During the week there are always certain moments I want to remember, I always tell myself to write these moments down so I don’t forget (although I never do) but I try and recall what happened so when the time comes to blog I can write about what went down that week. The week of November 13-20 I am sure there were interesting things that happened that made me sad/mad/happy etc. but, I kept pushing back writing, now sitting down to write something, I realize I remember none of the week. Sorry-O!
I do know November 19th marked the 3rd month we have been at site! Woo hoo!
We will start with this week, November 20-26th. This week (being I remembered nothing of last week) I kept a note and wrote a little about what I did each day.
So here it is:
Monday: Monday sucked! Monday I went to school like any normal day, but it wasn’t a normal day, over the weekend satin came to visit my 10th graders, and possessed all of them into acting like little demons. They were rude, mocked me, talked over me, ignored me, they shamed other students, you name it they did it. I yelled at the class 2-3 different times and it did nothing. I was so angry/annoyed I almost started crying (but held that shit in), instead the last 6 minutes of class we all sat in silence as “punishment”, during silent time I lectured on how it was not okay/ would not be tolerated any longer. I asked questions (more like questions to silently think about) on why they thought it was okay to shame another student, what the class rules were, and why they thought it was okay to be disrespectful to me. I felt bad for my 11th grade class that day, after 10th grade I was in a pissy mood, although 11th didn’t do anything wrong I had the same talk with them, about respect and what I will/will not tolerate. School that day sucked, I was relieved to finally get home and have some peace and quiet. **Now I write this next part as to not make anyone feel bad, but to discuss actual feelings you have being stuck away from everyone while in PC service**I got home, sat at my kitchen table, decided to play on my phone, I opened facebook and saw a picture of a family event I had missed. I had an idea they were all getting together but I didn’t actually hear any other information on it, realistically why would I, I’m in Africa and there is 0% of me that can participate in any activities, I can’t even get enough service to facetime/get a call in to say hi. The entire thing made me upset, I felt lonely, that while I’m stuck in my cement block of a house I was being replaced in the real world (which I totally understand I’m not). I’ve had this feeling several times since being here (about several different occasions), just hadn’t written on it yet, I considered doing an entire post on it but realized that it would be a massively depressing ha-ha. It’s something you can’t really prepare for before coming to service. People who aren’t in your shoes don’t really understand or think things like, why can’t you just be happy when you see a picture of everyone you love doing something great. That is a great question, let me make sure I’m clear on this- I am extremely happy to see people I love moving on, and doing things to better their future. That doesn’t make the concept suck any less when you realize that you are unable to join in and celebrate with them, or that you missed an important family event, birthday, death, graduation etc.. it leaves you feeling lonely, and even though that feeling doesn’t last long it’s still a real feeling that you get while being in service. It’s a feeling you learn to live with/cope with (realizing that your there in spirit), maybe for the time being you withdraw a little from the things happening in America, but you do it not because you love anyone any less, but because you will drive yourself crazy if you constantly worry about what’s happening on “that side” (that’s what Liberians say meaning America). Now the picture alone may not have sparked anything on a typical day, but coupled with the shit of a morning I had with my students left me in a real funk. I decided I needed to clear my mind so I went on a jog, which helped small. I got back and my neighbor, Margo, was waiting at my place and asked if I had any pawpaw (papaya), I gave her a pawpaw and told her I would come over in a bit to sit with her (I’m attempting to make her my best friend... more on that later). I went over, she got me a chair, about 1 min after I got there she left to another neighbor’s house, saying she would be back soon and to stay. I stayed sitting with her little sister, waited for about 10 min, her sister looked at me and was like I’ll be right back. I sat for another 3-5min alone, Margo finally came back, but only to grab the papaya I gave her and a knife, to eat it with a different neighbor. That felt like the icing on my shit cake of a day, my students were demons today, I was unable to join in on a big family event, AND I went over to join in with Margo (attempting to feel like one of the family) the second I got there she picked up everything and left saying she would be back soon. I left their house, went back to mine, went inside to make dinner/watch some shows (that are on my new hard drive YAY). The day had left me feeling depressed/lonely, while bitching about my day to Brian he reminded me that the good thing about bad days is that after about 12 hours it’s over and the next day is entirely new day to make it what you want. That is exactly what I planned to do.
