Hi everyone its Tiffany!  Sorry we have not written in a while, but not much was happening but finally we have something to write about in the blog post!  The last two days have been more exciting than usual for us as I had a work monitoring trip into the field to do with our organization along with WFP, and several government ministries and Liz, our Country Director came up bringing a vehicle, so Kev came into the field with us!

We started out bright and early on Saturday morning and headed out into the field on the crazy dirt roads I was hoping Kev was going to get to experience before we left.  The drive to the first community we visited, Botota, took nearly 2.5 hours on awful back country roads that have potholes the size of vehicles.  On the drive our battery tipped over several times leaving us with no power in our vehicle so we had to wait until we rolled to a stop to fix it and we fell partially through a bridge over a river.  Finally we arrived in Botota, which is a small community with a rice swamp about 5 hectares large.  Many of the women were out in the swamp harvesting the rice, which was great for everyone to see and we walked out on the bunds (raised dirt pathways through the swamp) to get a good view of the rice and what was going on.  We then held a community meeting to discuss the continuation of the project with the beneficiaries and tried to deal with some of the issues that have been occurring with the project to date.  It was fairly positive in Botota and afterwards we were served cassava greens with fish and some bush meat over rice which is quite spicy but we like it. 

We then headed deeper into the jungle to the next community, Bellemu, situated literally in the middle of the jungle.  We had to take tiny roads through the dense jungle to get there over rickety log bridges and when we got there, there was no one in the community so it was like coming across a jungle ghost town comprised of mud huts with thatched roofs.  Kevin describes it as in ‘Lost’ like stumbling on the “Others” community in the middle of the jungle except with huts and not houses.  A few people turned up and we made our way down this tiny bush path to see where the swamp was.  They have a swamp about 4 hectares large, which was also good to see.  We tried to have a community meeting but due to the fact that it wasn’t their swamp work day, the community was for the most part working on their personal farms scattered throughout the bush.  Most of the trip went this way, where the communities weren’t really prepared for the visit and because it was on a weekend, many of the people were busy doing other work.  It was a little frustrating but the main purpose of the trip was to take a GPS system that the ministry of land, mines and energy technicians would walk around the whole swamp with to accurately measure the swamp.

Finally, we headed out of there and visited Samay, which I have been to a few times now, but it is an excellent community (our project poster-child community) that has a swamp 25 hectares large with a dam we built.  Again most of the community was not there but we managed to have a successful meeting with the chairman and some leaders.  While there, kids followed us everywhere and we got to walk through a lot of the community which was much larger than the others we had visited.  By the time we left we had already had a 10 hour day in the field with another hour and a half drive back...so it was a tiring day! 

Today we got up early again and headed out to a few more communities.  The roads were better to these communities but our truck did break down for a little while during the trip, but was fine in the end.  Today was more difficult as it was Sunday and most people were at church and a lot of the preparation work for the visit was not done so people were arguing and blaming each other for this and that.  The long talks that often turned into arguments can be exhausting and by the end of the day we were ready for the monitoring to be finished.  We saw three communities today, though we spent the majority of the time in one community due to our broken down truck and bickering! 

Ultimately, it was really nice for Kev to get to see the places I have been able to visit and to get to see the work we have been doing.  It was also great for making our time pass by really quickly!  We only have three more days up here in Gbarnga!

We have a dinner tomorrow night with the family who lives across from us (there are 24 people who live in the little house!!! Not to mention animals!)  Then we will have a nice dinner at the Bangladeshi restaurant in town as the owner says he wants to cook us a nice meal before we leave and finally our last dinner will most likely be with Lamine, my co-worker , at his house so we figure time is going to fly now.

We leave to Monrovia on Thursday morning where we will spend one night and then Liz, Kevin and I will go to Robertsport (the nicest beach in Liberia with nice tent bungalows on the beach) for the 24^th and 25^th before we come back to Monrovia for one night and then fly to Kenya!  We are very excited for our upcoming trip and also for Robertsport over Christmas, though I still prefer snow to a beach on Christmas any day!

Anyways this is very long now, but we will write again before we leave Liberia.  We hope everyone has a very merry Christmas.  We wish we were there with our friends and family for the holidays!

Below, Kevy wrote a list of the humorous differences between life in Canada and Liberia so enjoy!

Lots of love,

What’s the Difference Between Me and You?  Several Differences between Liberia and Canada

1. In Canada, to be profitable, gas stations (or filling stations in Liberia) are not reliant on the success of the mayonnaise industry.  In Liberia, a filling station cannot operate without empty mayonnaise jars which are used to measure the amount of gas being put into your vehicle (taken from a large barrel).  In effect, you could ask your gas station attendant “to fill ‘er up with 3 of the heavy duty jars “.

2.  In Canada, our mayonnaise companies do not produce such massive jars of thick mayonnaise to have to include on the label “Heavy Duty”.  In Liberia, they do.

3. In Canada, Cold Water means only one thing: cold water.  In Liberia, Cold Water is money you pay to the corrupt police officer who sets up an independent road block when they’re short on cash.

4. In Canada, police officers are looked upon with trust and respect.  In Liberia, they are the most fearful people in the community and are avoided with the utmost care.

5. In Canada, drinks are served with a coaster and a glass.  In Liberia, you get the coaster and the glass, but in addition you get a roll of toilet paper to wipe the rim of the bottle beforehand.  (Done because all bottles are returned and reused after going through an shady sanitization process)

6. In Canada, we have papayas, avocados, peanuts, squash, and eggplant.  In Liberia they have the same things but instead they are called pumpkin, pawpaw, butter pears, groundnuts, pumpkin, and bitter balls.

7. In Canada, we have four seasons.  In Liberia as in most equatorial countries they have two seasons; the “5 minute power washing” rainy season, and the “I think I’m seeing mirages” dry season.  The “5 minute power washing” rainy season is also commonly referred to as the “Is the rain on my tin roof actually drowning out the sound of the generator in the next room?” season.

8. In Canada, potholes are a minor annoyance.  In Liberia, your vehicle may be swallowed by a pothole, of which you must drive out of. 

9. In Canada, a child’s small bladder may be the cause of a lengthened car trip.  In Liberia, it’s all about the potholes!  (The massive number of potholes can lengthen a trip by hours!)

10.  In Canada, when giving directions, you use either street names or house addresses.  In Liberia, there are no street addresses just situations like the one for Visions in Action whose official address in Monrovia is “On the 2^nd Street behind the YWCA in Congo Town”.  For us in Gbarnga, our address is “Where the young white people live”.

11. In Canada, “saucy” is a term used to either describe a very sauce heavy dish or a flirtatious female as in “Boy, she’s a saucy minx”.  In Liberia, it’s not the women who are saucy, but the high speed motorbike drivers as in “Boy he is going very fast! He is very saucy!”  Other examples of Liberian English: Vexed means pissed off, carry means travel as in “I will carry you to Monrovia”, talk small means speak for a short time and slippers are flip flops or sandals.

