Lofa county travels

My arrival in Gbagulazu, BA for short.  We walked for 5 hours (including 1 hour detour for getting lost!!).  This town can only be accessed by this track, there is no road.  Everyone was so surprised that I could walk there...they didn't think i would be strong enough!!!
As you can see from the photo I received a very warm welcome.

There is always many jobs to be done, here I am helping to process peanuts with Korpo, our host.

She was very kind, she gave up her room for us, cooked and looked after us.  Unfortunately her house was infested with rats, so sleeping proved difficult through the noise and the fear they might run accross me!!
Here the women are sharing the famous food from the area Torbugi, can't really explain what it is as it seems to describe a lot of different dishes.

This is a traditional kitchen, and the view from the porch of the house I was staying in.

To cross one of the rivers to reach the town we had to cross this bridge....not for the faint hearted!!

Mesco collecting palm wine, African beer...I was told several times!!  If palm wine is mentioned someone will always say"from god to man".  Its obligatory to drink as much as possible, "small more" was a continual instruction I heard.

This is torbugi oil production, (the special palm oil used for making food) extremely labour intensive. This is favoured kind of oil used to cook here.

Everyone has to work hard here to survive, from small children to the old, it is humbling.
Here I am trying to do my part...haven't quite mastered carrying things on my head yet so I had to carry the log like the children do on their shoulder.  This caused much entertainment.

Another job to be done is processing rice, this is a staple food all over Liberia.  Even with a baby the work needs to be done.

The meat everyone eats is referred to as 'bush meat', that basically describes anything that moves and can be hunted.  Obviously there is no electricity so things have to be preserved by drying so they can be kept.
Not exactly sure what this animal is....but it is pretty dead!




The children of BA, always wanting to play and fascinated by appearance in their town.  I was never far away from a child looking and wanting to be in contact.








Here we are back in the main town in the area called ZorZor.  This is an African pub.....palm wine for 25 pence for about 2 pints, food for sale and plastic bowls.  Great fun.
                                                                                       

School sports day

Fridays excitement was a sports competition between the two schools I am working with, Matthew 6 and Comfort K Toe.
The day didn't start off so well with one school threatening to leave because they didn't like the third school involved....lots of heightened emotion, luckily Second Chance were there....Kaba was sent in to negotiate the peace!

Here we are with our crowd of children, I did not have a hand free the entire day, as soon as one child left there was another two there to hold my hand, climb on or hang off me....hard work in the sun all day!  But great fun.

Heres the two schools playing football, luckily for us it was a draw.
Football is the second religion here....so it was tense and tempers ran high!!



Augustine and Kaba are being attacked here by kids.....the usual state whenever we go to visit them.
Most of the children grave attention and affection, these two are fantastic with them.








The obligatory massive speakers.....required for any gathering of people accross Africa!  Much more important than supplying water for the kids to drink whilst spending the day in the 33 degree heat!

Too cool for school!!!

Kebeh and me eating our lunch in the school building at the orphanage, looking the part I think!

Decorate the dead day.

Last week was a national holiday, decorate the dead day, to remember loved ones who have died.  It is tradition to go to their grave site to tidy/fix it and remember them.

I went with a friend and his family to grave the of his brother.  They cleared the grave of weeds, fixed it with new cement and painted it.




As you can see form the photos the graveyard is not exactly orderly....it can be quite a job to even find the grave.  

It was an interesting experience to see how Liberians celebrate the dead, lots of people, lots of noise, people selling water and snacks, hot and chaotic....typically Liberian!

Mouse wars!

I have embarked on a war.....against a very persistent mouse who likes to scurry around our room at night, his favoured time to emerge is 3am!!!


Here is me in the middle of battle.....head torch because its pitch black, weapon (although I'm not sure what I planned to do with it), barrier to guide to intruder out of the room.......

Matthew 6 School

Here are some photos of one of the schools I am working at, called Matthew 6.  


These are the classrooms, as you can see the school is in extremely poor condition.  Many broken chairs, some with desks some without.  The school is specifically for children from very poor families who cannot afford to send their children to other bigger schools.  They are trying to encourage children in the local area into school.  Very often you will see young children in the streets selling things when they should be at school, these families can not afford to send their children to school and have to get them to work in order to make some money to feed the family.  This school sees the need to educate all children and this often means that the parents can not pay their fees and the school goes without the funds it needs, and they cannot even pay their staff.  


                                                                    

The children love having their photo taken, I was trying to just get a shot of the classroom but they insisted on getting in the photo!

This photo is the head teacher joining in one of our play sessions. It was really good to have the staff joining in the games, as it shows they have taken on board the work Second Chance have been doing with them about the importance of play for children.


It was really good fun, however it was almost a million degrees so I nearly melted out in the sun!

Orphanage kids

Heres just a couple of photos from the orphanage we visit, its called Comfort K Toe. (I promise more soon)


The children are fantastic, we go every Friday, its definitely the best part of the week.


Second Chance have been doing play sessions with them to build emotional resiliency, also working with the teachers (there is a school there too) and caregivers to develop understanding of behaviour and parenting.  I have been mainly working on developing the curriculum for the Child Resiliency programme, and am doing some workshops with the teachers too.


I know these children above well, and when I am I there spend most of the time with several of them hanging off me.  Kebeh, the girl in the middle is in need of a lot of attention, she gets quite bullied by the other children and her behaviour can be challenging for the caregivers to manage effectively.  She is so sweet though, she has  been taken under the wing of the Second Chance staff.

Living it up!

Our bedroom

I’ve had my first few weeks in my new house….and survived!  No electricity or running water.  The house is basic but does the job.

The house is in a compound with 5 other houses.  The family of one of my colleagues lives next door and they look after us and help us out, they also keep tabs on us and know exactly our movements which get reported back...no getting away with anything here!!

           

Our kitchen!

The worst experience so far was waking up in the middle of the night with a cockroach in our bed!!!

                                

                                               Our living room....which we never use!

I have become quite good at cooking on a charcoal  fire, the time it takes me to light is reducing from 45 minutes.....to perhaps 25 now!

Me cooking...got the trusty head torch

Heres us cooking a local Liberian dish...although 

without the meat or fish and preparing for a night

out.

Me sorting the potatoe greens, traditional Liberian food

Agustine fanning me whilst cooking.....its hot work!
Great sunburn too!

Ready to cook

Augustine and Chelsea with our favourite local tipple, cane juice