eating my neighbor's chicken

This morning the chicken and her four baby chickens were pooping on my back porch and Nelly was shouting ‘Let’s go!’ to shoo them away. This afternoon my neighbor brought over soup for me to enjoy – it featured the chicken. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I enjoyed a spicy curry soup and was impressed by the quality of the chicken’s flavour. But as I ate I saw the four small chickens wandering around independently now. Nelly tried to call them over to show them that I was eating their mother! Haha Such goes the circle of life.

Welcome to AYH!

At any given moment of any given day if you wander into my living room you’ll probably find a random kid on my couch. Most likely I will have some indirect connection to the kid but s/he will not talk to me. I’ve realized that my house has become something of a youth hostel; therefore, Welcome to Abbe’s Youth Hostel! There’s no sign on my door that says food is being served (like local soup kitchens do) but if a youth show up, they’ll probably end up eating my food. Or better yet, if they’re a school friend of Nelly’s, they will have brought along a friend of their own, and a special meal will need to be paid for and prepared for their consumption, regardless of my current dinner plans. In the past week, strangers who don’t say much have consumed more of my rice than I have!

It’s probable that the youth will stay for several hours, sometimes they’ll leave food open or crumbs on a plate and the ants will invade, and more often than not I will feel forced to ‘hide out’ in some other part of my own home. My bedroom is a standard option, but I’ve found the front and back porches to be sufficient as well. If they’re boys they might step outside to peepee by the side of the house; if they’re girls Nelly will typically forget to mention not to put tissue down the toilet and I’ll find myself working for literally hours to get the sucker to flush ‘normally’ again. When Nelly has friends or family over I find it to be the strangest because she spends most of the time secluded, cooking behind the house. Then when they eat the hot meal she doesn’t eat with them (still no one is saying much). Post-meal she will sit with them and sometimes small talk emerges. Even when her sister was here and stayed the night, I was perplexed by the lack of conversation! All of this makes me feel even more awkward because if they’re not talking to each other, I don’t start up the chatting either. African hospitality is confusing to me and if I can’t shake the ‘no need to place hostess’ approach when returning to the US no one will come by to visit me anymore!

The water boy (who occasionally smiles now) has a habit of lingering before and after hauling the water. He’ll lounge on the couch for a while before he starts making the trips and then post-work he tends to sit around for hours and usually lies down on the couch to take a nap for an extended amount of time. I don’t want to be rude and kick him out, but it’s so weird when I have things that I want to get done and there are randys (random people) sitting and watching my every move! Today is a prime example; Nelly’s young cousin came yesterday and spent the night. Nelly went to computer class over 9 hours ago and hasn’t returned! I had a meeting in town and locked the girl out of the house for a couple hours (safety never quits, trust no one!) and when I got back I was stuck with her AND the water boy just sitting around doing nothing for HOURS! Plus, in just the past couple hours she left the cereal open to the ants, put tissue in the toilet and left hair all over the bathtub! Haha so here I sit, under house arrest. Feeling obligated to not leave because then I have to lock her out and simultaneously wanting her to go away so I can just be home alone for once! Where is Nelly!?

the sickness knows

Like many things in life, plans in Liberia never seem to pan out as expected! My holidays were good, despite the ‘sickness’ overrunning my body again on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t as terrible as the first round but nonetheless is was not a desirable way to spend my day off! I managed to shake it by late afternoon so that was reassuring. As I mentioned previously, our Christmas plans involved new outfits and Antoinette visiting to join us on a trip to the beach. Well none of that actually happened! Haha I decided to not buy a new top for the day (partially because I anticipated that we wouldn’t actually go out Christmas evening) and instead bought the lapas for the girls and I. And apparently Antoinette’s sister got sick so she had to stay home and care for her sister’s young kids. So there was no beach on Christmas day but we ate plenty of pepper soup, swallowed duma (similar to fufu except it comes from boiling the cassava root and then pounding it into a sticky paste), snacked all afternoon (James stopped by early with a pineapple for us!) and had cabbage green soup in the evening! It’s not often that I encounter greens to eat in this country and I’m really fond of the cabbage greens, so despite the fact that they upset my stomach I ate it! I figure there’s gotta be some good nutrients that my body is taking in before my stomach/intestines freak out! Oh, and we also rented an African show to watch.

rubber trees

James and I participated in the United Nations Volunteer Day a couple weeks ago. A member of our Festival Committee runs the student-led volunteer programs at the University of Liberia and he invited us to join his group for the volunteer work day. It was a great day! We hopped on the bus early in the morning and the energy of college-aged volunteers was a familiar feeling that I’ve been missing! Everything from the hip hop playing on the radio to the way university students carry-on when riding a bus as a group – it all just felt right. After a scenic drive we arrived at Firestone. In case you’re not familiar with the production details of our trusty tires, it all starts in Liberia. Firestone operates the largest rubber plantation in the country, situated near the airport (which they also funded) it is an impressive site. Soooo many rubber trees, it’s all you see every direction that you turn. But let me get back to the focus point, the day’s theme was ''Helping Liberians to help themselves''.

Deep within the plantation several communities still exist. Over the years the plantation was developed around these existing villages. A few communities are home to the workers who tend to the rubber trees, but the one we visited was independent. The Dolo Community is a humble town and our project was working with the community’s school. After a series of welcomes, guest speakers and prayers we got to work. The tasks completed included staining newly built classroom chairs and sorting, organizing and shelving books in their recently established library. After sweating and hard work they treated us to potato green soup for lunch and then the volunteers squared off against the older students in some athletic competitions – guys played football (soccer) and ladies played kickball. Needless to say, the high school kids beat the University students at both events! Haha

Took a little tour of the plantation with James during some down time and he taught me all about the process of harvesting rubber. Check out pictures in my photos link on the right. The day as a whole was long, exhausting and a great time! After all my recent toiling for the development of our upcoming Peace Festival, it felt really good to be doing some hands-on volunteer work and seeing the immediate, tangible results. Plus, I got to touch some fresh rubber sap and learned that it smells like a pig pen and more importantly, the scent lingers on your skin for quite a while!

12 Days of Christmas!

You all know the tune to this one! My ode to Christmas in Liberia..the Readers Digest version!

On the first day of Christmas,
Liberia gave to me
A water boy who never speaks.

On the second day of Christmas,
Liberia gave to me
Two bucket baths
And a water boy who never speaks.
...
... fast forward to the big finale
...

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
Liberia gave to me
Twelve fish bones choking,
Eleven roosters crowing,
Ten pineapple falling,
Nine bananas rotting,
Eight ants invading,
Seven lizards chasing,
Six spiders crawling,
Five more oranges!
Four crying babes,
Three piles of trash,
Two bucket baths,
And a water boy who never speaks!

market days

Had a new experience today, Nelly and I got up at 6am to head to the market at Red Light! I have seen a lot in this world but nothing quite compares to the hustle and bustle of this outdoor market – there were more sandals and greens for sale per square foot than I’ve ever seen before! And so many people everywhere, Nelly was concerned about me taking my purse but I had a lot of cash so carrying it in-hand seemed unpractical. She told me the night before that I needed to be very careful because the men with the ‘medicine’ could steal my money. Oh how I love superstitions about ‘witching’!

The variety was endless: a goat walked by, a woman swung a hatchet high in the air to chop some spare ribs apart, entire bushels of bananas were being sold, donuts were everywhere, some men were ready to paint fingernails while others sharpened knives, women hurried to set up their goods, and prices were high with the holiday so near. On Saturdays many marketeers come from the interior to sell and with that usually comes a greater variety and more competitive prices. Nelly and I were on a mission: buy plenty, plenty fruit and things to eat over the holidays, as well as spend some Christmas money. After initial disappointment over the high price on oranges, we decided it was better to start with the lapas. A lapa is a long piece of wildly patterned fabric that women buy to have made into traditional outfits by a tailor. But in our case, we are keeping it country and intended to simply wrap them around and wear them as skirts. We checked out some prices at different spots and were convinced by a woman that she would make us the best deal. Picking out the fabric was the more time consuming part! I decided that for Christmas I would buy two lapas for Nelly, Antoinette and myself. After much debate, discussion of my ‘brightness’ and mind-changing we both picked out beautiful patterns and found two that seem well suited for Antoinette. Next we headed to check out all the stalls looking for a ‘’flask’’ or as I thought Nelly was saying for the past weeks, a flash. Basically, it’s a big thermos for keeping tea warm for a couple days so that you don’t have to re-start the coal fire any time you want a cup. We found a brilliant looking blue one and settled for it even though the seller was unwilling to negotiate the price down at all. Finally, we had to face our enemy – the fruit marketeers. Nelly wasn’t sure if it was my presence (aka white face) or the holiday season but prices were very steep and it took us quite some time to find ones we were willing to pay. I was pleased with the purchases as we headed to find a cab, many sweet potatoes, plantains, oranges, a few bananas, and 3 little pineapples! I get very excited about fresh pineapple and to find small ones is ideal so that we’re not forced to eat a whole pineapple real quick in one day before it spoils. It was an interesting and good time, too bad it’s so hectic or I’d take my camera along next time...I’m not gonna risk getting ‘witched’ though!