12. In Canada, speedometers are used far more frequently than your vehicle’s horn.  In Liberia, I believe speedometers are disconnected to “conserve fuel”.  However horns are used more than your gas petal and for many reasons.  To make your presence known to pedestrians on the side of the road, you usually give a good long, maybe 3 second, blast.  If coming around a corner, you usually honk for about 5 seconds with a series of repeated blasts.  If there is a pretty girl on the side of the road, two honks will suffice.  And if you just want to lay on it, there really is no set length or pattern, you just honk.

 

Happy Tubman Day!!

November 29, 2010

Hello everyone, this is Tiffany again!  I hope everyone is enjoying the cold winter in Vancouver as at times I wish I was! I have been listening to Christmas music in our house (in fact I am right now!) which feels a little bitter sweet since I won’t be at home for Christmas, which has made me feel a little homesick recently.  But Kevy and I are busy planning the next leg of our trip in Tanzania which has given us a great deal to look forward to!

One thing that has been pretty cool lately is we bought a soccer ball for the kids who live around us and tons of kids have been out every afternoon in our yard (where the kids built a big soccer pitch) playing soccer.  The other day even the little girls were our playing California kickball!  Usually the boys are the ones playing (ages 7-18ish) and then many other kids watch.  It is great to see how inclusive they are and how much they are using the ball and how much fun they are having!

We had a great day today as it was Tubman Day here in Liberia (the former-President Tubman’s birthday) so it was a national holiday and most people took the day off from their work.  Yesterday Kev and I were at our favourite little drink shop, Paulina’s, and were talking to Paulina who told us that a lot of people go up to Kpatawe waterfalls (we have been wanting to go up there for a while now) and she showed us pictures of her whole family in the waterfalls, which was rather funny because they were wearing jeans and full clothing but lying in the water.  We decided that today would be a great time to finally visit the falls so Lamine arranged for his friend (who is a principal at the largest high school in Bong County) and his two sons to take us up today as he has a car.  We left Gbarnga and headed up the dirt road to the falls, which was very dusty and bumpy, especially in the low car but after a while we finally made it up to the entrance.  There was a gate set up and young men acting as “ticket sellers” to enter to the falls (probably because it was a holiday) who were reluctant to let us through without paying a  ton of money because we were white and therefore must be able to afford more!  Luckily we got by only paying $4 to get through (although even this was a little ridiculous!). 

The falls are located in a beautiful small mountain in the jungle and are quite large.  There was a pool at the bottom and then we climbed up a path along the side near the top (the falls are more wide than high) and made our way along the slippery rocks to sit under the falls and get pummelled by the water!  It was a lot of fun and it was really nice to be in cool water when it is so warm out. 

We brought up several bottles of beer and some bread and hard boiled eggs to make sandwiches with; unfortunately, one of the guys with us slipped on the rocks on the way up and two of the beer bottles broke, but we still had enough to go around.  Soon after we got there and were in the water, large crowds of young people (18-25ish) started climbing up the falls too.  We had a great time hanging out, drinking our beers and people watching, especially since many of them were getting a little drunk so it was quite funny.  Unfortunately, the eldest son of the man who drove us was walking down from the falls with a bottle of beer and slipped on the rocks, shattering the bottle which took a huge chunk out of his shoulder (about 3 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1 inch deep!)  It was really bad and was bleeding all over as I was trying to put tissue on it to stop the bleeding.  Luckily another girl there had some tensor bandages so we got him all bandaged up and then headed back into town (about one hour) to go to Phebe Hospital to get it stitched up. 

The drive back into town was hilarious as tons of young people were driving up in trucks and motor bikes and Lamine and his friend literally did not stop talking the whole ride about how crazy and dangerous the young drivers were and how “improper” it was to drive on this side of the road or that.  We got to the checkpoint on the way out and it was downright chaos.  Many vehicles and bikes were lined up at the gate waiting for the gate to go up so they could rush it; meanwhile we were on the other side needing to get through the walls of vehicles.  Everyone was yelling and waving their arms wildly in the air.  Kevin was laughing so hard and another driver saw him and burst out laughing too.  The whole situation was absurd but we finally inched our way through, although the car did get nicked by a vehicle sneaking through and we hit another backing up yet no one stopped to do anything about it! It is hilarious that “negotiating” here is incredibly dramatic with yelling back and forth, flailing arms and high-pitched squeals of disbelief.  Both Kevin and I laughed so much sitting in the car!  As we continued to drive Lamine said “These drivers are very saucy!” haha.  Kevin and I had such a hard time keeping our laughter contained the whole ride back. 

Finally, we made it to Phebe Hospital, which we always pass and have wanted to see but luckily have not had reason to before.  It is the main hospital in Bong County and was fairly good with many interesting posters around that without intending to be are quite humorous.  Our friend was able to get his shoulder stitched up and we ultimately got home just fine.  All in all, it was a really nice day, aside from the injury.

Other than that, things have as usual been quite quiet with work.  I am supposed to go into the field this week for a USAID monitoring trip so hopefully that happens as sometimes these things seem to fall through.  The project I am working on is going into a new phase beginning in January so hopefully this month will be a little busier with assessments of new communities and planning. 

Anyways we hope everyone is doing well back in Canada and we miss you all very much.  Send updates of things going on at home as we love getting messages!

Love you all,

Our Weekend in Monrovia

November 21, 2010

Hi everyone!  Kevin and I are just back into Gbarnga after an excellent weekend in Monrovia.  We are now into our last month up here in Bong before we head back to Monrovia for Christmas and then off to Kenya and Tanzania for two months before we come home!

Before I get to our trip down to Monrovia, I also want to tell you all a little about this wonderful afternoon we had last Wednesday when Lamine, the man I work with here, invited us over for lunch and to see his house.  We took bikes up the dirt road to his house, which was a small but quite nice cement home with yellow wooden shutters sitting atop a hilltop that overlooked the lush green countryside.  He had quite a large area of land, which he planted with many trees so it has shade and a nice breeze and felt much cooler up there than down at our house.  Lamine’s mother had died last week so he had his whole extended family from all over the country (there are already 10 people who live in his small house) and friends/community members all there preparing for the funeral that was yesterday.  Whenever someone dies, it is quite the event here and the family is expected to feed everyone who comes all day long for however long they stay, so the women were busy cooking huge amounts of food.  The ladies came over and gave us a big plate each of cassava greens with rice and fish, which was actually fairly decent and we sat and chatted with Lamine and his family and watched all these men dig the 6 foot grave on the property.  One of our guards, Joe had a pick axe and was breaking into the earth, which was super red; all the while he was wearing a pair of lavender faux silk women’s pyjama shorts with big flowers all over them!  It was quite funny and also very typical for around here!  We got to meet so many new people and it was really nice to feel welcome and be a part of someone’s family at a time that is so challenging for all of them.  We gave Lamine $50 to help with the costs of the funeral so we hope that can help given the large cost of the funeral and all it entails. 