Tuesday- I woke up and felt completely fine. The feelings from the previous day were no longer hounding me and I was ready to make today a great day. I went to school, which was good, after school I met with Rachel and we went on a tour of CARI (Central Agricultural Research Institute). CARI is Liberia’s principle agriculture research agency. It falls under the Ministry of agriculture and carries out research on crops, livestock, and natural resources. The tour was a driving tour (thank god, the property is enormous) and we drove to different spots on the property where we would get out and they would explain about the area we stopped/ the work they were doing with that particular crop. The best part was when they showed us the lake they had on property, they told us people could swim/picnic/canoe there- YESS! We talked about how many employers they had, what the future had in store, and how when different contracts came up they would hire people to work that specific contract. It was a great tour and I learned a lot. Being we both teach 10th and 11th grade a lot of students may be interested in this sort of work in the future, to be able to pass on the information we learned will not only be valuable to the students, but allows us to understand our new home and what it has to offer. After the tour, I hung out with Rachel a little bit before heading home. Funny story about the tour- when we first got there we were offered a snack, which we both politely denied, until she said, I got this form Costco.. COSTCO.. she had trail mix with M&M from COSTCO! We were both so excited and retraced our answers!! Its funny the things you want to devour now that it’s not at your disposal, where before you would have never been excited about it- example, trail mix.
Wednesday- apparently nothing of interest happened today, because I literally wrote the word nothing in my note.
Thursday- No school Thursday or Friday because of a meeting that was taking place at the school. I’m not entirely sure what the meeting consisted of, all I heard was that it was a training for teachers and they got a memo from the Ministry saying it was taking place at the school. I asked if I should come and was told I could if I wanted (which I didn’t), and that he would call me in the am with information, when I was never called I assumed I wasn’t needed and went about my business. I spent almost the entire morning cleaning my house. My house isn’t that big but it is a pain in the ass to clean. Especially without all the handy gadgets we use to clean with. What I would give for a swifter wet jet haha. Once I finished cleaning I went on a jog. The route I take is about 30 min, 2 miles and takes me a little past our radio station and I turn around and come back home. I’ve been told not to pass too much farther than my turn around spot because its “not safe”. I’ve heard mixed reviews on the truth of that statement, but I believe what it comes down to is, I jog on the coal tar and there is a big bend in the road juts past where I typically stop, so cars can’t see the other side as well, making It not as safe. I rarely pass that far anyway, being I rarely want to go farther than the 2 miles ha. After my jog, I went over to Margo’s place and hung out with her and Surprise while she cooked. We played 3 persons jump rope. I had tried one time previously and failed, failed hard. I decided to give it another shot and was successful, we chanted and jumped rope for at least an hour. I showed them how I could jump rope by myself, they were AMAZED / didn’t understand how the rope could pass under my feet so quickly.
Friday- The day I waited for all week- Friendsgiving! Today I had planned to go to Sukako to meet Rachel and get cabbage/pots (for my coal pot) from the market, then we were heading to Gbanga to Corrie’s (health Volunteer) place to celebrate thanksgiving. We arrive around 3:00pm, she lives on hospital grounds and her apt is beautiful, it’s like walking back into America, she has current, air conditioning in her bedroom, a refrigerator, and all tile. The place is great! They had the game playing (from her projector) in the living room, they were still preparing the food, we offered to help, and just sat around chatting with everyone. There was about 24 PC there, we had health volunteers, LR6, LR7, people from the NGO Liberia Reads to Learn, someone from Agrocorp, and as the night progressed nurses/staff from the hospital came up to get food. For dinner: chicken, turkey, cranberries, sweet potato, stuffing, noodles, mac and chees, bread, cheese, salad, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, coconut curry rice, gravy and banana bread. For desert: sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie. They did a super job and I’m forever impressed that they could cook it all! The entire meal costed around 200 dollars which meant each person paid about 8-9USD. Quite the steal- a entire meal for 8-9 dollars! We spent the night chatting with people we haven’t seen in months, eating good food and drinking cold drinks. As it got later people started dancing small and played cards, I played BS and realized that I am not good at BS, as I lost miserably. Rachel and I earlier that week had talked to her commissioner about getting a ride home, where he offered himself to pick us up! Around 9pm he picked us up from her house to take us home. I gave him 500 LD for picking me up/for gas money and they dropped me right off at my door.
