The Past Few Weeks

After 5 days tenting out in Robertsport, Jon and I have continued our vacation in Monrovia to enjoy some creature comforts including Internet, A/C, grocery stores, hot showers and CNN. So we will use our ample Internet to hopefully post some photos, do some emailing, and catch up a little on news.

Here’s a small update on what’s been going on here in Liberia:
Unfortunately, most of the photo's wont load. We'll try our best over the next couple of days to get them up. I posted some photos to Facebook so you can see them there. We try but the speeds are just dismally slow!! Sorry!

Bunnies
There's a lady that raises rabbits in town. They're pretty great.


Yekepa
Jon and I took a trip up to Yekepa at the tip of Nimba County right on the border to Guinea and Ivory Coast. We had always wanted to hike up mount Nimba when we were in Guinea and so took the chance to go up on the Liberian side. Yekepa is an old mining town in the mountains. It has a strange Suburbia feeling about it. Nearly everything in the town was built or provided by the mining company. All the housing was built as row houses for mine workers. Instead of artfully named quarters of town, people tell you where they live by giving you a number and a letter. “I’m in C block 4”. The Mountain itself shares tri-border point with Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Liberia and has one of the highest iron ore concentrations in the world. There is so much iron in the mountain that trees can’t even grow on it. The place has a haunting, apocalyptic feeling due to years of mining operations followed by years of looting, vandalism, and civil war. The mountain looks like some strange stepped ancient ruins that runs down to a huge water-filled quarry. All around stand old rusting mining equipment and trucks as if work had suddenly and dramatically been halted mysteriously. Here and there are the burnt-out skeletons of the former mining infrastructure and establishment.
Needless to say we had a great time visiting the area and taking a break from the normal rhythm of life.




Rural Women’s Association Fund Raiser
On May 1st I attended a fund-raiser for the Tappita District Rural Women’s Associations. Groups from all over the district came together to raise funds for projects they were spearheading in their various towns and villages. Some were building women’s health clinics; others schools, warehouses, and marketplaces. I went with a friend of mine to a town about 45 minutes away called Grey. We arrived very early….meaning ‘on time’ in the US and had plenty of time to chat, eat, and chase her 3 year old around. When the program finally began there were many music and dance performances before the fundraising rally officially opened. Many important officials were invited including the CEO (roughly equivalent to a County-level Super Intendant), and the chief elder. I was asked to open the raffle and expressed how impressed I was with the women’s initiatives and explained how their work has been influencing the younger generation in the Tappita Girls Social Club. After that, each invitee was invited up to say some words and to officially give their donation. After many such speeches and plenty more dancing, we finally headed home around 5pm. I haven’t heard what the final tally was of the funds that they were able to raise but I am sure that they are all well on their way to achieving their various objectives.

The CEO’s visit
On May 6th the County Education Officer came for a visit to the school. The visit had been planned for the beginning of the school year but had been pushed back many times. Unfortunately because of the changes, there was less of a turnout then the school had hoped for. Even with the small attendance, the event was very entertaining. All 4 high schools in Tappita gave musical performances and the cultural troupe gave dance presentations to welcome the CEO Mr. Wolf. I will try to post some videos of these performances if the internet gods allow. During the CEO’s address he answered many of the teacher’s pressing questions and gave the school district some gifts and supplies from UNICEF.

Mock WAEC
The reason that Jon and I were able to take our small vacation this week is that presently, our 12th grade students are taking National Exams (the WAEC). These national exams are very important for these students to graduate or to move on in their studies. Generally the week before the exams, there is a trail run test given by each individual school with varying levels of success and resemblance to the actual WAEC test. Last week was rather trying because, for some reason, the school administration was looking to Jon and I for direction in the administration of the test. We were asked to take a leadership role in administering tests to 200 students at once for three days from 8am to 5pm and all of the small and large crises that arose in between. And then, on top of correcting our own exams and calculating the year-end averages for the 12th graders, we were expected to administer all the make up exams. After all that we felt that we deserved a little break so we took off to go to (see below….)

