Finding a Diamond in the Rough

A few of the Kongba mines trip pics

The Cockroach… I mean, Greenville Trip Photos

For those of you without Facebook, a few photos from that trip.

Round and Round the Kimchee Goes

One of the great things about being Korean is the way that I’m instantly accepted into Korean groups everywhere.  I work with a Korean Lieutenant Colonel.  Last night he invited me to “Korean house” for dinner.  Well, how could I possibly say no?  The entire time leading up to dinner I thought we were going to a house maintained by Korean military members (there are “Chinese houses” “Brits house” etc) so, why should I think this would be any different?  Shin (the LTC) tells me that we are “going to Starbase where he’ll change and then going to the Korean house.”  I asked if we could stop off at my house after work to change and he said, “no” and that I should just go in uniform, that it would be fine.  Well, this only contributed to my belief that we were going to a Korean military house.  As you’ve probably inferred by this point, that wasn’t the case.  After work we did, indeed, go to where he lives so that we could drop off the 2 Fins he lives with and so that he could shower and change.  For my wait, he gave me ginseng in a chewable form with the words, “this is ginseng, chew it, it’s very expensive.”  So, I did… I mean, why wouldn’t I put a random substance in my mouth from a container I couldn’t read before heading to a place I’d never been before in a city where it’s not safe to be after dark… it was very expensive…

The house ended up belonging to a Korean man who has lived here for 20 years with his wife.  He manages one branch of a Korean fishing company.  They fish off the coast of Liberia and then sell to both Liberians and they also take fish back to Korea.  He lives there with his wife.  At dinner last night in addition to him and his wife, there were 3 men who worked? for him, 3 missionaries and another Korean military officer.  When LTC Shin and I arrived the men were watching soccer on the biggest TV I think I have ever seen.  I mean, it was, no kidding, probably 3 feet high by 4 feet wide.  And the brand?  Samsung, of course… There was also your normal karaoke, because, what good Korean house doesn’t have karaoke? 

Dinner was served on a large 2 layer table on the floor.  The first layer was for your plate and rice bowl, the second layer was a lazy susan made out of a circular wood plank, or, so it seemed.  The hostess was very generous and put out 8 different plates of food from fish and chicken to vegetables.  And of course, kimchee.  I really didn’t know what the etiquette was for eating so, I initially just watched.  The 3 other women held back, whether out of respect or just looking at the foods I never determined.  Once they dug in, so did I.  The main lesson I learned last night is that when food is on a lazy Susan you must be quick like Miyagi with chopsticks and a fly… The Susan would be turning and everyone would just reach in and grab, what seemed like rather quickly to me.  I rarely have a chance to eat homemade kimchee, so of course, I continually tried to get some.  This elicited a comment from one of the women that I liked kimchee “too much.”  Now, although her English was pretty good (she was one of the few people last night who actually spoke English) I’d like to think she wanted to say, “you like kimchee very much” vice “too much.”  I mean, is it really possible to like it too much?  I agree, it’s not. 

What else I noticed, and thankfully sooner rather than later, is that everyone finished their rice.  Me being a rather slow eater (and eating all of the goodies and only nibbling on the rice) still had quite the full bowl as many (almost everyone) had already finished theirs. So, I proceeded to only work on my rice, aided by more kimchee and another remark or too about me liking it “too much” before finishing it completely.  I’m glad I did notice because I was absolutely full by that last spoonfull…

It was definitely an interesting experience to be around such a mix of people for a couple of hours.  Oh, and there was absolutely no liquor involved if you can believe that.  No shoju, no beer, no nothin’… I was shocked.  I did have quite an enjoyable can of Schwepps tonic water, because really, what else would you have (straight) with dinner?  Tonight there is a dinner at the Jordanian hospital to celebrate King Abdullah II’s birthday.  I think I’m going to skip that and save myself for Saturday night’s chili dinner as made by a Brit LTC.  I’ve been well informed by Mike the Brit that it will undoubtedly be spicy.  As spicy as Texas chili?  TBD…

United States of America… Arriving…

There’s a pretty good article in the NYT which described President Bush’s visit here last Thursday. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/world/africa/22prexy.html?ref=world  As I walked home on Wednesday evening after work I noticed something unusual… there was no trash on the streets or lining the sidewalks.  I then saw it – a truck with trash in it.  Now, please don’t confuse that with a trash truck, this was actually a truck which had collected trash.  What else was different?  The sidewalks were all freshly painted.  By 0545 the next morning (when I left for my trip) local national police were already lining the streets, posters were up showing President Sirleaf and President Bush, and American flags were hung high.  I felt a twinge of regret that I was not going to see the President speak, but then I remembered, I could always catch it on CNN later that night. 

