adaptability

My neighbor friend Florence complimented me the other day. She told me: ‘’If you go into the Interior, to the rural areas, it will not be easy for them to witch you’’. I was initially perplexed by this statement, but in essence she was telling me that I’m humble. She explained that sometimes (not only white) people go to places and act better than the locals and that if you do that in Liberia when in the Interior where villages are more traditional they will want to witch you (i.e. when they cook for you they will kill you by poisoning you with witchcraft). She’s been noting how I’m not afraid to try whatever food is being served, sit on the floor if the chairs are all taken, share a spoon to taste some food, pick up the babies even when they’re all dirty, etc. Basically, I’m proving myself as culturally adaptable and go with the flow! She said she really enjoys these things about me and that she thinks it is ‘very fine’ that I am so humble and non-demanding.

I truly believe that the only way to experience different cultures is by jumping in. I studied travel and tourism during university and I remember in one of my very first intro. courses the professor explained that the difference between being a tourist and a traveller lies in your decision to submerge yourself in your destination. By aiming to ‘blend in’ (this can be tricky when race differences are obvious but still accomplishable because it’s all about your attitude and ability to assimilate to the cultural norms) you are taking a risk that things may not be within your comfort zone nor what you’re used to in your daily life. But assimilating to the culture is the only way to really ‘get it’! I love being a traveller because of the immense opportunities to learn and grow and take on adventures. And it’s rewarding to know that my intentional efforts to ‘be Liberian’ are being noticed and appreciated.

In other ‘witch’ news: Nelly has ruled out the most recent possibility of a room for her to move into because she heard from her friend/friend’s mom that there’s witchcraft in the house. There’s nothing more I can even say about that!

my 5 Liberian food groups

So I had to revamp my diet after my trip to JFK because I was tired of being sick all the time! Unfortunately that meant that for the most part I’ve had to cut out eating African soups and meat and fish from street vendors. With the new consumption plan I’ve been feeling great! My intestinal distress has been minimized and I think my general health is better. Below you’ll find the intimate details of what my diet consists of...there’s not all of this variety in one week and for the most part I eat the same things all the time!

Things that are white: 4-6 servings per day
rice, popcorn, roasted cassava, eggs, raw oats, bread, pasta, powdered milk, potatoes, pancakes

Fruit: 2-3 servings per day
bananas, plantains, oranges, grapefruit, raisins, pineapple

Peanut: 1-2 servings per day
peanut butter, peanut candy, peanuts (salted or non)

Things that come from a can: expensive so not often!
tomato paste (made into sp. sauce), tuna, baked beans, chick peas (made into hummus)

Misc. processed food treats: sparingly – no real nutritional value
off-brand cereal, cookies and chocolate treats made in Turkey

There have inevitably been a few random ‘American splurges’ such as Poptarts and Pringles but these goodies tend to be over-priced and usually have some odd ‘I’ve been shipped long distances’ taste to them. I’ve also discovered this tasty Lebanese baked good that has a date-filling (I think! Haha) that they sell at the fancy Americana super market. Since ovens are scarce, baked goods are hard to come by and I get really excited when I stumble on something that’s not deep-fried!

and one last time!

So he came this morning, but of course the time when I get up at 8am on a Saturday to deal with my unfortunately crazy plumber he doesn’t show up until 9am! He put in the new drain, and I’ll be damned - it looks exactly the same size as the old one that he claimed was too small and causing the small dripping leak! Who knows at this point! He finished ‘fixing’ things and for whatever reason my security guard didn’t come with him so you know what that means: I had to pay the plumber AGAIN! He still tried to insist that I agreed to pay him 100 or 150 but I handed him 75 Liberty and told him to never come to my home again asking for more money and that I will send for him if my kitchen sink or toilet stop working and he will come fix them for free.

He didn’t have his hard hat today...maybe he forgot it at the bar!