...Nelly and I went on a walk for a quick errand to the Junction and she insisted that I wear my new lapa. I explained that I wasn’t sure the neighbourhood was ready for it, i mean really they just stopped staring at me! But I put it on and off we went. Sure enough, probably a dozen different people commented during our 30-minute round trip walk, most said simply ‘you tied the lapa today’. Haha It was a riot! They all said it in a complimentary way though so the good news is I haven’t offended anybody...today at least!

One word: scorpions

So exciting news folks! There’s been a new invader of my home and sanity, and need i mention, a new thing with which the phrase ‘death is imminent’ now resonates! On Thursday evening Nelly called me over as the grabbed a sandal and then pointed to the floor where I saw what my eyes could hardly believe and my brain couldn’t register fast enough because before I knew it I was shouting ‘’Scorpio! Scorpio!’’ – as if I’d morphed into an astrologer and had pin-pointed the sign that would lead me to eternal happiness. I fumbled to recover and corrected my statement just has the sandal came down to end the poor fella’s life.

The lil bugger didn’t cross my mind again until Friday night when I was preparing for bed. While brushing my teeth by candlelight I noticed a shadow in the fold of my mosquito net. Just below eye level and suspended directly over my pillow was in fact a scorpion on the inside of my net! I shouted for nelly and quickly went to her room t rally some moral support. We performed quite the tag-team act of opening the net, knocking the invader to the ground and promptly ending his life. I was a bit concerned that there would be more lurking in the shadows, waiting for rest to overtake my body before they came for the attack, but my net was free and clear and I had no choice but to climb inside. I’m hoping they only travel in twos.

Embarrassing but true: Confessions part 2

Tomorrow is my 6 week anniversary..so it’s time for more self-disclosure!

• My foam mattress has a big, permanent indentation from my ‘American thighs’ aka my ghetto booty.
• Sometimes we sit on the edge and pee in the tub because it’s easier than wasting time and water waiting for the commode to flush.
• I’ve stopped wearing a bra except for work – it’s just too hot for an extra layer!
• My feet are always dirty and I can’t figure out how to keep my toe nails or fingernails looking clean.
• I love to snack on cookies and treats here – I assume that they’re not as bad for me as a Big Mac or Hostess cupcake so it’s justifiable!
• I only clean my ears once a week, on Friday; after two decades of ritualistic daily post-shower Q-tip twirling I view this as a true display of my adaptability and official low-maintenance status.

the beautiful

Curse the Americans and their over-refrigerated-cleanness! If I had grown up drinking dirty water, eating room temp mayonnaise and buying pigs’ feet from a table in a dusty village I would be invincible – or at least less scared for my digestive health every moment of the each day! I would also like to personally, sarcastically thank America (perhaps more specifically the Midwest) for giving me my ‘softness’. While carrying groceries home a couple days ago a group of young men passed me, one wanted to shake my hand but my hands were full so I continued walking, only for the last guy in the group to pat my upper, outer thigh and say ‘’soft’’ as he walked past! It didn’t register at first, and I told Nelly the story only to have her confirm that ‘’Americans are soft’’. She explained that Africans are soft too, but Americans are more soft. Go figure!

like a prayer

Recently my radio brought me the thrills of Madonna. She surfaced just after some African music and a reading of local obituaries. I felt like I was back in Chicago, partying in Boys Town at 3am! I was just finishing my dinner and I leapt up from my chair and started singing and dancing around with my arms in the air like a crazy woman. We had been eating in the dark because the sun had just set and I hadn’t gotten to lighting a candle or firing up the generator yet, and the dim lighting amplified my lack of inhibitions as I continued to spin and twirl around recklessly. Nelly didn’t know the song so she just sat there crunching on pig’s feet bones from the soup. But there we were – me and Madonna – having our moment!

wearing camo pants & Nikes

Tonight I was at a music performance promoting peace in the Makona River Union area (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone). I witnessed a Rasta man from Guinea perform a reggae song in French about Liberia’s President Madam Ellen Johnson. It was amazing. Plus, he repeatedly performed a high-stepping type of dance move that brought to mind visions of the Edison High School Marching Band double-timing off the field! The combination was unbeatable...I could barely pay attention to the artists that followed because all I could think about was the random combo that one single person had just presented before me. Oh yeah, and he was wearing camouflage pants and Nikes. Just do it!

do Liberians believe in Santa?

I don’t think so. I’ve done some asking around and received mostly blank stares and responses of confusion. Being ‘witched’ – yes; a fat man in a red suit delivering presents – not so much! But as a mainly Christian country (small Muslim populations are found mostly away from the coast, in the interior) they do celebrate Christmas – a less consumer-based Christmas, but still. My neighbours have a string of lights in their front window; they look nice blinking happily on evenings when they use their generator. Many people give gifts to friends and family, in fact I’ve had a couple people offer that they will ‘’give me Christmas’’ – I’ve tried to politely decline these offers. So next week I will indeed be celebrating in local ways. Later this week Nelly and I will go into town to buy our ‘Christmas clothes’ – she anticipates getting a whole outfit, on my budget I’m aiming for just a new shirt. It’s my understanding that on Christmas Eve we will do nothing specially, we’ll actually avoid travelling anywhere because car business will be very hard and super expensive. On Christmas day the girls will make a soup early in the day (it may involve slaughtering our own country chicken – this still makes me uncomfortable) and then in the early afternoon we’ll head to the beach! After being at the beach for the holiday, celebrating as true Liberians, we will come home to change into these new clothes. I’m still fuzzy on where we will go in our fancy duds, but I’m sure it will prove to be a good story!

humor in sharing

So I decided about a year ago that for my next apartment I would like to live alone. My theory is that if you don’t get married by age 22, you inevitably reach a point in your independent life when you recognize that roommates are great (love you Melissa!) but you just desire to live alone. When living in Chicago and planning for my move to Africa it was impractical to pay extra rent for my own place, that’s how my plan became that at my next apartment I would fly solo. When sorting out the details for my housing here in Liberia, there was a moment when I thought I was going to be living alone – and this moment was scary! I remember speaking in load tones about how yes, I would like to live alone, but not in Africa! So I was relieved and excited to hear Nelly would be staying with me. Our ‘roommate relationship’ has been awkward at best! Haha This is mostly because our roles are defined by Liberian standards, but in my head I’m still a Western gal. My interest in doing my own wash and cleaning the bathroom and washing dishes has been hard for Nelly to understand and even harder for visitors. Today Harbi was visiting and when I mentioned having done some wash this morning he asked me why I would do that. I found myself explaining that if I didn’t do anything domestic, I would be bored. My weekend days here feel more productive when I clean up the kitchen, or wash my bedding, for the simple fact that I don’t have a lot of other options for activities to engage myself – I mean I can only read for so many hours a day (especially since I’ve been flying through the few books I packed)!

Having a housemate (regardless of cultural standards) means that sometimes things won’t be where you left them and sometimes the last orange is gone when you’re ready to eat it for breakfast. Nuances also emerge when sharing a home, for example during my first weeks here I noticed that my face wash was always located in a different spot than I left it in the shower. To me this indicated that Nelly was using it (not gonna lie – this sent my constantly-budgeting-resources-mind into a frenzy!) so to be sure that I wasn’t losing my mind, I asked her one day ‘have you been using my face wash?’ She replied no and that was that. Just this week after I started using different face soap, I removed my former cleanser (a tube of Neutrogena cream face wash) from the shower. A couple days after this Nelly came to me saying ‘I did not find the oil’. We went back and forth in a bizarre rendition of English fragments and finally after her gesturing to her arm and pointing to the spot in the shower where the aforementioned item was supposed to be located, I realized she was speaking of my face wash. I got it out (visual aides are crucial) and she said that was what she was looking for. Things started coming together for me at this point, and when I asked what she had been using it for, she said cream (again gesturing to her arm). Turns out, she didn’t know what it was, but when she investigated the contents, decided it was lotion so she’d been using it on her body (post-shower) as if it were body cream. I imagine this felt nice (it has a cooling feeling to it) but I still can’t grasp how long it would take to rub in face wash on dry skin! Haha I explained it was soap for my face (face wash is a phrase they don’t use around these parts) and sent her with money to buy some proper cream for her body. We both laughed quite a bit!

the holidays are here!