My day trip to Kongba District in Gbarpolu County was long!  Driving time was approximately 5 hours round trip.  The road to Tubmanberg is pretty nice actually, it was after that that was rough.  Imagine, if you will… A long stretch of road going up and down, now put that road in the jungle, next, remove all of the blacktop and concrete from it, after that, put in craters the size of small meteors (some 1/2 metre deep), add to that a few gullies and some large puddles (deep enough to create splashes on the windshield) and there you will have a good 3 hour portion of the trip… I drove the entire way home that night and was exhausted by the end.  It is, I believe, better to be the one behind the wheel then elsewhere in the car.  Behind the wheel you tense up and your neck stays pretty sedentary.  Everywhere else, you’re likely to get a slight case of whiplash by the time all is said and done. 

The actual trip itself was fascinating.  I had never been to a diamond mine before so it was very interesting to see the miners work.  It’s amazing that diamonds are ever found.  Before I always thought of a diamond mine much like, I guess, a coal mine?  I imagined people going down below the earth with big tools hacking away at the ground… um, not so much.  In reality (for those of you who thought like I did) dirt is dug up and then sifted using water to wash away the grains of the dirt itself.  The rock matter left over is then sorted using many more sifter and keen eyes.  A few of the diamonds that we saw that they had found really couldn’t have been more than a quarter karat (I’m not sure how much that is, but, if it’s about half the size of a black pepper kernel then that would be about right.)  What was probably the craziest part of seeing those small diamonds is that they were still sparkly.  

And in regards to an earlier picture with the monkeys hanging on the post by their tales – that is also known as “bush meat.”  “Bush meat” is anything from the bush – monkey, pygmy hippo, chimpanzee… I think it’ll be another few years though until the “Monkey Bag” makes its worldwide debut…

Not Quite Normal…

I was just in the process of writing an email to some friends of ours and said something along the lines of, “things are starting to assume a sense of normalacy here.”  I then proceeded to say that there are still times when I see a woman walking down the road with a huge load of items on top of her head and it still floors me.  When I knew that things weren’t actually “normal” for me yet was when I then wrote about the one working stop-light we’ve come across.  It was incredible!  The light turned green and people went, the light turned red, and they stopped.  I feel like I won’t be exaggerating by saying that it’s the only working stop-light in all of Liberia.  I don’t know how it works yet (maybe it has it’s own mini-generator?) but, that’s not important, it’s working.

What I forgot also to mention to them, which I will here, and which also gives me the impression I haven’t quite adapted to here yet, is that we also saw (and took pictures of) a garbage truck!  It was incredible.  Of course, it was empty, but still, it was a garbage truck!  Maybe it had something to do with the banner outside of city hall proclaiming 16 February as Monrovia clean up day.  It doesn’t look any cleaner, but then again, it would take many many full garbage trucks to really make a difference. 

Last night was dinner at the Deputy Force Commander’s (DFC) house.  He’s a Pakistani 3 star general, 2nd highest military in command.  His tour is up here and he’s heading back to Pakistan on Sunday.  The American “contingent” was invited, although, we’re not quite sure why.  We were there with the highest ranking officials of UNMIL, a very peculiar experience.  But, again, phenomenal hospitality and food.  Corrie said something funny on the drive to the DFC’s house about the first week she was here hearing about Pakistani food  and hoping she’d get to try it … and now we’re eating it 1 -2 times a week.  Well, maybe it’s only funny for us here…

On Thursday President Bush will be stopping here in Monrovia.  The entire town is essentially going to be shut down.  I will be heading out of town to an area in the NW part of the country that day.  Although the embassy authorized us to go and hear him speak, we were not authorized to be part of the “meet and greet” session with the rest of the Americans at the embassy.  So, this will be a good opportunity to get out and see a different section of the country. 

In other exciting news, I started my first French class last night!  I will learn that language … uh… someday.

More Liberia Photos

What’s For Dinner?

Bonjourno!

