blog really) which I am trying to update every couple of days. It will be a useful communication tool I think, and will also contain some of our prayer needs, and the prayer needs of the people and the communities we are working in. Please go to www.peetfamilyinliberia.blogspot.com. "
Hello again from Monrovia, Liberia. We hope you are well and enjoying early summer or early winter depending upon where you are in the world. May we update you on our lives in Monrovia? Some of it is simple family news, and some of it is about the lives of the Liberian people we work with. Please read on.
Fierce dog…I forgot to mention in my last update that we now have a trainee guard dog, who will one day learn to bark at intruders, and wake up our security guards in the process. Noah is very much into Star Wars at the moment, so he named the dog “Yoda”.
Police brutality…Despite the best efforts of the UN, police brutality remains a daily issue here, and one night in late February I was called out of bed to the local police station, to try to get one of Equip’s employees, Mohammed, out of their cells. Mohammed had been brutally beaten and handcuffed by six policemen at the request of a spiteful neighbour, and dragged to the police station where they proposed he should wait in their dark and stinking jail cell for 48 hours during which time he would be charged with illegal sand mining and disorderly conduct, both of which were made-up charges. During the arrest, one of the police officers put his hand into Mohammed’s pocket, and stole his phone. I spent 3 hours negotiating with the police before we reached a “settlement” of $20, and Mohammed was released, very shaken up, just as the police station’s generator ran out of fuel and we were pitched in darkness. We are in the process of seeking legal advice and making a formal complaint.
Public brutality…The flip-side to police brutality is of course public brutality. In mid February I was phoned by a man celled Moses, who I barely know, who was in Monrovia Central Prison for beating up a woman. I visited him at the local Magistrates Court when his trial was due, and met with the Magistrate who expected me to pay for his release. Moses was guilty by his own admission, and I refused to pay $30 for his release. They listed the case again 2 weeks later, and mindful of the fact that prisoners can get forgotten in prison for months by the legal system here, I attended the court hearing and paid $30 for his release. Moses is a changed man – he said he cried himself to sleep every night in the prison, and has been praising God for his release ever since. Although the perpetrator of a brutal crime against a woman, he is himself a victim of abject poverty. He is one of the hundreds of Liberians stevedores who load goods into trucks from ships at the port – which is very physical work - and earns less than a dollar a day, which is not enough to buy food to keep his strength up.
Nappies…On the home front, Libby has out-grown every size of nappy available on the Liberian market, so we had to emergency toilet-train her. She has done very well, but still can’t see the point of wearing clothes and would rather run around starkers.
Garbage dump kids…I know that many people have been praying for the kids that live in the garbage dump near us. God moves in many incredible ways, and late last month the house next door to us was taken over by a Liberian Christian organization called “Lost Rescue Ministries” who have started twice weekly programs for these lost kids. 250 at a time are given some hi-nutrition food, and then receive some basic health education and encouragement, before a morning or afternoon of entertainment and Christian worship. We can hear their clapping and laughter and happy little voices from our house, and its great to see them shake off their terrible burdens for a few hours as they become children again, before they return to their garbage dumps, or their burnt-out and abandoned buildings where many are the main carers of other, younger, children. Through our neighbours we have met children who are now disabled through being victims of road accidents which occurred whilst they were trying to sell water to passing motorists just to support their little brothers and sisters. We will continue to support their good works, and explore with them how to develop their programs in the speech & language area (which is Sally’s expertise) especially with children who have little communication skills, caused I suspect by the traumas of the war here.
Mercy Ships…The Mercy Ship Anastasis returned to Monrovia at the beginning of March for her final outreach. It is great to see the ship and so many friendly faces again, and we have enjoyed entertaining our friends in our own home. Many are coming to stay with us over the next seven months, and its great to see Mercy Ships crew and Land Rovers on the streets of Monrovia again. Today, someone sent us this link: http://www.mercyminute.org/vol26/mmv26-35.htm which is a brief comment about us on one of Mercy Ships’ websites.