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of spending a little Christmas money, thanks to my Mom and Dad and my ‘Ewell Secret Santa’ Aunt Paulette! I was so tickled to buy a strainer for making pasta much easier and a real broom!! Haha not to mention the sheer delight I took in FINALLY getting a radio!! I may never leave my house again! I also took some extra cash with me to the super market and was able to purchase outside the realm of necessities, beyond the matches and dish rags that I needed to buy, I ventured into a little pleasure shopping – including buying big box of tea bags, honey, spicy mustard, a can of BBQ Pringles, a box of Jiffy corn bread mix and some good soap to scrub the bathtub with! It’s amazing what simple things bring great joy to my simple life here! I then returned home to have a mini dance party in my bedroom while rocking out to some hip hop on the radio. I also took time to clean the toilet this afternoon – nothing brightens my day quite like bleaching my toilet...funny because I used to hate cleaning the bathroom, but it’s just so nice to know it’s sanitary and see it all sparkly and shiny! Happy holidays to me!

Liberian cabs - the ride of your life

Yesterday I looked over to see exactly how fast my cab was racing down the road and only became confused by the kilometre readings on the dial. Today I looked over and had to contain my laughter when I saw that the speedometer didn’t even work! Later in the same day I found myself feeling increasingly thankful for my up-to-date tetanus vaccination when I climbed in a car that’s interior seemed to have been removed years ago – based on the rust and exposed jagged edges on the doors! Cab fares here have fixed rates since there are no meters, so sitting on someone’s lap won’t save either of you any money, but you will get where you’re going! With the holidays approaching there’s a great amount of inflation occurring as the demand for transport is increasing so the driver’s are able to demand more for the same route. Sometimes a L$30 ride will become a L$50 ride if the driver feels like it. Luckily though, if they’re inflating the price they announce it as your board the car so you do have the opportunity to get back out and wait for an undetermined amount of time until you find an open spot in another car (an opportunity that I have seized several times this week). But every once in a while it’s worth an extra L$5-10 to just be on my way home, out of the sun and sitting down. Sometimes I pass by cabs that have chickens riding along...I’m yet to ride with a chicken but am eager for the excitement it probably adds!

The communal cab rides are something that I continue to support – and may advocate for some day in the US (except that Americans are real funny about their space, you know what I’m talking about!). I’ve noticed that they often create opportunities for great community discussions between strangers – sometimes based on the radio’s broadcasts (they have several NPR-like stations here) and other times based on the behaviours of locals. Earlier this week I listened in while riders discussed recent violence that erupted at the Firestone rubber plantation; I was intrigued by the different perspectives on the event. Last week when climbing into a cab there was a man pushing up against my purse, I couldn’t tell at first what he was doing but I immediately registered it as not good/normal so I grabbed my bag and hurried to get in the car and shut the door, checking instinctively to make sure my cash and cell phone were still where they belonged. Before I could even say anything, a woman in the cab was going on and on about ‘What was he doing with your bag? Trying to put a flower in it?’ and there was also a man outside the car who I heard telling the man to move along and stop bothering people. After much discussion among my fellow car-riders (me mostly listening) it was determined that he was (perhaps harmlessly) trying to put some fake flower on my bag but that he should know better and leave other people alone. I was amazed by how outraged the other passengers were, but also immediately felt comforted knowing that people here really are looking out for each other.

I encourage you all to share a cab at least once in your life! I don’t think you’ll regret it!

1 month anniversary!

You can’t lead the people, if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, it you don’t serve the people. –Cornel West, professor at Princeton

Whoop whoop! I have officially lived in Liberia for 1 month and it feels good! Terrence has been referring to me as a Liberian since the end of my first week here, but I think I’m actually starting to believe it. I even bought a white handkerchief on the street this week – a crucial item for Liberians to maintain looking fresh while out and about in the city, a.k.a. a good way to wipe the sweat and dirt from your face. I have grown quite accustomed to hailing cabs, rushing (and occasionally pushing people a smidge) to get in a cab, navigating the city via cabs, fending off the weirdos while walking about, determining which bones should be eaten and which ones removed when eating soup and slowly but surely I’m building up a nice tan! I’ve settled in well with work and really enjoy the team here. We’ve established a rhythm as a group and our productivity is starting to flow. Nelly and I have come a long way in a month, and we get on rather well now. Chatting about this and that, collaborating on meals, and we even spend more time laughing at the same thing than staring awkwardly at each other! I celebrated today by making French toast and fried eggs for breakfast – I thought Nelly was going to die when I put the sliced bread into the egg/milk concoction, she said ‘Oh! I have not seen that!’ It didn’t turn out too bad and she really enjoyed the new treat!

I really love the Liberians – they’ve persevered through so much and have an incredible spirit about them, accompanied by strong beliefs in God and occasional interpretations based on superstition that are definitely keeping me on my toes! I’m working diligently to serve them effectively and I feel confident that eventually my efforts will reap a harvest of plenty!

foreigner hypochrondria

That’s what i’ve decided to term the condition i have! My mind is like a worst-case scenario survival handbook! Weird things run in and out of my brain, usually involving the phrase ‘death is imminent’ and i rapidly try to mentally disengage the situation’s ‘bomb’! For example, lying in bed the other night (safe inside my mosquito net) i heard a sound that i determined could be a snake coming toward my bed. Then I proceeded to analyze if my mosquito net would protect me from a snake bite (i’m imagining a king cobra or python) and when it doesn’t protect me, how long will i have to get to the hospital before death is imminent. And i pictured where the hospital was and thought about how it’s so difficult to get a cab after dark and wondered who i should call when this snake bite happens – james to report that i’m in danger and need assistance, or my parents since afterall, death is imminent. I also compulsively check my temperature in case i have a fever so that i’ll know early on that i’ve contracted malaria, yellow fever, typhoid fever or any other ‘death is imminent’ type of fever. I constantly ask nelly not to do certain things involving open flames, the gasoline-powered generator, and the gas stove – always with the tagline of ‘please don’t do that, we could explode and die’. Usually when my stomach rumbles i assume i have come down with hepatitis A. When i don’t have to pee at all during the day i imagine i’m slowly dehydrating and will soon collapse into unconsciousness. Any new itches equal incurable rashes or poisonous spider bites – both indicating the death is imminent. I’m still trying to determine which will have a more drastic effect on shortening my life-span – all of the pollution from car and truck exhaust or the intense sun-exposure?

Other than that, things are going very well in Liberia!

seeing is believing

What’s up Chi-town! I saw a man wearing a Cubs shirt last week. And word to Ohio – I passed a guy wearing BGSU shorts just yesterday! Because there are such a variety of scenes to mentally register, I’ve come to live by a new motto here: I’ll believe it when I see it. This applies to the notion that some day there will be a handpump well inside my compound (3 weeks ago they said it would be ready in 2 days) and also the idea that there will eventually be a generator that operates for our entire compound. I’ve heard rumor that there are coins in Liberian currency, but until I saw one yesterday on someone’s desk I wasn’t convinced because the smallest denomination I’d encountered was L$5 bill. You really do see everything here, including men and boys peeing in the street or on the side of the road any time, any place – also saw a girl balancing something on her head just stop and squat to pee along the road once. There are monkeys that ride on top of semi-trucks, 25 men standing in the back of moving pick-ups, a woman breastfeeding on the street corner, piles of garbage half a city-block wide. There are always women carrying lots of different things on their heads, sometimes just to transport them elsewhere, other times things are for sale, like raw fish, plantains, peanuts, fabric, fresh donuts, dried monkey. Yep – that’s right. For the first time in my blessed existence on this planet I saw women carrying dried monkey (still furry) on their heads for sale. I came straight home to tell Nelly to please never make a soup with monkey in it. She just laughed, which makes me nervous because sometimes I think she sneaks in weird food when she’s cooking, like the sea turtle meat – she didn’t admit it was turtle initially, she first declared it was meat from the sea but after further probing on my part she announced its true origin! She says the monkey has plenty, plenty meat and that it tastes sweet. I think I’m okay not confirming what monkey tastes like!

