Friday, March 12, 2010

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

1 comment:

Augustsnow said...

Sounds very exciting!