Old Posts (Never Posted)

 This post and a few others were actually written a few weeks ago, but due to internet problems, are only now being posted.  Please excuse their tardiness.


The last few months have been pretty ordinary, so I never feel like I have much to say.  On the other hand, I’m sure things are happening all of the time, but I’m just too lazy/tired/bored of the computer to take the time and write them down.  I’ll try to catch you all up now, and make a new year’s resolution to begin blogging once a week (haha, we’ll see how that goes).

The holidays here were similar to last year.  I spent Christmas in Monrovia with friends and co-workers.  I was, however, able to take a break and head to Ghana for the New Year.  While Ghana is most definitely still West Africa, it was different enough to feel like a break from Liberia. 

The holiday break was fairly festive this year, with the ex-pats stuck in Monrovia coming together to keep each other company while everyone else traveled, often home to see their families.  My roommates and I had people over the week before Christmas for Christmas cookies and mulled wine.  Usually when you think of mulled wine you think of cold weather, sweaters, fireplaces.  Not here you don’t.  The one a/c unit in our house has been breaking frequently for the last three months or so, and hasn’t been working for about the past month at all.  This meant mulled wine and Christmas cookies were served in our very hot living room with about three fans pushing the hot air around to make it seem a little better, all the doors and windows open allowing the occasional mosquito or other bug to join in the festivities.  It was fun and really just nice to have people over to our house for a bit as we live a little farther away and don’t often have company. 

On Christmas Eve I went to church with some friends.  I attended the same Christmas Eve service as I did last year.  I enjoy the church I went to and would like to attend more often, but this sometimes gets difficult as it’s an hour earlier on Sunday mornings than the service most people I know go to and with the car situation being what it is, it can be tricky to figure out transport.  The church, unfortunately, was in a state of mourning on Christmas Eve because one of the choir members had unexpectedly died that morning.  I feel it’s important to mention that the choir at St. Stephen’s is made up of young people-young adults or, more likely the case, teenagers.  I think his death was a shock to everyone at the church and very hard for the choir and the vicar, deacon, etc.  Unlike Americans, Liberians let their grief overcome them in a very public way.  In the middle of the service, in tribute to their friend, a song was played and a moment of silence observed.  The silence was filled with sobs, crying out, and wailing from not only the choir, but other members of the congregation as well.  Not only women partake in this type of release of grief, but men do too (though women do tend to be louder.)  It is interesting to realize the many shapes and forms grief can take for people of different cultures and backgrounds. 

In other cultural differences, Christmas Eve is not a popular church going holiday here.  There were maybe 50 people attending Christmas Eve service with us.  Many Liberians will go to church on New Year’s Eve, however, and spend a good part of the night, often until at least midnight, at church before going home. 

After church on Christmas Eve, I headed to someone’s apartment for a Christmas Eve dinner and gathering.  When we arrived, the building was completely dark.  The plan was to go, hang out, eat dinner, watch movies, enjoy having company for the holiday, sleep there, get up in the morning and eat breakfast together.  This plan quickly changed when the generator broke before we had even arrived at about 9:00pm-ish.  Dinner was still on as most kitchens here run on gas for this very reason.  Music was also happening courtesy of an ipod and speakers that run off of batteries.  So the evening turned into eat a delicious meal with about ten friends by candlelight and hang out, talk, and listen to music.  Unfortunately, it did get very hot in the apartment for lack of breeze and electricity to run the a/c or even a fan or two.  I ended up staying the night with some other friends instead in order to sleep somewhere a little cooler.  It’s funny cause I’ve realized I don’t need a/c to sleep (obviously since there is none at my house), but I cannot sleep if the air is very hot and very still.  If there is any breeze or a fan in the room, I’m set, I get a great night’s sleep, but as soon as the power goes off and the open windows aren’t facing the ocean breeze, then I’m miserable.  I get sweaty and end up waking up about six or seven times throughout the night.  This is what happened at my friends’ place.  Their generator goes off at about 2:00am which is pretty normal here.  You have to try to cool the room a lot before this time and luckily for them this can be done since each bedroom has its own a/c unit.  Keep the air down low and keep it going with the bedroom door closed and you can get a nice cool temperature going to fall asleep.  My problem is that about an hour or so after the generator goes off the temperature begins to rise.  By 4:00am it’s stifling.  By 5:00am I’ve woken up and fallen back into a very light slumber about twice.  By 6:00am, this has happened about four times, and so on and so forth.  It’s kind of a pain.  I’m sure if this was how the power situation at my house worked I’d get used to it eventually, just as I got used to being cold at night in my apartment with aircon all night last year to sleeping in a room with no aircon but at least 24 hour power to run the fan.  I feel lucky to have this and would take it over a/c for only half the night any day.