spoiled with produce

Turns out i’m spoiling nelly! Well, as she put it ‘you will have to send me money when you go because i will be used to how we live!’ Initially I couldn’t imagine what she was referring to because I feel like every other phrase out of my mouth is something like ‘does it really cost that much?’ or ‘yes I know you say L$100 but can you make a soup for L$50, how about L$80?’ But apparently my encouragement of produce consumption speaks louder than my words! There are oranges everywhere I look in this country, and naturally I translated that to mean everyone eats oranges. They seem to be affordable and easily obtained, but clearly I have a misunderstanding of what life on the poor side of the Liberian scale means. I get the deal with rice: everyone eats it, every day, all day, it’s not a day unless you eat rice. I was surprised by how much they love meat and fish, but more surprised still when Nelly explained that living with her aunt before I arrived she would only eat maybe one piece of fruit a week. No wonder she feels spoiled, every day I’m asking her, did you have an orange and a banana because the bananas will spoil soon and we have a lot of oranges this week! Plus, she’s thrilled with the knowledge I shared that oats in milk are just as tasty when served cold. It’s so much easier than cooking in the morning (she leaves for school by 6am) and it’s just as tasty. I’ve also realized that it blows her mind if we manage a day without eating the rice, we had hard-boiled eggs and elbow macaroni for dinner the other night and she announced that when I leave she will still eat like this. I made spaghetti for the girls a couple weekends ago and Antoinette wasn’t a fan, but Nelly thought it was wonderful – except that there was no meat involved (silly me got the tasty mushroom & green peppers sauce instead of the meat!).

I also spoil her with music videos on youtube occasionally! Haha here’s us rocking out – had to share my headphones since the generator’s so bloomin’ loud!!!

Around the office

This week is week 2 of a little plan I’ve declared our ‘Fundraising Assault’! We are working hard to unite our Festival Committee members into active planning and have been chugging away ourselves. There are a lot of details to get in order for the first annual Liberian Peace & Cultural Festival, scheduled for the last week of February 2008 and not much time. Big thing we’re focusing on now, in addition to lighting a fire under our committee members, is to get some money raised so we can actually do this event! We made a list of local companies that might be interested in sponsoring; I established some documentation about AYDAP and outlining the Festival (we will have workshops for youth in areas of drama & film, music, volunteerism, leadership; a peace symposium; kick-off parade; 3 night’s of concerts including cultural troupes, secular groups and gospel performances) as well as sponsorship levels. We made a couple appointments at places where we had contacts, but mostly we’re just going in cold. It’s quite fun actually! James and I just show up at a business and before we know if my white face gets us in to meet with a manager or marketing guru. We’re thorough and efficient – explain AYDAP, highlight the Festival, detail sponsorship reciprocation and shake some hands. After our third meeting last Wednesday morning James said, ‘now i know why you called it an assault!’ I’m not messing around here folks, we’re in, we’re out, they don’t know what just hit them but they liked it...and hopefully in a week or so we’ll start reaping the benefits!

In household news, Nelly has really taken to playing show and tell with pictures of my family! Thanks to my Aunt Paulette and her creative genius, i have a journal with photos of the Ewell tribe on the inside covers. Nelly thinks it is a great book and has asked me to get it out a couple times when different friends were over so she could point and explain who everyone is to her company. It really cracks me up! And tonight, she put sea turtle meat in the soup! Which i ate, and decided it tastes surprisingly like pot roast! Haha similar color and texture..still disturbing but tasty!

mysterious phenomena

Had 3 red dots, each slightly raised, forming a small triangle on the inside edge of my foot. I assume something bit me though they never itched just hung around for 6 days or so. You can’t see them anymore but i can still feel them.

After riding in a cab with 6 other people i often notice large sweat marks along the outside of my thighs – not sure if it’s my sweat or my seatmate’s.

Cabs bounce their way over the decrepit roads slowing here and there to drive gently around massive potholes but some cabs creak the entire time in a way that suggests the rear axle might be left behind at the next patch of uneven road..i can’t figure out what is holding it all together!

Down with the sickness!

It happened on Saturday – a sickness that is like no other. Slept all day, except to wake up and run to the bathroom every couple hours to endure simultaneous and dually unpleasant experiences. I tried to go to the hospital in the evening but it didn’t work out so well, when we finally got there the woman said her cabinet was empty – translation: she had no meds. Slept it off overnight and today I’ve stuck to sips of water/Gatorade, crackers, and my own creation of soup tonight: rice in water with vita (chicken bouillon's cousin). It came from Friday, but because I ate at a Lebanese restaurant, had some weird French wine in the evening and mistakenly consumed a drink served with ice I’m still unable to identify the exact source and so I will be blacklisting all of those items for the duration of my stay here!

Embarrassing but true: Confessions from Liberia

I decided that after 3 weeks here, it's time to bare it all, or at least some of it!

•This week Nelly asked me if the mosquitoes got my face too much – I had to explain that’s just acne/zits/pimples taking over my chin because my face is always sweaty here
•We can’t put toilet paper in our toilet anymore because it gets so angry – we carry it to the kitchen trash can instead.
•I find it nice knowing that each night the floors will get swept and the dishes will get washed and it’s not my responsibility.
•I haven’t shaved my legs in over a month and don’t really feel like doing it during my bucket bath; they might stay like this indefinitely.
•Most days I’m pretty sure I smell bad but usually the guy next to me smells stronger so I don’t worry about it too much!

''She's scary''

That’s what I imagine my water-boy would say about me, that is, if he does actually talk! I think he might just be really shy, but I’m always very nice to him and still he acts super timid. Nelly laughed tonight after he left and told me that he’s afraid of me! Who knows! Haha

If anything, the water-boy should think I’m wonderful and this guy Paul that I met two days ago should consider me scary. He seemed like a genuine, nice human-being when we met walking down my road on Monday, he works for an organization that we’re also working with for the peace festival and since i still strive to develop a social network here i decided it wasn’t a bad idea to exchange numbers...but now I’ve changed my mind! He won’t stop calling! Monday evening he called two times (I explained I was working still and said I would call him Tuesday when I had a chance after work) but Tuesday he called at 7:30am (which i ignored) and then again at 9am, which is when I found myself answering the phone to tell him that yes, I want some friends but he is upsetting me by calling too much and i asked him to stop. He seemed to get the message; I was irritated still yesterday afternoon so I didn’t call him ever. Then today he started up again, called three times (while i was working) throughout the day before I answered this afternoon and explained that he needs to back-off! He explained how his ‘instructor’ told him that today’s friend might be tomorrow’s saviour (not sure at this point if he thinks i’m jesus) and that he should give all his efforts to friendship. I countered with: I don’t need all your efforts, please chill out. He said he’s concerned for me and feels a responsibility and I explained that he doesn’t need to worry, I’m fine. The conversation eventually ended with him asking how many times a day he should call me, and me explaining that he should not call at all, zero times a day, he should just chill out and I will call him when work is not so busy and if I’m interested in speaking with him any further.

I’m not sure if this is the general aggressive approach of the Liberians pursuing friendship – but it was a big red flag in my book and made me question his motives. Even if he does think i will provide his salvation tomorrow, i’m not sure he would get it at the rate he’s badgering me! And no, i will not marry him and take him to America (it wasn’t asked but i was starting to feel unspoken pressure). I’m approached several times each day by ‘friendship seekers’, always young men who want to know all about me and openly declare that they want to me my friend. This guy Paul was the best shot i’ve had at friendship since i’ve arrived here, but he blew it! Good riddance.

The moral here: friendship is hard, at least it seems to be when you’re a white American lady in Africa!

what's cookin!?

Many have asked the question: So what do you eat? Here are some answers!

Potato green soup* - potato greens, chicken and other seasonings boiled together and served with rice.
*don’t let the word soup fool you, most often it just means stuff cooked together

Fried baita ball & okra soup – baita balls (mildly hot peppers), okra and other seasonings, combined with fried bottle-nose fish, booni (tasty dried fish – like eating fish jerky!), other sea creatures i couldn’t identify, some spare rib; all this boiled together and served with rice.

Pepper soup – made with the leftover fish heads from a previous soup cooked that day, boiled together with baita ball, okra, other seasoning; this one is actually served in a broth. We had it with cooked fufu (a fine white powder soaked in water then boiled into a slimy-mashed-potato-like paste that has a slightly sour flavour, you don’t chew it, just put some on the spoon and swallow it down).