Liberia Donor Conference…in mid February, a conference took place in Washington DC, to raise funds and the profile of Liberia. It was attended by the US Secretary of State and the Liberian President, Vice President, and all the Ministers of Liberian Government, and representatives of NGOs working in Liberia, including the Country Director of Equip Liberia and my boss, David Waines. The outcome of the conference was overwhelming - 3.7 billion dollars of debt going back to the 1970s has been written off, and over 2 billion dollars of aid has been promised to help rebuild the country. It is a tricky time for the government here, as the country moves from its status as a “disaster” to its new status as “stable”, so this funding is vital to continue the development. I can see improvements every day – there are fewer and fewer man-size holes in the road, and the electricity line is inching its way closer and closer to our house…
Musu…I mentioned Musu in my last update – she is the dear lady who helps around the house whilst Sally is teaching the children. She is in her 60s, has been a widow for over 20 years, who gave birth to 12 children, who lost 2 at birth and lost 5 during the war. She is very sweet, totally illiterate, and completely ignorant of sexual health issues, just like most of the Liberian population so it seems. Recently some very wicked men have been telling her that she must have sexual relations with them or she will get sick, having not had sexual relations during the past 20 years. Fortunately she shared this with Sally, who told her these men were lying to her and that she can remain healthy without having sex. And all this time the STD and HIV/Aids infection rate continues to increase despite the massive campaign to prevent it from doing so.
Me…This month I have enjoyed meeting with UN in its many formats - UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, WHO & WFP - and numerous NGOs, mostly with regard to the crises just over the border in the neighboring country of Guinea which, praise God, appears to have gone quiet now.
I have also been challenged in my role in procurement and logistics, as we try to send a container of food, medical and water & sanitation supplies to Equip clinics and projects along the Liberian coast in rural Greenville on a UN chartered ship…the ship left our container in Greenville on its last supply run, so we have been unable to send vital supplies recently, which has a terrible effect on our teams and the population of Greenville.
We have enjoyed a visit from Brian Jose, our Missions Pastor from our home church in the UK, and during this time Brian, Noah and I traveled the 5 hours to rural Nimba County to visit some of Equip’s projects…the work is astounding, and it was great to remind myself of what its all about. We visited a village where one fantastic lady has led a health revolution by teaching the villagers to burn garbage and bury human waste, and has now built a church over the site of the old garbage dump and had latrines and wells installed – the village has been transformed, and infant mortality and constant “running stomach” are now distant memories. We traveled with the Equip Malnutrition expert to visit a girl who looks like a 6 month old but is actually five years old…the girl suffered oxygen starvation during birth, during which her twin died, and since then her parents have been neglecting her so that she would die.
We also hosted a team of nine from our home church in Luton, UK, and they, too, spent some time in Nimba County will Sally, observing Equip’s work there before returning to Monrovia where we spent a week renovating an orphanage. We had a wonderful time together and still miss them - they were a great encouragement to us.
Sally is still, surprisingly, enjoying the challenges of teaching Noah, Anna and Cameron-from-down-the-road. She remains determined that our two years in Liberia won’t leave our children behind their UK friends. Meanwhile, she attends a bible study group on Tuesday afternoons, made up of ladies from the missionary community, which is very rewarding.
Crime…we became the victims of crime only this month, after over two years (on and off) in Liberia. Our car stereo was stolen, and in another incident Sally’s cell phone was stolen. We are increasingly aware that the population is getting more desperate as time goes on with no obvious increase in jobs, hence the rise in these petty crimes. We are praying that crimes against ex-pats won’t become violent.
Website…I’ve been working on a website (well, blog really) which I am trying to update every couple of days. It will be a useful communication tool I think, and will also contain some of our prayer needs, and the prayer needs of the people and the communities we are working in. Please go to www.peetfamilyinliberia.blogspot.com. "
posted by Loni @ 11:09 AM
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