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.