Orientation to Liberia

I’m in Africa! I have to keep reminding myself how crazy that is. The first few weeks have flown by and I haven’t written about it yet so here it is:

Week One: arrive in Liberia. We’re staying in Kakata (Kok-uh-tuh), a city of about 40,000 people about an hour outside the capital of Monrovia. Kakata has one paved road going through its center known as the “coal tar”. Walking on the main street can be tricky as there are no sidewalks and no separation between pedestrian and motorized traffic. The city spreads out from there in no discernible pattern. There is no running water in the houses, no sewage system, and the only electricity comes from gasoline generators. In fact, there is no electric grid anywhere in the country. There was in the 1980’s but the wars in the ‘90’s and ‘00’s ruined much of the infrastructure and Liberia is still rebuilding. 

Jet Lag Photo: our first as a group

Walking around I notice people waving at me, trying to get my attention, little kids shouting, “hello white man”, hoping to get a reaction. When I wave back to them their faces light up with smiles as they stick their thumbs up. Older folks are a little different: they want me to sit and talk with them. I explain what Peace Corps is, why I’m in Liberia. They ask me my name and thank me for coming to Liberia.

After a few days in Kakata they send all 36 trainees out for site exposure. They want us to see how volunteers live and get an idea of what life is like outside of Doe Palace in Kakata. When they tell us where we’re going I find out Andy (another trainee) and I are visiting Matt Kraus, a Biology teacher in LR-2 (the group of volunteers immediately before us who got here last summer) who is living in Zoweinta. It is two and a half hours up to Gbarnga (bahng-uh) on the coal tar and then another two on a dirt road into the bush to get there. I’m psyched! Big cities are nice but I really want to live in a small community and get the real PC experience. Zoweinta is awesome: most people know Matt’s name, people want us to stop and chat, and we drink palm wine on people’s porches. It then starts to rain fairly hard. First we try the Liberian technique and just wait on someone’s porch for awhile, hoping the rain will stop. It doesn’t stop so the three of us grab some plastic, wrap up our phones so they don’t get spoiled (Liberian English), and make a dash back to Matt’s house. All Matt’s neighbors laugh at us as we try (and fail miserably) to dodge the raindrops. Liberians don’t go out in the rain very much. When it’s raining businesses open later, kids are late or absent for school, and productivity in general drops. Why go out in the rain? Why not just keep sleeping? I think this is one cultural norm I won’t have too much trouble embracing.

The next day was pretty slow. We went to Matt’s class in the morning and watched him give a final. The rest of the day we walked around town, he showed us his fish farm which is a work in progress. There is rice being grown and a hole being dug but no fish yet. One of Matt’s neighbors brings a Liberian dish by for us to eat for dinner. It was pretty tasty but I got sick in the night. It might have been the food. It might have been the palm wine. This is the first time I am sick from strange fare here but I know it won’t be the last. Damn my weak stomach. Being slightly ill makes the journey back to Kakata less than enjoyable, but I manage.

Week Two: start of homestay. At the end of sessions on Friday we have an adoption ceremony where we meet someone from our host family. We ran toward our new families and embraced them. It was great. After our hug I asked my host ma what language she speaks and she tells me Kpelle. This is the most common local dialect in Liberia and is spoken a lot of different places so this doesn’t give me a good idea where I might be going. Oh well.

My host mother is Henrietta and my pa is David. I have six siblings: James - 19, Sando - 15, Jenet -12, Manue - 10, Princess - 6, and Dakukai - just turned 6. I spent the first night playing Uno with some of my family. They enjoyed the game and it gave me a chance to use simple Liberian English to explain the rules to them. I’ll pick up the language in time, small small. The next day was laundry day for me since I only brought eight shirts to this country and most of them are dirty. Everyone in the family got a good laugh out of me trying to wash my clothing. I rubbed, squeezed, wrung out, rinsed, and tried my hardest to do a good job. My sister Jenet took my things from me and handed me socks. I was a little better at pumping water so they let me fill my bucket and bring to the house for my bath. They offered to heat the water up for me, but I prefer to feel cold for a few minutes once a day right now. It is, after all, the only time I’m not sweating profusely.



So that was the first couple weeks. I didn't take too many photos yet but I'll take some more in the future.