Our Neighbors: Part Two. Meet Annie & her Family

When we sit on our front porch, we look across our front yard and see another house that is always humming with activity.  Here, Annie lives with her rather large family.  (For a long time, we were unsure of the actual family dynamics here, but I think we’ve finally got them down.)  Annie and her husband, Jacob, have two children, June Boy and May; Annie’s husband’s brother and his wife, Beatrice, have four children, Jimmy, Evelyn, Mieta, and Gertrude; and an aunt named Nancy lives there, as well. 

Annie works in the market, selling bananas and cookies every afternoon.  When she’s not in the market, she is working incessantly around the house – chopping wood, scrubbing pots, cooking for the eleven people in her household, or washing clothes.  She takes care of everyone around her, and she is one of the best mothers I have ever met. 

Her daughter, May, has become one of our favorite neighborhood children.  She is only three years old, but she has the most sass of any little girl I’ve ever met.  Walking by our house, she is sure to yell out “hello!!” a few times, just to make sure we heard her.  Her next favorite phrase is “how’s your bodies!?” which we are greeted by almost every night, coming home from school.  My favorite experiences with May, however, have come when she is wearing her brother’s “Ladies Man” shirt – so sassy, so much attitude, and so in charge of the world around her. 

Evelyn, Mieta, and Gertrude are some of the most genuine Liberian girls I have met here.  They work in the market every weekend and every day after attending school.  Every morning, we see Evelyn taking a cart of goods to the market before she goes to school, as well, and she’s always saying hello to us.  If we ever have any questions about what is going on in our community, how much anything should cost in the market, or where we can find something we are in need of, Evelyn or her sisters are quick to clue us in.

May and June Boy
(Too bad she's not wearing his "Ladies' Man" shirt!)

Mieta, Gertrude, and Evelyn (holding a neighbor's baby)

This family is one of the hardest working families I have met since arriving in Liberia.  Annie and Beatrice are busy in the market almost every day, their husbands are busy carpenters, and their children are always studying or working along with their parents.  I am confident, however, that if Sarah or I should need anything, any member of that family would be happy to assist us in whatever way they could.  I can’t wait to see how our friendships with this family develop over the next two years…and I can’t wait to see how sassy May becomes when she turns five :) 

Our Neighbors: Part One. Meet Patrick & his Family

When Sarah and I moved to Pleebo, the chairlady of the PTA took us around our community and introduced us to all the people she thought it was important for us to know.  One of these people was our neighbor, Patrick.  Since that day three months ago, Patrick has become like a father to us; he and his family have become our adopted family, and I am so grateful to have them as our neighbors.

Patrick and his wife have three children – Patrick Jr. (15), Hattie (13), and Majay (7).  All of his children attend the Catholic school here in Pleebo, but he knows a lot about what is going on at our high school, as well.  Patrick works for an organization that is working to get teenage girls and boys off the streets and into school or into programs where they can learn a trade and become a successful member of society.  (He is someone we are looking to partner with once we start a girl’s club at our school – something Sarah and I are seriously considering.)  His wife has her own shop here in town, where she sells clothing and other small things.  She travels a lot to purchase new things, and often times she is out of Liberia shopping in Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, or Togo. 

Patrick helped us secure the current to our house during our first week here, and since then, he has served as the middle man for many small upgrades to the house.  (When our toilet was giving us plenty of grief, he found us a plumber within 24 hours of us telling him the problem.)  He also has a pump in his yard which he graciously lets us use to get water every day. 

This family has really adopted us into our community, and whenever we see them in town, they always stop to chat with us for a while before going on with their business.  Their children are respectful and always curious about what we’re doing.  Recently, Patrick Jr. has been coming by with small gifts from his mother, as well.  The other day it was a mat for our bathroom, which we had asked if she sold at her shop, and just tonight (September 14), he brought over some fried potatoes she had made for us.  Tomorrow, we are going to make some cookies and take them over for the family (we’re really neighbors, now!). 

I can’t imagine life in Zone Two without Patrick and his family.  I think we’re the luckiest volunteers in Liberia, if only for our awesome neighbors :) 

The White House of Pleebo

At the beginning of September, we were visited for the first time by some staff of Peace Corps.  ZayZay, our training manager, saw our house and named it “The White House of Pleebo.”  There you have it, family and friends; we are the white women who live in the white house.  And our house is super nice… I would argue, in fact, that we have the nicest house in all of the volunteer’s houses in Liberia.  (But my opinion may be a little biased.)