Fried water green soup – water greens (look like big spinach leaves with some pink on the stems) chopped finely and boiled with dried flying fish and some pig’s feet, plus some vita. Boil it down, use plenty of oil and serve with rice.

Sugared palm nuts – palm nuts (eaten raw by chewing/sucking on them to get the meat that is under the red, stringy skin without breaking a tooth on the pit) fried then doused in sugar and simmered a bit more. Eaten without rice! Haha Sucked on/chewed carefully as a snack.

Rice – most often prepared with vita (like a chicken bouillon cube), baita balls and okra. Accompanied by some meat from a stand up the road – fried chicken, fried hot dog (they say sausage), fried fish.

Beans – because the prep time to soak the beans and additional cooking time (1.5-2 hours) is so long we’ve only cooked with them once so far. We added a dried flying fish (different than booni, flying fish is a bigger fish with more meat) and vita and some other stuff then ate the concoction with rice (of course!).

Bananas, oranges, tangerines, pineapple, oranges, boiled sweet potatoes, fried sweet potatoes, oranges, crackers, peanut butter, oranges, grapefruit, quaker oats with powdered milk & sugar, oranges, coconuts, palm nuts, bread, oranges, oranges, oranges...

any given saturday

You’ll find the girls (Nelly & Antoinette) up around 7 cleaning the house and me up and by 8:30 to drink hot tea and eat bread with them. Soon we’ll be discussing when the water-boy will show up and what things they should buy at the market to make a soup for the day. After this and that I’ll walk the 15 minutes up to the Junction to meet James and head to a noon meeting. We’ll decide to walk and the sun will be surprisingly hot so that by the time we get there (20 minutes later) I’ll be covered in road dust and have sweated through most parts of my shirt. Outside the gate of the home for our meeting I’ll be swarmed with six or more local boys, all shaking my hand and then just staring with small grins, while James phones the man and learns that although we are outside his home for the meeting that he scheduled with us at this time, he has gone to town unannounced. We’ll wander back to the main road and head for the Junction, me joking that at least we didn’t pay to ride a cab there! Along the way I’ll be delighted to see grapefruits for sale along the road, 4 for 25 Liberty Dollars. At less than 50 cents US for the bunch I’ll ecstatically put them in my bag.

After enjoying the soup of the day and taking a wee nap to refresh, the girls and their friend Lucia who’s hanging out for the day, will announce they’re going to the Old Road and that I should come. Quick outfit change later, my original outfit still sweaty, we’re out the door. A cab ride to the Old Road, wandering down through the shops and stands, the girls greeting friends they pass, a visit to Antoinette’s home and then we’re heading to the beach – me with once again sweat-soaked clothes. We’ll meander along the beach for a bit, argue with some boys trying to charge us to walk down the rest of it, and then head back for the main road. While walking we’ll try and try to catch a cab but all are six-full as they pass. There’ll be encouragement that I should get the cab because maybe they’ll stop for me and after a few minutes I will have flagged us a ride – although not a cab! This is Liberia, so to me a pick-up truck passing with no riders in the truck-bed looks like a viable alternative to walking the miles we are from home. After agreeing on a price with the driver and with his 2 friends shifted to the truck-bed, Nelly and I take the cab with Antoinette and Lucia in the back. The idea will spread impressively and as we stop and slow in traffic a couple other random riders will hop in the back, and then pay appropriately as they’re arriving at their destination. When nearing the Junction traffic will back-up and faster than we can realize it, our driver will barge into a wedding convoy of decorated cars. We’ll honk and wave a bit but mostly just laugh in semi-embarrassment as our beat-up pick-up makes its way obnoxiously through the intersection. Then we’ll be out, walking the rest of the way home to eat leftover soup.

With no rest for the weary, we’ll soon head back to the road to buy a gallon of gasoline for the guzzling-generator and a pack of mineral water for my rehydration needs. With the departure of Matthew from the compound, we’ll wait around in the dark until we can find the Poppy to start our generator. After over a month since my last hair cut I’ll be eager to plug in my clippers, but as I do there will be a small but mighty flash of light from inside the device. Soon I’ll be laughing out loud at the realization that my clippers have expired and my hair will be left to its own devices. After boiling the kettle, Nelly, Antoinette and I will retire to the porch to take in the slight breeze while sipping hot tea before cutting off the power and settling into sleep.

gobble gobble!

abbe ewell -reporting from liberia, a place where 'thanksgiving day' is celebrated on the 1st thursday of each november! yep, i missed it by one day when i arrived almost 2 weeks ago so now i'm here and there's no turkey or family gatherings in site! haha

it's been a great day though - i can say that on thanksgiving day in 2007 i hand-washed my first bit of laundry, ate cold oats in evaporated milk for breakfast, trimmed my finger & toe nails, ate an orange the liberian way for the first time, went in a cab to the city center all by myself for the first time, ate a Bounty candy bar that i smuggled in from the UK and was thankful for it's existence, and had a 'feast' for dinner that contained all 3: beans, rice & sweet potato (usually you just make 1 per meal)!!! hope everyone was able to enjoy time with family and friends, or atleast that you were able to marvel at small meaningful accomplishments as i did!

in my hand...

i am holding my passport which is now officially stamped, signed, verified and approved with a 1- year Liberian Resident Permit!!! woohoo! i'm a resident of Liberia!! which also means i now have re-entry status, so if i got somewhere i can get back in the country without a new visa. i'm super excited!

p.s. jumped for joy this morning when i got my toilet fixed (again) and was finally able to bleach the whole sucker! i don't fret over cleanliness very often, but my bathroom was waaaayyyy beyond my own comfort zone for hygiene!

bed nets for everyone!

Here’s a little insight into what I’m up to at work these days...During her visit to Liberia, the German Chancellor committed to donating 300,000 mosquito nets to help the nation combat malaria around the country. German Agro Action is an NGO posted up in Liberia already and they have been tasked with the distribution of the nets. AYDAP is already a member of the Malaria Steering Committee run here by the Ministry of Health and has several trained staff and volunteers that worked to distribute bed nets/raise awareness earlier this year. So we were eager to show support to German Agro Action and express our interest in setting up a distribution in a couple areas that we have solid contacts. Monday we created all the documentation requested for the expression of interest, including proposed staffing needs and budget for distribution, logistics plan for the project, and information on AYDAP’s assets and experience. We submitted it all on Monday and will wait to here if they want our assistance come January-June when they aim to be distributing.

We won’t be working the entire 6 months on the project, only about 1 month; using multiple teams of volunteers our region for distribution would take only 1 week to distribute and then 1 week of follow-up to check for proper usage. The original approach through the Ministry of Health was to target outreach to pregnant women and children under 5, but it proved hard to track and monitor so the most recent plan (which all agencies distributing nets in Liberia are to use as a guideline) is 3 nets per household, based on statics that average homes in Liberia have 5 people in them. Our selected area will require just over 10,300 nets to be distributed and is in a county that no other NGOs have worked with or focused on so hopefully we’ll get picked up by German Agro Action to reach this community.

mic-check 1-2, 1-2

So here is the what’s what of my first official adventure in africa!!! Sorry for the huge dramatic pause, internet is not the friendliest here but i think i’m back in the game! i posted below 7 new blogs..i know it’s a lot so pace yourselves, haha. I kept typing them up since my arrival just didn’t have a connection to post them...so in rapid fire succession this is it: the good, the bad, the ugly! The most recent is just below this one, so if you want to read them chronologically you gotta scroll down or use the links on the right side of the page to find ‘Getting through Africa’ and read up! Busy week ahead of me so there should be more updates on AYDAP and Liberian life flowing your way soon...

Patience and steadfastness

Happy Friday! Today is my 1 week anniversary in Africa!!! And now that I’m becoming seasoned in Liberian life (haha) I feel wiser...well maybe not quite yet, but I do feel a little less ‘green’. As James keep saying: ‘you expected it all’! Apparently Jerry noted to him several times prior to my arrival that I was well-read in things Liberia and wouldn’t be alarmed how my new life would be. This is mostly true – I mean in so many ways it is what i expected. And in the other ways of life in Liberia, the less expected ones, I find myself realizing just how important patience and steadfastness can be! It’s a lot of psychological work for me personally. Getting used to all of the waiting when I’m coming from a fast-paced life in Chicago. And also the slowness that is felt during transitions – when you are suddenly an infant again: not having the knowledge to feed or bathe yourself, let alone get to town! But I’m learning, and learning as fast as I can. It is amazing what just one week can do :)

marathon training

So today (Nov. 14) was the hottest yet! And while i sweated my way through numerous crowded cab rides and errand-running downtown to get my resident permit and re-entry visa paperwork started I began to wonder if the banana, room-temp leftover rice and spoonful of peanut butter that I ate this morning would be enough to sustain me on such a day as this one! I know that sweating is a good sign and I’m trying to keep tabs on my own perspiration so I can figure out if I’m getting enough water. And I realized that being a Westerner who moved to Liberia is like training for a marathon!

