rainy season

With rainy season in full downpour, our field team has been shrinking. Several of our staff are taking some much needed time off to rest and reset for another busy program year.

Rainy season is quickly approaching here in Liberia. Rainy season is a very difficult time of year--imagine non-stop rain for days at a time. Food becomes scarce and expensive, malaria and other illnesses are prevalent, and everything is flooded. For the children that we work with, that means no school and being stuck inside for days at a time with nothing to do. To combat rainy season boredom, we will continue our Child Development Program and also give the children the opportunity to participate in constructive activities like art and skills training.

Can you believe that over 2,000 children die everyday around the world from mosquito-borne malaria? In Liberia last year, 21,000 children under the age of five died from malaria. However, Liberians just believe that malaria is normal part of life.
We spend alot of time talking with the directors and children about malaria. Malaria education, prevention and treatment are big focus areas at the beginning of rainy season. This rainy season, we want to make sure that there is a treated mosquito net on every bed in every home.

Well, today is a good day.

Three and a half weeks after starting our craziest rainy season project to date (re-roofing an entire orphanage), I'm glad to say it's finished! We hit this project hard and fast. We set out early every morning and Moses learned a lesson while bouncing around in the back of the pick-up we rented: if your breakfast is rice and cassava, you should finish it before you get in the truck or else most of it ends up on the windscreen of the car behind you!

Courtesy of our visiting media specialists, Michael Kraus and Will Traynor, here is a quick look at Mother Harley's. As of today, shiny new metal roof covers almost half the building and the second half will go even quicker. Thank you for your prayers--the weather's been perfect, everything's gone very smoothly. More soon.

Construction Update At Mother Harley's from Michael Kraus on Vimeo.