On Thursday we travelled down to Monrovia as we had to get our visas extended by Saturday.  We arrived and met the new Country Director who has come from Oxford, England, Liz, who is 27 and really nice.  She had just arrived less than a week ago (not knowing that she had accepted the job as Country Director!) and is fairly overwhelmed and understandably so.  The other girl who works for VIA, Jackie was also down in Monrovia, so it was really nice to get to all hang out.  We went out for a good dinner on Thursday night all together and had some drinks, which was really nice. 

On Friday, which was also Liz’s birthday, we worked in the morning and then later that evening 8 of us went out to the Mamba Point Hotel for Happy Hour (which has free appetizers and half off drinks) and had dinner.  The waiters brought over cheesecake for Liz and we had several people come over to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’  We all took advantage of the half-off drinks and were ready to go somewhere else after so we all headed out to a ex-pat bar Tides, which has a huge patio that hangs over the ocean with a lounge-type feel.  Once we got there, a friend of ours, Phillip (see Kevin’s facebook profile picture to see some of the people including him!) bought a round of a shot called ‘tough guy,’ which was poured out of a bottle with a layer 3 or 4 inches thick at the bottom of super hot Liberian chilli peppers in it!  When the bar tender poured the shots into our glasses she put a hot pepper in each shot and Kevin swallowed the whole pepper (the rest of us realized to stop before the pepper went down the hatch!)  We all felt super sick after the shot as it burned our lips and throats and we could actually feel the burn as it moved through out system.  Kevin felt especially awful but we all kept on partying until we finally left at 3:30 am!  We met a bunch of other ex-pats and had a really fun time, taking in the social aspect we seem to miss up in Gbarnga.  Kevin and I felt like we talked so much to everyone all weekend because we were so happy to have other people to talk with!

 The next day Kevin, Liz and I went into town to get some errands done and to go grocery shopping and after we got back to the house, Liz, Kevin, Jackie and I all went to Thinkers Beach for the afternoon.  We had SUCH a great time!  The beach had golden sand and HUGE crashing waves that pounded the shore and rushed so quickly back into the water, creating a very strong undertow.  They told us that someone usually drowns every weekend there because of the undertow so Kev and I stood at the shore about waist deep and jumped like little children through the waves, bracing ourselves for the undertow, for a long time.  We had so much fun and it was the first time Kevin had ever been in tropical waters so he liked how warm the water was!  We spent the afternoon sun tanning, sitting under thatch-roofed huts on the sand relaxing and splashing around in the water.  Everyone else there seemed to be so used to the idea of going to the beach here every weekend but for Kevin and I it was a real novelty so we were giddy like little kids and really enjoyed the afternoon. 

That night we came back to the house and I made dinner for everyone, which we ate while watching a movie.  Six of us also went to the Royal Hotel this morning for a brunch buffet (which had real coffee!) and we ate our last good western meal before we headed back up to Gbarnga this afternoon.  One of the highlights of the trip for Kevin was seeing two people wearing Canucks jersey’s but unfortunately he did not have his camera with him either time so he didn’t snap a photo!  Kevin has decided to leave his one Detroit Red Wings t-shirt here with someone so hockey is better represented among the second hand clothing because it currently pales in comparison to other sports! I hope to have a busier week this week since we will be doing our reporting.  Apparently WFP told Jackie and Liz that the reporting has gotten much better in Bong over the last couple of months, which was nice to hear after my previous meeting with them!

We have heard that it looks like it will be a cold winter in Vancouver and I am sad that I will miss the snow this season!  Anyways we hope everyone is well and we hope to hear from you!

Lots of Love,

My Trips into the Field!

November 13, 2010

Hello everyone!  It’s Tiffany this time and I wanted to write a new blog today to update all of you on my recent trips into the field...finally!

This week was busier than the rest as the European Union Food Facility donor (our main donor) came to visit a few of our communities along with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the World Food Programme of the UN (WFP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) all of whom we work quite closely with as we are the implementing partners of these other organizations for this specific project.  So on Wednesday we had all planned to meet at the MOA office for a meeting and then we would head into the field to get to work.  Well Lamine and I arrived at the MOA office about 20 minutes early all ready to go and we hastily walked into a meeting that was going on thinking we were late!  However, it turned out we were early and we sat in the wrong meeting for about 45 minutes just observing (the County Agriculture Coordinator (CAC), Monica, told us to hang out in the meeting so it wasn’t like we crashed it or anything) but just sitting in on meetings that has nothing to do with our project was not terribly exciting so we went to sit elsewhere.  As it turned out we sat and waited for nearly 4 hours as the donors and everyone else were VERY late!  Vehicle and road problems seemed to be the culprits, putting us well behind on our itinerary straight away.

Eventually we had the meeting where the EU donor interrogated the CAC, Monica, for about an hour before we finally began the hour and a half drive on terrible roads out to Samay.  This visit really put Lamine and me on the spot as we were now the ones being interrogated for how work has been done on the site while the donor scrutinized the paperwork in the field.  We answered his questions the best we could; however, Lamine had left several of the papers we needed at the office so we were not as prepared as we should have been.  I won’t get into a lot of details as that would ensure an extremely long blog post but let’s just say this project has been a challenge from day one and there is a lot of miscommunication between WFP with us.  It seemed as though we were being blamed for things that were not our fault.  This did not sit very well with me, so I asked the donor, who I got along with quite well, to have a meeting with all of us the next morning to show that the things that were said about our supposed “misreporting” were not true.  We ended up leaving the field at 7pm once it was already pitch black and had to make our way back through the muddy, potholed roads, which was slightly unnerving, but we made it back just fine.

So Thursday morning rolled around and Lamine and I walked into our meeting, after a very late night working at the office, with our arms full of every relevant document we had, proving our point on several issues.  It felt great to have the numbers right in front of me and see the questions that had been asked of us turned around and asked to others who at times struggled with how to respond.  Ultimately the meeting went quite well and I think a lot of issues were resolved on all ends.  I don’t want to talk specifically about these issues on an internet blog but look forward to talking more about it when we are home.  So we headed out into the field again, first visiting a UNDP microfinance project in Palala, unrelated to ours, which seemed to be going very well.  I was incredibly impressed with the woman who was running the project who really knew what she was talking about and thought to myself that if I were a donor, this is the type of project and person I would want to invest in.

Unfortunately, while we were at this site, Lamine got a phone call telling him that his mother, who has been quite sick over the past week, was now in critical condition and he needed to come back urgently.  He was very upset in the jeep as we continued on to our communities but was determined to finish the day. 

