I have officially spent an entire weekend with my host family! Friday, we had sessions at the Doe from 8-5pm and after lengthy conversation with my sister Princess we decided (she decided) that it would be best for her to pick me up again after school. This was fine, just meant I was not able to go to Kems to grab a beer afterwards. It’s about a mile and a half to get home from school every day, meaning that every day I have to have a conversation with my little sister on why I am sweating in a location that is basically 100% heat and 100% humidity. After our daily conversation on why I sweat and that I am sweating she tells me to eat dinner, which is sitting on the table waiting for me. Dinner consists of “soup” which in Liberia means rice and some sort of stew you place on top of the rice. After dinner, I offer to do my dishes (even though I know Naomi has been tasked to do all the dishes every day) and I am told no and sit down with Princess and Joyce and chat and learn the local language until it’s time for my nightly bath and bed.
After waking up that week at 5am I was really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday, that night I ask Auntie Maya what time I should wake up and I am told we wake at 6am... I can’t remember the last time I woke up at 6 am on a weekend. So, Saturday comes and I wake up and leave my room and the first thing to do is clean the floors. I “help” Princess sweep and mop the floor. Mopping the floor consist of soap in a bucket and a shirt which they dunk and get on all 4’s to clean the floor, one shirt washes the floor and another dries the floor. When I helped I got on all 4’s and wiped the floor, but Princess cleans the floor every day and has mastered cleaning it by foot as to not have to get on her hands and knees.
After the floor is done we eat breakfast and it’s on to fetch water so we can start our wash. It takes 4 times going back and forth from the pump to be able to get enough water to fill the buckets. There is an entire pump culture here- meaning when you go to the pump you wait your turn based off who was first, you take off your shoes before entering the pump area as to keep it clean and its known that you help if needed. If someone needs you to lift the bucket to their head you do so (to which I need help every single time). You start with 3 buckets one is your soaking bucket (clothes and soap in this bucket) one is clean water bucket and one is bleach water bucket. You start with whites and rub the soap on it and rub the clothes between your hands and then let them sit in the bleach bucket. You then move on to the rest of your clothes to which you rub soap on (focusing on arm pit area and neck area) and then rub it (if it’s dirty you use the washboard) and then squeeze it out and put it in the clean water bucket. You continue this process until everything is done. Then you move on to the clean water bucket and make sure your clothes are rinsed out and you squeeze them out and hang them to dry. A bucket of laundry would take princess 10 min, but because she is helping me it takes us about an hour to finish just my clothes and she still has to do her own clothes and her brothers clothes. She asked me how I did laundry back home- to which I attempted to explain we just shove it in a machine. While doing wash a drop of bleach got on my shorts and Princess apologized to me several times as if she had done it, I said no its fine no worries, and she just kept saying how I spoiled my clothes, and as we are walking up to the house she tells auntie Maya, and she looks at me like I had done something grave and goes, “you can’t be going and spoiling all your clothes” and makes a psh noise! Ha-ha!
After wash, I “helped” my sister Joyce make lunch. For lunch, we had Cassava Leaf soup. Cassava leaf consist of taking a leaf and beating it until it become like a fine powder and with lots more ingredients and the most amount of red oil you have ever seen we make soup! Cassava leaf is actually delicious- it’s like one of those dishes you eat knowing the oil will make you sick, yet it’s so good that you don’t care. After lunch, I rest a bit before going to Uncle D shop and saying hi and heading to the tailor (massively far walk) to get my dress made for naming ceremony (which is the 25th and I’m pretty sure Auntie Maya and I are matching). Traditional African attire is made from Lapa which is patterned material and is all tailored made to fit you perfectly, all said and done including material and getting it made it cost you around 600-800 Liberian dollars which is roughly 6-8 USD. The tailor is Annie’s “mom” a fellow Peace Corps volunteer so they gave us a lift back (thank god!) and the rest of the day we just hung out and played cards.
Sunday comes and they prepare me spaghetti for breakfast with canned corn beef and we just hang out all day. No chores are really done- yet I can hear the neighborhood church go on from probably 10am-2pm. By hear I mean I hear the preacher yelling all day long. He NEVER stops talking- constantly yelling and yelling and yelling. During the constant yelling, I taught my family how to play go fish which I thought was a fun game until I realized that’s the only game they really understand so it ends up being we play only go fish on repeat for hours. So, anyone have any suggestions on new games to play please let me know! I tried Uno and it was a no go and I tried war and that was also a bust.
