Erin's updates from Liberia

updates from Erin in Liberia...Bakary is her coworker, who is African.

thursday
we are still in the capital, making this set of table and chairs at this outdoor restaurant our hub. we're on United Natins Drive where at the government entities and NGO headquarters are. an antelope like thing just walked past me on the patio and bakary didn't even blink. i guess they are normal here. out of the thousands of people i've seen in the capital, i've seen two white people. we head to one of the closer-by rural regions tomorrow..leaving at 6am, working til midnight. seems that will be our schedule every day while here. its' been pretty intense and we've been having some challenges already, but we are remaining optimistic.

saturday
soo much rain today. it is definitely the rainy season. and when there are no roads or rocks it just means looots of mud : ) but when i woke up this morning before the rain started i looked out my window which overlooks a big open area with burned down things and some construction scraps. i didn't see anyone anywhere, until i spotted this little 2 year old in a broken wheelbarrow all by himself playing. was both really sweet and a little sad that he was playing in the rubble.

things are good here although so much more overwhelming than i could have anticipated..mainly just working around the clock going to meetings, traveling to remote communities to hold focus groups, and working late at a place in the capital with internet writing our proposal. we start at 6am

today and tomorrow we are pretty much writing none stop with a few meetings and then monday and tuesday we have a busy next days of more meetings with USAID and government, NGO, and health officials. loving being in Africa..such a great feeling..just a whirlwind and lots of pressure with this grant. but still have another 10 days or so, so more time to get to see the country. tues or wednesday we head to the remote southeast region..if we can make it! no roads and a lot of the paths are feet of mud from the rainy season, ..we have to take our pickup truck to the mechanic to weather-proof it for the drive, buy a shovel in case we get stuck, and stock up on food and water. should be an intense journey.

i'm still having so much trouble understanding everyone. we use a translator for most of our communication which is hilarious since it is from english to english. Delphine, a girl who is with us all day to help us with local communication, said what I thought was "day-key" and i had to say "sorry, what was that?" 3x before she enunciated enough that i realized she was just saying "later" as she left. i wish you could hear it. it's mostly a thick dialect and different intonation, but also some different phrases. today during the focus group on pregnancy and labor/delivery i learned that "make the belly" means pregnancy, "receiving plenty" means heavy menstration, and "borning" means having children : )

met some super cute kids running around in the village yesterday..wearing rags for clothes.they are both really curious by me but also a bit intimidated..i think i might be the only white person in the country..i wish i could disguise my skin for a month..i feel like one of those ugly flourecent lights walking around. i don't think i'll come away with more than a few photos..will just have to describe things to you. mostly because we are in meetings and running from place to place without time to take out a camera..but also i definitely didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of people in the community. i stand out enough already and i don't want that to compromise our relationship with the people..but will try to sneak a few over the weeks. also, i was standing in one of the communities yesterday and felt a little something on my feet and looked down and it was tiny chicks pecking at my shoes. : )

sunday
today we just had one meeting this afternoon, but otherwise are non-stop writing away on the proposal. have had a couple more hurdles, which is adding pressure to the deadline, but i'm feeling better today than i did on friday when i was most overwhelmed.

making friends with lots of lizards..they are green with red heads. and an african grey parrot. and..my antelope friend just came up and said hi..did you know their noses constantly twitch like a bunny's?

Bakary is in superintense work mode..but he provides his own comic relief to me because several times in the last two days he's said to people, "In your top head, what do you think..." instead of "Off the top of your head". makes me giggle inside each time. : )

so far i have not gotten sick at all. i have also not eaten Liberian food yet. ha. we are eating between two places, indian and pretty-close-to-american, that bakary knows to be safe. but i think we'll experience some traditional food when we travel since there will be no restaurants or stores. we will pack a bit of food too. i still have loads of dried fruit, nuts, and granola bars.

last night we went to a party/meeting for one of the women we've been working with who is leaving the country to work in the NYC office of the NGO. it's funny because she is liberian but has a bit of a new york accent because she's spent lots of time there including some growing up years. the event was soo nice because it was the one hour of the day we were not furiously writing the proposal and we had some super interesting conversations with some kenyan officials and development leaders.

we did not go to church, with way too much to do, but it is amazing to see people so dressed up. people in gorgeous garb, some very colorful, some all white..all perfectly clean and pressed, walking through mud and barrbed wire. not sure if we'd be able to go to a church next sunday but that would be great.