Well its time for another update!! It seems like I have been here more than 2 months. I expected time to be flying by but the last few weeks have been slow compared to the first month of my trip. Things that were interesting and out of the ordinary are now ordinary and a less exciting. I conclude that I’m beginning to feel at home compared to being in a foreign place.
A few weeks ago I made my final move to Ganta. I’m now residing at the Levi and Rose household in Peace Community, Ganta, Nimba County, Liberia. Levi and Rose have 5 children. Levi Jr. is 2 months old and loves to cry at 5 in the morning. Chu-Ku is 3 and was terrified of the big white man when he first saw me. Since then we have become friends mostly because he likes motorcycle rides and shiny tools. Josefy is 12 and loves to play football and do anything I do. Alfonzo is 15 and is pretty quiet. Shelly is 17 and my first official sister. Levi owns a gas station, cement store, scratch card store, and supplies local boys with money to change and scratch cards to sell. Rose is an awesome cook and has rice ready any hour of the day. My room is a wreck like normal and besides a mattress there is no furniture. I took my first official shower in Liberia at Levi’s house on March 5th and it was epic. It took me a couple days to figure out the electricity situation. After asking Levi I found out we were getting power from the gas station down the road. Anytime during the day when someone wanted more than a couple gallons of gas they would turn the generator on and we would get 5 minuets of power. It then comes on around dark but off again around 1 a.m. when the station closes. Around 5 in the morning the taxis going to Monrovia start to roll through and we have power till about 6.
Last Friday we burned the farm. After making bamboo torches we set off into the bush lighting the dry leaves. Things heated up pretty quick but went out earlier than I liked. Afterwards it was a treasure hunt for any animals the fire had killed. The hunt yielded 2 squirrels, 2 snails, 1 rat, and 1 cobra. Fortunately I had an excuse to leave early and miss their feast of bush meat and GB.
Last weekend I ventured up to Yekepa to visit Kent and Jan at ABC. It was great to see familiar faces and chat about adventures. Jan spoiled me rotten of course and fed me American food that can only be made from scratch such as tortilla chips and fresh bread. Sunday we borrowed the ABC truck to explore the old Lamco iron mines. We traveled up in the mountains where I could look across the horizon and see Ivory Coast and Guinea. We met Josef who lives in a 5x6 tin shack but guards 2 generators, 1 cellphone tower, and an air conditioned shipping container that holds all the computers and switchboards for the tower.
Monday was an adventure for sure! LEAD wants to introduce groundhog farming to Liberia but due to the current Ivory Coast conflict our contact there cannot get us groundhogs. By the grace of God I met a farmer from Yekepa named Bill. He claimed that there was 1 person who raises groundhogs in Liberia. So Monday morning Bill and I left from Yekepa and traveled an hour in the bush before reaching Zortapa. Bill asked to drive and it was quite a humbling experience to ride passenger on my own bike through rigorous trails. The trip turned out to be very productive, hopefully I will be a groundhog farmer.
The Liberian culture seems to thrive on relationship building and since being in Ganta I have embraced the lifestyle. Thus far I have met:
Eric who runs an awesome breakfast restaurant in Ganta
Arhwin who is Indian and works at a the Methodist hospital in Ganta
Harvand who is Phillipino and cooks for a big mining company in Saniquille
Augustine who is a student at ABC and is a preacher
George who goes to ABC but is from Ganta and is a heck of a mountain climber
SE or Essey who works at the carwash and washes my motorbike for 100LD
Prince who is just a good friend and drives a motorcycle taxi
Melvin who runs Hotel Alvino for his brother
Musa who owns the motorcycle dealership
George who is working on the farm so he can one day go to school
Nyeh who is George’s younger brother and wants to go to school
Barcelona who’s name I cant pronounce so I call him by his favorite football team
Gono who is the education coordinator for LEAD in Nimba County
Winifred who is the secretary at LEAD in Nimba County
Daniel who is the program coordinator for LEAD in Nimba County
Prince who manages Uncle Levis Gas Station
Muhamad who is a Muslim and wants me to teach him how to plant corn
Pastor Wade who is my pastor at Trumpet Baptist church
These are only the names I can remember and I am horrible at memorizing names.
I know Eric too. Amazing egg sandwhiches!
ReplyDeleteWorking on the raft now... two more rows done, and we're doing the strapping underneath as we go. We're missing you though, so don't make any plans for next Saturday that don't involve welding.