Robertsport.
Robertsport is one of the most beautiful spots in all of Liberia. It is also a hot spot for beach lovers and Surfers from all over the world. We went down to visit our friend Raj at his site and to soak in a little sun. We found a great place to camp right on the beach for $5 a night, took our first surfing lesson, swam, ate incredible seafood, and slept all afternoon in perfectly placed hammocks. A few other Peace Corps friends were enjoying the beach as well. During the weekend, the whole place was packed with NGO and UNMIL Land Rovers but during the week, there was no one around and we had the beach almost completely to ourselves! It was a beautiful place and we are hoping to make our way back there again very soon.

Well that’s really about it. Time has been flying by. We are coming up on the end of the school year and we are beginning to turn our attention to our other projects in the community as well as the Peace Corps trainings in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We are yet to hear what our schedule will be like for the rest of our service but one thing that we do know is that we will be really busy!

Take Care and I hope that you enjoy the long overdue pictures!

Going for Weekend-Happy Easter

Hello all!
Again sorry for the long delays in our updates but in case you have forgotten…we live in West Africa where things never go quite as smoothly as you might wish.


We have been keeping ourselves busy over here. School has been quite a bit less productive as school days keep getting canceled for various events: the president’s visit, a teacher’s meeting, outdoor work days, holidays, the white guys are the only ones who showed up again days…there are various reasons that school just cannot possibly happen. But these days are not just disruptive in and of themselves but are compounded by the fact that when they occur, there is at least one or two days that students will “go for weekend” and just not show up. When there is no school, students who live far from the town will go home to re-supply money and food from home. Other students just don’t come. So for an example, if there is a holiday on a Monday, the students will not come on Tuesday because they went for a weekend or they are recovering from all the resting they did on the holiday. Wednesday is market day so every week, at best 1/2 the students at the school will show up. Maybe Thursday the teacher’s will decide to stay home or maybe have a impromtu meeting so school will be canceled again and everyone will “go for weekend until Monday…or Tuesday…..but then there is market day and the cycle continues. In the past three weeks there were very few days that we stayed at school for the whole day. We taught our classes but with 7 students in a class and no other teachers, there is only so much motivation to continue for the whole day.

Several University students came to hold tutorial sessions for the 9th and 12th graders who are preparing for national exams. I was pretty busy writing new lesson plans for tutoring sessions which included Saturday morning physics reviews….JOY. The students, who came from all the high schools in Tappita really enjoyed the sessions and so there has been some discussion in continuing them.

The girls group has broken ground for ther community garden. We wrote a letter requesting some help from the UNMIL troops in Tappita and on Saturday they came and promised to donate seeds and technical assistance and brought us delicious snacks: apples (a rare treat for the girls) imported oranges, guava juice, rice, beans, and cookies. The girls were thrilled. I hope that they keep up their ambitious good works. I have been going to the field with them for the past two Saturdays. It feels good toiling and sweating beside them. It is truly a cross-cultural experience. They are always so worried about me and if I really can do so much hard work with the hoe. I teach them about white skin and the need for sunscreen when there is not a shady tree in sight. We work and sing and talk and for awhile we can truly feel the differences fall away. We are hoping to plant tomatoes, cassava, peanuts, cucumbers, cabbage, watermelon, and moringa. I took some pictures and will post them when I can.

Jon and I attended a wedding at the Catholic church this past Saturday. The celebration was more western and less involved then the three day guinean wedding marathons that we used to go to. So this time, instead of spending our whole weekend and a few very late nights sitting, dancing, and feeling odd, we spent a wonderful day enjoying the event. The mass was very traditional, but with some fun African twists with the music and dress. The priest’s homily was really nice and made me think about our wedding. He spoke about how people should be whole human beings when they come into a relationship and not just be looking for the other person to make them whole.

We were honored with a surprise visit from out country director and the acting African regional director on Sunday afternoon. We sat and chatted. We had a small lunch and they gifted up some american food…including oreos!!! Double stuffed! YUM. Woe Woe likes them too! Earlier in the week we also had a vist from some other staff who came for lunch but ended up staying for dinner because PK's cooking is so amazing. So basically the whole staff of Peace corps Liberia were at our house last week!

