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!

Visit to the Field

Last week I made my first visit out to the field!  OICI’s main office, the one where I work, is in Monrovia and a few weeks ago we opened our two field offices out in the counties we’re working in, in Grand Gedeh and River Gee.  They’re both in the southeast of Liberia; Grand Gedeh is about 360 miles away from Monrovia, and River Gee is the next county over from there. If the roads were good it would only take about 6 hours to get to there, but they’re not, so it takes 10 to get to Grand Gedeh and another 4 to get to River Gee. And let me tell you, it was quite an adventure and a really great week!

Before I left I heard all kinds of things about the field: The road would be really bumpy and the drive 10+ hours long and without bathrooms. There would be bugs – but not to worry because the guesthouse where we’d stay in Grand Gedeh has mosquito nets...  I should bring water and food because there wouldn’t be too much out there.  I should change money before I go because while they like to use US dollars in Monrovia, they like Libertys – Liberian dollars in the rest of the country.  Some people were nervous for me, one because I’m American and most Americans find it a difficult trip and two, because after my first night here I requested a new hotel because there were bugs in my bed so they thought if I didn’t like that, how was I gonna handle the field?  I’m not gonna lie - I was a little nervous for myself. Hahaha. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was going to be a hardcore experience and I hoped, but wasn’t sure, I had it in me to do well. But, the morning we left, I was feeling good about it.

We left March 1 around 7:15 a.m. We supposed to leave at 6:00, 6:30 at the latest, but C.P. time, or “African time” as it’s called here –lol – was in effect. We wanted to leave early in the morning because there aren’t street lights here and the road is only paved for the first half of the trip. (The farther you get from Monrovia, the less developed things are. The government and the UN are working on it, but obviously these things take time and resources are limited.) I was the last of my co-workers to be picked up, so once they got me, we were on our way!

In our truck, a 5 seat pick-up truck, was me, Frank the Senior Accountant, George the Commodities Manager and Muhammad our driver. The drive is really incredible in so many ways! The first part is still pretty urban, the roads are paved, there are houses and stores made of cement and brick, etc.  As we continued on, there was less and less development. Eventually, it was all bumpy red dirt roads. Every now and then we would pass a town or village. After a while, it was just thick forest. All you could see for miles was the big blue sky and the greenery of trees and bushes.  We would drive and drive without seeing anyone and then all of the sudden, a random person would walk out of the bush! It was amazing to me because I wouldn’t have expected anyone to be there or to be able to navigate the terrain.

As I mentioned earlier, people warned me that there are no bathrooms on the way from Monrovia to Grand Gedeh. At various times on the drive, my male co-workers stopped to, what we now refer to as “inspect the tires.” I was not comfortable peeing on the side of the road, so I just drank very little that day. I was very relieved however, when we stopped halfway to refuel and get lunch and the filling station had a small store with a toilet in it!! It didn’t have running water, so you had to use a bucket to “flush it”, but I WAS SO GLAD about it! I also got some tasty lemon cookies that only cost $35 liberty – about 50 cents.  Ha – gas station in Ganta. It was a bright spot in the day.

We went through Nimba County where we saw Ivorian refugees and UN trucks full of supplies for them. There are at least 40,000 refugees from Cote d’Ivoire in Liberia right now because of the current president disputing the elections and refusing to leave office. People are afraid civil war will break out there. I’ve been following the situation on the news since I was in the States, but it was crazy to be so close to it, to see with my own eyes women and children and families in large numbers who fled from their homes and their countries.

I almost don’t have words for the second half of the drive.  Almost the only way to adequately share with you what it was like, would be to show pictures.  It looks like something you’d see on a National Geographic special.  There were just miles and miles of densely packed trees and bushes with dirt roads. But then, there would be a random village, or 2 or 3 people walking on the side of the red dirt road. My American mind was amazed to see that people are living like this. I’ve never seen anything like it before. On the UN human development index for 2010, Liberia was #162 out of 169 countries, and there were so many moments in this trip, when I thought, “Yes, I have moved to one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world.”