Soon we arrived at Bellemu where we gave a briefing on the community and the work we had done and then walked down to the large swamp where we have rehabilitated nearly 20 hectares to produce rice.  The heat was sweltering and for some reason we decided to meet with the community members in the hot sun without any relief of the shade.  We stood out there for nearly an hour talking and then walking along the bunds into the swamp to see how they measure their work output.  Everyone was dripping with sweat and our clothes were soaked as we walked back up to the community where they presented the EU donor with a white chicken to say thank-you, apparently white was to indicate purity of heart. 

Again we were behind schedule by about 3 hours and everyone was hesitant to head on to Garmu, our last community (the EU team was continuing on to other projects but we would be finished).  However, it was a good thing we went because as soon as we pulled up women came running down a path alongside the swamp with big bowls and buckets drumming on them, singing and dancing.  Kids ran alongside them and the men walked up to greet us and show us their work.  Lamine and I showed them our newly constructed dam and again gave a briefing and then the community insisted on bringing us up to have a meeting.  We walked with the community members while the women and men continued drumming and singing until we came to a clearing under banana trees where benches were laid out for everyone to sit.  Before the meeting started the community started dancing and a few of us figured why not and we all joined in.  I am sure I looked absurd trying to dance like an African woman but I tried and they lifted my hands in the air and pulled me around with their arms around my waist trying to show me how they do it! It was a lot of fun and I wished Kevy was there to be a part of it too.  During the meeting with the community, the chairman said that their intention and goal was to help create a food secure Liberia and they felt that their swamp was surely beginning to do this.  It was so excellent to hear that goal and it really reminded me of what this project is all about, regardless of the politics behind it.  After the meeting we were served food, which consisted of the typical rice, hot pepper sauce and mystery meat.  I gazed down at my bowl and could see what looked like a bit of chicken (or some other small animal), a vertebra of some sort with very little meat on it and then a full, huge tongue!  It did not even seem like the tongue was cooked as it sat there limply in my bowl.  I ate some rice and chicken and mulled over some of the other meat before I passed my plate on to Lamine to finish.  In the first bite he took the whole tongue and ate it up with a smile on his face.  Ick!  After we finished we headed back to Gbarnga with 6 adults crammed into the jeep and Lamine and I finally felt relaxed that our part was over. 

Sadly, when we reached Gbarnga Lamine headed to the hospital and found out that his mother had died while we were away.  He said that she looked at his sister and said “I am leaving now” and then died soon thereafter.  The day really was full of joy and excitement at times but it ended very sadly as Lamine was quite distraught.  I had to really push him to make sure he didn’t come into work on Friday as he is one of the most dedicated people I have ever met and is always working.  I think he was relieved to be able to stay with his family though. 

Anyways, yesterday Kevy and I spent the morning getting our groceries for the week and then spent the afternoon lying on the concrete floor trying to stay cool.  It is getting extremely hot here and we are constantly sweating.  Last night we both lie awake for hours dripping and uncomfortable; I don’ think either of us have ever felt so hot before.  It doesn’t seem like today will be much more exciting and reading and exercise will likely be the only things we accomplish, but c’est la vie!  We hope to get to Monrovia next weekend because our visas expire next Saturday so we need to get them extended. 

We hope all is well with everyone at home and we look forward to hearing from you!

Lots of love,

ANOTHER Quiet Day in Banga

Hello everyone, 

Its Kevin today as Tiffany is off in the field.

It is a very quiet Wednesday for me here in Banga because as I mentioned, Tiffany is off on an important trip into the field today.  Donors from the EU (European Union) are here to visit the projects they are funding.  These donors are very important and have the ability to end the current project simply by pulling their funding if they do not like what they see.  So, Tiffany along with her bossman Lamine, and a group from WFP will be courting these donors with a trip into the field, a few meetings and hopefully a nice dinner.  Alas, lowly Kevin is stuck at home to eat beans.  JK (kinda).  As I am sure most of you are just waking up, I have actually had a nice quiet day reading my book, keeping house and trying to not to sweat to death.  The donors definitely picked a nice day to go into the field.  I’m sure Tiffany must be sweltering, but don’t feel too bad for her as her Land Cruiser has AC.  Today has been hot but we have been fortunate to have rains during most nights making the mornings cool and it easy for me to stay in bed! 

That’s really all I have to say today.  I just wanted to say hello and hope everyone has a happy Remembrance Day.  Tiffany will give you a much more detailed account of her trip into the field very soon, maybe some pictures as well.  For anyone who does not know, she has put up some pictures on her Facebook account for your viewing pleasure.  There are only about 12 because it takes so long to upload, but there are some good ones.  I believe you can also see the pictures through my account as I am tagged in several.

Until next time,

Kevin

P.S. Thanks everyone who has been emailing us.  We appreciate hearing from so many friends back home.

P.P.S. We hope to visit some natural waterfalls this weekend.  We will let you know how that goes if we can get up there.

Happy Halloween!

Hello everyone and Happy Halloween!

I hope you have all been able to find other websites to occupy your downtime at work while we have been on a bit of a hiatus.  Things have slowed down considerably over the last few weeks with the exception of the few days we spent in Monrovia this past week.  We are now back in Banga, fully stocked on canned goods from the city and an appetite for the quiet of up-country.  Tiffany and I are currently sitting in the shade of our porch, eating pineapple and bananas, reading our books and watching life around us.  One observation we made earlier today was to remark on the lack of sizeable animals in the area.  We would have thought that as we live in a remote jungle community, we would see monkeys, snakes, goats, bigger birds, etc.  However, we then thought about it and I’m sure if there were more sizeable animals in the community they would probably all make it into the nightly meals.  There is, however, no lack of small birds, lizards, a few snakes, and tons of strange insects that all make a lot of noise. 

In many ways we are very happy here.  We enjoy many aspects of our daily lives like being able to read as much as we like or wearing few clothes and not caring what you look (or smell) like everyday.  We also enjoy the simplicity of life here; everything you need is easily accessed and done in a relaxed manner.  If you need water, you take your bucket to the well and get some.  If you need more rice, you walk to the market and buy some.  There are no complications in living.  But things become difficult in accessing things that you want.  You need more books, you have to choose from a very small selection of Christian books that might or might not be for sale in town.  If you want to eat something other than cabbage, rice and onions, maybe something more western, you have to make a four hour trip to Monrovia that costs a lot of money for white people.  In this respect, life is difficult.  We are so used to being able to get both what we need and want so easily that we have taught ourselves that we need high speed internet or a huge variety of foods and entertainment.  For anyone like us, it’s very hard to get passed that and learn just to live with what you have around you.  Our taxi driver who took us to Monrovia last week was very surprised to learn that although we don’t have papaya and pineapple trees in Canada we can get anything we want, no matter what time of year at the supermarket.  During the same discussion, he listed many of the foods that grew locally here, like cassava, pineapple, pawpaws (papaya), butter pears (avocado), and at the end he said “Thank God for Liberia!”.  When he said that, I realized just how much we take for granted in the western world, and that if these people can be so thankful with so little, then I can too.  So both Tiffany and I are trying to live as well as possible based more on our needs than on our wants.  (Not counting our computers with TV shows, movies and ebook readers!)

