On our way to the site where our project is being implemented I noticed how many people there were on the streets. I have never seen so many people in my life...and remember I live in Southern California. The reported population of Monrovia is 1.2 million people. I think that this number is not accurate at all and I say this for two reasons. First, there are people around every corner, down every alley way, along the streets...there are people everywhere so it would be impossible to go door to door assessing how many people live in each house. Second, I went to a conference that the Ministry of Health held to discuss the different aspects of the health field which included Basic Health Service Package, Human Resource, Infrastructure and Support Systems. During the conference it was mentioned that there is no birth registry or death registry in Liberia and most of these people do not vote so the government has no way of knowing how many people are living in the country.
We went to Duela where the DUCOR project being built. There was a stakeholders meeting scheduled for 12:00 - I knew that we were not going to start at 12:00 because we are on Liberian time. Jeminie and I decided that we would go through the town and gather the women to come join the meeting so we left for about 45 minutes. We came back and waited around until the pastor of the church and the school principle arrived. The meeting started at 2:00 (I told you it was going to be late). We discussed the probject and what we were going to need from the community and our agenda for the next week. After that I met many of the village women and saw the living conditions of these people who are at the bottom of the society ladder. No human being should have to live in the conditions that these men, women and children live in. These people need help so desperately. Imagine this (remember this description is not even close to what it is like because you can't smell the smell of the village and your mind can't even imagine the living conditions)....they have no running water, no electricity, the only way to get clean water is to pay $5 US dollars for a 5 gallon container, the women and men work 14 hour days getting supplies for the women to sell in the market place. The women work a 12-14 hour day just sitting at the market trying to sell whatever they have to make any amount of money. They usually do not leave the market place (not even to go to the bathroom) because they need to make money. These market women make about $1 a day if they are lucky so that means $30 a month. The children usually go to school but not always and if they don't go to school then they run around the village.
There are no "toilets" the only toilets they have are dirty and not even toilets, the feces runoff goes right into the river. The village obviously has no drainage system so when it rains the river rises bringing all of the feces, urine, etc back into the village. I will never forget the smell of this village. It smelled like trash, standing water, feces and urine from the villagers and animals, burning trash and marsh all rolled together. Some of the children are running around with no shoes on so they are basically walking in sewage water with mud, urine, bacteria, etc. in it. The clothes they are wearing (if they are wearing any at all) are dirty and old. There is trash everywhere because they don't have anywhere to put it. These market women make about $1 a day if they are lucky so that means $30 a month.
After the meeting we stayed in the village and talked with the people. Of course I was drawn to the children and so I talked with them, sang with them, took pictures of them and gave them candy. A mother came up to me and asked if I would take her sick child because she could not care for her. Looking into this innocent child's eyes broke my heart and having to tell the mother that I would not take her child was even harder. All this mother wants is for her child to be healthy and live a long life. In Liberia the life expectancy is 42 for women and 40 for men. This is unbelievable that people only live until their early 40's. If this was true in America I would have lost my parents many years ago (sorry mom and dad) but to think by the age of 35 the people of Liberia have lived most of their life.
There was a precious little girl who was 4 years old and she followed me everywhere I went. I asked her what her name was and the other children told me that she doesn't talk. I bent down so I could look her in the eyes and asked her what her name was and she told me it was Faith. She was the most beautiful little girl with big brown eyes. If I could have taken her home with me I would have in a heartbeat. She took my hand and did not let go until I got in the car to go home. If another child wanted to hold my hand she put her arms around my leg. My heart hurts for these men, women and children...these innocent little ones who do not know of anyother way life except the one they live day after day in these horrible living conditions. I came home and just cried for these people. They do not have any hope, any joy but when we came into the village and spent time with the women and played with the children just for a moment they had smiles on their faces, joy in their eyes and it made my day knowing that these women and children felt loved from total strangers.