I guess that pretty much brings us up to date. We are really enjoying ourselves here in Tappita. 5 of our friends came this weekend to spend Easter weekend with us. It's been great catching up and enjoying each other's company.

Just a quick update while there is some internet. I'll post some photos when I can!

Be Well,
Kim and Jon

Woe-Woe-The hand that shook the hand of the president

I'm sorry that we have not updated our blog very frequently even though we now have the internet at our site. The internet that we have is pretty slow and that coupled with the speed of my "vintage" computer and that the process entailed in setting up the generator as well as dealing with a monkey jumping up every two minutes and threatening to pee on the keyboard means that we do not go online that often and when we do we usually only do one or two things.

So just as a quick update:
We've been busy working at the local library. When we first arrived it was just a dusty, moldy room filled with unpacked boxes of books and books jumbled up on some rickety shelves. Now, with some help from our librarian Etoile, We are beginning to get the place into better shape. We have organized all of the textbooks and unpacked and catalogued everything that was in the boxes. (It's surprising the kind of random books we across. If the local students ever start up a Cocktail Bar they'll have the perfect book to teach them how to bar-tend.) We alphabetized all of the fiction books and are now just waiting on some more shelves to be finished so that we can display the non-fiction. We've also organized a children's corner for primary school students. Kim likes to read to the students during recess, but she needs to be careful not to invite too many or the library gets overrun. So anyway, with some minor repairs and some more work, the library will be ship-shape in no time.

Kim joined a young women's empowerment group in town. The "Women of Destiny" are a women's group formed to help support the young ladies of the area as well as participate in social activities. The girls meet 3-4 times a week to play kickball and are making plans for a community garden project. They’re still in discussion as to whether they might be raising goats as an heifer-style economic empowerment initiative. Two weekends ago, they launched their group with a parade through town and an 'opening' ceremony. Kim was asked to give the welcoming speech and the address was broadcasted on the local radio station.

So Kim and I have adopted a 'child' her name is Mona Woe-Woe and she is, as far as we can tell, a Campbell’s Mona Monkey. She is just a tiny baby. She has imprinted upon Kim and thinks she's her mom so she can be a little clingy. But she has stolen our hearts and hey...when else in our lives will we be able to own a monkey for a pet? We get lots of attention when we walk through town with her on our shoulder and people are always asking about her. We will post pictures when we have more time.

Last Friday we had the honor of meeting the President of Liberia, Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The president stopped in Tappita briefly to see the new Chinese hospital that is being built up the road from our school. School let out early so that everyone could take part. Jon and I stood in the hot midday African sun to see her. Everyone was so excited. There was a lot of music, drumming, and dancing and the Gio "Long devil" was shaking his stuff on long stilts. The Market Ladies association dressed in white to greet the president with palm fronds, singing, and dancing. The massive convoy pulled up and the president’s car rolled right into the compound and so after waiting so long in the hot West African Sun, sweating and sun burnt we figured we had had enough and were not going to be able to see the president. We contented ourselves with a consolatory cold soda in the shade. But just as soon as we sat town another “Qui-poo” or white person starts yelling “Where are the Peace Corps people!!!! Peace Corps Hurry!!! Very confused Kim literally throws Woe-Woe (who had come to join the action) to a friend and we go over to the convoy. Apparently the US Ambassador to Liberia helped us out. She brought us, still sweating and sunburned, up to meet the President. It was incredible as the sea of people parted and the “Iron Lady” herself stood before us. We had only seen pictures, read her biography, and seen her in a documentary and suddenly she was right there shaking our hands. We barely knew what to say but we got to greet her briefly as she made her way back to her car to continue her trip around Liberia. Unfortunately it all happened so quickly that we didn’t even get to take a picture. Hopefully we will get another chance to meet and speak to President Sirleaf in the future.

A few nights ago we were invited to dine with the Captain of the Bangladeshi UNMIL at their compound in Tappita. We have been getting to know some of the UN guys in the area as incredibly enough we stick out when they are driving around town on their patrols. We had a great time chatting and the dinner was fantastic: chicken and fish with lots of tumeric, parsley, and spice and delicious naan. It was a great change of pace from rice and cassava paste!