Saturday- Drama, drama, drama! I had asked Surprises auntie to help me find some cheap pots a week/week and a half ago because when they see me they raise the price way high, she also goes to Gbanga a lot where it’s cheaper. Some time had passed and she hadn’t said anything, so Friday when I went to Sukako I bought a soup/ rice pot, well I guess Auntie went to Gbanga on Friday she also bought me a soup/rice pot. Saturday morning the boys came over, I showed them my new pots, and they told me auntie bought me some too. They were all sorts of worried so I told them it wasn’t a big deal that I would give Auntie the money for the pots still, and told them to go ask how much I owed. They left my house and for the next hour I could hear that I now have double pots/ had to pay double gossip from every neighbor surrounding me. The boys came over with my new pots, apologized a million times and I told them it was no big deal (because she had done me a favor), if this was any other place where you could return it we would do that, but that’s not really a thing here, and I would never expect her to absorb that cost. Just as a FYI two large cooking pots cost 750LD, that’s less than 8USD. The entire thing was hilarious, because it was like real life community drama, the fact that I now had 2 sets of cooking pots was shocking.
After the “drama” of the morning I had decided I would go visit the old ma at the farm. She used to live at the top if the hill and was 100% of my adult friends before she left. If you remember, the old ma and Mr.X had some drama, which I’ll explain soon. I asked Jojo and Surprise to take me to the farm, I picked up some bread/rice at the market (as gifts) and we began our journey. The walk to the farm is about a mile and a half from my house unshaded on a back road, past where the Chinese compound is. We got to the house and she was shocked we had come, I told her kids at school I was going to visit, but I don’t think the message was relayed because the old ma was shocked. She told me how thankful she was that I came, how since she left I was the only person who had visited her, how she felt blessed, she kept saying that I was a blessing from god and how god will bless me for being so kind. She said she felt so touched she wanted to cry.. but confirmed she wouldn’t cry haha. She took me on a tour of the area and showed me the 1st Chinese compound (they have 2 here) where they grind rock, showed me the “mountain” they had near the house, and the different farms/crops in the area. We got back to her house and the chichi (gossip) started. She told me that she had lived at the house on top of the hill for 7 years now with the kids. That Mr.X had a real problem with the daughter and had tried to kick her out 3 times now. She said that he thinks she is rude to him and since she has born herself, he no longer thinks it’s okay she is at the house, that she should be off on her own. Well, the old ma doesn’t agree since the daughter is no longer with the father, she would have nowhere to go and no one to help her, especially being she is still in high school. Ma then said that he would complain about the yard being too loud (because the children) and they got in a big fight when he called the kids bastards. She told him it wasn’t okay (has since forgiven him for that), that the kids know what that means and it’s not good for them to be hearing things like that. She also said it was wrong for him to say that being he has several kids that would be considered the same thing. He then kicked her and the kids out and didn’t allow them to take anything with them. When I say anything I mean anything except their own clothes, no pots, pans, house furnishings etc.. I told her that I had tried to bring the topic up to him but he told me everyone left because of rice business, she said he lied because he was embarrassed. She continued to tell me that she had asked several family members to beg for her and set some sort of meeting up with him where they could resolve the issue and she would be allowed back into the house. I’m not sure if the issue has since been settled, they talked about doing a meeting this week, but I have not talked to her. I can assume the issue is not settled because she has not moved back to the house at the top of the hill. I pray that they settle the issue quickly, I know Mr.X is lonely at the house (even if he won’t admit it) and honestly, I’m lonely without her at the house.
Sunday- Surprise asked me if I would go to his church program, I told him I had a stomach ace so I wasn’t going to come, but thanked him for inviting me. I try to stay away from all that church business because I don’t necessarily agree with what they are preaching, it’s easier to just not go then be stuck going every week listening to preaching that is outdated and intense. I did feel bad not going once he brought food to the house from the program. It was a church service, yes, but it was an actual celebration for the pastor because he was retiring, I should have gone to show support. Other than that, nothing really happens on Sundays, I did a little wash and we just sit around all day and hang out.