Pictures!

This is an accumulation of pictures and events I have been trying to post for awhile. We are back in the USA but there are a few post still to come.

Thank you Stephanie and Debrah for this huge sack of rice. 

Not only will it provide food for months, but also hours and hours of entertainment. 

Rice sack dog pile.

The Fan Club's first ever trip to the beach which is 15 mins from their house. 

Thank you Amy, Jason, and Buster Bridges for sending Grandma to school. 

Kindergarten graduation is a big deal in Liberia. This is one of our favorites, Moses, getting his diploma. 

While being a good mother and cooking dinner for my 7 children, I walk into the bedroom to find THIS happening. 

Not cool Musu, not cool. 

The only way to get some rest was to force everyone to rest...

The Help

Brittany and Bombo at Ricks junior/senior Prom.

Our laundry and cleaning day somehow turned into a no pants party. If you look closely you can see he is wearing Obama underwear :) 

Thank you Brown family for providing these two boys with super cool outfits and shoes for school, and  24 pairs of sandals for the orphanage, modeled by Keva. 

Brittany's blog

On Sunday June 17th I was honored to be the special guest speaker at the Comfort K. Toe Institute Orphanage graduation ceremony. I can't say for sure that my inspirational words were understood by many, but the audience seemed to appreciate them regardless.  The best part of the program was the look on Brittany's face when they called her up to give out the diplomas without any previous warning or preparation.  She also was asked to give an impromptu speech. I love Africa. 

-Kasey 

This is right after graduation with the school principal, administrator, one of the orphanage managers, and Keva, the little girl who refused to get out of the picture. 

Passing out diplomas.



Hi everyone!  I am officially joining Kasey's blog instead of having my own due to the lack of internet and time.  Kasey did really well at the graduation!  Her speech was wonderful and everyone really appreciated her.  I on the other had looked like a deer in headlights when, during the ceremony, it was announced that I would be the honorary diploma-hander-outer (not in those words exactly). I was so awkward. I didn't know where to stand, which hand shakes and which hand holds the diploma.  It would have been a fiasco in America, but Africa's much more go-with-the-flow.  Everything has been going really well here.  So far I've left the blogging to Kasey to catch everyone up, but I just wanted to say hello to everyone who's following us!  Along with teaching, fixing computers, and other things, I've been checking stuff off my list of "Things To Do In Africa."  For example:
✔Get my hair done like an African woman
✔Explore the streets of the Liberian Marketplace
✔Survive exploring the streets of the Liberian Marketplace
✔Sport a tailored African dress at the graduation ceremony
✔Make tons of new friends
✔Bring "The Wobble" to Africa
✔Eat mango soup

A few things still to be completed on my list:
__  Adopt 7 african children
__ Find a home for triplet baby orphans (their mother died after childbirth...any takers?...seriously)
__ End poverty

Thank you all for your continued support!

-Brittany

Getting my hair done by Ms. Jestina Bombo.  It took 2 days and a total of about 7 hours.

Kasey and I with one of our favorites-Austin.  He's begging us to take him back to the states with us, as are a handful of others.  He has proclaimed himself as "Brittany's boyfriend" and is ready for marriage as soon as I say the word.  He's smooth.

A beautiful African sunset.

School Is Out!

On Tuesday the school year came to an end. Thank the sweet baby Jesus. I truly have come to love and appreciate each of my students, but at the end of the day they are still annoying 6th graders and my patience was thinning.  The year ended with a big class party. The students all brought in delicious African dishes that their mothers prepared along with cakes, cookies, and some really spicy rice that Brittany and I couldn't touch. I bought the soft drinks and we had a great day. Graduation is on Sunday and Brittany and I will be processing with the other faculty, gowns and all. 

Some of my 6th grade boys thoroughly enjoying their party drinks.

Dance Party!

Three of my favorite students.

Brittany is here!... and a lot of other stuff too.

Wow! So much has happened this past month but unfortunately the internet router got hit by lighting in a big storm.  It didn't work at all for a couple of weeks and once it was fixed it was only strong enough to barely do email. Let me try to catch you up. 

Brittany Marcum arrived and all of Liberia celebrated.  After a week, we got an influx of roommates from Mercer University.  Jessica had to leave us to start her job as the best Tutor/mentor at Upward Bound, and all of LIberia mourned.

I got Malaria, even though I never missed a single dose of my malaria prevention medicine (I promise mom).  It took me about a week to fully recover, and to be honest it was probably the most miserable week of my life, so far.  It is not a fun illness.  On the bright side, after a couple of shots in the booty and some pills, I did recover.  That's the good news, the terrible news is that on the same day I got malaria, so did our fan club baby.  We both came down with symptoms on Wednesday, and that Saturday, he passed away.  Malaria is a serious threat to children under the age of 5 and the elderly, but it is certainly not an illness anyone should be dying of in 2012.