However, there are also aspects of our lives here in Liberia that frustrate and annoy us.  Things like having no privacy.  Although we live in a small community, there seem to be many people around all the time.  Whether it’s at 6 in the morning or 9 in the evening, people are always coming and knocking at your door to talk or sitting outside your house talking loudly while you try and sleep.  This is one area where Tiffany and I have troubles. 

We also are frustrated by the way everyone here views us.  To Liberians, white people are people of opportunity, and in many ways they’re right.  We’re the ones who have the opportunity to come here, live where we want, work in what we want and be who we want.  Many people are very polite and friendly to us.  But it frustrates me to know that most of these people are nice to us because they want something from us.  Now you might say, “Well Kevin, that’s just you being pessimistic and unfair.”  But truly it is how Liberians see white people.  For example, I believe in my last post that I told you about how we met a man named Kennedy.  We met Kennedy at our favourite drink shop in town where he came and sat down with us and we talked with him for about 20 minutes.  He seemed like a very nice man who worked at Phebe Hospital in the morgue and had been working at a mortuary in Banga for 19 years.  He was very nice and bought us a beer.  At the end of the conversation he asked us for our phones numbers so we could get a beer with him another time.  We gave them to him and he began calling us every day until we said we could again about half a week later.  We owed him a beer so we went and met him and bought him a beer.  This time, Kennedy started the conversation immediately with “I want you to help me set up a mortuary institution in Liberia.  I need you to connect me with people in Canada who can have me come over and learn at their institution and then help fund a school here.”  From then on, the conversation was focused on us giving him our home addresses and phone numbers so that he could contact us.  Also, about a week ago a staff member asked Tiffany for money to help with expenses for his children.  She decided to quietly help him but soon many others on the staff came asking for money too.  Now we get knocks on our door all of the time with notes to give them money for whatever they deem important.  One of the other staff always comes by to ask for money and I offered to help him to learn to use the computer instead of paying for a pricey computer class, but this has now turned into tons of people expecting to be taught whenever they feel like it, whether that is at 11pm or not.  Other volunteers have had the same sort of encounters.  One volunteer thought that she had become very good friends with a certain family in the community and they asked her for some financial help.  She was about to give it to them, when they called her by the name of the one other white person in town.  They didn’t realize who was who.  This kind of thing is always in the back of your mind when you are talking with people here.  We have realized that we are not really friends, although they are friendly, we are seen as opportunities.  This realization has tainted the welcome we once felt from the people here.

But on a lighter note, we had an excellent 4 days down in Monrovia where we took advantage of our “wants” feasting on a western diet and an air-conditioned hotel room with wi-fi.  We splurged and stayed in what is deemed the nicest hotel in Liberia, and although it was very clean, we could have had the same calibre of room in a Super 8 type hotel back in Canada.  Everything in Liberia is significantly over-priced for non-Liberians.  But after over one month up-country we thought less of the cost and more of the amenities (yes running hot water is one of the best amenities for us now!) We ate a cheeseburger at the Mambo Point Hotel which was honestly the BEST burger we have ever had.  I am sure it is partly due to the fact we have been craving this for a while now but really it was delicious and we savoured every bite.  We enjoyed real breakfasts and Tiffany got coffee that wasn’t a 3 in 1 Nescafe mix and was very pleased about that.  We also stocked up on groceries, bought some movies (pirated ones from Japan that crowd the streets in town), and I even found a beard trimmer so I no longer have to shave off my whole beard like before and can properly cut my hair.  Later that evening Tiffany gave me a “military” style haircut after the first shave on the side was shorter than expected.  I think it looks BA (bad-ass), Tiffany isn’t as convinced.  Other than that we enjoyed the beautiful ocean views and relaxed a lot.  Our last day was more frustrating as our ride back to Gbarnga cancelled on us and we couldn’t find anyone who would take us back at a fair price.  Finally after a lot of finagling we were able to arrange for a driver; however we had to pay $10 more than we normally should even after a long negotiation. 

Although we mentioned our new time line in our last post, things have once again changed, though this will be the last time.  We won’t get into many details in the blog but there are some rather serious issues with this organization that Tiffany has a real hard time with and go against many of her beliefs in what is acceptable for organizations working in development.  Moreover, she has yet to be paid, and without any transportation to get her into the field, the “Field Coordinator” role does not actually exist.  This does not look like it is going to change any time soon as the company really has no money and the project is unlikely to get renewed so Tiffany has a very minimal amount of work to do, and none of it is challenging or couldn’t be done by existing staff here.  She is lucky if she has 1-2 hours of data entry work per day.  Therefore, this really is not the experience she had anticipated or was told it was going to be and we have had a difficult time justifying staying for the whole contract given the realities here.  So...we are now leaving Liberia at the end of December and have booked a plane ticket to Nairobi, Kenya.  From there we will go to Tanzania for two months to travel and visit the beaches of Zanzibar.  We will then fly back to Liberia and will leave on our original flight out of here on February 28, 2011.  Our time in Africa will still be 6 months and although we are very disappointed in how it has turned out in some ways, it does not make sense to continue in a position that is meaningless and when we have a wedding to save for and jobs/schooling to consider. 

That being said we have learned many things already here and ultimately we are happy we came and could have this experience together here.  This post is getting quite long so we will go for now.  We hope everyone enjoys Halloween and we hope to update again soon.

Much love,

Hey Hey!

Hello from Banga!

Tiffany and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend with family and October is treating you well. 

I’m sorry we haven’t posted much in the last little while.  To be honest there hasn’t been much to post about.  Tiffany and I have definitely settled in well to our house (yes, we can now call it a house, not a home, but a house), and are fast approaching the two month point in our trip.  Much of our days consist of Tiffany getting up earlier than me to do work, then we spend the afternoon reading, playing cards and writing, and then an evening of dinner and maybe a TV show or two on our computers.  It’s been about a month since we last made our way down to Monrovia meaning our food supply is very short and we have become more creative in what we eat.  Cabbage has become a staple of ours since we started seeing it in the market.  We like to make cabbage rolls, and a poor man’s version of an already poor man’s borscht.  Being in seclusion like this without being in the city also makes one go a little crazy and Tiffany often has laughing fits brought on by nothing.  Often, we’ll be sitting outside when all of the sudden she starts to laugh and the more I ask her what she is laughing about the more I laugh and after a few minutes we are both laughing hysterically with stitches in our side and still have no idea what caused this fit.  Although it’s a little crazy, it’s one of the best parts of our day. 