Christmas morning we woke up, I went home and showered and opened a few presents my mother had sent over with a friend back in October (yes, I resisted the urge to open them early).  It was exciting and made my Christmas morning.  This was followed by a trip to the beach with one of my roommates (it was a gorgeous sunny day), then home to do some work for an online course I was taking (it has since been completed-yay!), then to a late lunch/early dinner with some people that I work with (it was delicious), and then went off to dinner at the Mamba Point Hotel with friends.  This part was especially fun because it was the same thing we did last year. 

It’s exciting to be making some new traditions here—Christmas Eve service, dinner at Mamba Point with the same people, but it is also a little disappointing to not be home for the holidays with the same people and same traditions as the 22 previous years.  Also, who knows how long these traditions will last here because who knows exactly how much longer they will be here.  Liberia’s a transitory place for most ex-pats and two years does actually seem to be on the longer side of a stay.  Honestly, I don’t expect to be here next year (though I have no idea where to expect to be), so there’s not a lot of stability for me either.  Nonetheless, it was a joyous day indeed to celebrate the birth of Christ with friends and my Liberian family members, food, and festivities. 

Gbarpolu

About a month ago I was lucky enough to take a trip upcountry to Gbarpolu County with one of my roommates and check out some of the livelihood and water and sanitation (watsan) projects we have up there.  This was a pretty cool trip for many reasons, but let’s start with the first—the helicopter.

That’s right, I got to ride in the helicopter up to Gbarpolu (silent ‘G’ friends).  Our helicopter is fairly small –five people in the back and two up front, including the pilot.  I got to sit in the front seat, which is especially awesome because the floor up there is made of see-thru plastic, so you can see everything out of the front and side windows, as well as through the floor.  It’s amazing how beautiful Liberia looks from above.  Here you aren’t consumed by the madness of people and the busy streets and car horns and the trash everywhere.  You’re able to see the big picture, and it’s beautiful.  The ride was short and sweet and we landed in a football (read: soccer) field by a school.  All the children came running out to see the helicopter and wave.  From here, we sling-loaded some supplies into villages around the county that are hard to get supplies to by foot (because roads aren’t an option-there are none).  Cement, paint, and a few other items made their way to these villages so they could work on building wells and latrines.

I was whisked away to check out some or our projects in the county.  I spent the day looking at soon-to-be-stocked fish ponds, rabbit shelters, snail habitats, goats, etc.  The fish ponds are pretty awesome.  They will stock the first two and then after a certain amount of time, stock the next two, and then the next two.  They’re rotated so they don’t harvest all the fish at the same time, this way they can have fish throughout the year.  The community will be involved with the harvesting of the fish.  They can then use the fish to feed their families or sell them to earn money.  The rabbits are given to women after they complete a literacy course.  They receive one male and one female rabbit and are taught how to breed them and care for them.  They can then use the offspring of these rabbits as food or to produce more rabbits.  The same goes for the snails.

Later in the week I hiked to a small village with one of my roommates to check on their water and sanitation projects.  They were building a well and a few latrines.  This is an example of how monitoring and evaluation can be difficult in these settings.  There are no roads leading to these villages, so we were in fact hiking through the jungle.  This was also during rainy season, so it the ground was soaked to the point of our trail being a small creek and it rained on us for most of the six hour hike-three hours in, three hours back out, for a visit of about 20 minutes.  It was a lot of fun, though, and nice to get out of the city and see the smaller villages from which so many Liberians come.  We were also gifted a chicken by the village.  Now this is the first time I’ve been part of a group to receive a chicken, so I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately, that meant someone had to carry the live chicken back through the jungle in the rain.  He was pretty good, but every now and then he crowed (he was in fact a rooster, not a hen).

