Cheese burger, even just a cheap one from ole' McDonalds, it's what I've been craving the most the last few weeks.
Questions...
Looking back now, is there anything you didn't bring that you wish you had?
A friend. That sounds so sad, but the truest answer. But material things... A bookbag, I'm making due with the little draw string one that I found at the Kulah's. Maybe some books, really long books... I've now read through the Book of Romans, Timothy, Genesis, Great Personalities from the New Testament, Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare), The Time Machine, some short stories by some Realist writers and a sci
-fi story, some poetry by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, and now I'm looking for something else, in fact I'm desperate. I've ransacked the Kulah's house searching for my next read. I found St. Augustine's Confessions, which I'm kind of interested in, but seems to be a bit less leisurely than I'm looking for.
There's some other things, but I just used this question as an excuse to rant about how I crave reading. Oh also I should have brought a second journal to write in, which reminds me I need to find another very very soon.
Are you feeling better and energetic and well? Have you had any more sick?
Well after my night of vomiting, I got better about 24 hours later like I said, and then I had a bit of a weak stomach the following days so I just avoiding things that didn't give me much of an appetite.
But then I came back Sunday and the following Monday on the way to the office in Monrovia, I had to get the car pulled over very quickly and I threw up on the sidewalk in front of a bunch of very confused Liberians. I decided it was just a bit of motion sickness I got, because I didn't throw up anymore afterwards, though I did avoid the egg sandwiches that I had eaten before hand, but that was probably more of a mental thing. Since then I've felt fine and in rather good health. Thanks for the concerns.
Describe a typical day's meals. What you eat, when you have them, etc. Is most everything fresh there, or do the Kulah's have some prepared stuff since they are better off than the average family?
Well in the morning it is usually "oats", which is basically just oat meal with some sugar added in, and usually some side item, be it banana, plum (mango), a roll (with egg or some kind paste stuff, I don't know I just eat), donuts (which I have absolutely fallen in love with), or the corn bread.
In the afternoon, if I'm home then I basically eat my dinner early and so therefore I have to portion it. Eat half for lunch and half for dinner. Lunch/Dinner is usually a big bowl of rice with some soup. The soups are pepper soup, potato greens, palm butter, or cassava leaf, at least these are the most common ones. I like potato greens the most, which is a soup (mind you their soups are more of a paste) made from the leaves that come up from a potato plant. The pepper soup is a soup made with this root that reminds me of potatoes (I keep wondering to myself if I could make mash potatoes from them) and peppers are add (hence the name). Cassava leaf is a lot like potato greens, just different. Cassava is like this bamboo looking plant that they love to make many different things from, and it's supposedly sweet-ish fresh. And palm butter is the true staple of the area. It's this nut that they pound and use it's fibery casing to make this red/orange oily sauce that they then cook with peppers, vegetables, and meats. It is really good.
So all these soups have meat in them and it's usually fish and chicken together.
I told Helenia (the only girl cousin who does the vast majority of the cooking) I thought it was strange they mix chicken and fish together, because the taste are so different and not a good contrast. She just laughed at me. I did get to help her make some palm butter the other day and Helenia teaches me a lot about cooking in Liberia. I think she think I'm odd for my interest the workings of the kitchen, but she entertains my curiosity. In fact I convinced her to take me to the market to go buy the ingredients needed to make the delicious corn bread here, just so she could teach me how to make it. She didn't let me help much though, but I took notes.
Back to the menu I've been eating from...
Though my lunch and dinner are the same when I'm home during the afternoon, when I'm in downtown Monrovia a lot of times my lunch has just consisted of some cornbread and some water, I'm not complaining though, because I love me some cornbread.
There is usually all ways some plum (mango) sitting on the kitchen table, but that's the only snack. If I want something between meals I either have to go down the street and buy what they call 'road food' or get into my own secret stash of granola bars. Which I'd like to take this moment and apologize; Mother you were right the granola bars and Snickers minis were a great idea and I wish I had more now. Anyways, here's a question; when I was in Nicaragua last summer I was told by everyone, don't eat the delicious baked goods you see in the market, but here I eat everything I see no matter how sketch the person looks on the street and I'm fine. Why couldn't I eat the market foods in Central America? Gosh I love those donuts here.
