Photo Update

I have a lot to say about my current administrative hold due to the Ebola-related evacuation.  It will take some time for me to aptly put my thoughts into words, so until then, enjoy some photos I took on my last days in country!

Photo Update!

This is the checkers board we made for the room where we hold study hours.  Some days are slow, and Sarah chooses those days to annihilate me..

Scenery on the drive from Pleebo to Monrovia

The road we drive on for 18 hours to get to Monrovia -- this is "good" in the dry season.

A typical village on the way to town. 

Sarah cleaning the fish for our potato greens (with Loveina's guidance).

Explaining the pop the balloon game to our women's club

The winners of the game - Majula, Saybah, and Cecelia.  Notice their "color clothes" - that day, students paid the equivalent of $0.25 to wear whatever they wanted to school.

Sarah and Sinamie, bluffing in their lappa!

:  Explaining the "sharks and fish" game -- notice the eighties prom lappa suit!

We take part in the games too :)  

The "untying the knot" team-building exercise.

Musical chairs!

Dancing with the girls - that's how we play musical chairs :)   

This is Margot -- she puts up with a lot.

On the way to training in Kakata -- 18 hours in the bush taxi gives us all a nice "spray-on" tan.

Snails for sale in the market!  They're sweet-o!)

A Weekend in Monrovia

This weekend, we were able to travel to Monrovia and experience an Embassy home stay.  My goodness, I have never been so grateful for the opportunities that come with a small Peace Corps post as I have been this weekend.  Because our country is so small (we only have one project in Liberia – education – and we have 90-100 volunteers in country), we are allowed a few extra “perks,” so to speak.

One of these is the Embassy home stay program.  Embassy employees can sign up to host Peace Corps Volunteers and we as volunteers can sign up for two home stays during our time in country.  This allows us two weekends in Monrovia, staying with an Embassy family and enjoying the luxuries of a city. 

Our family is travelling back to Iowa this month for their son’s high school graduation, so unfortunately we were not able to really form a personal connection.  We were, however, able to enjoy life in a very nice apartment, complete with wi-fi, hot running water, a real stove, and delivery pizza.  This weekend has been a great recharge weekend, and I can’t wait to plan my next visit.  (We were also doubly lucky in that we were able to catch a UN flight from Harper to Monrovia, turning four days of travel into three hours on the plane/chopper.  Thanks, UNMIL!) 

Our main reason for coming to Monrovia this weekend was to attend the Embassy Arts & Crafts Fair, an event they host twice a year (in December and May/June).  There is a Peace Corps Volunteer who started a secondary project, which then turned NGO, called Bosh Bosh and she was selling there.  There were a few things I wanted to purchase from her, and I was also curious to see what other goodies I could find.  I was blown away.  This craft fair was like any other outdoor event I could have attended in the States, and it was a drain on my wallet for sure! :)

Everything I could have wanted I found, including lappa, bags, jewelry, carvings, paintings, clothes, and shoes.  I managed to get some gifts and some goodies for myself, and I’m so excited to bring everything home and show people.  Until then, I will be content with enjoying a few of my buys back in Pleebo and basking in the feeling of rejuvenation that has come from this home stay experience :) 

Sarah and I with Bosh Bosh stars.
These stars are made from recycled materials by the girls and are absolutely beautiful.
60% of the price goes towards a community service project (currently raising funds for trash cans for the health center) and 40% of the price goes back to the NGO.
Check out their website here! :  http://boshbosh.org/

The Saga of Mami

We live in a great neighborhood, and we are very fortunate to love all of our neighbors.  There is one woman, however, who was living at Regina’s house who was a little less than friendly to us.  We never really understood what had happened to make her dislike us so, but nevertheless, we were not on good terms.

In March, I was sitting on our porch reading and noticed Mami walk by the house a few times, carrying full loads on her head.  When Regina returned from work that day, I asked her what happened to Mami.  She laughed and shrugged, saying, “I don’t know why, but she left.”  Apparently, Mami accused Regina’s daughter Madea of stealing six of the hard-boiled eggs she was selling.  Madea claimed that she only went into the room to get her school uniform.  (We know Madea would not have stolen anything, so Mami’s claim was invalid.) 

Regina did not take Mami’s side, and she was vexed about that.  Rather than work out the situation, Mami decided to move out and go live with her brother on the other side of town.  Things were calm after that incident, and we figured we would never see her again.  A few weeks later, she showed up with a big bucket and started picking potato greens from behind our house.  Regina had planted those and we didn’t think Mami had asked for permission before taking the greens.  Sure enough, she had just started picking them without asking Regina about it, and she was vexed.  She came over and asked Mami why she was stealing her food; Mami had no answer, and instead, just kept picking the greens.  Regina told her the only reason she was letting her take them was so that her son had food to eat. 

