April Fool's!

Waking up on the morning of April 1, I thought it was going to just be another day of school, with no one thinking anything of April Fool’s Day.  I asked the librarian, however, if they understood the concept here in Liberia, and she told me that it is in fact recognized and understood here. 

If you have been following the news in the last month or so, the Ebola virus is hitting Guinea hard right now and there have now been six confirmed deaths in Liberia due to Ebola.  (They are all in Lofa County, which is a three day drive from Maryland County, for sure.)  My students are worried about contracting this virus, which is only gotten from direct contact with contaminated body fluids, and they are always trying to warn me about how I can protect myself. 

I walked into 10D, by far my favorite class.  The students were not plenty that day, but they were enough to make my joke worth it.  I walked into class and informed them that due to Ebola, Peace Corps was evacuating me back to America and that I was never going to return to Liberia.  My students were vexed!  They immediately started trying to explain to me how Ebola was not that bad and that I couldn’t be leaving because of it.  Instead, I even had one student offer to let me stay with her for the rest of my time here in Liberia!  I told them the truth after about ten minutes or so, and it was the funniest part of my day.

At fifth period, Sarah and I did the same thing to our 11A class, a section that we both teach.  They were so upset, too, and it was so funny to see their reactions to the idea that we were going to be leaving them, especially considering we are the most regular teachers they have most of the time.  After telling them the truth, they were not happy with us, but they did finally laugh a little at our idea of a joke for April Fool’s.  :) 

HIV Awareness & the Women of Pleebo High School

Sarah and I had done a survey at the beginning of the semester when our women’s club was just taking off as to what the girls were interested in learning about in workshop forms.  One of the big responses was women’s health and HIV/AIDS information.  We thus decided to host our first two workshops on HIV – both how it’s transferred and how we can prevent it.

These workshops were by far the most fulfilling things I have done with the club yet.  The first meeting was very straightforward – we explained the science behind how HIV works, the ways that HIV can be transferred, and addressed misconceptions and facts/myths surrounding HIV.  The second meeting dealt with preventing HIV infection and how we can educate our communities about HIV and safe sex. 

I am teaching the women about the immune system and the role HIV plays in attacking our body. 

Sarah explaining the Elephants & Lions Game.  This is an opportunity for the girls to act out HIV attacking the T4 cells of the immune system, all while giving them a better opportunity to understand how HIV is contracted.

The girls were extremely responsive to the sessions and I was so happy to have introduced this information and these resources to our club.  My favorite part of the meeting was the condom demonstration that we did on the second meeting.  We went to the market, bought a big plantain, and proceeded to demonstrate how to put on a condom properly and how to dispose of it when things are through.  We even had a few girls volunteer to try in front of the group!

Ready to start the condom demo!

Discussing ways to prevent HIV transmission before our demonstration

When that demonstration was through, we had an open conversation dealing with the questions or concerns that the students had.  At first, the tension was so thick you could have cut the air with a knife; once I asked them a question, however, they opened up and we had all kinds of questions.  I mentioned how sometimes it can be awkward or uncomfortable talking openly about sex and anatomy, but that this is the only way we can learn and fix the misconceptions in our community.  We had question after question, and they were all very good.  One student informed us that a man in our community told her that only women can have syphilis, therefore he did not need to use a condom.  Another student shared her thoughts that HIV can be cured in a man if he sleeps with a virgin girl – this is perpetuated by bush doctors and traditional medicine that is common here.

Needless to say, our students were excited to learn about something new, and especially to do so in an environment that they were comfortable in.  Our next workshop is going to be about malaria, seeing as April is World Malaria Month.  I find these to be good opportunities to share correct facts and information with our students who, in turn, can share it with their friends and family.  The misconceptions in our community are many, and I can only hope that through the open conversations and fun learning opportunities we provide for our students, we can clear up some of these and have a more educated and healthier community!

Lappa, lappa, and more lappa!

Sarah and I have an extreme addiction at site.  We buy waaaaaay too much lappa than is good for us.  On average, I would say that between the two of us, we buy three lappas every week – some of it is planned, while other experiences are rather spontaneous. 

Easter weekend we were living in Kakata at Doe Palace, and on Good Friday, we went lappa shopping in the market here, which has a much wider selection than that we can find in Pleebo.  Needless to say, I bought fifteen different lappa patterns, and Sarah bought nineteen. 

Jesus!  And all of the other lappas I bought this weekend.

Sarah found one that she has been searching for since before January, and I can’t wait to see the dress she gets made with it!  I bought a few cool ones, but my favorite by far is a dark blue one with a big picture of Jesus’ face on it – it will be the best thing I bring back to America, for sure!

Livestock

We live in an area of Pleebo that is “cool and calm,” as everyone seems to say.  While that is true, that things are cool and calm, they are also noisy at times due to all the livestock that tend to congregate around our house.

Regina was brought a goat a few months ago by a family whose son she sponsored for school last year, and she had it around the house for a while.  We asked Robertson if this goat had a name, and he thought that was the most absurd idea in the world.  He did let us name it, however, and we chose to name it Julia.  Julia was around for a few weeks, and then they carried her to the village.