So that’s about all the news that we have right now. Life is pretty good. We have basically had a week-long holiday because Wednesday was a holiday and so the students couldn’t come Thursday or Friday because they didn’t feel like it or went home to their villages and Monday also is a holiday so we’ve been keeping busy reading and napping. So as Kutch would say “Life is Tough!”

Be Well Everyone!
Jon and Kim

So …
Where has the time gone?
As you may have noticed, our last blog post was quite a few months ago. Strange as it may seem, it feels like just yesterday that we were saying goodbye to Guinea/Mali and were on an airplane back across the ocean. Between that time and the present moment, it seems that we have lived many and various, and strangely inconsistent lives. It is hard to articulate but upon landing in America, after a few days it felt like our year in Guinea was this strange and vivid dream. Jon and I went to visit our friends Kate and Jim in Hawaii and that again felt like some alternate reality from the cold snows of the New England winter. We have only just hit our 2 week mark here in Liberia and it feels as though home and holidays were ages ago in some other realm. Time is strange like that…sometimes it leaps, sometimes it crawls, sometimes it stands still…and sometimes it just seems…fragmented…

After our evacuation from Guinea, we were sent home for a few months of R&R to await our return to finish our Peace Corps service in Liberia. We came home to a surprise visit from my parents at Logan airport and a warm welcome to freezing northern Maine. We spent a few weeks with Jon’s family, enjoying every minute…and putting back on all the weight we had lost! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Boston and en route were able to visit many of our Maine friends. During this time I was studying for the GRE (not very fun or exciting) but as soon as that was over, Jon and I dashed off to Hawaii.

We spent two weeks snorkeling, hiking, lazing on beaches, and driving around The Big Island, Kauai, and Oahu. Kate and Jim were amazing hosts and really helped us to get out and see their favorite parts of the islands even though they had busy work schedules. We managed to make it to all the different sand beaches, including a pretty long, hot hike to a green sand beach. One of the best days was when Jim and Kate took us out to Makala’awena Beach a beautiful (and again hard to reach) pristine white sand beach. We drank Coronas, laid in the sun and played in the waves. Another Peace Corps Guinea Volunteer, Jake, who happened to be in the area, met us there. Then we headed up to Mona Kea, the highest point on the Big Island. Up on top is an internationally renowned astronomical observatory. Because of it’s location and strict light pollution ordinances, the observatory offers some of the most pristine images of the night sky. After a race to rent a car, make the trip there and a little harrowing race up the winding roads, we made it to the top just to see the sunset. We stayed as night fell and watched as the entire milky way lay above us. Jon and I also visited a botanical garden and offered a lei to Pele, the volcano goddess as close as we could get to an active lava flow. On Kauai, one of the most incredible things we did was to go on a boat ride with HoloHolo tours along the picturesque Napali Coast and got to do some more snorkeling near the “Forbidden Island” It was great…7 1/2 hours and more food that could ever be possible to eat!

Hawaii was incredible. Pictures will have to suffice since we are running on a generator right now and I could go on until it ran completely out of gas.

When we got back we had to fight the jet lag and jump back in a car to return for a northern Maine Christmas. We had a blast with our nieces. We have some really cute photos of them dressed in fairie and hula girl costume that they got for Christmas. Very shortly thereafter I had to run back down to Massachusetts to visit with my brother and other family coming into town. We spent New Years in Boston with my family, saw the parade and went skating on frogpond. We then met up with friends and went out to dinner in the north end and ended up staying with PC Guinea friends at their hotel overnight.

Which finally brings everything up to date.

We have been in Liberia for 2 weeks now. The town that we live in is called Tappita and we are teaching at Tarpeh Memorial High School. Jon will be teaching Grammar and Composition to the 10th-12th graders. I will be teaching Physics to 10th –12th and Chemistry for 10th grade. The school had a library desperately in need of some help as well as a computer lab that is suffering from lack of funds and the inundation of harmattan dust amoung other things. So we have some great projects to look forward too. Also, it appears as though the paints that were donated for our world map project did not make the return trip with the rest of our belongings so we are going to try and have that shipped here and we can work on that as well.