Although Tiffany’s work may not be going exactly as planned, our time here hasn’t been completely in vain.  We have met and talked with many very interesting people.  Yesterday afternoon, Tiffany and I decided to take a motorbike into town to have a beer at our favourite drink shop where you can buy beer, Fanta, Coke and some household necessities like toilet paper and washing powder.  This place has become our favourite because they usually have a newspaper for us to read and also because of one woman who works there.  Being that we are usually their only customers, we often talk with her about her family and her life experiences.  She was very proud to tell us that her eldest daughter lived in the States and was practicing to become a nurse, and that one of her sons had applied for a scholarship that would take him to Canada.  Maybe it’s because we’re from Canada, but she told us how much she loved Canada and how great a country it is.  She said she also has other family who live in Ottawa.  After discussing this and finding out that she was 54 years old, (she looks about 40, much like many other people here who age very well.  One of our guards looks to be about my age but I recently found out that he is 39 years old with 5 children!) the conversation turned to some of the atrocities she experienced during the war here in Liberia.  She did spend much of the war in Ghana where many people fled, but she also witnessed some terrible things.  She told us of a time when she and her children were walking along the side of the road when a rebel soldier confronted the man who was walking directly in front of her and her family.  Without any reason or explanation, the soldier shot the man dead right in front of her children, thinking it was her husband.  It wasn’t, but obviously the intention was to instil a deep fear in her family.  She also spoke of how soldiers would ask people if they wanted a “short sleeve” or a “long sleeve,” which meant they would either chop off just their hand at the wrist or one’s arm just above the elbow, not even sparing babies or children.  It was really unbelievable to hear her stories as we sat in the same town where the rebels were based not long ago, and to see the resilience of the people to come back to the same place; as she said “there is no place like home.”  While she was telling me the story, I realized why religion is so important to people here.  After experiencing the atrocities they experienced it is no wonder that they need something to believe in beyond this life and to guide them.  It is one thing to hear about this on the news (if it makes it on the news) and another to hear it first hand, which makes it all the more real and instils a desire to help.  This is the same realization that Tiffany had when she spoke to the genocide widows in Rwanda.  Hopefully we will be able to share more stories as they come along.

On a lighter note, one interesting observation we had while drinking our beers was to understand how a rural gas station operates in Liberia.  Men sit under a V-shaped corrugated tin roof on a slap of cement surrounded by plastic barrels filled with gasoline, which they then siphon out with their mouths into industrial sized pickle jars in order to know the quantity of fuel they have.  Whenever a motorist arrives the men siphon the fuel with their mouth and a garden hose into the gas tank while spitting the excess fuel from their mouth back into the pickle jar so that they don’t waste any.  Often fuel runs out entirely in the town and everything comes to a standstill until the fuel truck arrives from Monrovia.  We are lucky that we are only 4 hours away from Monrovia with a decent road, as Voinjama (15 hours away on an impassable road during the rainy season) has been out of fuel for months.

While gasoline may be hard to come by at times and the dry season is apparently upon us (according to Liberians) the rain is still here in great supply.  Tonight it abruptly began down pouring with rain and as Tiffany made dinner, I ran around hauling buckets of water in and out of the house in my boxers trying to collect as much as possible.  We have a newfound appreciation of the amount of water we use.  We suspect that we gathered around 30 gallons of water (and could have collected double that if we had not run out of buckets) in 30 minutes time, giving us enough water for the next 5 days.

We are looking forward to this Sunday as we are planning to go back to Monrovia for three nights where we have decided to splurge on a pricey hotel room with air conditioning, hot showers, high speed wireless, espresso, satellite TV and an infinity pool all overlooking the ocean.  Yes it sounds expensive and yes it will be, but yes it is also worth it!  We figure we won’t spoil ourselves during the next six months very often so we deserve a little break from Gbarnga and the boredom.

To end this long post we thought we would update everyone on our tentative timeline.  Since this job has not been what Tiffany expected, she won’t be extending the contract past the end of February.  At that point we will make our way to Tanzania for two months where we plan to go on a safari, explore the area and lounge with drink in hand on the beaches of Zanzibar.  Although it will be getting into the rainy season there, we are hoping for warm and sunny afternoons and are excited to have something to look forward to.  This will bring our arrival into Canada at the end of April/beginning of May so we can help Mike and Roo celebrate their recent engagement and spend time with all of our friends and family while saving a bit of money for our own wedding! 

We will update again after our awesome trip to Monrovia and we hope all is well with all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

October 10, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 Kevin and I have even found a way to celebrate it here!  Last week we went into town and bought a bunch of groceries from the ladies at the market (and one guy who had the most delicious baguettes!)  We then came home and inquired about where we could get a chicken.  Jefferson, one of the security guards here, lives in the house with a ton of other families, right in front of us and they had chickens to sell, so we arranged to have one for Saturday.  Saturday rolled around and a woman came to our door and when we answered we were presented with the live chicken we were planning on eating that evening!  We then asked if they could kill and clean the chicken for us as we did not want to do it, and really don’t know how (and have no real desire to learn!)  We watched out of our window as a man next door took the chicken and amongst a great deal of squawking there was a swift swipe with a knife, and our dinner was dead.  A couple of hours later we got the chicken, which was in pieces with an egg and the liver and some orange ball things that we didn’t know what they were (we threw these out!)  We also made mashed potatoes (the potatoes are not the same as at home and are sweeter here, almost a mix between a yam and a potato but still white), squash, and a surprisingly good stuffing considering the lack of necessary spices!  So last night Kevy and I ate our delicious dinner, drank wine and said thank you to the dead chicken on our plate.  Oh and I don’t know who of those reading has eaten chicken that is truly local and who has been active but the meat was far less than those sold at home and it was much tougher, but good all the same.  This made us think once again about what hormones must be pumped into the food we eat to make it that big and tender! 

Also as I write this I am comfortably perched on our new living room furniture!!  We got two arm chairs, a small couch and a coffee table all made of bamboo, which is donned with foam cushions covered in striped neon green and white fabric with bright pink flowers all over it and writing that says star.  Weird I know.  We did not get to choose the fabric but it certainly adds colour to our place! 

Aside from this the week has been fairly dull.  It was payday here finally (though they forgot to add me to the payroll so I didn’t get paid yet for September but should soon) and the rest of the staff finally got paid for last month and we are now up to date with that which is a relief!  Everyone’s spirits are up and our dam construction project in Samay is complete and the Garmu dam will be complete by the end of this week, so progress is being made.  I am going into the field tomorrow to see some of our communities and I am looking forward to that.  I also attended a meeting on Friday with representatives from all of the agricultural focused organizations in Bong County where we update one another on our activities and offer suggestions, ask questions etc.  This meeting lasted 2.5 hours as everyone often got sidetracked into tense debates about how development should be done here, criticising some of the other’s approaches.  It is interesting to get to hear what people think here and compare that to what I was learning last year. 

