John’s group had a surprise going-away get-together in the CLO office where they gave us this sweet plaque. John’s admin assistant Sedia and her backup Norah always call us their ”parents,” (it’s kind of a Liberian thing) so they and the local staff who work for me gave us this sweet plaque. We’re going to swap out our photo with a group photo of all of them. Sedia called up each staff member by saying “James Crippen, Nico Crippen, Kabineh Crippen, etc – pretty funny. The CLO also had people write notes to attach to small packets of peanut M&Ms for John. They were all put into to large (and heavy!) hand-carved pot with the tribes of Liberia on it (photo to come). It was all very sweet!
We are in the final throes of organizing for the movers. We spent all day yesterday unearthing things from lower cabinets, the store room, etc. We’ve gotten rid of a lot by giving it to Lawrence to sell (he works for us sometimes). One of the lower shelves in the kitchen had an assortment of plastic and glass containers accumulated through this tour – lots will be recycled – I sent the jars to the guy on the corner who sells gas on the street, take-out food trays will go to a friend who donates a lot of food to various people and her mosque. Sadly there is no real recycling here, but hopefully some of these things can find another home.
I’m also using up the last of my favorite hand lotion from Iceland – it has birch in it and smells so good.
We had a last massage yesterday from the fabulous Rowena! We’ll miss her.
I managed to finish “Little Fires Everywhere” last weekend and really enjoyed it. We’re also watching ”Star Trek Discovery” at night when we’re too pooped to do anything else!