I’ve come to decide that it’s all about redefining what my body needs to sustain itself and conditioning myself to function in ways that I haven’t had to before now. I mean if all these people are eating rice every day and still walking around carrying things on their head then I should be able to perform normal day-to-day functions on a diet of fruit and rice plus a bit of protein (minus the head-carrying part cause that would make my neighbors think I’m a crazy white lady – not just ‘white lady’ as the children shout from their homes). So I’m weaning myself off my Clif Bars and am trying to use them only in emergency situations – i.e. if I’m trapped in the bank again for hours and hours of processing. But I’m starting to think that I might be able to survive on 2 meals a day: breakfast of fruit, bit of PB and some starch/carb and then dinner of rice/potato/pasta plus some protein (most likely fish, chicken or sausage from the road stands). But we will have to wait and see!

p.s. I ‘flushed’ my toilet successfully for the first time this morning!!! I’ve learned that it’s all about the amount of water that you put in the bucket, the angle that you pour it from and the height of the bucket above the toilet. You see, if you miscalculate these things you end up splashing water from the toilet (eww!) onto the floor or worse onto your own feet...and I’m still not sure how to really CLEAN things here so I do not want that to happen!

Tantalizing Tuesday

Had a good meeting this morning with the team – James, Terrence, John; they gave me my proper welcome and orientation to AYDAP, including briefings on what they’ve accomplished thus far as well as security information regarding my life in Liberia. Basics were covered – keep you bag in front at all times because shady people will try to steal your stuff – to the more exciting details of living in Africa – the UN has a curfew in place for people like me, I should be home by 12 midnight each day and not leave out until atleast 6 am. Learned something fun today: I live in Paynesville! All this time I thought I lived in Monrovia!! Haha apparently I’m in a town just outside the capital city, sorry for the misinformation. Bought drinking water at a mini-mart of sorts this afternoon, got a large bag filled with 30 individually sealed squares containing 500ml of water each for 80 Liberian Dollars = $1.34 US. Yep, so even though I can’t drink the well-water, it’s comforting that the cost of drinkable mineral water is outrageous like in the USA!

And the high exchange rate still amuses me – when I went to that bank last Saturday I received 60.25 Liberian Dollars for every US$1. Things are cheaper here when calculated against that exchange rate, but you still have to carry a lot of money on you to get anything done. A cab into the city center is LD$30 if I walk the 20 minutes from my compound up to the Junction (also known as the Red Light – although the light doesn’t function these days). It’s about a 30 minute ride from there if traffic isn’t too bad and you don’t stop too often for people getting in and out – yep, it’s reassuring to know that somebody (God bless the Liberians) recognizes that many people can share the same cab. This is something that always bothered me in Chicago – 1 person gets their own cab even if you’re heading in the same direction. So here we do it the more economical way with 4 people in the back seat and 2 people up front, plus the driver. But this afternoon I got to take a cab unaccompanied for the first time and I was delighted when we stopped and 1 person got out of the back seat and 2 got in – one girl sat on the other girl’s lap – they laughed as they did it and i couldn’t help but laugh too. They said ‘first time you’ve seen this!? It’s Liberia!’ I was cracking up!!

Nelly made some tasty country rice for dinner and I ate a smoked fish we bought from a stand up the road with it. Creepy how the fish was looking at me but I made it happen – protein is protein right now and I’m not about to complain if it still has its eyes! Maybe I’ll go with the chicken tomorrow, it’s a wee bit easier to manage!

Manic Monday

It was hot all day. It took John and I almost 2 hours just to get into downtown. It was hot. Really hot. The simple task of depositing traveller’s cheques into the AYDAP account took over 6 hours and somewhere in the middle I considered moving away from – away from Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa. Away to anywhere but here. Thankfully I had a Clif Bar in my bag and it sustained me through the ordeal. And I know that new beginnings are rough and that soon I’ll be livin’ la viva Liberia! But I gotta keep it real – and today I did the mental math on how long I would ‘have’ to stay in order to consider this a real adventure and in order to not be referred to as a quitter for the rest of my life! Haha When we eventually made it back to my compound I had a list of 4 crucial questions/concerns that I presented to James, in list format mind you, and which he did his best to provide answers and reassurances for. He’s a good man that James is! Once some basic needs were tended to – i.e. getting the neighbor boy to bring water to my house (for ‘flushing’ the toilet, bathing with a bucket, doing dishes, etc), assessing where to go to buy more gasoline to get my generator functioning again so that I could enjoy 2-3 hours of noise-filled electricity each evening, and determining where/how to buy some food because I could not last on peanut butter, molded bread and oranges for much longer. So as you can imagine, having such things off my mind helped easy the ‘I gotta get out of here I’m being held against my will’ feelings of mid-day.

the beach - that way?

If you turn right when leaving the gated compound that my house is in you can follow the road past shacks and abandoned buildings until you reach the cement block makers. Veer left and continue through the tiny collection of ramshackle homes and past a few other block-making groups. Eventually you’ll wander past children who shout hello and wave excitedly seeking your acknowledgement. You will have seen a glimpse of the beach at this point but still the path is not a direct one. Asking locals they all point in the same direction, same as the way you’ve been heading, but their explanation that you can just follow the path isn’t proving as easy as it sounds. Choosing your route based on what looks like a main road, as opposed to a path that leads to someone’s back door, you eventually stumble upon a narrow, well-worn path. After the first couple above-ground cement burial boxes that you pass you think it was just a fluke, but within moments you are travelling down this windy, narrow trail through a graveyard that contains perhaps a hundred or more above-ground cement tombs. It is a well-worn path so the safe assumption is that you’re not venturing down a taboo road of sorts. The beach is not far off now and just past the graves you arrive to stares from young and old. It’s obvious that neither you nor your two local escorts are carrying food to sell, a hand-made canoe for fishing, or have the necessities for weaving fishing nets – you don’t belong here. This is the beach. Waters of the Atlantic crash into the shore with such velocity that it seems an amazing feat for the fishermen to navigate their canoes out to sea and miraculously back to shore. Children lie on the beach and laugh as the waves roll them all around while serious undercurrents display their force not far away. The journey back is not as adventuresome; you head straight to the main paved road, make a left and follow it to the familiar vendors where you make another left. Navigating the dirt road that leads to your home, within the gated compound with its barbed-wire along the top of the walls, is still a journey. The rainy season is just ending and the road has three mini-lakes of murky water that spread the entire width.

Mawolo Compound

My home, as I referred to it for the first time today (Nov. 13 – I was walking home and a boy asked where I was going), is one of six small houses in the Mawolo Compound, opposite the SKD Sports Complex (recently renovated soccer stadium). There are 2 bedrooms, living room with attached dining room, small kitchen and bathroom. I enjoy a pleasant breeze from the Atlantic when I sit on the front porch to watch the lizards chase each other. My neighbor has a pet monkey that I’m pretty sure is racist! Seems to get along fine with everyone else but looks at me disapprovingly and sometimes sticks its butt in the air directly at me. Our houses are all painted cream with red trim and don’t have power or running water. The bathing via bucket in the bathtub doesn’t bother me as much as the inability to flush the freaking toilet! Nelly (Jerry’s daughter) is staying with me so I don’t wander off or starve to death! Lol There is a man who guards the gate, we don’t know his name but he proved helpful when our toilet wouldn’t ‘flush’ the other day and when we need our generator fired up each evening. The wall around our compound is maybe 6 feet high with a spiralling spread of barbed-wire along the top that spans an additional 2 feet upwards – i think it’s there to keep the riff-raff out, not so much the wildlife since there aren’t big guys like elephants in these parts. The compound was built post-war (in the last year or so) and having a fence with a guard is a selling point since there are many many people in this area and it’s nice to have your privacy a bit.