First of all, we have a huge yard.  Lots of space for a garden, which is awesome, too!  We have a big front porch and a big back porch.  We sit on the front porch and work on lesson planning, read books, or just talk, while the back porch is where we do all of our cooking.  While we could cook inside on the coal pot, it is much nicer to cook outside and not have to worry about making a mess or anything. 

Inside, we have a very nice bathroom, a good sized kitchen, our two bedrooms, a huge guest room/storage space, and a big living room.  When we moved in, the house was brand new; the walls were freshly painted, the floor was covered with floor mats or tile, and the PTA had purchased curtains for all of the windows.  Additionally, we were welcomed with a dining room table and four chairs, a small table and chair for the kitchen, two coal pots, a bag of coal, two cooking pots, a cook spoon, silverware, and a few bowls and plates for us to use.  We are very fortunate to have such a supportive PTA here at the school, and all of this support made our move to Pleebo very easy. 

Sarah and I purchased our mattresses the first day here, and a few weeks later, we received our bed frames from a local carpenter.  He built into them a locked space, which is useful for storing valuables or anything else we’d like to lock up.  We also ordered shelves for our rooms and small tables from a different carpenter; when we received them, we were pleasantly surprised to find they were much nicer than we had expected.  We put one shelf in the kitchen, one in my room, and one in Sarah’s room; with the small tables, we put one in each of our rooms and then one in the living room (and we also take it outside if we are doing work on the front porch). 

In our first week here, we found out that we have a neighbor who runs his generator nightly and who is willing to provide current to those nearby.  After discussing it, Sarah and I decided to get current to our house; it is a luxury, sure, but it’s not too expensive, and the security it provides to us is nice.  Every night from 7-11 pm (or thereabouts), we have current to our house.  We chose to only hook up one bulb in our bathroom and one outlet in our living room; this allows us to shower in a well-lit area (something I never realized I missed) and to charge all of our electronics in the safety of our own home. 

We have since been busy making small upgrades to our house, as time and money is permitting.  We now have a fully functioning bathroom (look for a blog post on this), we have laundry lines hung up in the guest room, Sarah has a beautiful mural painted on her wall, and I have hung up all of the pictures I brought with me for small decoration in my room.  Additionally, we have our mosquito nets hung, which ensures that the mosquitoes stay far away from us while we are sleeping.  (Trust me, that is an important thing.)

My room - with all of my stuff still packed 

Our kitchen

The bathroom - hooray for bucket baths!

Guest room/Laundry room

Living room
(Notice the water filter on the table)

Sarah's room - before her mural

Our house is very slowly becoming a home, and every night, I am counting my blessings to live in such a beautiful home, in such a beautiful community, with wonderful neighbors and a supportive site mate.  We have already lived here three months, and I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by.  I can only hope time will slow down a little so I can really enjoy all that Pleebo has to offer.

Welcome to Pleebo

Upon our arrival in Pleebo, we were greeted by the chairlady of the PTA, Sis Bessie, with a delicious lunch of potato greens and fish.  Once we moved our things into our house, we made our way to the City Hall, where we were the guests of honor at a welcome ceremony held in our honor. 

There, we were introduced to many people of importance in our community.  We met the town chief, the mayor, a legislative representative, and many other important people.  We were welcomed into our community in the traditional way, as well, with the kola nut, pepper, and cane juice.  Following this presentation, we were giving traditional Grebo names (the dialect spoken by the majority of people here).  Sarah’s new name is Hnede (pronounced neh-deh), meaning Hne’s mother, and my new name is Nyemade (pronounced nyeh-muh-deh), meaning Nyema’s mother.  Granted, neither she nor I are mothers, but that’s neither here nor there.

Following the ceremony, we were interviewed by the local radio station, which was an experience in itself.  We had nothing but good things to say about our community, and we told them how excited we were to start working at Pleebo High School.  (Little did we know that every person we would meet later that week would remember us from our interview on the radio.) 

