For the season I went to my people on that side, that’s how Liberians say, for Christmas I went home. This was quite the news for those who knew. I was asked on several occasions to bring back computers and phones for people here, to which I would explain that those items in America are very expensive, that the ones you can find in Monrovia are a much better deal. I got asked if I could carry/sell different goods such as, papaya, pumpkin, bracelets, lotions, etc. This was a request I hadn’t heard before. I guess some people here have contacts in America and what they do is ship things over and have a middle man give it to different people to sell, the profit of those items gets divided by all who helped. These items are mostly sold in African/outdoor markets. Same concept to those who bring goods from America into Liberia. They collect the goods (where for a super cheap price, I don’t know) and they work with a company who can ship everything back, the initial contact picks it all up and either sells it themselves, or divides it between all the potential sellers. I was also asked from my little best friend Surprise, lucky and Elijah if for their season (aka gift) if I could bring back a dog baby. Yep, dog baby, aka puppy. Well I would have instantly shot this request down if it hadn’t been for the fact that I thought for about a week that they said doll baby, as in a baby doll. We had lengthy conversations about the “doll babies” during this week. The boys and I talked about how it didn’t need to be that big, how they didn’t care if it had hair or not (which would be strange for a puppy), how they wanted females, so they could born, which I then said, but you know doll babies can’t born, they all thought about it and agreed (which isn’t strange now... agreeing that dolls cant born... but will be), and how they wanted to cuddle/play with it (which I thought strange for 12-year-old boys to say about dolls). It wasn’t until about 2 days before I left the boys were talking about the color of the “doll baby” where I looked at them and was like I can’t get you a spotted doll. Surprise looked at me and said “doll”, I said, yes doll. Then he looked at me like I was stupid (which I was being ha) and said dog, bark bark, bark bark. I looked at him in complete shock and said DOG! No, I will not bring you dog babies! That sparked an entire conversation on why I couldn’t bring back 3 dog babies from America, how our dog babies are better/cuter then their own. I then told them they were lucky because I was 1 day away from bringing back an entire suitcase full of dolls. The entire thing was hilarious in an epic fail sort of way. I should have known they didn’t mean dolls, being they call dolls- dumb babies, but I also never thought in my wildest dreams that the boys wanted me to bring back puppies from America. After all the clarifications on what I could/ could not bring back from America was over, it was time to get the house in order.
The biggest concern is rogues (criminals), I had bought locks, so I could lock all my doors and moved some of my things around inside so some of the “important” things could be locked away. A week before I left for America PC had a big training in Kataka where I had planned to give my spare keys to my auntie and told Surprise I was going to do so. The next thing I know she is knocking on my door telling me that it is NOT okay that I am leaving and not letting anyone sleep in the house. She said that the rouges can be plenty-o. Long story short the week I was in Kataka I let John (my counterpart) stay in the house in the spare bedroom. Being everything went fine with him staying when I was in Kataka I had him stay again during Christmas. I gave him a set of keys for the front and back door and his bedroom, I kept all the keys for the other locked rooms and we were set.
The day of my flight I had to teach in the morning, I walked back home to see a taxi stopped at the top of the hill and my friend Abram (nickname CAPS) walking towards me. I was shocked, asked what he was doing here, he told me the cab driver knew where I lived and stopped so he could say hi. I then asked where he was headed, we were headed the same way, so I convinced him to get off at Gbartala (my site) for the two if us to travel the rest of the way together. We went inside, I finished packing and headed to the road to find a car to Kataka. Finding a car took us about 30-45min, it was painful. We finally got a car, and had to share the front seat (which in taxi life is my least favorite, because I have too much hips for all that) The drive to Kataka from my site is about 1hr 30min. Although we were packed in like sardines, it was good to have someone to talk/travel with, being I hadn’t really traveled yet. We arrived in Kataka, ran some errands, and headed to the next taxi area to get a car to Harbel. We packed into the car like sardines, except this time we were packed into the back seat, which is preferable, made the hour-long car ride to the next taxi spot in Harbel. Once we arrived CAPS got out, he was traveling to his site, had to get another car, and a motorbike before he reached home still. I had worked it out with the taxi driver for him to drop me at the hotel across the street from the airport, called the Farmington hotel. The drive is about 10 min from the taxi spot, about 2 min walk from the airport. Firestone has a huge compound here in Liberia, although they don’t do much for Liberia, they are good to their employees/ the area of Harbel. They have really “done up” (from what I could see) the area surrounding the compound, all the houses, markets, and schools are all put together with bricks and the area looks clean and well put together.