With pictures like these what more is there to say?  Sent from one of our MILOBS (Military Observer) in Zwedru…

Who Needs Paris, I Have Monrovia…

Shuvo Sokal (Good morning in Banga)

So, there I was… once again asking myself, is this for real?  And yes, yes it was.  I really was walking up to an MI-8 Hip helicopter to fly down to Greenville.  I’d learned about them in school, never thinking for an instant that I would actually ever ride in one.  Up the steps and over the ropes that were holding our luggage in place in the middle of the aircraft I found a seat on the left side.  Soon the pilot emerged from the cockpit: 2 buttons undone on a stained shirt, mustache and perhaps even a Russian accent?  He gave the safety brief which consisted of showing us the lifevest and how to use it.  Now, what I’m not sure about, maybe I missed it, was where the lifevests were actually located.  Elizabeth (one of the people I was traveling with) jokingly (I think?) said that that was the only one and hoped I had my weapon on me… 2nd surreal part – I flew in a helo with my weapon.  Granted, it wasn’t loaded, but seriously, when was the last time you walked onboard a flight with a 9mm.  (You pilot types, pipe down.   It was a first for me. 

The flight down to Greenville lasted only an hour.  If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand times, the coastline is incredible.  I mean, really amazing.  Once on the ground we grabbed our bags and headed to the camp.  We stayed at the “Guest House” on the Ethiopian UN compound.  Apparently, it’s gotten better… really makes me wonder what it was like before.  Elizabeth and I shared a room.  The room was spacious with 2 twin beds on either side.  There were 2 “closets” only one of which had a pole running the length of it (no hangers), roll out tile floors and a marble bathroom.  Let me comment on the marble.  Had it been polished, cleaned, and had the caulking removed from plaster jobs around the bathroom, it might have been nice… instead, it was a place for bugs to hangout.  Spiders throughout the corners up to the ceiling, ants crawling up one side of the bathtub, and the normal flying assortment… Particularly entertaining was the shower.  Now, there was a shower head but it was no longer connected to the hose.  There was no temperature control because there was only one temperature – cold.  I skipped the shower Tuesday morning but by Tuesday evening I needed one.  So, I “showered” with the hose and cold water.  The cold water ended up not being too bad, and as I made it through without touching any of the walls, I considered the shower a great success!

The first day we were there we had only a couple of meetings.  Lunch consisted of fish and rice.  Dinner consisted of fish and rice (cooked differently from the afternoon’s rice) and served with beans (which floated in grease.)  The real adventure began when I was getting into bed.  When I arrived earlier in the day, I had a blanket at the end of the bed (the AC can get cold) and 2 pillowcases covering the pillow and one folded on top.  For some reason I decided to look in the pillowcases (the ones covering the pillow) and what did I find looking back at me?  A COCKROACH!  So, I did what any logical person would do, scream and throw my pillow.  Well, the cockroach disappeared somewhere in the floor (yes, I believe he found a hole and hid) and the pillow landed not far from me.  I looked through it but found nothing.  I put on the 3rd pillowcase and tried to sleep on it but really, all I could think of was the possibility that there were more roaches in it. (Not to mention the smell of all of those who had slept there before me)  So, down to the end of the bed it went.  Somehow thinking of it at the end of the bed vice under my head seemed okay.  I then got out my towel to use as a pillow.  I had been talking to Zeyn through my little episode which was nice… up until the end when some men would tell their wives to sleep well, mine told me to sleep with my mouth closed… something I hadn’t even thought about…  Needless to say, not one of the better rests I’ve gotten here.

The next day we headed out to the Sinoe Rubber Plantation.  The plantation is right by Sapo National Park which is a protected rain forest here.  The drive was beautiful, albeit, rough.  The car had a continuous beeping noise because when it was last serviced they were unable to reset the “beep” which normally informs the driver that it needs servicing.  So, for an entire day we heard, “beep beep beep beep beep”…  That wasn’t the worst though because eventually, it was possible to tune it out.  The worst was the roads!  Holy cow!  It was good we had 4 wheel drive, one vehicle which didn’t got stuck in mud (the rainy season hasn’t even come yet!)  It was really, really bumpy. 