We arrived in Grand Gedeh around 5:30. We stopped by the office and greeted the staff and then checked in to our guesthouse. WOW. It was also a new experience for me. The first room they put me in didn’t have a mosquito net, so I switched to another room. When we checked in the electricity hadn’t been turned on yet, it was on from 7 p.m. – 2 a.m. (although I noticed they often shut it off earlier…), but in the glow of twilight I was like, yes, it’s fine. We went to dinner and when we came back, I went to my room. There was a queen sized bed with a fitted sheet and a spread, a mosquito net hanging over the bed, an air conditioning above the bed and a plastic lawn table with one chair in the room. The bathroom had a sink, a toilet with a broken seat and a large garbage can full of water and a cup and bucket. There was no running water. There were some bugs – both dead and alive because they had sprayed for bugs earlier. Here, whenever you check into a hotel, they spray your room for bugs. If they don’t, you can request that they do.

As I sat in my room I thought to myself, what am I doing here??? How do I get myself into these situations??? If there’s all these bugs now, what will happen when the power goes off at 2??? Thankfully I got a call from my mom then, and we talked and I felt calmer. After we hung up, I prayed for a bit and was feeling good about things and remembered that I had needed to pee for quite some time but  had forgotten in my nervousness about the whole situation.  I opened the door to the bathroom and a huge cockroach was walking across the floor…  I was like, “COME ON!!! I just got myself ok with the situation!” and then I went to get the boy who worked at the hotel to spray my room again.

When I went to get him, he told me “I already sprayed your room.” I was like, “Well can you spray it again? I have killed 4 bugs already, including one mosquito.” I didn’t mention the roach – I don’t know why.  I have found that bugs that I consider big are not really considered big here. Lol – those are stories for another day. He sprayed my room and then we both had to leave because the spray instantly makes you cough and gag the moment you breathe it in…  That kind of concerns me a little bit, but it is REALLY GREAT at killing bugs. Bugs you didn’t even know were there, come out and die. I watched soccer (“football” here) for an hour while I waited for the spray to work its magic. I checked in on my room from time to time and bugs were still dying and the air was still thick with the smell of chemical killer so I waited until it dissipated.

When I went back in, I put on my pajamas, wrapped myself in my towel that I brought from home (I had doubts about the cleanliness of the spread) and went to sleep. I slept well that night. That was day 1.  

Bugs in My Rice

So, my first time at the grocery store in Liberia, bought some rice, cooked it, put the rice bag in a Ziploc bag – pretty uneventful. A few days later I looked at the bag and saw two very small bugs crawling inside the bag towards the top. I was like, “How did they get in there?!? I thought I sealed the bag all the way…” I killed them, made sure the ziploc bag was closed and put it in the fridge for safe keeping.

The next time I cooked rice, after it was boiling on the stove I saw 5 or 6 of the same kind of small bugs floating in the top of the water!!! I was like, “What is going on here?!?” I googled it to see what the bugs were, if I needed to be concerned,  if the rice should be thrown away or if I could scoop the bugs out and still eat it. (In America I think my first reaction would have been to throw it out, but living around people who don’t get enough food to eat every day kinda changes your perspective. I also have had to become a little more go with the flow with eating here - lol)

I have never experienced the bugs in the rice phenomenon, but apparently everyone else in the world knows that you should wash your rice. In America the rice is sprayed to kill the bugs, but in other parts of the world, you wash your rice or just get extra protein… Mmm…

Washing it just involves rinsing it in water a number of times. The number of times seems to depend on the kind of rice and where you are in the world, but washing it gets rid of the bugs that may be in it as well as dirt and excess starch. It actually improves the quality of the rice. Since I’d already started cooking my rice and found that the bugs aren’t harmful, I scooped out them out, let the rice water boil a little longer than usual, said a prayer and ate it. J No complaints.

The next time I made rice, I rinsed it 3 times. I saw recommendations for everything from 2 – 9 times or to just put it under running water until the water is clear. The water isn’t safe to drink here, so I couldn’t do the latter, but I figured I’d rinse it until the water looked ok. The first time the water was really cloudy and bugs floated to the top. The second time it was clearer and only a few bugs. The last time it was pretty clear, so I let the rice sit for a bit, stirring it with my hand from time to time to make sure nothing was trying to hang on and then cooked it. SUCCESS!!! Not only were there no bugs, but the texture and taste were so much better!! Learn somethin new everyday! 

The Vice President Stopped by the Office

So far one of the most exciting days at the office was the day that the Vice President of Liberia, the Honorable Joseph N. Boakai, stopped by for a visit! I work for OIC International, and we have an affiliate in Liberia, LOIC. The Vice President was on the Board of Directors of LOIC for several years, and he wanted to stop by and see how things were going.