Do the Kulah kids like to read? If so, what? In what language? Does the little one love little girl fairy tales? Do they have many books? Do they have libraries for the public there?
The only reader out of the kids is Joshua. I know I didn't read much till I was about his age, so it doesn't surprise me that Jonathan and Jerrut would rather be running around outside. Though, Joshua has told me he isn't much of an athlete, so he doesn't play outside much. Joshua does read those silly books for older ladies, I think one of the authors is Nora Roberts. I don't have the heart to tell him they are for chicks (have I mentioned this before, I get confused with my journal and blog?). They read in English, everything is in English here, it's the official language of Liberia. I think they take french in high school, but they aren't very good at it. I haven't heard Jerrut or Peace show any interest in fairy tales or stories. I did start reading Harry Potter to them, in fact Jerrut sat through the whole first chapter, but they never mentioned wanting to hear more. Peace didn't have the patience to sit and listen, and I don't think he understood much. I kept change words quickly for them, so the little British references wouldn't confuse them. Yes they have tons of books, I've scanned the shelves very carefully, but they are mostly theological stuff. Only a handful are suited for children or youth, like Harry Potter, and I've already gone through them all, haha. They have libraries, but when I was questioning someone about them, I couldn't tell if they belong to just the universities or if they are truly public. I did look through a school library, but it was mainly populated with old American text books.
What are their favorite toys?
Well for Jonathan, he loves his Playstation 2. Don't worry Tradd the Playstation 2 is truly flourishing here. In fact it is the only system on the market. It's your dream come true. Love live the PS2! I mourn the fact Jonathan and his friends lack any quality games, it's all vague sports/racing games and Disney rhythm games.
Jonathan and the rest of the continent of Africa (or the world minus USA) loves soccer, so I'd say a soccer ball would be up there if he had one.
Peace absolutely loves Uno. The cards they have are so worn out it is ridiculous. I have spent a lot of time playing with him. The one item Peace told me he wishes he had more than anything else was a basketball.
Jerrut and the rest of the family (especially the crazy grandma) loves playing this board game of sorts with dice. It's not all luck of the dice though, there is some strategy.
But the things they play with most of all is just each other and the games they make up outside. Hop-Scotch is rather popular right now.
Have you had to deal with any governmental issues? Does anyone ever look at your passport or your visa or anything, or does no one really care?
Well on my way back from Ganta our car got stopped by these immigration gates, which I was never quite sure of their purpose. At these gates they asked us a lot of questions, would look me up and down a lot, and then ask to see my passport/papers. Sue, the lady I was with, said they never do this and must just not like the way I look. Yeah, because I look so good that they want to keep me for themselves, oooh! Anyways, that happened a couple of times.
Then I also had to go to the Nigerian Embassy to get a visa for my trip over to a conference with Jerry in Nigeria. I only have a multi transit visa and need an entry visa, but the guy there just said I was fine, that they'll accept that. Jerry was fine with that answer, but it left me a bit uneasy. Oh well, I'll just trust them.
How do most people get around locally? Are there lots of bikes?
Most people get around by a lot of walking and grabbing a taxi. The taxi's work different over here. You can pay for a trip down one road, no matter how far a long it you are it'll be the same price, no matter the distance. Then if you have to get on to a new road, you basically have to get into a new taxi (like a train, north-south then transfer to east-west). I could ride three taxi's and get from Jerry's neighborhood entrance to his office, and it would cost me about 75 Liberian dollars, which is worth 7 Liberian donuts and $1.05 in the American dollar, just to give you an idea of the prices.
If by bike you mean motorcycle, yes. There are probably more bikes than cars, in fact there are tons of motorcycle taxis that look incredibly dangerous. But as for bicycles, as in the ones you pedal, I see maybe only one a day. So there are very like. You would think, there would a ton more, but no. I asked Jonathan how much a used bike cost and he said maybe about $70 (American), so that's pretty expensive over here. If you could come up with a way to get very cheap bicycles over here to sell you'd probably have a booming business.
Questions Done.
Now some points of interest. A little update on my coming and goings.