We arrived to the Farmington and I have never felt so out of place in my life. This place was fancyyyyy, I walked in (as if I had never been to a hotel before in my life) and just stood there until someone came up and was like, would you like us to hold your bags. I just stood there starting at him (like a dumb ass) for seconds until I was finally like yes, I handed off my bags, went to the restaurant to get lunch/ kill time, being I arrived 8 hours before my flight. After I ate I went to make myself comfy on one of the sofas when I saw a group of response volunteers walking in. I went to say hi, it ended up that the majority of them was on the flight before mine, but one of them was on my flight, so we all hung out until it was time to leave.
Liberia’s airport is very small, Its basically one really large room with lots of ropes and lines. We all got in one line to get our passports checked, then another line to check a bag, a line to check passports again, and a line for security, after that finished you went into a different room (really, it’s the same but with big wall blockers) and wait for your flight. Our fight came and 17 hours later I was in California.
My initial reaction of being home in the airport was anger. No one is friendly, no one wants to help you and when you don’t have a phone to call someone to tell them you have arrived all you want is a friendly person to help you. I ended up finding a pay phone to call Thierry to tell him I had arrived. He picked me up and I was off. I spent the 21st-26th in California. A lot of the time was shopping for things to bring back to Africa. By things I mean food, all the food, the most amount of food ha. I got to see Thierry, Julie and the twins, Heather, and of course my family. Heather surprised me and had asked some of my friends to send cards to her, for me, so a shout out for those who sent her a card, it is really appreciated, and I brought them back and every single one of them is hanging in my house here in Africa. After California I headed to Ireland. I arrived to a card and a pack of Twix, which to clarify is the best ever! Ireland was the 27th-31st and spent with Brian in Dublin, getting drinks, going to the Jameson tour, going to bird park (official name), shopping, getting massages and just hanging out.
The flight home was hilarious. Although I was super sad to be leaving the flight itself was like a mini welcome back. Everyone was so friendly, the entire plane had chatter filling it, chatting about Liberia/Sierra Leone, you could hear people calling others auntie, ma, uncle, sis, talking about their girl child/boy child, who they have born, about the market/selling, and the election. The only quiet people on the entire plane were those not from Africa. It was awesome, of course, after the first hour the chatter fell silent and everyone sank into a movie or whatever they were doing for the duration of our 6 hour flight.
I love the simple life I live here in Africa, I love the people and I missed being here, I missed African food, I missed my little best friends, and the family I have made here. That being said it was still difficult to readjust for some reason. I got used to constant adult conversation and stimulation in America that coming back and not having it was difficult. Those back home were still living life as if nothing had changed but for me lots had changed overnight. A lot of this has to do with the lack of service I have at my site, which in general I have adjusted to, but just coming back from having it all the time to not having it was difficult. It was a couple days of feeling extremely lonely. I have since readjusted and everything is going as normal.
Spider Update
I got home after being gone for the season and found no spiders inside, NONE. I’m still unsure if this is great or if they are just hiding somewhere waiting for me to find them and scare the shit out of me. I even got home, armed 4 kids (who helped me bring my stuff inside) with shoes and told them to search for spiders and kill on sight, still nothing.
The biggest concern is rogues (criminals), I had bought locks, so I could lock all my doors and moved some of my things around inside so some of the “important” things could be locked away. A week before I left for America PC had a big training in Kataka where I had planned to give my spare keys to my auntie and told Surprise I was going to do so. The next thing I know she is knocking on my door telling me that it is NOT okay that I am leaving and not letting anyone sleep in the house. She said that the rouges can be plenty-o. Long story short the week I was in Kataka I let John (my counterpart) stay in the house in the spare bedroom. Being everything went fine with him staying when I was in Kataka I had him stay again during Christmas. I gave him a set of keys for the front and back door and his bedroom, I kept all the keys for the other locked rooms and we were set.