Walking back to the house, we purchased a few things to make our first night at our new home more comfortable.  Our main purchase was a mattress for each of us; granted, the mattresses here are nothing to write home about, seeing as the only options are 6”, 8”, or 12” foam, but at least it’s off the floor!  Bessie carried us back home and we settled in for our first night as volunteers at our site.

The next day, Bessie came and took us on a 2.5 hour walkabout around Pleebo.  We found the police station, the cold store (where we can buy frozen chicken if we wish), visited both markets, and saw the Catholic church, where Bessie attends regularly.  She also introduced us to a couple shops near the market that sell non-perishable goods (like canned beans, soap, oil, rice, and bleach – all necessary items, let me tell you). 

Walking home from school

Skyline of Pleebo

Sarah and Jacob (left), a carpenter who lives near us

A beautiful sunset

The rubber tree forest behind our house

Pleebo is a nice city; in fact, it’s the largest city in Maryland County.  It is the economic hub, with the biggest market, and it serves as a transportation center of sorts.  From here, people can catch a car or motorbike to Harper, to Barclayville, to Kanweaken, to Zwedru, or even all the way to Monrovia.  We are fortunate to live in such a prosperous city, that’s for sure, and we haven’t even seen half of what Pleebo has to offer.  Things look to be pretty good for us these next two years!

So you want to take a UN flight…?

We were supposed to leave Monrovia on Tuesday morning on an UN helicopter to head to site, but this being Liberia, I should not have been surprised when that did not happen.  But first, let me tell you the rest of the story…

Sarah (my site-mate) and I, and Gayla, Amy, Sarah G, Katie, Melissa and Elyssa (all six of whom were headed to the southeast) all stayed in Monrovia at the Lutheran Guest House after we swore in on Monday, August 12.  Because we had a free afternoon in Monrovia, we took full advantage of it; by that, I simply mean we got some good food and visited the grocery store.  After stocking up on the essentials at the grocery store (chickpeas, soy sauce, syrup, parmesan cheese, cocoa powder, and wine (of course)), we headed back to the guest house and got ready for dinner.  For dinner, Jason and Vince met us at an awesome Indian restaurant, and we had a great evening of good food and conversation as an entire group. 

Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early and headed to the airport in Monrovia to catch the UN flight to Harper.  After sitting there for three hours, however, we found out that we got bumped from the flight due to excessive cargo on the chopper.  Excessive cargo?  Yeah, the UN bases needed this cargo – potatoes and Coca-Cola to be specific.  Such is life, I suppose.  Plus, we got to spend an additional night in Monrovia!

We headed back to the Peace Corps office until they figured out what would be going on with our flight schedule.  There, we met up with Devin and Rex and Amelia and Kristen (all headed to Lofa county up north) and decided to find lunch since we’d be in Monrovia another day.  We found a place to get burgers and fries, which was a nice change from the rice and chicken we’d been eating so often.  Following lunch, we lounged around Monrovia and just enjoyed each other’s company for the last time before we all left to our different corners of the country. 

The next morning, we packed up once again and headed to the airport in hopes of getting on Wednesday’s flight.  Luckily, we made this flight and were on our way!  We were not on a helicopter this time, though; instead, we were flying in a 30-seat plane run by a Canadian flight team :)  After a stop in Zwedru, we finally landed in Harper where we were greeted by our principal and head custodian.  From Harper, we made the 30 minute drive to Pleebo in a chartered taxi and were taken straight to our house.

Overall, the experience with the UN flight was an interesting one, but one I was grateful to have.  Had we not been able to take a UN flight, we would have been in the car driving out to Maryland County for two days.  Instead, we made it to Maryland County in a comfortable four hours and were able to start integrating into our community quickly.  Next time, I hope I get to take a helicopter though.  That would be fun :) 

The gang from the southeast and the north helping me take out my braids.
...pretty much the best group ever :) 

The Day it Officially Began

Monday, August 12^th, is the day I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer.  That morning, we woke up and got dressed in our “Obama lappa” (also known as the finest lappa suits we owned), and boarded the bus for Monrovia.  We were all bluffin’ to the best of our abilities and more than ready to be sworn in as volunteers.

Each volunteer was allowed to bring one family member from their host family, and I chose to bring my middle sister, Mona.  My host father had attended this ceremony twice before with my family’s previous volunteers, so I asked him to let Mona attend with me instead.  He approved of this idea, and I was so grateful Mona was able to attend this year.