The funniest thing about this whole exchange was that Regina is the most kind-hearted woman I know.  She would not want Mami or her son to go hungry, and if Mami had asked to pick some greens, Regina would have said yes right away.  Instead, Mami thought she had to sneak around and steal them and Regina was upset she tried to sneak the way she did.

A few weeks later, I was woken up around 5:15 to the sounds of someone in Regina’s house wailing.  I went outside and kept hearing the noises coming from the house; I had no idea what was happening, but everyone was going about their business acting as if nothing unusual was going on.  Later that morning, two men came and carried a woman into a room built off of their outdoor kitchen.  We asked Regina what was going on, and she said that it was Mami and that she had gone crazy. 

Apparently Regina had gotten a call the night before that Mami had run away from her brother’s house and left her son with him.  Regina went and got Mami’s son and brought him home.  That morning, Regina went out looking for Mami and found her wandering on the streets.  She had gone “mad,” and was not acting in her usual way.  For the next week or so, she lived with Regina, and became something fun for the kids to mess with.  She and I had a rather interesting exchange, where she tried to beg me for some Irish potatoes I was cooking after claiming that Regina never fed her.  Her laugh was eerie and I never did know how to react around her.

A few days later, we noticed a motor bike pulled up outside Regina’s house and the driver was loading all of Mami’s stuff onto it.  I asked Robertson what was happening and he said that they were carrying Mami into the bush to stay with her parents and get treatment for her sickness.  While we all thought this was an important idea, she apparently felt differently about it.  This afternoon culminated into a show for the entire neighborhood to watch.  Robertson and Peter, a boy living in that house, chased her down, put her on the ground, and proceeded to tie her up. They tied her ankles and wrists, wrapped a lappa around her waist, and carried her to a wheelbarrow, which they tied her to as well.  Then Robertson pushed her to parking with Regina following so that they could visit the bush. 

Needless to say, Mami did not want to go and ended up returning to her brother’s house.  A few days later, however, she did travel to the interior and has been there ever since, receiving treatment for her sickness.  We have no idea what happened to set her off, but I hope that when she returns, she will be a little friendlier and a little more willing to take care of her son.  Until then, we are grateful for our neighbors and their caring hearts when it comes to strangers.

Brushing the Yard

We live in a very nice house that, consequently, has a rather large yard.  We are not responsible for brushing the yard, as our neighbors have told us repeatedly, but to this day, we are still not sure who is supposed to be in charge of those duties.  Cutting the grass here means taking a large machete and walking back and forth across the grass, cutting it as short as you can by hand.  It is labor and time-intensive, and we are always so grateful for those who take their turn helping us out.

One day, Sarah was approached by the President of our 11A class, saying that the class would be at our house the next morning around 7:00 am to brush the yard for us.  She noted it and that night informed me of what was happening; neither one of us expected anything to happen, however.  To our great surprise, the next morning around 8:15/8:30 am (in true Liberian time), over half of our students from 11A showed up to brush our yard!

They did a wonderful job, and we are so grateful for their hard work.  The day they came to work was a holiday, and therefore, there were no lessons being held that day.  Rather than take the day to bluff around, work in the market, or study, they chose to spend two hours of their time making our house look presentable.  While Sarah and I appreciated this gesture plenty, we think our neighbors appreciated it even more.  :) 

Package Update

Just a quick update – I have received in the past few months packages and letters from Mom, Dad, Sally, LaDonna, Sue, Jessica, and Aunt Gail.  Thank you all so much for your love and support – it is so great to hear from all of you and to have some great new snacks to try :)  Thank you!

Beans, beans, beans.

Sarah and I have started eating lunch daily on our campus.  It is convenient for us to have a more relaxing morning and we get to eat delicious Liberian food, so I would say it’s a double bonus :)  The Ole Ma who is cooking for us lives near our house; every time we are walking to the road, we pass by and always receive a chorus of hellos from everyone living there. 

The Ma knows that our favorite meal is her country beans – they are so simple, but by far our favorite option there.  She puts fish in every meal she serves…sometimes it is bony, or dried fish, and other times it is fresh fish.  Both are tasty, and I never worry about which it will be.

She cooks other soups, as well, and one of the most interesting ones to me is cassava leaf.  During our training and while I was living at home stay, cassava leaf soup was my least favorite.  Something about the flavor and the scent of the soup made it “not too sweet” to me…  Now, however, I don’t mind it so much and it is another one of my favorite soups by her.  To be honest, though, I would say that any soup of hers is my favorite these days.

Cassava leaf...yum!

This meal was sent from heaven to the Ole Ma.  Country beans are the best.)

She is a sight for sore eyes when we arrive to campus, and I can’t believe it took us this long to figure out she cooks on campus.  She knows us better than many in Pleebo, and I am grateful for her sustenance during those long days at school.