a Liberian bush adventure

i feel compelled to write more about my time in Liberia-since this is where i currently am...whether by the help of a certain person named Bev or not.

So last week, I went to Bopolu to see how our distribution for the project that I started managing about a month ago was going. It was going alright but some parts were a little rough just logistically speaking. Oh, and I can't forget to mention that we are attempting to do a 5 month project in 2 months but details, details.

So, I went up to see my staff, give pep talks and then I decide that I want to go to see the people that will receive our supplies of wire, flashtape and zinc in order to increase the output of their farms. The community that we are distributing in, does not allow access for cars or motorbikes, so you have to walk the entire way. There are 14 communities total in this district and i decided that i wanted to walk to the 2nd one. In one day.

Every time I told any Liberian that I wanted to walk there in a day, they would just laugh and say "impossible! it is possible for us to do..but you". so that made me even more determined to do it.

problem was, we got a late start. we didn't get to the landing until 10:40 a.m. so, we leave and then i see what they mean by "non-accessible". this bush is knocking me in the face and you can barely see the trail to even walk! then it clears and gets a bit better and we make it to the first village-wayamah. there we find a boy who was just bitten by a cassava snake which is highly poisonous. since this village does not have any health care system and pretty much doesn't have anything these people are trying to treat him with herbs. so, since we really can't be useful we decide to leave and keep on going to gbangay-2nd second village.

so, total of 3 hours since we started and 2 hours past wayamah-we get to gbangay. i just plop down when we get to the town chief's house. am introduced and then this old man keeps telling me that he wants to marry me. i'm so tired that i just don't even talk (because i don't want to) and i'm just staring at this man that is obviously drunk AND is off his rocker. THEN, he tries to kiss me...oh yes, and he was NOT successful.

i use that opportunity to say that we're leaving and go to see the rice farms. we walk about another 30 minutes and get to a farm where some women are harvesting. "can i harvest too?" I ask. they were happy to oblige. and it was actually quite fun but a lot of work to get the final product of rice.

so, one of the women says that she will make us some rice if we will stay. so we end up staying for about another hour and i did end up taking a short nap because i was so sleepy. then we get word that the boy that was bitten by the cassava snake died. it was sad and we went to give our condolences on our way back.

i totally didn't think we were going to make it back up this hu-mon-go hill because it just doesn't end. by this time, i had gotten bit by a driver ant and i can feel the blisters on my feet forming. i had to stop about 5 times on the hill because it's just so never ending but then we finally make it and see that no truck is there. so we're in the dark, it starts raining...no joke, it was something straight out of a movie. turns out, they left about 5 minutes before we got there thinking that we weren't going to make it, but they had to come back for us anyway.

So, on the way back i was talking to the base manager about how no one ran up to me to greet me or anything and he said, "oh, yeah! that's because they don't see people who look different from them. You're the first non-Liberian woman (well, actually, he said white woman, but we won't go there) to go there since before the war started".

Wow. was all i could think. i was quite humbled. true there was no road, but these people are such a beautiful people. so, we're actually going back next week to do some water assessments and i'm so excited. it's going to be the best trip EVER!

~P