Grand Gedeh

I won’t give you a play by play of everything that happened in Grand Gedeh, but I will tell you one funny story.  The head of the OICI Grand Gedeh office and I were supposed to meet up with one of the field agents so she could take us to see some of the communities she’s working in. We arrived at the first place around 1:30 or 2:00. We walked around the town, a pretty sizeable one with over 100 people. It had homes made from thatch and mud. We saw children playing together, women working on adding mud to a home to reinforce it and men sitting together. I met the chief and some other men of the town and then we talked to a few women who were sitting together who said the field agent had been there earlier and was registering mothers and children, but then left. We thanked them and got in the car to leave when the staff member I was with saw someone he knew and wanted to say hello.

I hopped out of the car with him and we headed towards one of the huts. As we walked closer we heard the beating of drums and people yelling and singing. When we got to the porch, there were several men and an older woman outside. I shook all of their hands, met one of them and then we went inside.  When I walked into the doorway I saw four men banging drums and singing loudly and other men and women were sitting and standing around the edges of the room. It looked like at least half of them were high.  (Later we discussed it, and my coworkers felt they were drunk.) Inside I was thinking, “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE???”  It all seemed a little strange to me, but I put on my friendly face and went inside the room. They got a chair for me to sit in next to the man I’d met outside. It turned out that he was running for a position in the district government and we had happened upon a political rally in their town.

I talked with the man for a little bit. We found out that we both used to live in New York City, him in Harlem, me in Washington Heights  - like 15 or 20 minutes away from each other. Small world! My co-worker talked to the group a little bit about the work OICI is here to do and introduced me and I said a few words and then the music started again. Some women started dancing and grabbed my co-worker to join them. He did and then they came for me! I tried to politely resist at first, but then I thought that might be rude and remembered how I wanted them to join in our food security program, so I joined them too. They were all excited that I joined them and we danced for a bit and then we left. As we walked out, some women hugged me and some men shook my hand and the older women I saw in the beginning held my hand as she walked me to the car.

That was my first community visit!