For dinner, they prepare me a special meal which consisted of banana chips. That was dinner, a massive heaping pile of fried banana chips! I think Princess could tell I wanted something more so she also gave me bread and peanut butter! Fried food bread and peanut butter... can’t get much better than that and although delicious it was a backwards day- dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. Monday comes and I’m back to our normal schedule of going to Doe Monday-Friday 8-5 and to Kems after for a beer and home for dinner by 6:30pm.
After waking up that week at 5am I was really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday, that night I ask Auntie Maya what time I should wake up and I am told we wake at 6am... I can’t remember the last time I woke up at 6 am on a weekend. So, Saturday comes and I wake up and leave my room and the first thing to do is clean the floors. I “help” Princess sweep and mop the floor. Mopping the floor consist of soap in a bucket and a shirt which they dunk and get on all 4’s to clean the floor, one shirt washes the floor and another dries the floor. When I helped I got on all 4’s and wiped the floor, but Princess cleans the floor every day and has mastered cleaning it by foot as to not have to get on her hands and knees.
After the floor is done we eat breakfast and it’s on to fetch water so we can start our wash. It takes 4 times going back and forth from the pump to be able to get enough water to fill the buckets. There is an entire pump culture here- meaning when you go to the pump you wait your turn based off who was first, you take off your shoes before entering the pump area as to keep it clean and its known that you help if needed. If someone needs you to lift the bucket to their head you do so (to which I need help every single time). You start with 3 buckets one is your soaking bucket (clothes and soap in this bucket) one is clean water bucket and one is bleach water bucket. You start with whites and rub the soap on it and rub the clothes between your hands and then let them sit in the bleach bucket. You then move on to the rest of your clothes to which you rub soap on (focusing on arm pit area and neck area) and then rub it (if it’s dirty you use the washboard) and then squeeze it out and put it in the clean water bucket. You continue this process until everything is done. Then you move on to the clean water bucket and make sure your clothes are rinsed out and you squeeze them out and hang them to dry. A bucket of laundry would take princess 10 min, but because she is helping me it takes us about an hour to finish just my clothes and she still has to do her own clothes and her brothers clothes. She asked me how I did laundry back home- to which I attempted to explain we just shove it in a machine. While doing wash a drop of bleach got on my shorts and Princess apologized to me several times as if she had done it, I said no its fine no worries, and she just kept saying how I spoiled my clothes, and as we are walking up to the house she tells auntie Maya, and she looks at me like I had done something grave and goes, “you can’t be going and spoiling all your clothes” and makes a psh noise! Ha-ha!
After wash, I “helped” my sister Joyce make lunch. For lunch, we had Cassava Leaf soup. Cassava leaf consist of taking a leaf and beating it until it become like a fine powder and with lots more ingredients and the most amount of red oil you have ever seen we make soup! Cassava leaf is actually delicious- it’s like one of those dishes you eat knowing the oil will make you sick, yet it’s so good that you don’t care. After lunch, I rest a bit before going to Uncle D shop and saying hi and heading to the tailor (massively far walk) to get my dress made for naming ceremony (which is the 25th and I’m pretty sure Auntie Maya and I are matching). Traditional African attire is made from Lapa which is patterned material and is all tailored made to fit you perfectly, all said and done including material and getting it made it cost you around 600-800 Liberian dollars which is roughly 6-8 USD. The tailor is Annie’s “mom” a fellow Peace Corps volunteer so they gave us a lift back (thank god!) and the rest of the day we just hung out and played cards.
Sunday comes and they prepare me spaghetti for breakfast with canned corn beef and we just hang out all day. No chores are really done- yet I can hear the neighborhood church go on from probably 10am-2pm. By hear I mean I hear the preacher yelling all day long. He NEVER stops talking- constantly yelling and yelling and yelling. During the constant yelling, I taught my family how to play go fish which I thought was a fun game until I realized that’s the only game they really understand so it ends up being we play only go fish on repeat for hours. So, anyone have any suggestions on new games to play please let me know! I tried Uno and it was a no go and I tried war and that was also a bust.
For dinner, they prepare me a special meal which consisted of banana chips. That was dinner, a massive heaping pile of fried banana chips! I think Princess could tell I wanted something more so she also gave me bread and peanut butter! Fried food bread and peanut butter... can’t get much better than that and although delicious it was a backwards day- dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. Monday comes and I’m back to our normal schedule of going to Doe Monday-Friday 8-5 and to Kems after for a beer and home for dinner by 6:30pm.