I ate dinner with the Methodist's Bishop of all of Liberia. I'm something of a big deal... No not really. I think he was more interested in Brandon and Douglas. But it was still neato. He's quite a hard working man it would seem and most of his family lives in America doing studies, so that's sad.
Shout out to Dr. Richard Hunter! This bishop who's name I can't remember (Bishop Elis maybe) said he knew you, so there ya go.
So, I was hoping to beginning working at this orphanage in Monrovia, but that just kept getting complicated and it never came. But now I'm working with the New Georgia UMC that is just down the road from where I live with the Kulahs. In fact I am the English teach for there vocational school they have there. It's a summer program to help kids practice and learn things in order to prepare for the next school year.
I just showed up by their request this Monday and they just threw me in the school and said teach. I'm the only English teach so I teach 5 grades in 4 periods (7th/8th are together), and because I'm the only English teacher I get to come up with everything we do. I like to think of myself as Head of the English Department.
Though, I am an English Major at UGA, I want to inform you all, growing up language arts was always my worst subject for the most part. Got my first B in spelling. My elem. and middle school teachers would probably all be surprised that I'm an English major and that I am now in charge of teaching a group of 50 kids language arts. Or maybe they knew something I didn't and would not be surprised.
Anyways, I hate grammar and was bad at. I hated learning the parts of speech and all that jazz. And now I have to teach it. Bah! So far I've actually tried to avoid that a lot. Because I'm the AMERICAN English teacher they want me to help them a lot with pronouncing things and speaking correctly. I imagine Tradd and other friends are laughing now, because I've always been so bad at pronouncing words and even putting my words together a lot of times. But I argue that I am capable to handle their lower level.
Anyways, I spend a lot of time making them do speaking exercises that I make up on the spot, I have them write me some sentences based on reading we did to help with reading comprehension, and I hit a bit of the dumb grammar stuff when I recognize a problem some share. In fact when we do some random writing exercises I try to make them use their imaginations, from what I can tell, I don't think their schools allow much in the department of imagination, and I don't mean just artistically. I mean critical thinking and discussion based thinking where they might develop curiosities about other things in their subjects and ask questions. Growing up I always asked tons of questions, but it seems all they are use to is just sitting there copying notes the teachers write on the board. Lame.
I'm just going on and on. Sorry.
Anyways it's been really fun and the kids really like me. They think my activities are weird (my classes always leave the loud building and go outside and have class, I'm a radical!), but they like it. After class a bunch of the kids walk with me back through the neighborhood to our houses. I imagine it looks old with this tall white man walking along, surrounded by all these little black children running around him. If you will, imagine for a moment...
New Georgia UMC's pastor also has taken quite an interest in me. He basically wants me doing everything. I am the head English teach at their little school, I will be leading their Tuesdays bible study (over 20 people ranging from 7 to 70 years old), and I am to be preaching twice at the church before I leave. In fact I preach this Sunday and I just found out. I have no idea yet what I'm going to preach about either. Jonathan was telling me how I need to do this and I need to that when I preach, but I was like PSH I'm going to just do it my way. This shocked him a bit, he's so use to the Liberian way of preaching. I know if Rev. Kulah was preaching in America I'd want him to preach like he would back home.
Anyways, I'm loving my new routine of getting ready in the morning and taking a 15 minute walk in the cool air of the morning to church for school, then at recess/snack time I walk up to the small market at the road and get a donut, after school walk back to the house with some of the kids from school until they all diverge off, eat a fresh Liberian lunch waiting for me, maybe take a nap or play with the neighborhood kids, do some reading and preparations, go take a walk around the neighborhood which is when I meet a lot strangers and have many interesting conversations and learn a lot, eat dinner and have devotional, journal, read, hang with the family, and I guess finally go to bed. It is quite the good life.
Oh hey, Joshua and Jonathan have been very sick lately, so pray for them and pray I don't catch what they have. I keep having to inform them of what I consider common sense sickness recovery tips; drink lots of water and get lots of rest.
I think I'm done for this post. Sorry it's so long.
Ask Me Questions! And Send Me Some Love In My Email Or On My Facebook!!
Love,
Uncle JoRo (for the UGAers)