We'll post pictures and more information later but for now the generator is running low.

Be Well,
Kim and Jon

The Time

So..
Where has the time gone?

As you may have noticed, our last blog post was quite a few months ago. Strange as it may seem, it feels like just yesterday that we were saying goodbye to Guinea/Mali and were on an airplane back across the ocean. Between that time and the present moment, it seems that we have lived many and various, and strangely inconsistent lives. It is hard to articulate but upon landing in America, after a few days it felt like our year in Guinea was this strange and vivid dream. Jon and I went to visit our friends Kate and Jim in Hawaii and that again felt like some alternate reality from the cold snows of the New England winter. We have only just hit our 2 week mark here in Liberia and it feels as though home and holidays were ages ago in some other realm. Time is strange like that…sometimes it leaps, sometimes it crawls, sometimes it stands still…and sometimes it just seems…fragmented…class After our evacuation from Guinea, we were sent home for a few months of R&R to await our return to finish our Peace Corps service in Liberia. We came home to a surprise visit from my parents at Logan airport and a warm welcome to freezing northern Maine. We spent a few weeks with Jon’s family, enjoying every minute…and putting back on all the weight we had lost! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Boston and en route were able to visit many of our Maine friends. During this time I was studying for the GRE (not very fun or exciting) but as soon as that was over, Jon and I dashed off to Hawaii.

We spent two weeks snorkeling, hiking, lazing on beaches, and driving around The Big Island, Kauai, and Oahu. Kate and Jim were amazing hosts and really helped us to get out and see their favorite parts of the islands even though they had busy work schedules. We managed to make it to all the different sand beaches, including a pretty long, hot hike to a green sand beach. One of the best days was when Jim and Kate took us out to Makala’awena Beach a beautiful (and again hard to reach) pristine white sand beach. We drank Coronas, laid in the sun and played in the waves. Another Peace Corps Guinea Volunteer, Jake, who happened to be in the area, met us there. Then we headed up to Mona Kea, the highest point on the Big Island. Up on top is an internationally renowned astronomical observatory. Because of it’s location and strict light pollution ordinances, the observatory offers some of the most pristine images of the night sky. After a race to rent a car, make the trip there and a little harrowing race up the winding roads, we made it to the top just to see the sunset. We stayed as night fell and watched as the entire milky way lay above us. Jon and I also visited a botanical garden and offered a lei to Pele, the volcano goddess as close as we could get to an active lava flow. On Kauai, one of the most incredible things we did was to go on a boat ride with HoloHolo tours along the picturesque Napali Coast and got to do some more snorkeling near the “Forbidden Island” It was great…7 1/2 hours and more food that could ever be possible to eat!

Hawaii was incredible. Pictures will have to suffice since we are running on a generator right now and I could go on until it ran completely out of gas.

When we got back we had to fight the jet lag and jump back in a car to return for a northern Maine Christmas. We had a blast with our nieces. We have some really cute photos of them dressed in fairie and hula girl costume that they got for Christmas. Very shortly thereafter I had to run back down to Massachusetts to visit with my brother and other family coming into town. We spent New Years in Boston with my family, saw the parade and went skating on frogpond. We then met up with friends and went out to dinner in the north end and ended up staying with PC Guinea friends at their hotel overnight.

Which finally brings everything up to date.

We have been in Liberia for 2 weeks now. The town that we live in is called Tappita and we are teaching at Tarpeh Memorial High School. Jon will be teaching Grammar and Composition to the 10^th-12^th graders. I will be teaching Physics to 10^th –12^th and Chemistry for 10^th grade. The school has a library desperately in need of some help as well as a computer lab that is suffering from lack of funds and the inundation of harmattan dust amoung other things. So we have some great projects to look forward too. Also, it appears as though the paints that were donated for our world map project did not make the return trip with the rest of our belongings so we are going to try and have that shipped here so that project may yet get off the ground!

We bought a USB internet card and a generator so we have entered the technology age and will have more constant access to the internet....and yes.....that may mean more blog posts for the 2 of you who actually do read this!!!

I will post photos next time we get the generator going....Be well all!

Love Kim and Jon