We heard nothing more of her and then two months or so later, another goat showed up at the house.  This was a boy goat, and we never did end up naming it.  This poor goat, however, was stuck in the neighborhood for three months with nothing to do but eat all the cassava leaves and chase the community children.  The children came to realize that they could terrorize him and he would then chase them around while they screamed like banshees. 

Robertson finally took this male goat to the bush a few weeks ago and he could not be happier to be out of town and back upcountry.  When he returned from his trip, he came and told us all about the experience.  After tying the goat to the back of a motor bike, he arrived in the village and the goat ran away as fast as he could.  Robertson did say that he saw Julia, however, and that she is pregnant!  A new baby goat on the way – it’s always good to know that something is surviving in the bush.  :) 

Termites!

Now that we have Margot, our rat problem has gotten much better.  She has also taken care of almost all of the cockroaches taking up space around the house and the lizards that like to hang out in the bathroom.  If only she could attack the termites, we’d be set!

At the very start of our time in Pleebo, we took down quite a few termite hills, but I thought that once we were eight months in, we’d be done with it.  Yeah right.  Every week, or so it seems, we have been taking down termite mounds around the house.  Some are small and easy to pick up; others are much bigger and take a bit of time.

This was found on the corner of the door to our bathroom.  It showed up over the course of eight hours!

It’s always fun to wake up in the morning and go into the kitchen, only to find lizards feasting on the giant termite hill that has been built into the corner of the walls.  Granted, now that Margot is here, the lizards don’t snack on these termites anymore.  :)  They still build all over the house, though, and it’s one of the small things that I absolutely despise waking up to. 

Oil + Water

Sarah and I have been eating a lot of popcorn as of late for dinner.  The Ole Ma cooks plenty for lunch, and we just don’t feel too hungry at the end of the day.  The downfall of this plan is that it often takes longer for the coal pot to heat up than for the popcorn to pop… That being said, often times, Sarah will light the coal pot, go take a bath, then come back and read a book until the oil is hot enough.

This is what she did on a Monday night a few weeks ago; nevertheless, the coal pot that night was exceptionally quick and hot.  She was reading (Nights of Rodanthe, actually – we were going to watch the movie that night) and wasn’t paying much attention to the comments of our neighbors.  Soon, however, she began to notice that they were congregating near the house and frequently mentioning “white woman”. 

She looked up from her book and noticed the coal pot was smoking – she took the lid off the pot, which was containing the oil she was heating, and flames were jumping out at her.  She put the lid down, took down the pot, and set it on the porch.  Then, she went inside to get water to throw on this fire…

Now, it has been mentioned that oil fires and water do not mix well, but in a moment of clarity, she forgot this.  Granted, I think I would have forgotten as well – how often do we deal with grease fires back home?  She came back outside, threw the scoop of water on the fire, and the flames jumped up at least six feet (they were higher than the door).  Luckily, our neighbor, Robertson, had run over to see what was happening, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to the far side of the porch before covering the fire.

While all of this was happening, I was inside, having just finished my bucket bath.  I heard the water hit the fire, but I had no idea what was happening.  I came outside to find our entire neighborhood crowded onto and around our porch and Sarah uncomfortably laughing to herself.  While telling me the story, I started laughing as well – I just didn’t know how else to respond to this situation.

Robertson told me that my sister was lucky, and I responded to him in the only way I know how – “Thank God she is alright.  Thank God nothing happened.”  If something had happened, I think I would have been as shaken up about it as Sarah was.  The children scrubbed the pot clean for us and that night (and ever since), I have taken over the popcorn duties. 

This is only lesson number five thousand and seven in why our neighbors are the best neighbors of any of the Peace Corps sites.  They protect us from oil and water fires and they do not judge us after the fact.  I’m grateful for them every day of my life.

Side note – Sarah was okay after this incident.  Besides being shaken up abou t it, she suffered singed hair (I trimmed off the ends for her) and a sunburn-type burn on her right arm.  There was a small blister, as well, but it was not too bad.  Thank God for her life and for Robertson’s quick thinking. 

Packages

We had a visit from our Peace Corps staff in January for a training session and with them, they brought packages!!  As many of you know, packages are a very exciting part of our life.  While we could definitely live with the items available here at site, the things that packages bring are a nice change of pace for us.

I just wanted to send a shout out to LaDonna for the package and the letter!  I’m grateful for your friendship and support.  I also want to thank Sue for the letter – it was a nice surprise and I love the updates on life back home :)  To Mom, of course, thank you for the boxes.  And from the looks of it, Sarah will be heading to Monrovia at the end of April, so hopefully we will have some more fun things waiting for us there.  :)

If you ever send me anything, it wouldn’t hurt to send me an email and let me know that you did.  I can then watch for it and let you know when I receive it!  And as always, I love updates from home.  I know I’m not updating as often as some of you would like, but I’d love to hear from you anyway!  Our internet situation is a little more stable these days, so I can access email/Facebook more often.  If you send me a message, I promise to reply.  Please just be patient with me.

I miss you all!  Stay warm over there, and I’ll see you in a little over a year :)

Love Sis Nyemade