"White man can wash clothes??"

Howdy!

friends and family, im excited to report that im alive and well this week, looking forward to celebrating American Thanksgiving! woot!!

Just going to make it short this week, but id like to add a bit to last week's description about being a white man in Liberia. One of the annoying things is that everyone is shocked and is in awe when an american man does something like wash clothes by hand. "White man can wash clothes? you can do agriculture work? you can cook?! you can do woodworking? you can haul water? you can move dirt?!"

Most times, its kind of annoying and you feel like responding with "YES, im a normal HUMAN BEING, i can work just like the rest of the world!" but, as a servant of the Lord, you put on your kindness hat and laugh with them, kindly assuring them that your white skin still allows you to do those physically demanding activities. haha. But when you take a step back and look at it, you realize that truly, we come from a society that has so much as far as physical comfort. We are blessed with so much!

We have machines to wash and dry our clothes! we have giant Caterpillars and Back hoes to dig and move earth for us. We have nice fancy restraunts or microwavable food to eat. We have power tools and electricity to build our houses and buildings! we have running water, not having to haul from a 10 foot well! Just to start! haha. my point is that when these people act surprised that i can do physical labor, it reminds me how spoiled we are, or rather blessed, to live in the states.

So, in this wonderful week of Thanksgiving, take some extra time to be thankful for those simple things :) How wonderful it is to have a holiday to specifically set aside time to be thankful. ah, let us all praise the Lord with thankful hearts this week! and be sure to eat some extra stuffing and pumpkin pie for me yeah? :)

lots of love,

elder fairwell