I sent out an email the day before we received Ellen’s (below). Among the things I said was this:
As expected, [Ellen] has seen and heard some difficult things. She seems to be handling it well, though. She understands that sin and depravity will be found anywhere she might go, and even so, she is encouraged by the precious people she is surrounded by. I thought that perhaps by this time in her trip she would have complained at least once about heat, bugs, dirt…anything you might expect a fourteen year old to be bothered by…but her attitude is as positive and enthusiastic as ever.
When I talked to Ellen today, she and I had a good laugh that it would be a spider that was the catalyst for the tears she described in her email. I assured her that there is a difference between complaining and being overwhelmed with emotion (and who wants a spider of any size crawling up their leg, anyway!).
She said it was too rainy today to go in to town as they had talked about doing. It has been raining “lots and hard” and the water levels are high. When it rains like that the kids stay inside or sit under the building’s overhang.
happy for the Ovaltine
They got another jar of Ovaltine today and enjoyed it very much. She said, “Hot Ovaltine or cold Ovaltine or any Ovaltine: we like!” She said she got “two cups of rich, creamy Ovaltine”.
Fufu
The food they are eating is very spicy. The cook uses lots of hot peppers called Pepe (spelled? pronounced “paypay”). One favorite snack is fried doughnuts with pepe sauce. She is really enjoying a food called Fufu. She didn’t actually know what was in it so she asked Redeemed several times to help her describe it. A dough made from cassava (which tastes “sour and floury”) is covered with okra, bitter ball (a plant) soup and pepe sauce. She said they don’t chew it, just swallow it.
a meal for seven people?
The food situation has been hard for her in a way she didn’t expect. I won’t say too much about it – I’ll let her explain more when she gets home. But for now, I will say that they their meals are not consistent. Sometimes the food is abundant and tasty and other times quite the opposite. Although it can be this way for the kids much of the time, the American missionaries bring money to pay a cook to provide them food and other supplies like soap, disinfectant, etc. It provides work for a Liberian and ensures the Americans do not shift too abruptly from their eating patterns (at least that is what I understand the reason to be, I could be wrong). I edited out quite a bit, but here is some of what Ellen said in her email:
Chocolate and Esau
If you could pray about our food situation that would be greatly appreciated. Dinner is [a] substantial meal, but there is not very much of it. (If we do have any leftovers we invite select kids from the porch to come in and finish it off. Last time we invited a boy named Chocolate and a boy named Esau, I love the names here!) We go to bed hungry lots of times, and I just don’t get it. And then I get confused because I feel like I’m being ungrateful and look what everyone else in the country is dealing with, a lot worse than just going to bed hungry. It’s like a battle in my mind.
Ellen said there is a lot on her mind but she can’t talk about it all right now. She will have much debriefing to do when she returns home! She said she is grieved by the evil that she is aware of. It is hard to see/know about what horrible things people to do to children without consequence. She said despite the difficulty, the power of God is evident. She indicated she will have a very hard time leaving.
Ellen had a story about going to “witness a movie” at the theater – which is the schoolhouse where a fellow sets up a tv and vcr. She said she saw an African film called “A Kiss From a Rose” which “isn’t what it sounds like”. She said it was ‘cheesy’ but fun to experience. It cost 25 Liberian dollars to witness the movie.
Ellen had a fever today and was trying to rest. She gave an update on the kids with injuries that she mentioned before -
Benu
Benu’s thumb is healing
Moses
shin is healing
Moses’ shin is almost all better
Mercy
Mercy’s toe has some dead skin but looks like it won’t be lost
Henry is immobile with his broken leg. It has been ’set’ and is propped up by a pillow and mat as he stays in bed waiting for it to heal.
She is encouraged that these children are getting well.
After describing a situation where one of the girls at the orphanage ”got vexed” with her, Ellen said, ”This is such a different culture, mindset and way of thinking. You can’t go into this as an American. You have to learn to be Liberian really quick.”
Please pray that: Ellen’s good health will continue, that she will make the most of the opportunities she has to be influenced spiritually by the faithful Christians she is with (both the Americans and the Liberians), and that she will keep seeking daily what God would have her do while she is there.