The day of my flight I had to teach in the morning, I walked back home to see a taxi stopped at the top of the hill and my friend Abram (nickname CAPS) walking towards me. I was shocked, asked what he was doing here, he told me the cab driver knew where I lived and stopped so he could say hi. I then asked where he was headed, we were headed the same way, so I convinced him to get off at Gbartala (my site) for the two if us to travel the rest of the way together. We went inside, I finished packing and headed to the road to find a car to Kataka. Finding a car took us about 30-45min, it was painful. We finally got a car, and had to share the front seat (which in taxi life is my least favorite, because I have too much hips for all that) The drive to Kataka from my site is about 1hr 30min. Although we were packed in like sardines, it was good to have someone to talk/travel with, being I hadn’t really traveled yet. We arrived in Kataka, ran some errands, and headed to the next taxi area to get a car to Harbel. We packed into the car like sardines, except this time we were packed into the back seat, which is preferable, made the hour-long car ride to the next taxi spot in Harbel. Once we arrived CAPS got out, he was traveling to his site, had to get another car, and a motorbike before he reached home still. I had worked it out with the taxi driver for him to drop me at the hotel across the street from the airport, called the Farmington hotel. The drive is about 10 min from the taxi spot, about 2 min walk from the airport. Firestone has a huge compound here in Liberia, although they don’t do much for Liberia, they are good to their employees/ the area of Harbel. They have really “done up” (from what I could see) the area surrounding the compound, all the houses, markets, and schools are all put together with bricks and the area looks clean and well put together.
We arrived to the Farmington and I have never felt so out of place in my life. This place was fancyyyyy, I walked in (as if I had never been to a hotel before in my life) and just stood there until someone came up and was like, would you like us to hold your bags. I just stood there starting at him (like a dumb ass) for seconds until I was finally like yes, I handed off my bags, went to the restaurant to get lunch/ kill time, being I arrived 8 hours before my flight. After I ate I went to make myself comfy on one of the sofas when I saw a group of response volunteers walking in. I went to say hi, it ended up that the majority of them was on the flight before mine, but one of them was on my flight, so we all hung out until it was time to leave.
Liberia’s airport is very small, Its basically one really large room with lots of ropes and lines. We all got in one line to get our passports checked, then another line to check a bag, a line to check passports again, and a line for security, after that finished you went into a different room (really, it’s the same but with big wall blockers) and wait for your flight. Our fight came and 17 hours later I was in California.
My initial reaction of being home in the airport was anger. No one is friendly, no one wants to help you and when you don’t have a phone to call someone to tell them you have arrived all you want is a friendly person to help you. I ended up finding a pay phone to call Thierry to tell him I had arrived. He picked me up and I was off. I spent the 21st-26th in California. A lot of the time was shopping for things to bring back to Africa. By things I mean food, all the food, the most amount of food ha. I got to see Thierry, Julie and the twins, Heather, and of course my family. Heather surprised me and had asked some of my friends to send cards to her, for me, so a shout out for those who sent her a card, it is really appreciated, and I brought them back and every single one of them is hanging in my house here in Africa. After California I headed to Ireland. I arrived to a card and a pack of Twix, which to clarify is the best ever! Ireland was the 27th-31st and spent with Brian in Dublin, getting drinks, going to the Jameson tour, going to bird park (official name), shopping, getting massages and just hanging out.
The flight home was hilarious. Although I was super sad to be leaving the flight itself was like a mini welcome back. Everyone was so friendly, the entire plane had chatter filling it, chatting about Liberia/Sierra Leone, you could hear people calling others auntie, ma, uncle, sis, talking about their girl child/boy child, who they have born, about the market/selling, and the election. The only quiet people on the entire plane were those not from Africa. It was awesome, of course, after the first hour the chatter fell silent and everyone sank into a movie or whatever they were doing for the duration of our 6 hour flight.
I love the simple life I live here in Africa, I love the people and I missed being here, I missed African food, I missed my little best friends, and the family I have made here. That being said it was still difficult to readjust for some reason. I got used to constant adult conversation and stimulation in America that coming back and not having it was difficult. Those back home were still living life as if nothing had changed but for me lots had changed overnight. A lot of this has to do with the lack of service I have at my site, which in general I have adjusted to, but just coming back from having it all the time to not having it was difficult. It was a couple days of feeling extremely lonely. I have since readjusted and everything is going as normal.
Spider Update
I got home after being gone for the season and found no spiders inside, NONE. I’m still unsure if this is great or if they are just hiding somewhere waiting for me to find them and scare the shit out of me. I even got home, armed 4 kids (who helped me bring my stuff inside) with shoes and told them to search for spiders and kill on sight, still nothing.