What Brought Me Here

It occurred to me that not everyone knows what I’m doing in Monrovia. I’m working as a Program Officer for OICI International in our office in Monrovia, Liberia. I’ll be here for a year. We recently started the HANDS Food Security program with the help of a $35 million Title II grant from USAID. (As part of my responsibility is assisting in Branding and Marking I feel compelled to follow that with “From the American People”. Lol. Everything we have and o must have the USAID logo on it. The logo says "USAID" in big letters and "From the American People" underneath. (Title II is the classification of grants that includes emergency and private assistance for emergency and non-emergency food needs and food security goals.) For more information, see http://www.oici.org/

We will be carrying out direct distribution of food, food for work programs, training in agricultre, construction of roads and markets, provision of seeds and other materials so people can grow food for their own comsumption and to sell and instruction in nutrition and health. We also will have a school feeding program. We're working in two counties in the Southeast of Liberia, Grand Gedeh and River Gee.  I was going to post a picture and map, but the internet is SO SLOW and I don't have the patience to wait for pictures to load. Sorry, friends!

First Work Week

My first day of work went well. I had orientation with my boss in the morning. I'm feeling good about him. He seems to know what he's doing and articulates clearly what he would like to happen. Towards the end of our meeting I said, “I have a question. I was wondering if there were any other hotels where I might stay…” and then explained how my night had gone. He was great about it and told a co-worker of mine we had to find me another place to stay. We went to 6 hotels and they were all full. I also called the hotel I had dinner in the night before, but they were full too. My co-worker said I’d just have to switch rooms and we should start looking for apartments. (I’m staying in a hotel until I find an apartment.)

We started the apartment search and then I got a call. I didn’t recognize the number and my co-worker had used my cell phone, so I asked him if it was for him. He said no, so I answered it. A man said “We have a room for you.” I was like, “I’m sorry, who is this?” He said it is the __ Hotel (the place where I’d had dinner). I was very surprised because I hadn’t left my number with them, but I was like “Praise Jesus!” I told him I’d be there later that afternoon to take it and that evening I moved in. Great! We kept looking for apartments with no success, went back to the office and then went to the hotel.

The new hotel is great. It has air conditioning, tv, internet, free laundry service, free breakfast and no bugs! I was able to Skype people that night! Awesome J

The rest of the work week was split between me getting caught up to speed and looking for apartments. There have been a few frustrations. I need to create an orientation power point presentation for our new staff, but I didn't have power point until Friday afternoon. I’m supposed to be facilitating communication with OICI Headquarters and our HANDS program partners, but the internet wasn't working for three days and I haven’t met all the partners nor do I have all of their contact information… Things will work out though. The presentation is almost ready and I don't give it until Tuesday.  I'm supposed to meet the rest of the HANDS partners next week, so that should be good. Things are coming together.

Also on the plus side, I am getting a better grasp of Monrovia from all of the apartment searching!

Overall, I’m feeling optimistic about this experience. J

Welcome to Monrovia!

Well, I’ve been in Liberia for a week! At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to blog during my time in Liberia, but after the first three days, I knew I had to do it J It’s been an interesting experience already…

I left Philadelphia on Saturday, January 22 at 3:15 p.m. and arrived in Monrovia on Sunday at 3:15 p.m. The flights were all good. I flew from Philadelphia to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Accra, Ghana and from Accra to Monrovia.  My flight from Atlanta to Accra was delayed because the flights attendants had to throw a man and his family off of the plane. I’m not sure what the issue was but it had been going on for a few minutes when one of the flight attendants loudly announced, “Sir, if you do not calm down and take your seat, you will be charged $1000 and thrown off of the plane.” The man sat down, but then threw his food he brought from the airport into the floor and his chicken and rice meal scattered everywhere. A miniute later, he, his wife and his two children were escorted off the plane.

The passengers in the area shared wide-eyed looks and questioning glances with each other and then I decided to take his seat because it was on the aisle and there was an empty seat next to it.  I’m really sorry for that man’s family and the THOUSANDS of dollars they lost (because you don’t get reimbursed in situations like that) but I was very thankful for a little space to stretch my legs.

You might think that’d be enough drama for one flight, but NO.

About three quarters into the flight, an older man got up from his seat, headed towards the bathroom and passed out in the aisle!!! He was out for a few minutes, a doctor on the flight attended to him and then he was helped up and went back to his seat. Other than those two incidents, the flights were pretty uneventful.

