April 4, 2016

Our 27th Anniversary ! Today we went out to look at well sites with Brother Saidu Conteh. We walked a long ways and neither Don nor I knew how much, how far, or how steep the trek would be and we did not put on our hats or take water. A tender mercy happened. After looking at 5 wells and having gone down a very steep mountain trail we were hiking back up the mountain and about a fourth of the way I needed to stop and rest. Both Don and I were pooped! Hot, thirsty and out of energy. We were huffing and puffing and trying to stand in the shade of a house. A man appeared with a nice solid long bench and stepped across a trench and placed it under a big shade tree in the unusual breeze. We were so grateful. We sat on that bench and started to recuperate when the man showed up with a bottle of partially frozen Apple cedar still sealed. Oh was that so refreshing. Don and I were sharing this and the man appeared with a 2nd bottle and Saidu drank it. The the man showed up with a Mega Cola and it was very cold and Don and I shared it. We did not have any money to pay for these and the woman said she did not want any money, she just wanted to give it to us. We thanked her and then we gave Saidu 12,000 Leon's ($2.00) when we got back to the car to give to her the next day. Saidu lives a few houses from her. It just occurred to me, she didn't have electricity. How did we get such cold drinks? I will have to ask Saidu. I wrote her a letter thanking her for being so gracious when we were in need. I included the scripture Matthew 25:40. Saidu gave it to her with the money. Also a funny thing happened on this trek: We were finished checking out a well and walking up a long hill. Don was walking in front of us and came upon a 5 year old girl carrying a jug of water on her head and carrying one in her hand. Don asked the child if he could carry one. She handed him the jug that was in her hand. He obediently followed her and they got a ways ahead of Saidu and me. As Saidu and I were walking through the village, I noticed a barber shop. I have been asking everyone to cut my hair but no one dares to. So I asked Saidu if he thought the barber would cut my hair. He assured me he would because that was his barber. Saidu walked into this dark run down hut and the barber had a customer in his chair. Saidu explained I wanted my hair cut and asked if he would cut it. He agreed, but we had lost Don so Saidu told the barber we would be back. Saidu knew who the little girl was and where she lived so we went toward her house. We met Don coming back and we decided since we were half way down the mountain we would continue down to the wells. When we got back to town Saidu and I went to the barber shop and Don ran an errand. We went into the shop and there were 6 men there and a man was sitting in the barber chair backwards. Saidu spoke to him in creole and the man looked at me and raised an eyebrow so I lifted a tuff and hair and asked "have you ever cut a white woman's hair before?" He said "no". I asked if he would like to. His face lit up and he jumped out of his chair and said "yes". I started to move forward when Saidu whispered in my ear, "he's not the barber. He's a customer" . The barber was not there so I did not get my hair cut.