OR&R Field Team Blog: November 2007

Mouse Trap

I thought I would update you on what the latest sport in our house is. The competition is who can kill the most mice. But there has been some pretty interesting ways in which we have taken down these little critters. (Oh, if you are squeamish you may want to skip the rest of this entry.)
So it has been a close-run race with Matthew and I jostling for top spot, and Andrew right on our tails. That is, until the other night. We have been fairly inventive in the ways we have removed our adversaries—we have gone from the conventional trap to sticking them to the floor with glue to chasing them with a homemade flame thrower, but the instrument of choice right now is the trusty baseball bat. Anyway, back to the other night. This was a win on a technicality. I had just started the generator so we could see to the dishes, at which time Mariel remarked that she could smell something burning. But this is not that abnormal here, so we continued. It was not until after we had finished that I decided to investigate. Moving to the end of the room, I heard a buzzing noise, and turning the corner I saw blue sparks coming from the inside of the electrical socket. So naturally I ran to shut down the genny and, by the time I get back into the kitchen, Andrew is about open up the socket where we are greeted by a smell of burnt hair. Then it hits me: “it could be a mouse”… Just as the words fall out of my mouth, Andrew is greeted by not one but TWO fried mice. Oh and the smell—ooooorrrrrrrrr—disgusting. So we clear the remains to find they have destroyed the wires. Finally we get all of that fixed up but the must important question still stands: who gets to claim the mice! Is it Andrew since he found them? --No way, I’m the one who fired up the generator—clearly it’s my kill!!!

What do you think?

Children Future Video

Children Future Program & Orphanage Home

They say a quiet table is a compliment to the chef. Well, I guess the same holds for a quiet blog—with apologies, we’ve just been a little busy around here, and I hope you forgive the silence.

Orphanages in Liberia tend to have creative names, many phrased in a sort of direct appeal, like Help the Children or Love a Child, or Child Survival. The newest addition to our roster, though, takes a different line. Children Future Program is about an hour northeast of Monrovia in a little town called Kakata. Eighty kids are running out the clock on an eviction notice already extended as far as it can be. They have to move out of their old home by December 6^th, and they’re frantically building a new dorm on a donated acre down the road. When we first met them, they were three and a half weeks away, out of money, and nowhere close to being done.

I’ve said before that most of this job is reading people. Going with your gut. Usually I prefer to build relationships slowly over time but, in this case, everyone on the assessment team could agree that the director, a quiet pastor, was sound, and the situation desperate. To me, the best gauge of a director is the disposition of the kids: the attitude they have toward their caretakers is the best indicator of the care they receive. And these kids are happy, well-behaved, and bold. After a couple of calls to verify the pastor’s story and after checking his paperwork, the consensus came quickly: we need to get involved.

We’re two weeks away tomorrow, and I’m happy to report that I believe these kids are going to have a home on December 7^th. Check out Cramer’s video "Liberia Today, Episode 2" for all the latest – and thanks to you, the chefs, for making projects like Children Future possible.