Lessons from Tienni

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate a flushing toilet, running water, and electricity after the weekend trip I just had.  While the girls in Tienni provided us with an awesome site visit experience, the past few days also made me realize just how much we take for granted in the United States.  I had always (naively) thought I had things figured out after studying abroad in Ghana and visiting India, but this experience in Liberia will change me in ways that I never thought possible. 

But first – the rest of training last week.  Saturday, we went over more information about Peace Corps and their approach, etc., before heading over to Kem’s Guesthouse (right next to our compound – Doe Palace) for a fun night of trivia.  Categories included music, entertainment, sports, the LR-4 group of Peace Corps volunteers, and Liberia.  I am proud to announce that my group won the trivia contest, and for a prize, received really cool lapa bags!  I’m using mine for holding small items when I travel, and I’m super excited about it.  (Lapa is what the African fabric here is called – brightly colored and multi-patterned, it sticks out in a beautiful way.)

We all went to bed (after staying out until our extended curfew – 10:00 pm) and woke up ready to go on Sunday morning.  My group – consisting of Melissa (from Boston), Maureen (from California), and I – got in a Peace Corps vehicle and traveled two hours to Duala, before meeting a current PCV and heading to Tienni.  I’m not sure if you can google search Tienni, but it sits about 10 minutes from the Sierra Leonian border, and we had a paved road the entire way to the town!  That was pretty exciting, and a luxury.  Another plus for the two volunteers at that site is that they are only about 2.5 hours from Monrovia, allowing for them to visit the Peace Corps office more often and to shop the Waterside market (big market in Monrovia) more often.

We were staying in Tienni with Nora and Kaitlyn, two volunteers from the LR-2 group who are completing their service in the next two months, or so.  These PCVs were the most helpful, non-judgmental, and supportive volunteers I could have ever hoped to have stayed with.  I learned a ton from them this weekend, and their information and willingness to answer even my dumbest questions took away a lot of the fears I may or may not have had. 

Tienni is a small town for Liberian standards, with a K-10 school that has a student population of 700-900 students.  It is a mostly Muslim community, and Nora and Kaitlyn actually live right next door to the mosque.  (Waking up every morning to the call to prayer was a beautiful thing.)  Nora teaches science and Kaitlyn teaches English; together, they have revamped the school library and painted a world map as their secondary project. 

If I had to rave about anything not related to the way they handled their classrooms, it would be the way they were able to create what seemed like five-star meals on a coal pot.  What is a coal pot?  It is a metal device that will serve as my cook stove for the next two years – you pile charcoal in the pot, light it, and cook over the slow-burning embers.  It is a skill that I will continue to hone, I have no doubt.  For dinner the night we arrived, we ate rice and bean burritos with homemade tortillas!  Other meals included pancakes (delicious!), spaghetti (with okra in the sauce – how Liberian!), “fancy oatmeal,” and “Sassy Masala” (chickpeas in a curried sauce, served with rice).  After watching them cook a meal, I have no doubt in my ability to feed myself well for the next two years.

Overall, my weekend trip was awesome.  I learned what it is like to live with no electricity, and I learned the beauty of early-to-bed, early-to-rise.  I appreciated cold rain-water bucket showers, and I found the nugget of information that is BBC on the radio.  I also was able to add to my book collection, with a stack of books from the pile Nora and Kaitlyn had borrowed from the Peace Corps office (they have a large collection of read/share books – hooray!). 

We begin more training tomorrow, and on Saturday (or Sunday, I’m not sure…) are officially adopted by our homestay families.  Look for another blog post before then, and have a great week, friends! 

Much love,

Caitlin