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

Second Chance Africa.

Thought I should tell you a bit more about the organisation I am working for, the reason I am here.

Second Chance Africa is a small organistion with big ideas.  It is run by a group of inspirational people. 

The mission:

Peace building through free mental health services for survivors of war and conflict

Who they help:

- War affected youth (former child soldiers)
- Post war Liberian children
- Orphans
- Refugees
- Former combatants
- Victims of rape & domestic violence (male & female)
- Drug Dependents
- Inmates and former inmates
- Parents & teachers

The Liberian population as a whole benefits from reduction of  crime and violence led by war, trauma and poverty.

How they help:

• Direct clinical services for psychological rehabilitation of post- war and post conflict individuals (war perpetrators and victims) in various communities, prison compounds, and refugee camps.
• Preventive childhood clinical intervention at schools, orphanages and communities to attend the needs of post- war children at risk for intergenerational trauma, and domestic abuse.
• Fighting Crime and Poverty by raising our participant’s skills for employment and social economic stability through skills training, literacy, and basic education scholarships.
• Reconciliation of war perpetrators and war victims by lowering stigmatization of former child soldiers, combatants, and inmates, through helping them to integrate back into communities.
• Empowerment of the population with psychological education through community workshops and radio broadcasts about mental health conditions, drug abuse, and parenting skills.
• Psychiatric and neuroscience research in commitment to clinical excellence, for the development of culturally sensitive psychological intervention in Africa.
• Advocacy and development of the mental health field for Liberia by assisting the Liberian Mental Health Ministry with fundraising, professional training of Liberians, overseas awareness, and free international consulting services as a member of the Liberian Mental Health Advocacy Committee.

Go to the website for more information http://secondchanceafrica.org/

Prison Visit No.2

The straw thing is a man with a traditional mask on,
quite entertaining.

 After having visited the prison on Thursday and seen for myself the overcrowded and dilapidated building Friday brought a more hopeful prison visit.  An invitation to Second Chance came from the assistant Minister for Justice to the ground breaking ceremony at the site of the new prison that is to be built to replace the current one.

Me wearing my Second Chance T-Shirt

It was quite a random event, to just celebrate the beginning of the building, which may start in the next few weeks!!

The Vice President attended and gave a speech; several other people gave speeches including the village elder who gave the government the land and the Minister for Justice.  She spoke very passionately about the development of the justice system in Liberia and the plans they have for the new prison.  

The Vice President official breaking the ground.

It gave me hope after having seen the state of the current prison, and was left feeling positive.

The need for proper rehabilitation was stressed and the Vice President even said that ‘the prisoners need a second chance’….good advertising!

Now we need to see these things happening.

Jana, Sumo, Chelsea, William, Me, kaba

Prison visit

We went to visit Monrovia Central Prison today, because Second Chance have previously worked with the prisoners there, and are trying to re-connect that link.  They ran groups to deal with the effects of trauma, teaching them body stabilisation techniques and anger management.

It was a very eye opening experience.  Some statistics for you;

·      Prison capacity – 374

·      Actual number of inmates – 989

·      Number of inmates who have been sentenced – 109

·      Number of prison guards – 114

We did not actually go inside the buildings but walked through the grounds to meet in an office.  There were many prisoners in the grounds, although a large number are not allowed outside.  We were told to not make contact with them, which was very difficult for the SC staff who have previously worked with a lot of these prisoners, before the bureaucracy at the ministry ended there work there. Several recognised the SC staff and asked them when they were coming back, greeting them warmly.  Those prisoners who went through their programme are now being used as role models for the other prisoners…proving it works. 

Most prisoners have ended up there because they grew up in a country at war where they were not given a chance or taught how to make better decisions in life.

To further understand the state of the prison system in Liberia look at this report made last year by Amnesty International.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/appalling-prison-conditions-liberia-must-be-improved-2011-09-21

No pictures for this post because we were not allowed to take our cameras inside!

Monrovia

Monrovia is a small city and unlike many other African cities does not feel polluted.  It is situated on a peninsular so the sea surrounds the city.

View from Second Chance office
on Broad St

The centre is made up of a grid of streets, the heart of which is the junction of Broad Street (the main street) and Randall Street.  There are taxis, motorbikes, street hawkers and lots of people.

So much of life happens out on the street, from hawkers and stallholders selling anything from phone credit to, clothes, food; fake DVDs…..the list goes on.  You can get your shoes cleaned and shined whenever you want from the many men offering this service.

People walk the streets with large containers on their heads selling doughnuts, wheelbarrows with French bread, iceboxes of water in plastic sachets, whatever you want.

I even saw a man with a wheelbarrow piled high with bras for sale today.

  The street the office is on is lined with people with photocopiers and laminating machines, so when I need something copied I just pop down to my regular photocopier stall under a parasol umbrella.  I asked one of my colleagues where they get the power from……simple they hook up to the buildings electricity supply!! 

The other side of the road is where you go for your smart men’s shoes and a suit, all second hand sent form the West.

A random sight, 2 anteaters off to
become someones dinner!

To get around there are two options for those without a 4x4!  There are the share taxis or motorbike taxi.  The main roads are full of yellow taxis, you tell them the general direction you are going in and they pick up people along the way, squashing in as many people as possible, usually 4 in the back not matter what size those people are.  Or you jump into one on route to where you are going.  You can then get out anywhere along that route.  These are pretty cheap, but you have to be prepared to suffer a dead leg and get very close to sweaty strangers.  The other option is a motorbike, these are useful because they will take you to exactly where you want to go, they can however be a tad dangerous as they weave in out of the traffic!!  You have to keep a keen eye out for these bikes when crossing the road!!

There’s one thing you cannot fail to notice here is the number of UN 4x4’s driving around.  The UN occupy a massive building, and their presence is everywhere……not really sure what they are doing these days, predominantly development work, don’t worry its mainly not a military presence, although you do occasionally see a blue helmet.

View of the City, Broad Street

View of West Point, a ghetto area

Mamba point is the diplomatic enclave.  Walking through the streets here (theres not many its not big) you will see Save the Children, The Carter Centre, UNSESCO, American Aid, World Food Programme, etc etc.  There is also a massive American embassy surrounded with enough security to ward off most.  Apart from us…..a word of warning, never think just because you come from America you can take a photo of their embassy!! The other volunteer, Chelsea, tried this and before we knew it a police man was there questioning us about what we were doing.  There was no convincing him that she could just delete it, he would only be satisfied with a quick trip to the embassy police station to see his boss!!

The derelict Ducor Hotel

View from top of hotel

The now derelict Ducor Hotel is a large building on a hill on Mamba point, it was Liberia's number one 5* hotel, it is now a shell.  It is visible from around Monrovia, it was a gift from Ghadafi…..a great friend to Liberia!!! 

He was in the process of beginning to refurbish it before his departure from power!

I haven't taken that many photos yet and these don't show really what it is like, I will work on getting some better shots!