Country Club members embark on another ‘trip’

On Monday, the Emo-La Vallee-Chapple Healthy Community Coalition sponsored another “trip” for the members of the Emo Country Club.
This time the group was taken on a visit to Kenya and Liberia.
Megan Bale, of the Healthy Community Coalition, introduced Patrick Giles, who began to tell the group at the Golden Age Manor about their trip to Kenya.
Giles and his wife, JoAnne, left for Kenya on Dec. 7.
They spent the first 10 days of their three-week tour in Kenya, where they were met by their daughter, Melissa, who was working in Liberia for a group called the “Samaritan’s Purse.”
Giles played a DVD that contained pictures and short videos, taken by Melissa, of their tour of Nairobi and their safaris in some of Kenya’s best game parks.
The family then took turns telling the group some amazing facts about the wildlife of Kenya.
Kenya has many game parks and relies heavily on “eco-tourism” for a great deal of its income. Experienced guides take tourists across the landscape in search of groups of animals.
“They get extremely close,” JoAnne grinned. “Sometimes too close.
“Our guide kept telling us not to worry,” she added.
One amazing picture had a giraffe taking a food pellet right out of the lips of Giles. “No one else would do it,” he beamed.
“The giraffes are extremely friendly,” added his wife. “But they slobber a lot.”
It was an amazing time to be on safari, they explained, because it was birthing time. They also were lucky to see many animals as they hunted for food.
“Lions can be quite lazy,” explained Melissa. “We were very lucky because they were extremely active.”
The Giles’ completed their holiday together at an all-inclusive resort on the Indian Ocean. Patrick noted the political unrest that followed Kenya’s recent election did not start until after they had left.
He hopes peace can return to the country soon.
For the second part of their “trip,” the Country Club members were taken from the east coast of Africa all the way across the continent to the west coast.
Melissa Giles has been working for the “Samaritan’s Purse” for the past five years, working for part of that time in Liberia.
She played a DVD, made by the organization, to give those on hand a visual idea of what the country is going through after nearly 15 years of war.
Liberia is the only country in Africa that was not colonized by Europeans. Rather, it was established by freed American slaves who were sent back to Africa following the U.S. Civil War.
These people returned with weapons and ammunition, and forcibly took over control of the country.
Giles said it’s hard to explain in words the tension that often is present in African countries because of tribalism. It is this tension that led to the war.
Giles said “Samaritan’s Purse” is one of the organizations that’s in Liberia to help the people emerge from this dreadful period of their history with a sense of hope.
The most emotional draining job that they faced, she explained, is to rehabilitate the 150,000 child soldiers. These children were forced, using any means necessary, into becoming soldiers of the war.
They experienced unimaginable cruelty during this period in the country’s history. These young people will carry the emotional and physical scars for the rest of their lives.
The job of the relief agencies is to feed the young, educate them, and give them skills so they can attempt to fit back into Liberian society. It is a difficult job, and will take many, many years to accomplish, but everyone clings to the hope there are better times ahead.
The second area that workers are concentrating on is the rebuilding of the infrastructure of Liberia. Several countries are helping to rebuild roads, schools, churches, and other institutional buildings such as the Bible College.
Although there’s much work still to do, there is a visible improvement in the infrastructure of the country.
The third area of concern is to provide the people, especially the young, with enough to eat and clean drinking water.
Giles spoke about a very clever invention created by Dr. David Manz from Calgary. It uses biosand treatment technology to slowly filter and clean the polluted water.
This simple machine, which can be produced for $100, can provide eight-10 people with clean drinking water for many, many years.
Although she is in Canada for a well-deserved rest, Melissa Giles plans to return to Liberia to visit some very good friends she made while working there.
She says the country—now under the guidance of a new female president—is much more stable. She hopes Liberia, a country rich in resources, can redevelop their country in a positive and productive way, without further bloodshed or violence.
All of the Country Club members thanked the Giles family for their presentation.
As one member put it, “This afternoon has been a very worthwhile experience.”