First day in Monrovia

I know this is a bit out of date but I will tell you about my first days in Liberia, typically it has taken me while to get round to getting this onto the blog…..but I did actually write it on my first day!

Well my first day in Liberia was quite an experience.  My first impressions of Monrovia are;

·      Hot – although apparently this is the cold season, it gets hotter in February, March and April…great!

·      Noisy – you have to get used to the fact that there is no concept of noise pollution in Africa.

·      Hectic.

·      Scarred by war.

The four men who run Second Chance, Sumo, Augustine, Will and Kapa, have been very friendly and welcoming to me.  I was greeted in the office with welcome signs for me.

I was taken on a city tour by Augustine, first stop food, my introduction to Liberian cuisine was a random shed in a complex of sheds out the back of a building, sitting in the semi dark with music so loud I could not hear what Augustine was saying to me.  We ate pepper soup, thin spicy sauce with unrecognisable chunks of meat and fish, (I have later learnt that most dishes are called soup, even if they are completely different!)

The tour was great, I saw a lot of the city, visited Providence island where the first settlers arrived, but after having walked all the way around the streets of Monrovia during the mid day sun I was pretty sweaty and near exhaustion.  Luckily the beach is never far and I recovered with a much needed drink at a beach bar. 

The city reminds me of the many other African cities I have been to with its mix of beeping taxis, crazy motorbikes, street vendors, and lots of people hanging around on the streets.  However you can’t miss the bullet holes in the walls and many derelict buildings.

Back at the office we discussed what they had planned for me.  I’m going to be working in schools three days a week, teaching (not sure what) and also teaching the teachers (again not sure what!), working with children suffering form signs of trauma….and I’m not really sure what else. (theres a them, I don’t really know what I will be doing!)  I have a packed programme of people to meet next week.

Augustine was walking me back to my convent and in typical style he wanted to go to visit another volunteer, I had said I wanted to go tomorrow, but not telling me it was more convenient to go today, until I finally twigged that was what was going on.  So we got in a share taxi, we went out 40 minutes out of town to where she lives.  The people in the taxi started talking about the war, I couldn’t really understand what they were saying at first, but then I realised they were talking about their experiences, having to kiss a corpse and someone being skinned alive!!

I was then thrown into an even more crazy part of town through a market, called Red Light with even more taxis, motorbikes, hawkers and people.  We ended up at the other volunteers house,( no water or electricity).  Because we faffed around so long, they had already eaten but left us some and we ate in the dark while they watched (its custom here to both eat from the same dish)….it was duck, because they had been given one by a neighbour!

Back out into the craziness, this time in the dark, which made me feel uneasy.  Luckily Augustine is a very good bodyguard and I felt completely safe with him, (but don’t think I’ll venture there on my own)…and home to my convent!!  (that’s where I am staying, its actually a hostel and convent)