6.12.17
Hello. Well, we are back to the United States of America now. I dropped from blogging for many, many months. Actually it wasn’t that many. Only about 6 months. Even though it has only been 6 months, a whole lot of things have happened between about January and today. Even so, I can only talk about a few things. That is why I have decided to talk about the 3 most important topics that have happened to me, which are questions my Old Man asked. Here goes…
- What do I miss about the small, remote village that we lived in called Zuannah Town?
Well again, I do miss many things but I can only say a few. That is why this paragraph will be fairly short because this topic does not matter as much to me as the other ones do. To start off, I always have really enjoyed Zuannah Town. It had a rather large river named the Poe River. It was about 2 minutes away from the compound in witch we stayed. I recall swimming in it at least 3 times. I only attended it on very hot days, and with either Simon, or Ruby and Ivy. On either side of the river were extremely large, lusciously green trees in witch, if you believe Simon, monkeys live. It fits descriptions of the Amazon River exactly. Except this is not this Amazon River. Anyway, Zuannah Town was a great place to be. I enjoyed our stay there plenty. In conclusion, Zuannah Town was, and is fantastic.
- What did you learn from your time working in the bush? Any lessons learned or experiences you want to remember?
Simon and I labored in wilderness, or if you want to say it the African way, the “bush”. Both of us worked on the drilling te-am, as a part of witch we drill for clean water out in little, tiny , very remote villages out in the bush. The farthest one was Nyawusay. It is about 3 and a half hours to get there from where we lived, and the the roads sucked. I mean for an example, there was this thin palm tree bridge over this deep creek. That always gave me the willies whenever we had to cross it. They were all dirt roads with huge water-created craters from it raining in the rainy season, then huge trucks as big as American semis carrying a few thousand of pounds worth of sticks and logs or charcoal. You’ll start to see over time that it just morphs the earth in to, like, moon craters. I remember so vividly getting really carsick on those car trips that we had to have every day to get to work. One time I got so darn carsick and the gas tank in the trunk was left open, not on purpose, and I just felt so sick that I demanded that Simon stop driving and roll down the window. He did as I said and as soon as the window was down I immediately threw my head out the window and vomited. Since then I made sure that I always sat in the middle seat and that the gas tank in the trunk always either was closed or had a blanket over it. After that it never bothered me again. And I was super happy about it. On the drilling team my job was to be the scribe and photographer, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Simon’s job on the drilling team was to be just, like, the strong guy who does the really hard stuff. He’s strong. Well, working on the drilling team was worth while. Other wise I’d just be sitting at home being lazy and worthless. In conclusion, working on the drilling team made me feel full of use, or in other words use-full. I had a good time and Mentor was always like”Wow” if we hit rock. It made me laugh. The food we ate in the villages was good, especially the cassava leaf which was my favorite soup, over white rice. All in all, the drilling team really helped me see what I am and what I can be in this life. (A tear, and a Laugh).
- How did life change when we moved from the village to the private compound at Bible College? What are your pros and cons about village living vs. private compound living?
Hi again. This next paragraph is going to be my pros and cons and feelings about moving from village lifestyle to a private compound in Brewerville. Well, to start off, I enjoyed it a lot more. It was a more comfortable place to tan (haha). This is the place I would usually tan: The water tower. Umm, what? Okay (laughs), where were we? Speaking of water towers, I also enjoyed the fact that there were no more bucket baths. We had running water from our hand-dug well. It didn’t run very fast though because it was just flowing down from the water tower (haha). It was the same temperature as the well water in the village. Also, we had a big fence around the perimeter of this compound. It had a rather large backyard and front yard. The front yard was probably about as big as the back yard. Okay. Back to the topic. We also, uhh…. wait. The house was a lot bigger than “the dome” or “the stinky room” (the library we all four shared the first few months). Well Simon and I shared a room at the house, and Ruby and Ivy shared a room except Ivy slept in my parents’ room. And of course, last but not least, Mom and Dad shared a room.
And there were lizards on the walls! Simon and I, two days before we left, would throw a spray of rocks and try to kill them brutally outside. It was a lot of fun. We only caught three though. Our plan was to catch a big gnarly orange one. But our plan (sniffles) never succeeded. For other entertainment, we had a small TV but we could only run it when the current was on, which was rare, and then we would have to unplug the little fridge. I liked to watch a movie once a week, sometimes. So I read a lot. Very much! It was a boring experience there until the drilling experience was introduced into my life. I owned two little dogs and nourished them and named one Bart and one Barticus (that’s a lie). I like those dogs but we ended up eating them ( this is also a lie, done by Charlie Jones). I did not have any friends in the compound. I was a loner and a rebel. Back to topic! Dang it! Uhhh anyway, I enjoyed the compound more than the village. I was sad when on the last day we were at the compound that we figured out that we could climb the big plum tree. For the months that we were there I always thought that there were ants up there that felt like fire shooting up your hand and through your body when the bit. But if you get bit on your foot it shoots up your kneecap (also a lie by Charlie Jones). Okay no more lies. I can’t think of anything else to say except that there were lots of fruit trees in the backyard. We had avocado and plantain and banana and also mango (plum) tree. We spent a lot of time when we first got there cleaning up trash. The place was a dumpland. To be finished with this paragraph, I like the closed compound more than the village life. Thank you.
- Please describe how you grew and changed as a person as a result of living in Liberia. Give at least 3 examples.
This next paragraph is going to be about how I grew and changed as a result of living in Liberia for 9 and a half months. I will provide you with at least 3 examples. Here it goes. Example no.1: Well, I gained a good 6 pounds and grew a rough 2 inches. To explain this example I had a rather large growth spert during the time being in Liberia. I am rather happy about that be-cause… I have always been the shortest person in my class next to my best friend, Hashim Ahmed. I guess you can say that’s why he’s my best friend. My feet also grew a big growth. Even though my dad says that I look a lot different I believe I look the same.
Example no.2: My skin got very tan. Although I like the look of being tan, it is fading already. The sun is just not as hot or powerful here in Idaho (witch is the place from witch I am writing this). I enjoyed the sun in Liberia. I liked the heat, the humidity. I loved it all very much, not just because I wanted my skin to be darker or in other words more tan, it’s because that’s the kind of environment that I enjoy better.
Example no.3: The ways that I changed spiritually and emotionally are these. I think that being in Liberia helped bring my family closer together and I am quite full of gratitude for that cause. I also think that it helped to bring me and Hossanah closer together. It also helped for me to strengthen my own testimony. I am very happy for the fact that we went to Liberia.
This is my conclusion paragraph. I conclude what I am about to type. In conclusion, going to West Africa was a fantastic experiance for me. I really did enjoy myself there. I like the country enough that it would not be the end of the world if we had to possibly go again. Thank you for reading this.
Thank you
Thank you
Regards, Charlie Jones