Overall a fun and interesting trip upcountry.  It was topped off with the car ride back to Monrovia.  Over three hours in a Land Cruiser packed full with people and their luggage, including a sick little boy who suddenly sat bolt upright from his place laying across his mother's lap with wide eyes and then looked around in panic.  Turns out he felt a little vomit coming on.  We pulled over, he got it all out and we packed back into the Land Cruiser.  Remember, these Land Cruisers have bench seats across both sides of the rear, they are not seats like in a car.  The child’s mother then experienced some motion sickness and threw up in a bag that she then proceeded to throw out the window onto the dirt road.  Bear in mind that ‘road’ is a loosely used term here in Liberia.  As it was still rainy season, road meant more mud pit with huge potholes.  Mom was not the only one feeling the effects of bouncing from side-to-side and back and forth (even hitting heads on the windows every now and then) and up and down (feeling like your spine has just been shortened a bit by way of compression when you hit those potholes hard enough.)  It was hot, sweaty, smelly, and painful, but we made it back.  It was fantastic.  

A Mexican Vacation

In my attempt to blog more regularly, here I go again.  I apologize if the blogs become redundant or boring.  If that’s the case, let me know and I’ll blog less often (this is, if I can get blogging more often down first.)  In any case, last time I promised tales of Mexico, helicopters, and hiking.  Let’s start with my summer vacation to Mexico.

I visited Mexico for about nine days in late July/early August with my friend, Sarah.  Sarah is teaching in Bulgaria (Check out her blog here:  sarahfhowell.blogspot.com) and was home for a few weeks as well, so we decided to spend some of our time traveling.  It was a reward for making it through our first year of full-time teaching (and our first year of full-time working.)  Our travels took us to Oaxaca and Mexico City.  While much of the first day was spent traveling (Dulles to Dallas, Dallas to Mexico City, Mexico City to Oaxaca), we still arrived in time to explore the square across the street from our hostel and a restaurant on the other side of the square.  We just kind of happened upon our hostel in an internet search, but it was fantastic and I would recommend the place to anyone.  It’s called Hostel Don Nido and is run by a family.  The husband and wife have really made an effort to create a comfortable and well-kept place.  You first walk into the restaurant area where breakfast is served every morning.  It’s atrium-like and when the weather is good they open the roof to let the sun and breeze in.  The stairway to the rooms is also like this, which is really nice on a beautiful day when you make your way out.  The rooms were clean and comfy--no restless nights of sleep here.  While the hostel is a few blocks away from the zocalo, it’s definitely worth it.  It’s only about a ten-fifteen minute walk and it was nice to be near a plaza that was less populated by tourists.

Lourdes with some of her rugs. 

Oaxaca was pretty great in general.  It has the charm of a small town but plenty of things to keep you busy.  There were tons of street fairs to buy goods the local merchants had made.  They make beautiful textiles and pottery in this area, as well as Mezcal (a type of liquor) and chocolate (mmmmm…).  With all these things, who wouldn’t want to spend time there?  The architecture was also beautiful and it’s a worthwhile idea to check out nearby Monte Alban and Arbol del Tule (the oldest tree in North America, not to mention it’s huge!)  We actually went to check out the tree at night with a friend which was awesome as no one else was there.  Basically, Sarah and I had a great time checking out the sights, enjoying some relaxing time or wondering aimlessly, and going out and meeting new people.  It was fantastic!

Old Convent-Now the Anthropology Museum

Monte Alban

Sarah and I playing at El Arbol del Tule

 

