Welcome to the Jungle then back in Bong

First... some pictures. Yay got some to work!


Market. Big pile of chili peppers. Me- sweaty, no make up, tired African version of me- at the Gbargna town center.

Me in front of my house/office


My room complete with bed net. I'll pretend its a princess bed.


Hello! Back in Gbargna. It has been a pretty intense couple of days. Last time I wrote- really wrote, besides the poll- I said I was going to Monrovia to help write a proposal. Well that didn't happen. It turned out that it was going to be too much and too rushed to get the proposal in on time. So... I ended up going to a town called Ganta instead. It is a town in the next county over called Nimba. The first day we rushed to try to get started and then we came to the conclusion that we would wait until a better time. So we decided to explore Ganta. I was with Caitlin, Caleb, Dave (the director) and Mark, who works at the office in Ganta. We went grocery shopping in the market and then went to look at a village who had received bed nets near by.
-EQUIP has been distributing bed nets that were donated from USAID as part of the President's initiative against malaria. They have distributed thousands of nets so far all over Liberia and are continuing to distribute more-
We checked the houses to see if they had their nets hung properly, answered questions, played with the kids, and prayed with the families. We then found some awesome bread from a clay oven baker and went back to the house. Caitlin and I cooked up a meal using the ingredients we bought at the market that day. It was an interesting concoction, but it was good- stir fry of cassava leaves, onion, garlic, coconut milk right out of the coconut, peanuts, eggplant and okra- like I said, quite the combo of foods! We ate it with lentils and had a fresh mango and coconut for dessert. Who says you can't be a vegetarian in Liberia (although to be honest, it is quite difficult- I miss veggies! More on that later). After 10 the generator shuts off there and we sat around talking for a bit over candlelight.

The next day, Thursday, was a totally different day. Caitlin and I went for a walk to the local school and introduced ourselves. The situation there was sad, but it turns out Caitlin will be able to help. There are only several teachers there because they cannot afford to hire more. Each teacher is only paid about 400 LD a month, which is about $6-7 a month. Also, many Liberian children cannot afford to go to school, yet school fees are only about 800 LD a year, less than $12 a year. Evidence of a very poor country. Then, the whirlwind set in. Dave decided he wanted to drive us way into the bush, into the jungle, to check out more of the bed net distribution and to distribute bed nets ourselves. We drove to a remote village called Tappita. That night we slept in a mud hut in the jungle... literally. Caitlin and I shared a local women's bed (no she was not sharing the bed also) and neither of us really slept at all. I saw a big hand sized spider earlier that day and it freaked me out. I started crying on the spot. I was exhausted and it was pretty much the last straw for the very long day. Not to mention that my Fibromyalgia was in full flare up mode, so I felt pretty sick. Definitely a moment that I had to question why I came to Liberia.

The next day, we "woke up" at 6 and got dressed and went and had bread and tea (first tea since home!) for breakfast. We then loaded up about 2,000 bed nets in the van and we were off. We visited a town and met a wonderful family, checked to see if they had bed nets and then drove to another town to hand them out. Everyone in the village came out and was cheering and were so happy that we were there. We instructed them on how to hang and take care of the nets and played with the kids. There was a funny moment where we asked the kids to sing something and one little girl started singing a western pop song- Akon. We also scared some little kids when we went to say hello. They had never seen a white person before. We then drove for a while to a lovely little town where the people were friendly, but we did make kids cry again. They have a special name they yell for white people in their tribal language, but I can't remember how to say it. Checked the bed nets, shook hands, played with kids, prayed with families. The last 2 villages were very remote and picturesque. Sandy ground, palm trees, huts with a grass roof. Same pattern here- made kids cry- checked nets, talked, shook hands. I also got beat at a game of checkers by a fine Liberian adversary. I think he made up some new rules though. They expressed graditute that we were there. It was a good last village to stop at. We had one final stop at a clinic and headed home. Finally getting back to Ganta around 9. We were exhausted because we had not slept the night before and we had not eaten a real meal all day, just snacks and juice. I was getting kind of delirious by the time I went to bed.

Today we woke up, took a long walk, got a little burned (the African sun is not meant for people as pale as me), shopped in the market, stopped by the leprosy clinic and bought some things they had made to support their rehab center and went back for lunch. All I seem to eat here is peanut butter, bread and mangoes. Oatmeal for breakfast and some other concoction for dinner (tonight it was a can of corn, peanut butter and crackers and a mango- hey it is weird, but its all I can cook in my place and its 5 food groups!) Standard eating for a veggie here in Liberia. The veggies they do eat, as far as I have seen are sweet potatoes, cassava (a potato like root), okra and the leaves of the cassava and the potatoes. Sometimes squash. I miss fresh summer veggies that you don't have to boil and serve in a heavy soup!

Finally back in Gbargna. A family sent me a message on an earlier blog and said they are from the US working over here and they live right by me! I called them tonight and they said they would meet up tomorrow and maybe get the chance to introduce me to some other expats from all over! Thanks Kate and Tate! It is coming at a good time because I have been feeling down about being alone here. Oh, I forgot to mention, for now I live alone at the office. I have also been going through periods of wondering if I made the right decision to come here. I actually get to my nutrition work this week which will be great because I have been feeling without a purpose here. Need to get to work! Still not used to the little things like the bugs in food when I cook, no running water, washing with dirty looking well water, lack of vegetarian food and the fact that it is 90 + degrees plus humidity and I don't have a fan or anything. Sweaty! The heat is getting to me. Sorry, I don't mean to complain. Just some things I will have to get used to.

I'll work on the other picture requests. Hopefully this will do. It took a long time to upload. I didn't have my camera for the cute town visits because I thought I was going to be doing nothing by writing a proposal when I packed. Caitlin took some thought, so I will steel some off of her next time I head out to Ganta or she visits here.

Love you! Miss you!