March 16th - Chinese Medicine.
Chinese herbal medicines have arrived in our area. They promise impossible cures. Untrained Liberians dispense them. The dispensers have long lists of potential ailments. The list reminds me of the one I have to check off on a first visit to a new doctor. One high school student went to them with a complaint of pains in his side. The "doctor" checked off medicines for the lung, kidneys, liver, ulcers, malaria, and high blood pressure. The total cost for the medicines was US$ 165. I told the student that I would not give one single cent for his medicines. The local hospital has trained doctors and an adequate supply of medicines. Treatment and medicines are free. However, if the treatment does not have immediate results some patients turn to medicines dispensed by unqualified people.
March 17th - International Diplomacy - Chalk One Up For the Chinese.
For the past nine months a group of Chinese civil engineers and road builders have been working on the dirt roads in Liberia. They are part of the UN peace-keeping mission in Liberia. The Chinese work long hours and can repair a good bit of road in a short time. In less than two weeks they repaired the 20mile stretch of road which goes from Pleebo to Cape Palmas. Barraken is about half-way between these two cities. Two months ago I took fifty minutes to travel eleven miles to Cape Palmas. Now it takes twenty-five minutes. Those who must travel on these roads have high praise for the Chinese. However, the bill for their work is picked up by the UN. The Chinese also spent six million dollars repairing the national soccer stadium. It was in such bad shape that no international soccer games could be scheduled for Liberia. Again, the Chinese rack up points.
The USA is paying the cost of training a new police force and a new army. Both are absolutely essential if Liberia is to emerge as a peaceful and democratic society. The cost of these two programs exceeds two hundred million dollars. Most Liberians are not aware of the USA contribution toward building a new Liberia.
March 19th - The Feast of St Joseph - A Time to Remember.
The only religious sisters I had in school were the Sisters of St Joseph. Today is a major feast day for them. They were very instrumental in helping my moral values. I prayed for them and all the religious sisters who played a major role in the education of the Catholic youth of my generation. I also prayed for my brother Joe; Joe Vandernoot who is 98; my grand nephew, Joseph Hayden Luft; and my uncle Joe Henaghan and his son Joe. As the years go by I am more inclined to remember my friends and family, both living and deceased.
March 20th - "Ants Are Good Brain Food" revisited.
This saying offered by my driver when he spotted ants on his bread came to mind today. Yesterday someone brought some deer meat as a gift. The cook parboiled it and left it in a covered pot. The following morning I happened to lift the cover of the pot and saw many large red ants swarming over the meat. The cook's solution: he filed the pot with water. The ants floated to the top. He scooped them away and then prepared the meat for our main meal.
March 22nd - A Trip to Grand Cess.
The annual three-day pastoral council took place in Grand Cess, a town on the sea coast about 40 miles, as the crow flies, from Cape Palmas. The road was rough. A month ago it was one mass of mud and practically impassable. Now the mud had dried into a series of nearly continual pot holes. It took us four hours to go 53 miles.
Grand Cess is my favorite town. It was established in 1914 and is the second oldest parish in Liberia and is the only town where the majority of the people are Catholic. It has produced two bishops and several priests and sisters yet the population is less than 3,000.
It is situated on a mile long beach where the Atlantic Ocean sounds a peaceful and soothing roar day and night. Most of the men fish for a living. Children as well as men and women work on small farms to produce the rice, cassava and other foods used in the daily meals.
Reports from the Field.
At the present time the Diocese of Cape Palmas is able to staff only eight parishes with priests. Three parishes are vacant. Catechists staff these parishes as well as more than twenty outstations. Catechists are lay persons who are trained as pastoral workers. Most often they are the ones who bring the church for the first time to small towns and remote villages. Some receive small stipends from the Diocese but most work as volunteers. These lay men and women are the backbone of the church's evangelization effort. They are unsung heroes. Listening to them give reports on their work with the emerging local churches is an inspirational experience.
March 23rd - Breakfast visitors at Barrake.
Around eight o'clock John arrived from Cape Palmas. He began his 11 mile walk at 5:30. He arrived just to say hello and thank me for paying his school fees. I offered him bread and tea. He managed to finish two ten ounce loaves of bread along with a mug of tea. Then he hopped on our parish truck as it was leaving for Cape Palmas.
I find it embarrassing to write about the hunger of the people. I don't want to present them in a demeaning way. It is true that many Liberians go to bed every night hungry. But that is only part of the story. They are people of dreams and visions and have the capacity for humor and joy in the midst of the daily struggle to survive. It pains me to see people go hungry, especially school children. Like many people of my generation I grew up in a family of modest means. My mother, a widow, with six small children had to be very careful how she managed the family budget. But, I never remember when food wasn't plentiful. We always ate well. Yet, here in Liberia I venture to say that not one family in ten has enough food to fully satisfy all the members of the family. So, here in Barraken I try not to let any of my visitors go away without a bite to eat. Most often it is a small loaf of bread and a tin of sardines. Not much but at least it helps a bit.