Mexico City was a bit of a different story.  While also a very interesting place, it was much more city-like—huge, loud, and a bit dirty.  The hostel we were at this time was not as nice as the last one.  In fact, upon arrival no one was even there to let us into the hostel and a neighbor had to come and let us into the building, where we sat on the floor and waited for a while.  On top of this, our trip from the airport did not go as smoothly as we’d hope (Sarah’s map reading skills can be called into question here. I love you girl!)  We took the subway (we mastered it by the end of the trip) and did not take the route that took us to the stop closest to our hostel so we ended up walking quite a ways.  As I’m sure you can imagine, being locked out of the hostel and sweaty, tired, and sore did not make us the happiest of travelers.  We eventually made it into the hostel, got rooms, and showered.  The good thing about where we were staying is that it was in the restaurant district and was also close to a subway stop (unfortunately not the one we used before).  There were plenty of restaurants to choose from and it was easy to get to the farther away parts of town.  While in Mexico City we went to Coyoacon which is where Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera lived.  Of course, we visited their home and after found a great café to eat lunch and a market to wonder around.  I enjoyed a cactus sandwich for my meal and a great cup of not instant coffee.  The street market was awesome.  Coyoacon is a place with a lot of free thinking artisans, so there were many stalls with handmade jewelry and others with clothes, fake tattoos, and, of course, the fresh churros you buy on the streets.  

We also visited the zocalo and checked out a few museums.  We wondered around a park and another market to pick up a few last minute gifts.  We visited the Anthropolgy Museum (which I think you could probably spend days at and still not see and read everything!)  Also near Mexico City is Teotihuacan.  Awesome pyramids, beautiful views, and a good dose of history.  Not to mention items shaped like jaguars which you can blow into to make a fantastic jaguar call.  It was a gorgeous way to spend the day-relaxing except for all the stairs you had to climb to get to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon.  And we're talking old-school stairs.  Stone, steep, and scary.  I did have a fear of falling down them on numerous occassions, but luckily we both made it with only a few scratches (most of which came from hanging out on the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.)

The Pyramid of the Sun doesn't look so big here, but trust me, it was quite intimidating.

Mexico City is a huge city, so we barely made a dent on all the things to do and see there.  Someday I hope to return to check everything out again and maybe just take some time to hang out without feeling rushed.  I was sad to leave, but knew that it was time to get on with real life once again.  I had to rush back to the states so I could celebrate my birthday with my family (the one special day we get to celebrate together due to my living abroad), go to orientation in North Carolina for my new job, attend a wedding for a college roommate (congratulations Sarah and Daniel!), and finally fly back to Liberia all within two weeks.  Talk about feeling a little stressed!  Not to mention I'm a horrible procrastinator when it comes to packing, so that didn't even start until the weekend before I left (well, more like two days before I left as I was at the wedding the weekend before...)  Needless to say, after those crazy two weeks and 24 hours in transit I made it safely back to Liberia, my home sweet home.


 P.S.  I know I promised stories about helicopters and jungles, but since this post turned out to be so long, I figure I'll wait till next time for that.  Also, this way I'm more likely to post again sooner rather than later.

Back in the LIB

It’s been a summer and a bit since I’ve updated this blog, but I think it’s understandable considering I’ve been off of work and back in the states for a good part of this time. That being said, I’ll quickly update you all on the past happenings of my life.

First, I quit my job. That’s right, during these tough economic times I may be the only person who’s left his/her job by choice, but I did. The school was not a good fit for me. I put in a full year of teaching there, but it was time for me to go. I loved my students and the time I spent with them; they were fantastic—funny, cute, inquisitive, and creative. While they were difficult sometimes (as all kids are), I can’t say that they weren’t great and I won’t miss them, I will, but some other things came into the picture convincing me it was time for something new.

That being said, I am back in Liberia. I took a job with an INGO with which I’ll still be involved in teaching. (Email me for more information.) I’ve been back in country for almost three weeks now. It’s rainy season here, so most days are overcast or it’s raining. The good news is the temperature is lower during this season, so the heat isn’t as oppressive as during the dry season. This is especially good news as my new home only has one air conditioning unit that is located in the living room. On top of this, it is currently not functioning properly, so we don’t have it plugged in anyway. Also, my room is all the way down the hallway, as far away as possible from the a/c unit, so it doesn’t really do me any good. Hopefully by the time dry season comes around (think mid-October) I’ll have adjusted. The unfortunate thing about the rainy season (on top of all the rain) is the humidity. It is so humid that my clothes have begun to mold. My bedsheets are already damp by the time I crawl into bed at night. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is dry. Just another reason it’s good to have a/c here. At this point, I don’t want it for temperature control, but rather moisture control. I can tell you that anything that stays moist for a few days becomes smelly, then eventually moldy, and so on and so forth. Boo.