I have a TV – this amuses me considering there’s no current except when the generator is on which would make it impossible to hear the TV if I even had cable or reception of any sort. I’m aspiring to have a radio someday soon that way I can stop being so creepy: always sitting on my front porch pretending to read a magazine while I listen hopefully for the sounds of a neighbor’s radio! Nelly doesn’t say a lot, yet! I think she’s warming up to me though – yesterday she said ‘It’s hot’! I might of pee’d my pants with joy except that I had sweated out what little water I had consumed that day! She is 21 and is almost done with school at this point – because of the wars all public education was practically suspended for like 14 years. There’s a man (Ali) who stays in the compound who owns a construction business in the city center and knows my AYDAP colleagues – he let them borrow his truck to pick me up from the airport. He comes by to check on me most evenings, and has a couple younger guys that work for him that stop by sometimes too. They’re very ready to assist and aren’t even creepy! Haha I would talk to the monkey if he didn’t hate me! At this point I’m still figuring out the basics which are pretty overwhelming – but I’m eager to talk and joke with anyone who wanders by my porch! There are also 2 baby girls aged 14-18 months. The still cry when they see me (even though the one is half white) but I’m hoping that soon they won’t be scared any more!

Oh yeah, my mosquito net looks great above my bed – it’s like a princess bed! Haha And my 60 SPF sunscreen is rocking my world - a little dab will do ya, I decided the first day when I discovered how sticky/smeary it is. And I think I’m tanning through it, or maybe that’s just dirt!

Getting THROUGH Africa

The tricky part was not getting to Africa, but getting to where I wanted to be once on this magnificent continent. Saying my route would be less than pretty was perhaps the understatement of my life! It was downright horrendous. The important thing is that I made it, alive, and with all of my belongings. For anyone who has a story of a ‘travel nightmare’ that they like to share when others gripe over travel inconveniences and misfortunes – this one’s for you!

It’s most simply put into numbers: 4 different airplanes, 5 joyous take-offs, 5 successful landings, 5 interactions with customs, 2 times explaining why I don’t have a visa for the African country I’m leaving (I just arrived on a plane 4-7 hours ago and haven’t left the airport, I swear), 3 hours in Ghana when I thought I wouldn’t ever leave (didn’t have enough cash to buy my final plane tickets – the bank’s computer system was down simultaneously), 1 hour 40 minutes sitting next to a Nigerian man who persisted that he wanted to ‘take care of me’ while I’m in Liberia, 2 bottles of Coke from different countries – British version is good, Morocco’s was lacking, 5.5 hours sitting with an empty seat between me and a Lebanese man who wanted to convince me to sit next to him using English and French, 2 times of being overcharged for a beverage because I didn’t have local currency and they could exploit me for my US dollar, 15 minutes of holding up the check-in line in Morocco because I couldn’t understand the woman telling me my bags weighed too much – eventually the language barrier wore her out and she just let me go, 20 USD paid for overweight baggage leaving Ghana (should have been 70 USD but my airline friend who supported me during my ‘no cash to buy my ticket’ crisis told the baggage guy I didn’t have any money so he gave me a break!), 10 minutes wasted riding a bus to the wrong terminal in London after I confirmed with the man that I was going to the right place + 15 minutes sweating profusely while trying to get back to the correct terminal after the woman told me I was not going to make it in time, 4+ men trying to hustle and carry my bags in Ghana, 3 AYDAP volunteers greeting me with hugs in Monrovia, 45 minute truck ride seeing the lush, green country of Liberia on the way to my new home.

it is not pretty...

but i do have new flights reserved for tomorrow! my 12 hour trip via 3 planes has been transformed into 26 hours via 4 planes, including a 7.5 hour stop-over in Ghana early Friday morning! So I will make it into Monrovia on Friday during the mid-afternoon heat. I'm ready for the time discomfort but the main crushing set back - the new tickets are costing me an additional $600 or so. The price you pay for passion and volunteerism!

Long travels await me so I'm off to bed! Next post won't be for a few days after I'm settled and have wandered into a free wireless connection but stay tuned :)

becoming Scottish

It's about that time friends...I gotta get outta here! I'm becoming Scottish!

Glasgow has been very good to me and I've met some wonderful people but I have to get to Africa! I'm super excited about my anticipated departure tomorrow and can hardly wait to feel the West African heat! This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel around Scotland a wee bit. Went north to visit Loch Lomond on Saturday - beautiful nature area and the lake provides crisp, clean drinking water to some surrounding areas. On Sunday we headed east to the far side of Scotland where it meets the North Sea. That evening we went to dinner a the home of AYDAP's volunteer accountant for a 'send off' of sorts for me as I'm preparing to leave this week.

And amusingly enough, I found out yesterday that my flight into Liberia doesn't operate any more, apparently the airline has cancelled their service from Casablanca, Morrocco to Monrovia (but not because of safety concerns Mom, it's just a fluke) So I'm waiting a wee bit anxiously today to hear more from my travel agent in the States about what the next step is for getting me from here to there! All things will come together, just a hilarious hiccup in my plans that I thought my faithful readers might enjoy! haha Good news is I noticed it yesterday when I was double-checking my booking so I know in advance and not when I'm stuck in Casablanca...though that might have made for a better story! So today I'm repacking my suitcase and gearing up for travelling south in the morning...one way or another I will make it to Africa in the next couple days - I've come this far, there's no turning back!

the ironing

so busy busy day today! and exciting news...it didn't rain! perhaps the first day since i arrived here that it was kinda clear-sky!

I spent all afternoon talking through 'all things Liberia' with Jerry. We covered details about my lodging and well-being as a new resident in a foreign land and got into some of the AYDAP nitty-gritty. We were able to share a lot of ideas about the Peace Festival that's in the works for February and I consider the brainstorm to have gone very successfully - we typed up notes along the way so that soon it will all be conveyed to the team in Liberia. Ironing out more details will be my first task post 'observation phase' when I arrive. I'm very eager to be in Monrovia a week from today and to be settled so that the work can begin!

gooooo AFRICA!!!

FUNdraising

a huge THANK YOU again to all of you who have been able to donate to my volunteer adventure fund! and i am still seeking more donations to guarantee that I will be able to eat, sleep and live in Liberia for the next ~9 months! so if you have a couple bucks to spare i would certainly appreciate it.

and to make donating even more FUN i've decided to take customized photographs to share...i know, i know, it sounds lame at first but it's FUN i promise! here's how it will work...when you donate (via the button on the right of this page) you'll complete a wee bit of info about yourself including email address, and then in the comments section you can request what pose, scenery, objects, etc you would like to see in a photo with/without me - which i will email to you individually as proof that your money is being used to do a little good in Africa! for example, maybe you want a picture of me eating a mango (local fruit in Liberia), a picture of kids playing a game, a picture of a local market, or me working extremely hard hand washing my dusty clothes. the requests can be silly or practical - the sky is the limit, so be creative!

dancing with a diplomatic

This past Saturday AYDAP held an auction event to fundraise for the Liberian Peace Festival we're developing for February 2008. It was a wonderful event that successfully raised £1800 and the Liberian Ambassador and his Deputy quite enjoyed the whole thing! The real fun came later that evening when Julie and I hosted them at her home for a wee bit before their flight. With music playing and toasts being made we found ourselves dancing around the living room! Here's a highlight!

5 cups of tea

I reached a new record today...i drank 5 cups of tea! oh the british influence is so strong in scotland it's a crack up! i'm backing off though, i think 2-3 per day is more appropriate - i guess i got a little carried away and every time someone offered i accepted! haha good thing it's just tea that they're pushing :)

there are a few things i've had to overcome to live successfully in scotland...
1) lightswitches are never where you think they'll be
2) riding as a passenger in the front on the left side of the car is tricky! not too mention the roads are windy and intersections make no sense to my 'western mind'
3) the trash can is called the 'bin'. children judge you when you forget this simple fact!

it's not all Scottish fun and games! there's a lot to wrap my mind around before arriving in Liberia. i've been absorbing much information and learning/scheming more and more about programming possibilities for AYDAP as we work toward the peace festival in february.

1 point Scotland, 1 point Ewell

1 point for Scotland: Sterling
Scotland uses the British pound as their currency...I assumed they had joined the European Union and were onboard with the Euro. silly me, I converted dollars into Euros at the airport!

1 point for Ewell: Taxi
I had to take a taxi alone yesterday and made the correct choice to ride in the back...I did pause and consider that since the Glaswegians are so friendly perhaps I should ride up front, but used my best judgement and hopped in the back appropriately!

Fun fact of the moment: You can use the word 'wee' in almost every sentence - i.e. have a wee snack, take a wee nap, enjoy a wee rest, would you like a wee bit of tea?

Abbe's Adventures in Scotland!