March 24th - Church Renovations.
 St Anthony Church was built in 1962 by Tony Riggio, an American lay missionary. Now, at 82 years of age he is living in nearby St. Francis parish and is involved in renovating the church there. St. Anthony is still a solid structure with not a crack in the walls or the floor. However, the inside was drab and dull. The floors were rough concrete which constantly gave off dust and had a dull and motley gray appearance. There was no inner ceiling. When it rained hard on the zinc roof it drowned out the readings and even the sermons (perhaps a blessing). Now we have installed a ceiling and electric lights. We laid ceramic tiles in the sanctuary and main aisles and painted the interior in a very light tan color. With a newly painted roof the church looks better than it did when it was new. We will now be able to use the lights for Holy Week services.
The church faces the main and only road between Cape Palmas and Pleebo. All vehicles on their way to Monrovia pass by the church. A small orange and yellow hedge parallels the road and the well manicured crab grass lawn provides a beautiful setting for the church. Many people have commented on how good the church and mission compound look from the road.
March 27th - Cows in the Corn.
A large vegetable garden surrounds the rectory on two sides. We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, collard greens and corn. Cows from Barrake seem to roam about at will. In theory they are supposed to be corralled. In practice they roam wherever they please. In less than a week they devoured two small patches of sweet corn that I was raising. They were patient. They waited until the corn was high and the ears almost full and they consumed both patches of corn. By law, I could shoot the cows and even charge the owner for the shot-gun bullets that killed the cows. But that would not be a very good PR move with the people in town. Currently members of the Parish Council are discussing the issue with the Township Council and elders.
March 29th - Barrake Medical Clinic Expands its Services.
The clinic opened about two years ago with one RN nurse practitioner and one LPN. There are two additional registered nurses and a lab technician. Yesterday we took two women to the hospital in Cape Palmas. Both were bleeding internally. One was three months pregnant. Now, the clinic sends a nurse along with these emergency cases. Previously the clinic just put the patients in the back seat of the pickup and wished us luck. It seems that at least twice a month we are asked to use our truck as an ambulance. The clinic doctor (a nurse practitioner) states that most of the patients would have died if they were not taken immediately to the hospital in Cape Palmas
March 31st - Water, water everywhere, even in the bathroom.
Barrake receives nearly 200 inches of rain a year. On the East Coast of USA the average yearly precipitation is less than 50 inches. So there is plenty of water here. To get water into the house took some time. For the past two months we have been digging a well and building a water storage unit. The well is 20 feet deep. It is lined by ten concrete culverts to protect the safety of the water. We add some chlorine once a month to ensure that the water will be safe for drinking. Even now at the height of the dry season there is at least 8 feet of water in the well. We have installed a 500 gallon water tank at the side of the house and now we have water 24 hours a day. After nearly three years of taking a bath using a bucket of water I can now stand under the shower and let the water flow. It is a most welcome change. The water can also be used to water the garden. Now we will be able to raise vegetables all year round. It also provides us with water for the newly planted citrus trees.
April 1st - Palm Sunday.
In the USA palm branches are transported from Florida in neat bundles to churches throughout the country. Today, Palm Sunday the altar boys were up at the crack of dawn harvesting palm branches from the many palm trees on the parish property and in the town. Each person had a large palm branch. The procession began at the elementary school which is about a hundred yards from the church. Over two hundred people sang and waved palm branches as we proceeded to the church. On entering the church some laid the palm branches in the aisle while others waved them high above their heads as they sang and swayed in a joyous celebration. To me it seemed very close to the type of procession that met Jesus on that first Palm Sunday.
April 5th -6th - Holy Thursday - Good Friday.
It has only been two years since Barraken has been a fully operating parish and holy week services are a new experience for the parishioners. The church is only about three quarters full each day. Both the ceremonies and the music are new for the parishioners so the participation is not very good.
Also, in my opinion the liturgies are not well designed and adapted to the present reality either here or in the USA. Perhaps, this is the old man speaking but I think the liturgies we had when I was young had much more meaning than the present ones, Another factor contributing to the smaller congregations is that the people here are farmers and are accustomed to working on their farms every day. They understand very well the importance of Sunday worship but weekday services are a new reality for them.
April 7th - Holy Saturday Night.
Earlier in the day women brought huge amounts of wood for the Pascal fire. The men piled it six feet high in a pyramid. An hour before the services were to begin we had a heavy thirty minute downpour so the wood was drenched. We began our liturgy inside the church. For the first time the parishioners experienced a fully lighted church. Bright new florescent bulbs made the church as bright as it would be at high noon. Ten adults were baptized and seven infants. The people were lively and fully participated in the ceremonies which were a sharp contrast to the Holy Thursday and Good Friday services.
On Monday we transported the fire wood to a widow in Harper. She welcomed the gift which would provide her with fuel for two weeks. One person's problem is another person's blessing.
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