Mona and I after swearing in

We were hosted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the presence of Her Excellency, the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.  Also in attendance were several Ministers of Liberia, our Country Director, and many other important Liberians and ex-pats.  After speeches from several government officials, our own country director, and a dance from a local traditional dance troupe, we all rose and were sworn in as volunteers.  (Did I mention we swore the same oath that the President of the United States takes!?) 

After our swearing-in, Ma Ellen made some remarks.  She spoke of the importance of Peace Corps in Liberia and how excited she was to finally see volunteers in all fifteen counties of Liberia.  Her excitement about our contribution to the educational system of Liberia was obvious, and I think that it really encouraged all of us to make the most of our next two years of service.

Following the ceremony, we were invited to a brief reception with our host families.  We also took a group picture with Ma Ellen, so that was pretty neat.  This was a bittersweet ceremony, however, due to the fact that our country director, Vince, was leaving soon after.  His time in Liberia is now finished, and he is living in Washington, D.C. with his family working for Peace Corps Headquarters.  The associate country Director, Jason, was also wrapping up his time in Liberia, and headed for other opportunities.  While we were all excited to be official volunteers, we were sad to see two people we had just met leaving us. 

Sarah and I as Volunteers!

Sarah, Vince, and I
We miss you!

The new group of Volunteers
Ma Ellen, the President of Liberia, is in the front in the green.

Overall, the day was more happy than sad.  We were now official Peace Corps Volunteers and we were headed off to our real jobs around Liberia.  I have waited for this moment for the last year, and it’s finally here.  Good things do come; they just sometimes take time. 

So you want braids?

For the past four weeks, I have been the anomaly in our group of trainees.  Why, you ask?  One Saturday in July, I, along with my sisters Mona and Ma-Dee, headed to the market to get my hair braided.  We were visiting the shop of Miss Margibi County for the day – for real, Miss Margibi County herself braided my hair!  She just finished her third year studying accounting at Cuttington University here in Liberia, and in the summers, she braids hair to help pay for classes.  Her name is Patience, and I have never met anyone who dresses quite like she does.  Her hair was perfect, her jewelry was “plenty,” and she was wearing the most obnoxious orange pants.  But she did a rocking job on my hair, so who am I to complain?

Patience, her mother Hannah, and my sisters Mona and Fatu all helped in the process; thank goodness for their willingness to give the white woman braids.  The process consisted of adding four packs of hair to the hair that I already have – this hair is super long, jet black, and completely synthetic.  The way it works is this:  they take a small amount of fake hair, fold it in half, hold the folded end at the root of my hair, and braid my hair into the extension.  (While my friends like to joke that I have a “weave,” in reality, they’re just braided extensions.) 

So here’s the deal.  If you want braids, follow these rules:

1.       Eat a big breakfast.  After sitting for nine and a half hours, I was famished.  While the girls braiding my hair were able to eat on a rotating schedule, having your head at all sorts of weird angles is not conducive to eating.

2.       Speaking of nine and a half hours, take a pillow along with you.  Sitting on a wooden bench gets old very quickly.  While the women encouraged me to take “stretch breaks,” I still was aching to stand for the last six hours.

3.       Take lots of Tylenol before you go – the hair is heavy, and you will have a headache for the next two days.

4.       Make sure you have a scarf to wrap up your hair at night.  This is very important.

5.       Washing your hair will become a thing of the past.  Well, you’ll only have to do it once a week.  It takes time in a bucket bath, but it’s worth it.

6.       Get used to the “hair pat” quickly.  It’s almost impossible to scratch your head here, and for some reason, once you get braids, your head gets much itchier.  Instead, pat your head where it is itching…phenomenally, it works!

Roosevelt and I  

My sisters and I. 

All joking aside, I have loved having these braids.  It’s been a great way to integrate into my family and community, and I get lots of comments when I’m on a walkabout with my sisters – “your hair is fine-o!” or “sistah, you’re bluffin’ with your braids today!”  Unfortunately, these braids will have a short life.  My own hair is too “slippery,” and it is starting to come out of the braids.  I will keep it in for our swearing in ceremony; after that, Sarah and I are planning to take them out before we get to Pleebo.  It will be a great roommate bonding experience, I guess :) 

Much love,

Caitlin