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,