Other than the wet factor, my new home’s not so bad. (Well, the wet factor and lack of hot water. Cold showers or warm bucket baths—neither leave me feeling especially clean.) Our house faces the ocean, so I’m constantly surrounded by an ocean breeze and the sound of waves. The porch (which faces the sea) has two hammocks set up for idle days of reading and lounging which feels gloriously indulgent at times. I live with five other girls. It’s nice to have roommates after a year alone, but also strange to get used to after a year alone. It’s also difficult to come into a house of five people who know each other pretty well and be the new person. The difficulty is doubled by the fact that since I lived here last year I’ve other friends that I really enjoy being with so I’m often trying to get out of the house and be social. It’ll all come together, though, in due time, in due time. Right now I’m fighting patience as I wait for everything to get started and my second try here to really begin.


Stay tuned for: my summer adventures
travel by helicopter
a hike in the woods (or in this case, jungle)

Update--Liberia and Myself!

Liberia’s really beginning to wear on me. I need a break. Luckily, I can say that I should be back stateside by the end of June! Yay! Less than one month. Get excited. I know I am. I’m looking forward to real grocery stores with real produce sections (I had a dream the other night I went grocery shopping in the states and forgot to buy produce because I’m so used to not being able to here), drinking water out of the tap (again, I had a dream about this a few weeks ago too), Mexican food, good restaurants, being able to cook at home with quality ingredients and an oven, ohhhhh…the joys of first world countries.

In the meantime, I am still living here in my favorite third (some say fourth?) world country. I sometimes feel like it’s harder for me now than it was at the beginning of my trip here. Basically, all of those creature comforts I don’t have here were easy to give up for the adventure. Now I’ve been here for going on ten months and the adventure’s over and I want a freaking oven again. Okay, that sounds negative. If I didn’t like it here I wouldn’t be coming back for another year, though, right? It’s true, I do like it. I am ready for a chance to see my friends and family and eat some good food though.

So I went out downtown this weekend and saw an amazing thing—a stop sign! It’s true ladies and gentlemen, Monrovia has its first official stop sign. I find this incredibly exciting. They also painted some crosswalks on one of the main streets when they painted lines on the roads. A few weeks ago they put up people crossing signs. It’s amazing! Who knows what could be next? Maybe a few more functioning stop lights? Maybe they’ll repave Broad St. downtown so you don’t have to dodge the massive potholes while driving? More stop signs? Oh the possibilities are endless!

Make Believe

First graders are fun because they still believe in everything that adults don’t anymore. Think Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and various other characters. This week one of my students lost her first tooth. She had been talking about how loose it was for a week. To be honest, I was somewhat relived when it finally fell out. I had run out of ways to react to seeing the loose tooth and things to say about it. Now I just hear about how weird it feels and how strange it is to eat an apple without it. She told me she received a $2 bill for her tooth, and I, of course, replied with something about the tooth fairy. She promptly told me that she knew the tooth fairy was mom and dad. Then I had to try to have a very quiet discussion about how many of the other kids still believe in the tooth fairy, so we can’t tell them otherwise. I always catch myself on the verge of revealing earth shattering secrets, including the secret of Santa as well. I almost said to the little girl, “It’s like Santa Claus, yes he’s your parents, but most kids still believe in him, so let’s not ruin it for them.” Fortunately I always realize what I’m about to say, but then I have to step back and go, “just because she doesn’t believe in the Tooth Fairy doesn’t mean she doesn’t believe in Santa.” It’s hard to keep up with what’s real and what’s not in a first grader’s mind. I remember around Christmastime the kids kept asking questions about Santa and how this or that happens. “How does Santa fit in the chimney?,” “What if our house doesn’t have a chimney?,” “How do the reindeer fly?” They are super cute, but the kids ask some really great and difficult questions that I don’t always feel prepared to answer. It requires some quick thinking and creative responses. I’ve also been able to convince the kids that I’m magic sometimes. When they can’t figure out how I know certain things or have caught them doing something I just tell them, “I’m magic.” It’s fantastic and so much fun. It also reminds me that it’s okay to not have the real answer for everything. Sometimes it’s better to believe and leave things be rather than try to overanalyze and make sure there’s a reason for everything. Just another reason why first graders are awesome. Life’s simple and fun.