Kevin and I also were given a big bunch of plantains by our cleaner Judy this week and our guard Joe gave us 4 coconuts.  We cracked some open and drank the juice until Kevy knocked over the glass we poured it into!  Oh and due to the crazy heat here, combined with Kevin’s broken beard trimmer, he shaved off his beard!!  It has been a long time since we have seen his face beardless!  He has also been helping Joe build a garden on the property where Joe is going to plant water greens and potato greens, so that has been a nice thing for him to do. 

Well that is basically it for our week!  I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, we will be thinking of you all!!

A Slow Week in Banga

We are reaching the end of the rainy season here in Liberia and if you ask a local, they’ll tell you that it won’t rain at all after October 15^th.  So we have been having no rain during the day, but a fair amount in the evenings, making sleeping a bit less sticky.  This past week has proven to be quite uneventful for both Tiffany and me.  Tiffany has been doing office work since her last foray into the field for the season’s first harvest and I have been reading a book that Tiffany recommended.  It’s called Emergency Sex and for anyone who has done international aid work or is interested in it, you have probably heard of and read the book.  This book was quite different from the others I have read since coming here, but I really enjoyed it.  Emergency Sex reveals the stories of three individuals who worked for the UN in several different countries during the 1990’s.  The tag line for the book is ‘A True Story from Hell on Earth’, which seems very indicative of the places they chose to work in.  The story starts in Cambodia in 1991 where they establish a democratic election, to Somalia in ’93 then onto Rwanda and Haiti in ’94 and then to Bosnia and Liberia.  The stories they tell of the situations they put themselves into are unbelievable.  Well worth the read for anyone interested in being blown away!  I’m sure Kelly could attest to that.

The other small point of interest is that Tiffany and I have purchased some living room furniture!  We are very excited about this and can’t wait to sit on something other than plastic lawn chairs.  We are getting a small couch, two arm chairs and a coffee table.  They’re a set, come with cushions, and are made out of bamboo with cushions on them.  We saw the guys working on them when we were walking into town a few days ago.  We haven’t gotten them yet, but they should be finished in the next day or two.  We haven’t really figured out how we are going to get them back to our place, but I’m sure we’ll work something out.  I’m pretty sure we paid a white man’s price, but we did bargain with them and got it for around what we were willing to spend. 

On Saturday we decided that we would go into town to a restaurant called Serengeti for lunch for a change of scenery.  We took motorbikes for the 10 minute drive there and found that we were the only customers.  We ate rice with kidney beans in a palm oil sauce with chunks of some fish and another meat (with think it might have been porcupine or some other small animal).  It was decent but we make better food at home and for cheaper so I’m not sure how often we will eat out up here.  Plus we were only gone for an hour, so basically it wasn’t really worth it.

Other than that, as I said things have been quite slow.  Tiffany and I played cards last night and whenever one of us lost, we had to take a small shot of Pastis.  Pastis is a very strong alcohol I believe is from France and is made, I think, from anise seed, so it tastes a lot like black liquorice.  Pastis is also super cheap at $2 US for a two sixer and you can buy it anywhere.  Needless to say, Tiffany drank a little too much and had a rough time getting up this morning.  Luckily for me, I slept in.

Oh yeah, as many of you know, I planned to grow out my hair and beard.  Unfortunately that idea came to a quick end when I realized how hot I already was.  So I asked Tiffany to give me haircut with my beard trimmer.  Regrettably, the trimmer died mid cut and she had to complete the rest with a pair of children’s scissors.  I now have no beard trimmer and a haircut that looks like it was done by a blind man.

We hope all is well with everyone at home and that you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Happy October!

October 1, 2010

Hello everyone, it is Tiffany again!  It is now the beginning of October and we have been here over a month now.  This week I was able to go back into the field again for the first ever rice harvest in Samay for the Swamp Rehabilitation Programme here in Liberia.

On Thursday, Lamine and I headed out early to the site via his dirt bike, but luckily we ran into the FAO and WFP people in their Land Cruiser and I was able to ride the remaining hour and a half ride to the site much more comfortably, especially given the rain and copious amounts of mud everywhere.  The road was the same muddy and potholed road I had been on before, so getting stuck in the mud was not unexpected, but we got out just fine after a few tries through.  Eventually we arrived in the community of Samay, which is fairly small, comprised mainly of small mud-brick houses with dried palm leaves as roofs. 

The community all gathered under a large covered area along with myself, Lamine, and Richmond our Agricultural Technician, as well as representatives from FAO, WFP, the Minister of Gender and Equality, the Ministry of Agriculture, and other government members.  After many loooong speeches (people here love to talk and talk and talk) the women danced, sang and played music on these strange looking hollowed out wood contraptions.  We then walked down to the dam VIA constructed, which was just completed this week and then walked out into the rice swamps (along bunds, which are raised pathways).  The whole swamp is 16 hectares and about 2 hectares was ready for harvest.  They lined many of the women and all of us guests along the bunds and gave us a little knife where all at once we pronounced the rice ready for harvest, cut through the tape and then started cutting the rice stalks as a symbolic gesture of the harvest.  We cut quite a few stalks for about 20 minutes and took pictures etc.  It was a fantastic experience to get to see the first ever harvest of this programme and to see how excited all of the women and community members are to harvest and sell their rice.  The community is looking to expand their swamp to the next community and I could really tell they are extremely hard working and excited about the future prospects for development.  After we walked back up to the community and ate some rice and hot pepper sauce with a small piece of mystery meat on top that the ladies had prepared for us.  It was super spicy but actually quite good.  The day was really rewarding and I came home with a rice stalk as a souvenir for Kevy to see.

Today we walked into town and got more produce as well as some strange bottle of alcohol that smells like black liquorice or sambuca called Patis, some big bottles of Club beer and two bottles of wine.  Our evenings can be quite dull so we plan to spread that out over the next little while.  We also arranged to have some couches made for us, which are partially completed and we will have them by Tuesday.  This will be really nice as it will finally mean we have somewhere comfortable to sit aside from our bed (which really is not comfortable at all!)  It is getting extremely hot and while I am writing this Kevin is lying on a towel on the concrete trying to cool down after our 2 hour walk to and from town (while we listen to the e-book of Harry Potter of course!)  We have also been doing afternoon excersizes in our living room, running laps of our small house, as well as I have been doing a lot of yoga.  We plan on going back into town tomorrow for lunch at Serengeti, a Liberian restaurant that the guards suggested we try.  Other than that things are going well and one month is over, plus it felt like this week flew by.   We hope everyone is doing well and thanks to those who sent us messages as it is really nice to hear from people back at home!

Lots of Love,

Updates and Whatnot

Heyoh!

