An umbrella by any other name is still an umbrella

Moving in with our home stay families, Peace Corps provided us with quite a few items to make the transition easier.  Included in that was buckets, a water filter, towels, soap, a lantern, and an umbrella.  Arriving in Liberia in June, we were in the midst of rainy season and any thinking person would not be caught without an umbrella.  These pretty blue skies have the ability to turn dark and stormy in less than five minutes; trust me, that’s not a fun situation to find yourself in without an umbrella.

My umbrella bestowed to me by Peace Corps served me well in Kakata.  Until the plastic portion that held in the clip which insured the umbrella stayed closed broke.  And then the Velcro on the strap wore out and I had to be careful how I closed my umbrella…  If I wasn’t careful, it would pop open at the most inconvenient of times.  And then finally, the handle broke completely, resulting in a rather sad looking umbrella.  While it was still functional, I thought it would be best to leave it at Doe Palace upon moving to Maryland County, hoping it would find a home with someone there.  I mean, you can never have too many umbrellas, right?

After living at site for two weeks, I realized that I needed to buy another umbrella.  The rainy season was catching up with me, and I hate being caught without an umbrella in the pouring rain.  (Who doesn’t?)  I went to a shop and bought a basic black umbrella for a few dollars; a good investment for the next two years, or so I thought.  It wasn’t two days after I bought the umbrella that it was raining while I was walking home from the market, and I slipped in the mud.  Instead of catching myself with my hands, which were full of my purchases, I managed to (ever so gracefully) catch myself with my umbrella.  That, in turn, bent a few of the metal pieces, making my umbrella look a little funny while we were walking to school every day.  Sarah was always laughing at me, but I was just grateful to have an umbrella that worked again.

One day, walking home, I noticed how bent my umbrella was looking.  With no idea how that happened, I thought nothing more of it and put it away for the night.  The next day, walking to school it started to rain, and upon opening my umbrella, I found that the main post had completely snapped.  To this day, I have no idea how that happened, but needless to say, it made it impossible to use my umbrella to keep dry. 

Thankfully, we were passing by a shop of a woman who we talk to every day, and she sells umbrellas.  I asked her how much for an umbrella and purchased one on the spot.  She was even kind enough to chunk my old umbrella for me!  When it came time for me to grab one, she asked what color I wanted.  I laughed; I mean, why does the color of the umbrella matter?  She thought about it for a second and then grabbed the most beautiful (note the sarcasm) pink umbrella. 

“You’re a lady, so you get a lady umbrella,” she said.  So there you have it…  Four months later, and I have a lady umbrella.  It only took me three tries to get it right.