Life in Liberia

Lots has been happening over the past few weeks, though I can't say any of it has led to much excitement in my life. Liberia held an International Women's Colloquium two weekends ago (March 6-8). All sorts of important women (and a few men) came to town to talk about women, development, and many more issues. It seemed very interesting and many people I know were involved in planning or presenting at the Colloquium, but it was also kind of strange. Some of the people who came brought in more people and security than one could imagine. One person even had motorcycles shipped down for his/her motorcade. Let's talk about how expensive it is to ship to Liberia. If you're visiting for a colloquium encouraging women's empowerment and their development, especially in third world countries, why not bring that money and flush it into their economies? Anyway, the colloquium was open to the public at the beginning of the week, but as I have to work on weekdays, I could not attend. The planning was also sub-par from what I heard. The government of Liberia and all the ministries had been planning the event for over a year. They were planning to send the programs to be printed in Ghana, but did not have them finished in time so they had to be printed in Liberia...the night before the colloquium began. This was a huge event with many important people including heads-of-state and women who have been part of the global economy for years and they did not have the security badges completed as of the night before the event. Some of the badges did not have people's names on them, so really anyone could have used them to get in to the event. It was held at the stadium here, with booths set up around the outside and conferences, etc., being held inside. Even though planning wasn't a smooth as hoped for (I don't want to say they didn't plan, because they did, it just seems not everything was taken care of as well as it should have been), everyone seems to think the colloquium went well and was a success. I will admit, however, that I wish it was more geared toward locals. It seemed so tuned in for women from foreign countries, but the local women there were generally rich or high class Liberians with a bit of power and than local women who came with NGOs showing off their projects. I suppose any publicity is good, but still…what about the everyday woman who’s working hard and not receiving support from NGOs or the government (ha!)? That’s just my opinion. Like I said, I wasn’t involved in it at all, so perhaps this aim did exist and I just don’t know about it. Any little thing helps, right?

The colloquium (along with a few other things) did bring an added perk for me, though. We had Friday, March 6, off from school unexpectedly. As Monrovia doesn't have too many roads, there was a fear that the traffic from everyone arriving for the colloquium would make the drive to and from school too difficult for many of our students' families. On top of that, Intercon, the company who does the security for the school, was in a dispute with the employees and the employees were on strike. From what I understand, someone leaked Intercon's contract with the UN. The employees then found out how much the UN was paying for security and how much of that money was actually getting to them. Needless to say, it wasn’t nearly as much money as was going into the company. Because of that, the workers went on strike for better pay. While some of our security was still showing up, some arrived without uniforms and some didn't seem to arrive at all. I can't say I really blame them as I'm sure the discrepancy between the two amounts of money was quite large. LNP (Liberian National Police) were pulling double duty for us at the school in terms of security. With the colloquium, though, LNP was needed in full force on Friday, so we may not have had our normal security standards either. These two things combined made for an impromptu no school day. Hey, who needs snow days when you can have security strike/colloquium traffic days? Only in Liberia perhaps...but enjoyed nonetheless.

After the three day weekend, Wednesday the 11th was a Liberian holiday so we had that day off as well. It was Decoration Day, a day when Liberians go to the graves of their loved ones who have passed on and they decorate the headstones--they re-paint them, lay wreaths... Here, graves are generally above ground and large concrete boxes. I was talking to a Liberian who said they are still 6 feet deep, but that they rise a few feet out of the ground as well and that the caskets are just lowered into them. I'm not exactly sure why they bury their dead in stone vaults rather than just lowering the casket into the ground and having a headstone, but this is the way it's done. Decoration day is an important holiday to Liberians. I think it must be nice to set a day aside to remember people who were important to our lives and take a bit of time to respect their memory. I think we’re so caught up in the rest of life that half of us can’t even remember the anniversaries of our loved ones deaths, so I fully support this holiday.

Okay, I’m off for now as I’ve been trying to post this for days now and just want to get something up. Stayed tuned for tanks that sound like trains and a rice harvesting spring break!