Now that the internet is working, I can promise more blogs and pictures very soon explaining everything else the month of May brought on.

Spending a "relaxing" day at the beach on Brittany's first full day in Liberia while Jessica got her hair done at the house behind us. 

Our wonderful fan club in some of the new clothes Brittany and Jessica brought. Thank you Goodwill, Megan Trasport, and Meagan Green and Shelton family! 

A couple of Brittany's new friends who spent 3 hours burying, uncovering, and reburying our feet in the sand.  William, the cute one of the right, might be riding on a plane home with Brittany.

The beautiful baby that lost his life to malaria.  Every 30 seconds a child somewhere dies of malaria.

Jessica is here!

The rumors are true, the amazing Jessica Shelton is here! She arrived on Friday and we have spent the past two days having quite the adventure. She has already had the privilege of hanging out with a monkey, waking to a HUGE spider by her face, witnessing the violent act of chicken sex, buying fish so fresh it was still alive, winning over the fan club, and weaving through the city on the back of a motorbike.

The fan club was very excited to meet this new white woman, especially when they heard she brought a new batch of candy.

Jessica chillen with her new friends and some lollipops.

We found a really cute monkey.

And then it became not so cute. 

Fish was delivered right to our feet while we were getting our tan on. 

As you can see, it was a fresh catch.  It was prepared for us the next day in a spicy African style dish that was delicious. 

How you can help

Have you been wondering how you can help out in Liberia? Here are a few things you can do! 

Sponsor "Grandma" to go to school. She is the daughter of Harry, my security guard who takes very good care of me and all the other volunteers. She is 4 years old and it would cost about  $250 a semester to send her to Ricks Institute. Everyone calls her grandma because she was given her grandmothers name. 

These children are known as my Fan Club.  They live at the end of the street and come visit once or twice a day.  The oldest girl, who is the middle, is 9 years old. Her parents leave very early every morning to sell in the market and return right at dark. She is in charge of caring for all of these children, all day, including the baby. $5 would get them a small soccer ball, $22 would get them a sack of rice, or you could send any amount for clothes and shoes. 

My Fan Club, along with all the children, love candy. Sending a bag of candy with Jessica or Brittany would make a lot of children happy! 

I recently began bringing the juniors and seniors at Ricks to do volunteer work at a nearby orphanage. This is the school building at the orphanage, which holds are the K-6th grade classes. As you can tell they are low on funds, so any donation for school supplies would be welcome. 

The Ricks students would love to play soccer, kickball, or volleyball with these orphans. Each full size, leather soccer ball is $15. 

The orphanage is always in need of food supplies. One sack of rice is $22 or send any amount to go towards vegetables, oil, seasonings, and all the other things it takes to feed a bunch of growing children.

I posted these pretty girls a month or so ago but never heard from anyone. They are the daughters of a fellow teacher at Ricks and are eager to start school! Check out my earlier post if you are interested in helping them.


Other Needs:
Soccer balls for children in the community and at Ricks
Children's books for the orphanage
School supplies for the students at Ricks
Monetary donations for the clinic on the Ricks campus with provides students with medicine for Malaria and other illnesses.

If you are in the Mars Hill area, you can give your donation, along with what you would like it to be used for, to Jessica Shelton or Brittan Marcum.  You also have the option of giving them candy, clothes, and books if they have room in their luggage. Jessica leaves this Thursday, May 10th and Brittany leaves May 17th.  If you are in the Dunedin area you can give the money to my parents to put in my account, which I can access about once every two weeks.

Please email me at Kboston@mhc.edu if you would like to help out in any way! 

Cute Boys

As you can see from the picture below, I am a HUGE F. C. Barcelona fan now. Unfortunately they got knocked out last night. People really enjoy giving me a hard time when my team loses. What they don't know is that when I got here and realized how important it was to have a team, I picked the team with the cutest jersey.
   Also in the picture are two of my very favorites boys here. Justin and Moses don't attend Ricks but they live in separate houses in the duplex next to me. They were both recently adopted out of the bush to come live with these families so that they can go to school.  They arrived here in December and most likely will never go back to their families. Justin is 12 but Moses is not sure of his birthday. They work very hard for their new families but after they get all their work done they love to play soccer and they love to pretend they are as good as me, which they aren't.

Justin and Moses, my soccer playing buddies.

Some of my wonderful 6th graders. 

Brothers Thomas and William love to visit me and play with the camera...and my sunglasses.

Moses holding one of the brand new baby chicks, this one is missing a lot of feathers and looked very ugly next to the others.