I'm here in Glasgow where I'll be for about 2 weeks meeting the AYDAP team that does fundraising from the UK and mixing and mingling with some wonderful people! My flights went well (all 3 of them) and I got here a lot jet-lagged at 10:40 local time Thursday...yep that was a rough 5:40am eastern standard time so my mind was hurting!

Today the Liberian Ambassador arrives, AYDAP made the arrangements so that the auction fundraising event they're hosting tomorrow will be even more exciting. The line-up also includes a gospel choir performance, local soap opera star appearance, and I think they mentioned a comdedian..sometimes with all the accents I get a bit confused! haha But everything is going really well, I'm learning so much about the state of affairs in Glasgow with regard to the large refugee population brought here from all parts of Africa. I also got to meet a great group of high school girls last night that are part of drama workshop program offered for refugees. The group of 7 girls performed at a youth theatre festival in july and we viewed the DVD of their performance last night. It was amazing! Through the workshop they wrote the play and it was about life as asylum seeker...powerful material that they handled with a balance of humor and grace.

Just got a call that I must catch a taxi to the city center for the reception with the Ambassador...more later!

this week

many changes are brewing...only a couple days until my departure and a seemingly endless list of things to do. my bed net to protect me from the mosquitoes arrived in the mail a couple days ago and my Liberian visa showed up today! I'm really looking forward to having everything wrapped up and getting on a plane Wednesday. after so much dreaming and planning I'm ready to just do this crazy thing!

bye bye couches!

I SOLD MY COUCHES!!!

yes, this is what i'm shouting as i dance around my living room! because when you're leaving all that you know and all the people you like to move to a developing country and not have an income, life's joy comes in the little victories! because selling my couches doesn't just mean that my roommate finally gets her way - she's wanted me to ditch the lovely plaid pair since she moved in 1.5 years ago - it also means that i'll be able to eat and live and function in Africa for a couple more weeks!

so even though it's been cloudy all day and the street maintenance people decided that they should repave my street today (when i'm supposed to be parked out front loading my belongings into my car) i'm going to continue to dance around my living room because THE COUCHES ARE SOLD!!!

the month is OCTOBER

I know many of you probably already realized that we're in the month of October, but I've found that certain things process more easily when I say them out loud..or type them as in this case! So this is it, my last day at work was Wednesday (peace out ChiCares! miss you already...just a bit) and I'm in the thick of packing my apartment, shipping stuff to ohio and determining just what exactly i can fit in my hiking pack. Got my final vaccination (yellow fever) last week and mailed my Liberian visa paperwork yesterday.

Everything is coming together pretty well! I'm still hustling to get everything done before the move to oHIo on the 17th but things are looking good :) as I left work 2 days ago and rode the beloved Jackson bus one last time, I couldn't help but consider: do I feel liberated, or just plain unemployed? either way, this is it. the month that I move to Africa. I'm all over this!

1 month out!

my flight is 1 month from today and my 'to do' list isn't getting any shorter! I get to visit the travel clinic today to get all my shots and learn about malaria medication options - basically it's choosing between which side effects I would prefer to deal with: sensitivity to sunlight, hair-loss after extended use and perpetual yeast infections vs. mild neuropsychiatric symptoms and nightmares! life continues to be full of choices :)

fundraising update - a big shout out of thanks to friends and family that have been able to chip in so far! I'm still plugging away though, at this point I've raised around $300... only $4,200 to go to meet my goal!! whoop whoop!

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a couple hours later...
just had my visit to the travel clinic! I'm now protected from typhoid and hepatitis A - the yellow fever has to wait another week because i just finished a round of antibiotics for a sinus infection (turns out mono doesn't like to be alone - definitely got sick while my immune system's already pretty busy) so next week I got back for my final immunization!! let's do this!

get pumped!

I booked my flights today!!!

I'm super excited and can't wait for the tickets to come in the mail...I'm sure there will be a little dance of joy that day! So it's officially official now - I fly out of Cleveland on Wed. October 24 headed for Glasgow, Scotland. I'll be there for 2 weeks learning about all things Liberia and AYDAP from the founder himself. It will be a unique chance to meet the team that works based in Glasgow promoting and fundraising for AYDAP. I'll also be there during a weekend fundraising event. Then I make my way (via 3 more planes and several trips thru customs) down to Liberia on November 8th. Can't wait to arrive in Monrovia at 12:40am to a warm greeting by James and Terrance - my soon-to-be Liberian best friends! haha

More updates...I'm still battling my way thru mono (yes, in case you didn't know, I some how got mono 2 months before moving to africa). It hasn't been a totally debilitating experience, but I'm still tired A LOT which the doc says will last 3-4 months. yee-haw! But I'm doing well and will hopefully (cross your fingers) be getting all of my travel vaccinations next week!! stay tuned...

the short of it all

Hello world!

Here's my deal - I'm making plans to move to Liberia in late fall (Oct./Nov. '07). I'll be volunteering full-time with a local NGO (non-governmental organization) and working tirelessly to assist them with their improvement efforts for this war-torn country. I'm creating this blog to spread awareness on the issues that Liberians are currently struggling with, keep family and friends updated throughout my journey and as an initial fundraising tool (check out the Make a Donation button).

Please read my stories, throw me some comments so I know you're out there, and check out the links to the organizations that I'm connected with.

the initial notion

For probably 7 years I've known that I want to go to Africa. For maybe 6 years I've talked about doing it. For 4 years I've imagined what the trip would look like, what I'd do while I was there, how long I would go for, and when I would accept the adventure that was calling to me. But beginning February '07 I starting moving on it. And it turns out, it's not really looking like anything I could have imagined!

So here I am now and this is my rough idea of how Africa and I will finally meet. I really want to do something with purpose and meaning. I want to create something sustainable and not of my desire but using my design input. There's no point in going to another place, land or country to make changes that reflect my assumption of need. Or worse, with the idea that you're going to fix it yourself. The only way to be successful when volunteering and reaching out across cultural boundaries is to work side by side with the community and develop based on the unique needs and interests that exist. With this in mind I decided to not pursue the more typical commercialized routes for international volunteerism. Ideally I want to work with locals for local causes, not impose an outsider perspective and inevitably create more unnecessary work and stress for the community.

I agree with this quote...
"If you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you've come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson

With this echoing in the back of my mind, I'm super excited about this adventure and can't wait to see what the world throws at me!

my volunteering 'details'

I am using the term 'details' very lightly at this time! Things are still coming together, these details are developing and shifting and being reinvented at this very moment...so I ask that you bear with the tentative nature of this 'job description'. I am simulataneously using this phrase very lightly because some people don't consider what I'll be doing to be a job - since there is no financial compensation involved! haha (this is where I remind you of the Make a Donation button on the homepage of my site!)

I'm going to work for Hands On Liberia/AYDAP (African Youth Development Action Project). The organization was recently established as an affiliate of the Hands On Network (HON) and many things are starting to come together to expand the impact that the organization has in Monrovia (Liberia's capital city). I will be involved with more of the administrative set up, applying the experience that I've gained working for Chicago Cares, Inc. (a top-notch affiliate of HON, if I do say so myself!). I'll be working directly with the national coordinator in Liberia to represent AYDAP as a knock-out team for promoting, marketing, fundraising and developing the organization of the upcoming Liberian Peace Festival (last week of February) and its activities. I will also be working to raise awareness of the organization and further networking efforts locally and internationally. So although there's not a pay check involved, it shouldn't be a leisurely trip! haha

Hands On Liberia/AYDAP has been working to provide options for the many Liberians that have returned to Monrovia or persevered through the 14 years of civil wars and now have a lack of education, training and job opportunities. With the idea of using the arts, film and sports to energize young people in a place where civil society was blown apart, AYDAP certainly has its work cut out.

To better paint the picture, here's info from their website (www.aydap.org)
Who is AYDAP?
African Youth Development Action Project is a registered Scottish Charity (SC034993)

We provide training in many avenues of interest and valuable support and guidance services for Young people in Scotland and Africa.

Aim
Our aim is to ease the many problems experienced by genuine refugees and asylum seekers, as well as local youth, in developing a multicultural community through cultural understanding and tolerance. Through building a better community, a better future can be explored.

Objectives:
To advance education on young African through provisions of information, guidance and services in relation to health, environment and culture.

To alleviate poverty by enabling people to access education and career opportunities through employment guidance, advice and information.

To advance education and knowledge on young people outside Africa by increasing their awareness of health, employment, environment and cultural issues affecting their community and African youth.