Adventure to the Bong Mines

So yesterday was definately an adventure. I woke up at 5:45 and once I was ready headed upstairs. A bunch of us met to go to the Bong Mines. We met at 6:30 and then drove to the train station. Once we were there we waited (Liberia time is a lot different than Canadian. If a Canadian says to be somewhere at 7:15, you'll leave probably by at least 7:30, in Liberia, you might not leave until noon). We waited and waited until I think around 8:30 when they started loading our land rovers onto the train and then we all climbed on. They had like a flat bed type of thing. Rather like the float I stood on when I was in the Santa Clause Parade in Vancouver. So they drove the trucks up a little embankment and then drove onto the flat bed. They strapped the trucks on so they wouldn't fall off. Once it was all ready we could climb on. We could sit on the land rovers, in the land rovers, or just sit on the side. The important thing was if you were standing -- hold on! So I sat on top of the land rover with my pillow that I'd brought along due to being told by many people that that was a very good idea! So, we drove past the UN base, and then through lots of villages where the children would scream and yell with joy to see us and then through the jungle. It's not like jungle jungle, it's more like forest, but that's not the right word. It's just like, really green, with trees!! So yea. About 2-3 hours later we arrived and once they were able to, we unloaded. While we waited for our trucks to come off we talked with some of the people and played with the kids. These children are so cute Mom. I now have felt the call from God to adopt from the Ukraine and from Liberia. So, 2 children at least of mine shall probably be adopted! So, finally the trucks came off and we drove maybe 10 minutes to a lake. The lake was quite flooded so the usual "beach" was gone but we still sat there. We ate lunch and then some of us swam. I even climed up some rocks on a cliff like thing and jumped in. It was SO scary, but I wanted to do it. I made myself do it twice. The funny thing is that there were some African men across the lake on another cliff thing yelling at us to "JUMP!!! JUMP!!!" It was rather funny. The lake is just thing like, wierd thing. I can't explain it to you, but it's definately not a typical lake! So once we were done swimming we sat on the "beach" for a while and then drove back to the train station because it was when we were supposed to leave. They weren't ready and told us to come back at 5. We drove into the town and walked around there for a while. A couple of us went to their hospital/clinic and that was cool. We didn't go inside but it was cool to see it anyways. So then we got back and loaded up the land rovers onto the train. They still weren't ready, so we sat around for a long time. By a long time I mean about an hour or so I'd guess. So it was raining at this point so I sat inside the land rover. After a long long long long while we finally started leaving, but then went backwards, then forwards, then backwards. They were adding these train cars filled with wierd stuff that somehow they make money from, and they were having trouble connecting some of them. So finally we started on our way but felt a lot slower than the way there. Usually, in the fast, these groups have got back at like 4-5 pm but we got back just before 9pm. Mary-lou was beside herself feeling so bad. "I send my 'baby's' out on here and they didn't get back until now". Turns out a lot of people had been worried because we were back so late and none of the cell phones had been working so they weren't quite sure if we were alright, but they were trusting that we were. Mary-lou was sweet enough to save for me and Joy food as well as some others she had known were going. She just felt so bad because she told us this was going to be so fun and she felt horrible. However, it was a lot of fun, and it was a great first Saturday.