RETURN of the Plumber

Thursday morning he came back, yes he was wearing the hard hat again (but the chin-strap was not secured this time!). He asked how the commode was and I expressed some concerns which he quickly brushed off with ‘everything is fine. It’s very good.’. Then he starts talking about his wife, having a baby or something yesterday and needing blood for $5US and how he was like ‘I’ll go ask my sister’ (this is me). So he continues about how much money he needs and how the money I paid him yesterday was good but he needs a bit more and could I please help him. I’m explaining to him politely that I can’t do that and trying to usher him out of my house. He quickly asks about the kitchen sink and tells me to put some water in to show him if it drains correctly. Out of habit I follow his instructions and dump some water in and he’s dismayed by how it drains so slowly. So before I know what’s happening he’s climbed under my sink and is taking pieces apart and removing pipes. Post-cleaning and a very long re-installation process (did I mention yet that he smells distinctly like he’s enjoyed too much Club Beer for it being 9am on a Thursday!?) he continues demanding that I pay him. I say, the pipes are dripping, there’s a leak. He ‘fixes’ the leaks, says ‘it’s fine, I do good job, very technical work’. I finally hand him $20Liberty (yes, this is small and basically insulting. But don’t come into my home and start ‘fixing’ things without asking!). Needless to say the pipes were leaking that evening so I had to ask my security guard to send the plumber back Friday morning to fix what he broke!

Today he made a total mess of my kitchen. I had to pay $75L right away so he could go buy cement to ‘fix’ the leak. He also says I have to pay him like $150L for his work. I said no way! He argues loudly, I explain myself louder: you can’t come to my house, breaks things and then demand that I pay you to fix what was fine before you touched it! I tell him I will not give him 150 or even 100. I will give him ‘small small’. Then he comes back with the cement, creates the mess and can’t seem to fix it (mind you I’ve returned to my bed, I figured it was the safest place to be!). So next thing I know he tells me that the drain in my sink is spoiled and that’s why the leak is happening (earlier the leak was because he’d removed all the gunk clogging my drain so that now the water was free and leaking?!). So he needs $125 to buy a new drain. I send him with the money. He returned an hour or more later without the new drain and explained they didn’t sell it here. That he needed $20L for transport to get the part. He says he’ll come back tomorrow morning to fix it. I tell him he will come back today and finish fixing it because I want to use my sink! He says he will be back, but he has to go take bath before he buys the part because he can’t take car all dirty with cement.

It’s 9:30pm, he hasn’t come back. My dishes are unwashed. There’s cement everywhere because I refuse to clean it up twice. My security guard says that the plumber did get the part but it was late so he’s coming in the morning for finish the job. I explained the whole situation and he said I don’t have to pay the plumber again tomorrow and that he will come in the morning with the plumber and make sure it’s all taken care of for no extra cost. This delights me (my colleagues had rationalized that I should just pay him $75L since it’s half what he’s asking) because the $20US for the toilet I had anticipated and was budgeting for, but this extra $240L I’ve paid to fix my perfectly fine (although slow draining) kitchen sink is killing me! Not to mention, I’m tired of the semi-creepy, very argumentative drunkard of a plumber coming to my house during the early hours of the morning! Today I was having a really weird dream and he interrupted it (now I will never find out what the tattoo on that guy’s leg meant)!

hindsight bias

I would have eaten a couple bananas yesterday instead of an entire can of garbanzo beans if I’d know that the plumber would come today and move my toilet to the backyard for a couple hours! Also, if I was clairvoyant I would have been able to anticipate that when prior to removing the commode he said ‘I want to take this outside’ that was the equivalent of saying ‘I will be walking swiftly through your entire house carrying your toilet while leaving a splattered trail of poop-water behind me’. Don’t worry, he ‘cleaned it up’ before he left! Not so much, more like smeared it around. I had to wait on the front porch because I couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

Once everything was back in its rightful place and I’d paid the man an outrageous sum of $20US (remember, I eat on less than $40 per week) which mind you I talked him down to because he started by demanding $35, that’s when the real joy began: me armed with a dirty towel and a bucket of dirty bleach water. I feel better cause the floor doesn’t look gross anymore and I used a bunch of bleach but still, I don’t think I’ll be picking up and eating things I drop on the floor anymore!

So my commode is no longer spoiled and the magical plumber man (who showed up wearing a hard hat which I interpreted as a sign of the severity of my toilet situation) says I can even put tissue down it! This, I’m leery about. I think I might just give a week or so before I get too crazy and start dropping tissue in. I have trust issues. But I am trying to be optimistic about it because this was a big decision to splurge on toilet repairs and I’ve been putting it off for over a month so now that I’ve invested the money I’m hopeful that I will reap some fabulous benefits! Such as not spending a cumulative 15 hours (my best estimate) a week watching and waiting for my toilet bowl to empty so that I can dump another bucket of water in! So here’s to tomorrow: may I not waste my time staring at poop!