Prince has left the building.

Prince – how I’ll miss your crazy antics, how you would leap through my front door and dance about, your obsession with American hip hop and your idea that you could come to America and be a rapper and have me as your producer, the way you would borrow my stuff and then never bring it back, the times we play argued and shouted like crazy people because you wouldn’t bring back my dishes, and the way your face seemed peculiarly small for the rest of you! Don’t worry folks – my neighbor Prince didn’t die, he just moved to Morocco! But it’s still kind of a secret so don’t say anything! Haha Prince left a few days ago under the guise of travelling to neighboring Sierra Leone to get more clothing to sell here, but unbeknownst to his family he’s actually heading by car to North Africa where he has a friend living that invited him to come live and work for a couple years. He explained to me that his big brother (who he lived with across from me) would be vexed if he knew what he was really doing, so it’s best if he just goes and then calls in a couple weeks and explains his plan. Prince’s girlfriend just had a baby within the last month and because doing anything necessary for money is the cultural norm in Liberia he’s off to another country to try and earn some good money for a few years. Also, as part of another culturally acceptable lifestyle, Prince didn’t just have the one baby-mama girlfriend. In fact, I believe he has 2-3 others locally, who knows what will happen now that he’s moved away.

This leads me to sharing the fact that many men and women continue to have ‘simultaneous relationships’ even while married. The cultural trend is that it’s okay as long as you keep it a secret from your spouse or ‘main flame’ – so you can’t cheat openly, but regardless of if s/he suspects it’s still alright. Obviously not everyone in society chooses this path for their love life, but I’m surprised by how generally acceptable it is given the intense brand of Christianity here. Cultures can be interesting like that!