We were told he was coming at 11:00, so we all arrived by 10 to make sure we were there and everything was ready. A few of the staff from OICI and LOIC as well as the Board of Directors for LOIC waited for him in the boardroom as he was to address us first and get a tour of the facilities and compound and meet the rest of the staff.  When he came in the room he shook hands with everyone at the table, and then we all sat down. We had an opening prayer, then the Board Chair addressed the Vice President, then the Vice President spoke to us. He wasn’t what I expected. I thought he’d be tall and dynamic, but he is short and soft-spoken and moves kind of slowly and deliberately. He seemed like he was just speaking from his heart, but at first he didn’t look at us when he was speaking – he looked down at the table. As time went on, he started looking around the table.  He never visibly did anything to make me feel this way - during the tour he was very gracious to everyone, but I somehow had the feeling that even though he is older, quiet and slow moving, he is someone you don’t want to mess with.

Next we went on a tour of LOIC and OICI. When we came to OICI, the Director of LOIC introduced my boss and me to the vice president.  My boss then explained our program to the VP (using materials I helped create and put together!). He met a few more people and then went on to his next appointment for the day.

I’m not gonna lie, inside I was like, “I can’t believe this is happening!!! I was sitting at the same table with board members who are on the board because they are from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Youth and Sports , Directors of banks and other things like that and the Vice President of a country! There was only one other woman there and she was in her 60s. The rest were all men who were at least 10 years older than me! How crazy is that?!? I met the Vice President of Liberia in my first month here! I think this is going to be a good year J

The Wire...

There will be more on this later, but one of the highlights of my week has become going to the grocery store. On Valentines Day I went to the grocery store and got one of my new favorite things, Savannah cider from South Africa. I went to the store on my lunch break, and when I went home I cooked my dinner. After dinner I went to drink my cider and realized it needed a bottle opener and I don’t have one!!! I tried a few things around the apartment and came to the conclusion that if I cut my thumb while trying to open this bottle I was going to be very bitter. I decided I’d have to ask my neighbors.

I hadn’t met anyone on my floor, so I figured I’d just start to right and keep going until someone had one.  I knocked on my neighbor’s door, heard some noise inside and then the door flings open and this tall, lanky, middle-aged Australian man with salt and pepper hair is standing there and exclaims “Hey!!! It’s so great to see you! Come on in!” I was a little confused because I’d never seen him before and I wondered if he thought I was someone else, but this all happened in seconds and I was on a mission so I went inside.

Once inside he was like, “How are you? Would you like to sit down? Would you like some water? Would you like some tea?”  I held up my Savannah and was like, I actually was just wondering if you had a bottle opener… He was like “Oh yes!!! Let me open that for you!!!” And he took it and opened it and said, “I was just watching The Wire. Do you know that show? Would you like to watch an episode with me? Do you have a free hour or so?” I was like, “The Wire – the American tv show?”  He said, “Yes that’s the one!” I had never seen it but heard it was good and I did have a few free hours, so I said, “Ok. Sure. Would you like a cider?”  He said sure and I went and got one from my apartment.

We sat down to watch the show and talked for a little bit while we waited for the show to come on. He was very chatty (as he mentioned later, he never really gets visitors) so I didn’t really get to see that much of the show. About halfway through he realized he was talking a lot and was like, “Oh my goodness! I’m talking a lot! I should just let you borrow these. And that way you’d see them from the beginning.” I wasn’t going to argue with that! The little bit I saw was really good! And my three channels – CNN, Africa Magic and 24 hour soccer – had already gotten a little old.

I hate to admit this, but I watched the whole first season of The Wire in one week!!!! I can’t believe I didn’t start watching this show until I moved to Liberia and my Australian neighbor lent it to me! Hahaha – that is also one of the reasons I didn’t blog last week… I was following the lives of Avon, Stringer and McNulty in my free time… Mess, I know…

In case you were wondering, I’m on season 3 now. But! In my defense, he didn’t have season 2, so I’ve only watched a season and a half… Good times J

Mike, my Australian neighbor, has turned out to be very nice. If he’s going into town to go grocery shopping or something he always invites me along. He’s leaving Liberia on Saturday so I only have a few more days to finish watching his Wire dvds… ;) I don’t think it will be a problem.  People are discouraged from walking around at night, so most people stay home after dark unless they don’t mind driving in Monrovia at night. I’m going to have to blog about driving in Monrovia sometime – it’s an adventure for sure!