I wish I had taken pictures as we flew into Monrovia because the airport was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s a small building, no air conditioning, in what seems like the middle of nowhere. It’s off of a dirt road, in the middle of trees, grass and dirt. There were two lines with two agents each in customs. It took about an hour to get through the line. After that I went to claim my suitcases. Now, sad times for me, but altogether I had 5 bags that weighed more than I do, and the heaviest ones were coming on the conveyor belt.  The obvious thing to do was get a cart, but the ten or so carts that weren’t broken were already in use. The airport staff told me to wait for a cart but there were  a lot of people and the bags were coming off and I was really ready to leave the airport. So, I wrestled my bags off the belt, put my smaller bags on top of my larger bags and dragged them towards the next step in customs. An airport agent tried to help me, but my bags were too heavy so she dropped them and left… Great. When I got to the inspection line, a woman looked at one bag, saw the rest of my bags and told me to go. It took a while for me to get my 5 bags into position and she was like “Hurry Up. Hurry Up. Go! Go!” I was like, “I’m working on it…” hahaha. Good times. Welcome to Monrovia.

I was very happy to walk out of the airport and see a driver holding a paper with my name on it and two of my co-workers who came to meet me. They helped me with my bags (thank God!) and we got in the car and rode the 50-ish minutes to the city. As we left the airport there was a sign that read “please do not urinate here.” Awesome.

Again, I wish I had pictures, but on our drive I saw houses made of mud and sticks with families living in them, people walking on the side of the road, washing clothes, sleeping, etc. As we got closer we passed the football (soccer) stadium where a game was going on. All traffic was made to stop as the president and her motorcade went by. We arrived at the hotel and checked into the room. $130 a night! You’ll see in a few paragraphs why this was crazy. This was also my first introduction to how expensive Monrovia is! The room was a little questionable, but I wasn’t sure what to expect and I was ready for anything.  After we dropped off my luggage, my co-workers took me to eat. We ate a nice hotel, where my co-workers had wanted to put me but didn’t because it was full. That was a little depressing… After we ate they dropped me off at the hotel to get some sleep.

I was getting settled into my room when I noticed that there were a few ants crawling in my bed. There were also a few flies in the bathroom because the window had been left open.  I killed the ants and went downstairs to ask for a different room and the girl at the front desk was like, “Oh, I’ll just come spray for you.” She grabbed a bug spray can and an air freshener can and we proceeded to walk up the stairs. She sprayed down my whole room. That turned out to be a good move because the spray killed all the bugs that I knew were there and some that didn’t know where there. Hahaha.

I tried to access the internet, but the wireless wasn’t working. I went to the “internet café” where one computer had working internet. I started typing an e-mail and was about halfway through when the power went out. This happens from time to time in Liberia because it doesn’t have electricity. All power is provided through generators. (As I would learn, a major selling points of apartments and hotels is 16+ hours of electricity per day…) I went up to my room and cried, wondering what I got myself into, talked to my parents and my boyrfriend, took a shower and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night I was awakened to the sound of thunder, and as I lay there I heard another sound.  I looked towards the door and there was water coming in under my door!!! It was in 1/3 of my room! I jumped up, put my suitcases on top of the table and chairs, put on a jacket, grabbed my bag with my ID and went to find a hotel staff person (The hotel doesn’t have a phone system. Liberia lacks landlines.) When I left my room, I saw the problem – all of the windows in the hotel were open – on all 5 floors… I closed the ones on my floor on the way down as I waded through about an inch of standing water. As I walked I put on my hood because there was also water trickling from above. I carefully made my way down the stairs and got to the door that led to the lobby to find it was locked. YES, LOCKED… I was like, “Are you kidding me?!?” I then went back upstairs to my room, put some towels down to try and stop the water from going further and went back to sleep.

About an hour later I woke up to find a few ants crawling on my bed next to my pillow. I killed them and kept sleeping. Hahaha. In the morning I woke up to the sounds of voices in the hallway. It was the hotel staff surveying the damage and cleaning up the water. A man with a rag was soaking it up, bit by bit. I asked them to come get the water out of my room. One was a hotel manager who said, “Sorry, ma’am” and had the man clean it up. They were about to leave and I was like, “Can I have new towels please?” Apparently he hadn’t thought about that, but he said, “Oh, yes. I’ll get them for you.” Great. Thanks… After that I took my shower and went down to meet the driver who was picking me up for my first day of work! What a first 24 hours!!