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!