Apartment!

I’ve been in Monrovia for a month already!! Time has flown! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I got a little busy… Major events since I last wrote are:

·         I moved into my apartment

·         The Wire…

·         I met the Vice President of Liberia, The Honorable Joseph N. Boakai

·         Grocery shopping

·         Bugs in my rice!

I will separate entries for all of these things because otherwise it’d be long, and if you’re anything like me, you’d be like “mmm… too much talking…” and not read it. Lol. So, let’s begin.

It took two weeks to find an apartment for me. The staff here helped me look for places. Because of the differences in standards of living, expats tend to live in about 5 areas in Monrovia. The first day we looked at apartments, I saw a place I liked, but it was full and wouldn’t have vacancies until the middle of February. We looked at the rest of the places and none of them felt right. There was also a problem because my organization had allotted a certain amount for my housing, but there were no apartments available for that price. The Liberian staff took pity on me and took me to some places they knew of.  Those didn’t really work because they ALL had some type of hole in the wall or the walls and ceiling didn’t always connect to each other.

I thought a possible solution was to have a roommate, plus, that could also mean someone to do things with. I met up with 2 women also in their 20s working for NGOs.  We went to see a place together and neither of them noticed the 1 ½ foot hole in the ceiling above the kitchen.  I asked the man showing us the house, “What is that?” My prospective roommates were like “Oh yeah! Wow!” He said “it’s a hole” like it was no big deal. I just kept looking at him – ha probably not with love – and he explained there was a problem with the roof so a man went up through the hole in the kitchen.  I wanted to know what the problem with the roof was. He wouldn’t tell me but did tell me not to worry about it. The problem was fixed and they’d put a board over the hole. I knew at that moment roommates were not the way to go and this was not the place for me. Hahaha.

I ended up living in the first place I saw and liked, an apartment building in Congo Town, a neighborhood of Monrovia. I’d heard good things about the building. It has electricity from 5 p.m. – 9 a.m. on the weekdays and 24 hour electricity on the weekends (I get so excited about 24 hour electricity on Saturdays, you don’t even know!!! ), 24 hour running water - HOT AND COLD (beautiful!!!) air conditioning, tv (it has 3 channels – ha, they did not mention that), a weight room, free laundry facilities, a bar/restaurant and 24 hour security. So far, it’s been really great. I’ve met a few neighbors – all very nice. And interestingly, when Liberian people find out I live in Congo Town they get excited. Most expats live in another area of Monrovia. Lol – one person even told me she finds Congo Town to be "… too Liberian for her taste", but I’m liking it. There’s a market just down the road and I’d prefer being here than with all the other Westerners. I think it’s going to be a good experience. J

There are pictures on Facebook. I was going to post some here but the internet’s too slow for that now… You can also see the apartments if you google “TGH Apartments in Monrovia."

First Liberian Holiday!

Yesterday was the first holiday I have experienced in Liberia. It was Voter Registration Day! ...Yay!

That might not seem like a big deal for us, but for a country that was in civil war for 14 years, elections are a big deal and being able to register to vote deserves a holiday. Everything was shut down, stores, offices, etc. Liberian people who had not yet registered to vote had the opportunity to do so. I spent the day relaxing and ate Lebanese food. J Why Lebanese? My hotel is owned by Lebanese people. I noticed Lebanese people control quite a bit of property here…

I also recently saw my first parade here in Liberia. It was a “Pay Your Taxes” Parade! People had t-shirts, hats, banners and signs. Bands played. People danced. Good times. This is the moment when I knew I MUST have my camera with me at all times.

You might think, why would you need a parade in support of taxes??? We in America sometimes take for granted all of the things our taxes do for us. We’re able to have roads, sidewalks, public transportation, traffic and street lights, electricity, waste management, police, public officials and so much more because our tax dollars help pay for those things. Liberia doesn't have a lot of those things. It's still recovering from the war, so in many ways, they’re starting from scratch. Many children don’t get to go to school because there aren’t schools for them to attend. There are only roads in about 10% of the country and there are no traffic lights. Liberia’s police force started 5 years ago. Many of them don’t even have guns or weapons of any kind because they don’t have money to get them. (This also leads to corruption but that’s a story for another day…)