I’m sorry we haven’t made an entry for about a week, but for basically the first time, we’ve been slightly busy!  On Sunday, Tiffany and I made our way down to Monrovia where we stayed until Wednesday afternoon.  Our ride down was courtesy of Morgan and his “God’s Favour” taxi.  All taxis here have paintings and slogans on them, mostly pertaining to God or Obama, who, to many locals here, are the same person (seriously every store is named either something about God or Obama).  God’s Favour had a very nice painting of an attacking panther on it which I thought very indicative of the speed and vigour the 1985 Toyota Corolla contained.  Morgan was a nice enough guy and his car was clean but it did not have seatbelts (common theme for taxis), which is a little unsettling when you are swerving all over the road to avoid potholes.  But, being the man I am, I didn’t sweat it, I just sat there coolly jamming to the tunes on the radio (actually, I was praying our taxi’s slogan wasn’t just for show).  But enough about me.  Once we made it into Monrovia, we spent the afternoon at the guesthouse and met one of the other volunteers who was down from Voinjama, a small town in the very north east of the country.  Her name is Jackie and she’s from New Brunswick!  The third Canadian we’ve met.  That night we went for an unbelievable dinner at the Royal Hotel.  Because we’d been living on beans and rice for almost three weeks, we decided we needed some real food and went to an ex-pat restaurant for dinner where we definitely made the most of it.  Tiffany and I were so hungry for something western, we ordered a ton of food, including but not limited to, the Hungry Cowboy Burger which included a slab (almost an inch thick!) of fried Mozzarella, thick slices of back bacon, an egg, and onion rings, (Kim I was thinking of youJ) a ham and pineapple pizza (we got through two slices and took the rest home for the next day), a Greek salad, and hummus with pita.  All washed down by two massive Club Beers, the local brew.  Needless to say, we were very satisfied and quite sleepy.

                That night we also met our new favourite Liberian, Alpha.  Alpha is a charter taxi driver and was recommended to us by the workers in the Monrovia office.  Many Liberians, when they speak, like to make little squeals at the end of their sentences.  They also like to put ‘oh’ on the end of everything, like we do with ‘eh’, ie. Morningoh or sorryoh.  Funnily enough, Heyoh! isn’t very common.  Too bad.  Anyways, the only thing similar to this squeal that I can think of is the sound Michael Jackson makes when he puts his hand on his crotch (the one Dave does so well).  Well Alpha is very friendly and happy and liked to include these sounds frequently in his speech.  We became fast friends when he showed us his Canadian sticker and said that it came before his New Zealand or London stickers.  We enjoyed talking with him and we used him several times during our trip.  His rate is also good as he only charges $5 for a trip basically anywhere in Monrovia (good when you are going far, not so good when you aren’t going far). 

                So our time in Monrovia was fine.  It was nice to spend some time in the city and to get some more groceries from not a wheelbarrow and eat normal meals.  I am also on the hunt for the fifth season of ‘Six Feet Under’ from all the movie vendors on the street; however I have been so far unsuccessful.  $5 can get you pretty much any movie or series you could ever want.  One of them in the Monrovia house was called ‘Matt Damon vs. Leo DiCaprio’ and included about 8 movies from each actor.

Anyways, we’re back in Banga with stomachs full of pizza, burgers and other good food and ready to take on the next couple months.  We are keeping up on our reading and calisthenics routine as well (I feel 75 using that word).  Tiffany and I are working our way through classics on our Kobos; she’s currently reading Great Expectations and I am reading Treasure Island.  Oh yeah, we also got a bit of furniture while in Monrovia so we have a shelf and a desk that we are using as our dining table.  Pictures will be up on Flickr as soon as the internet stops being hating us.  Also, we should be getting the broken truck fixed soon because Visions finally got some money, so we should have a vehicle in the next few weeks which means Tiffany (and I) will be visiting the field more often.

Please keep us updated on any news from home.  We love emails and facebook messages!

My first day in the field!

September 16, 2010

Hi everyone, it is Tiffany again and I wanted to update you all on my first day out in the field, which was on Tuesday. 

We were supposed to be heading out at about 8:30am; however, going by Liberia time we ended up leaving at nearly 11am.  It was exciting as it was my first ride in a World Food Programme Land Cruiser and I went with Lamine, who I work with, Monica, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Akoi, the WFP program monitor, and Charles Fissibue (I like his last name), the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN) program monitor.  It all felt very official, but they were all really nice, and its a good thing because it was a long, squishy and uncomfortable ride.

Our plan for the day was to visit 6 communities who want WFP to provide food to their communities, which Visions in Action would implement if they were selected.  The driver took us on a less well travelled road so that I could see some of the rice swamps and communities that VIA is working in now.  At first this seemed like a great idea as I really wanted to see; however the road was atrocious and I soon changed my mind about the intelligence of this plan during rainy season.  The driver would go extremely fast any parts he could and then would slam on his breaks and the whole car would jolt as we approached the endless and enormous potholes. In fact some were not potholes, because that implies there are parts of the road that are not one big hole, which is not the case.  Rather the road is basically sunken from the rain and several times when going uphill we would get stuck in pits of mud and it would take quite a while to get out.  I felt like I was (a) on the Indian Jones ride in Disney Land where it throws you all around in the car, on repeat and (b) like a was the helpless child during a game of bumpy ride, smooth ride, pothole that would never end.   At first it was thrilling and then became redundant and uncomfortable, but the scenery was beautiful.  The country is basically all a lush green rainforest with little villages dotted here and there, with palm, rubber, avocado, mango, orange, papaya, coconut, cocoa and many other trees everywhere. 

Finally we got to the UNDP office where we were meeting a few other men who drove to show us to the communities (after about 2.5 hours of driving).  We finally made it to the side road off the main road to the village, which was still about another half hour away.  Soon we came to a bridge (really just a couple of big logs with a few rickety planks lying over top.  The other jeep made it over, and when one of the guys asked whether we should go I knew I should be worried.   Still we started across but soon our jeep slipped and yes, the back half of the jeep fell through the bridge!  Everyone kept saying “this is Africa” to me every time we got stuck or something happened, like it was no big deal.  We all stumbled out of the jeep to survey the damage, but with the winch of the other jeep we got out fairly easily.  I was thinking about Davey the whole time because (a) he loves Land Cruisers and (b) pulling the car out of some crazy situation with a winch brought me right back to my childhood!  Anyways we finally got out and got to a community, which was a series of little huts with a rice swamp nearby.  We assembled under a thatch roofed hut and had a town meeting where we went through some questions with the people in order to figure out whether they would suit the program.  After we had to take a long way around to get right back to where we started so we wouldn’t have to go over the bridge and then visited two more communities.  After three communities, we called it a day and started the long journey back.  On the way back we went through torrential rains where all you could see was water splashing up all around the vehicle like we were driving through a lake.  The whole day was crazy but cool to get to see the country more and to visit the communities.  Finally it felt like I was doing something here, though the days since have been quite slow.

Nonetheless, Kevin and I are going to Monrovia this weekend to deal with passport stuff and restock supplies, which will be a nice change of pace.   We hope everyone is doing well and we miss you all!

Lots of love,