The first meeting we had was in a village.  They had set all of the chairs out in a circle in the center of the village.  All of the men in the town came out, the town elders sat closest to where the head of the meeting was to sit. (The heads were actually 2 members of the group I was with who coordinated the visit)  To call the meeting to order one of the guys got up, went to the circle and yelled something to which the circle replied, yelled it again, and got the response again.  Apparently it means something like, “pay attention” to which the crowd replies “attention”.  This same guy did this a few times throughout the meeting.  What I later found out is that this is an actual chosen position.  Elizabeth said that she’s been to quite a few meetings through the area and he’s always the one to perform this duty.  The second “meeting” was really an informal gathering in one of the camps.  That one didn’t involve me so I hung off to the side with some of the other members of our party.  Andrew, one of the US guys, had brought bubbles with him and started playing with some of the children.  As many of you know, I’m not a huge kids fan, but, it was pretty cool to see these kids play with bubbles.  For many I expect it was the first time. 

I should insert here that the place where we were had only 2 schools to service the entire area, 1 elementary and 1 junior high? Most of the kids are not even in school.  In Greenville itself Andrew was telling us that many of the teachers have not been paid in 6 months but keep teaching.  He said the conditions are appalling.  The “lunchroom” doesn’t have a roof which is fine during the dry season, but during the rainy season isn’t going to work.  Supplies are non-existent.  The only kids who can go to school are those who can get there.  There aren’t busses, most people don’t have vehicles, and bikes are not prevalent.  One of the projects that the group I was traveling with was trying to get started was the building of a school.  We went and had a look at the location, but, that’s as far as the project has gotten.  The school needs to be built and staffed, not an easy task.

That night we returned for another rice and fish dinner. 

Our last day we had a  meeting with a man who collects a “tax” on rubber that is delivered to a weighing station.  He couldn’t give us a straight answer to save his life.  Not on who the tax goes to, how much he collects, or what it’s used for.  He did say that some of it goes to the country finance minister.  So after the meeting we had a second meeting with the finance minister.  The finance minister had heard of the tax but said that nothing goes to him and that he’s been trying to investigate this tax for quite some time…

Lunch on the last day was rice and fish.  This time we also had greasy greens – umm umm good. 

We took an actual aircraft home, unfortunately we hit it on a bad day and ended up going from Greenville, to Harper (South), then N to Zwedru, and then to Monrovia… 3 hours later I was finally home.  After seeing Greenville I decided that Monrovia is not so bad afterall… One might even call it the Paris of Liberia… might.

Heavy Rains, No Flooding!!!

Magandang Umaga (Good Morning in Tagalog)

TGIS! (Thank God It’s Saturday)  Hm… really doesn’t have the same ring as good ol’ TGIF.  <sigh>

This morning’s big food adventure – street pastries.  I missed the donut kid, he walks fast for a guy with a huge bucket of donuts on his head.  So, I tagged the next 2 kids I saw selling pastry items.  These were, hm… I know Dunkin Donuts has a word for them.  It’s one pastry, folded in half, and twisted covered with sugar.  I bought a couple of those and boy, were they tasty!  There is no such thing here as “diet” anything.  (Well, except for my Slim Fast   I’ve eaten more fats and sugars in the past month than in the past year…. Okay, okay, I exaggerate, but for sure the past 6 months…

Last night was the General’s going away party.  It was up at Bomi Lake so, about a 1 hr 45 minute drive up.  To get there from where we are in Monrovia we must drive through Dawalla Market.   This market covers both sides of the road for probably well over a mile.  But it doesn’t just cover the sides of the road, many of the sellers walk on the roads as well.  Traffic moves at a crawl, if you’re lucky.  I haven’t had a chance to actually shop at Dawalla, it’s not your everyday market.  Trying to find people to go with me has been tricky.  Apparently people consider it a little “sketchy.”  Yes, many of the items are sold out of wheel barrows, and yes, there’s not much space to move on a high day, but, I hear that you can get crazy souvenirs there.  It’s a mission of mine. J  I mean, it’s shopping, how could it not be?   Oh yes, back to the farewell.  The Pakistani contingent really did go all out with lights everywhere and tables outside.  The food was great, of course.  Overall, it was nice.  For me, however, it was a bit far to drive for what turned out to be 2 hours.  Of course, I have been spoiled with trains and good public transportation for the past 5+ years now, so, I may be a little biased.  I did, however, see my first bug that was comparable in size to a canary flying around.  I mean, it was HUGE.  Luckily he was up high near the lights… thank goodness. 

In a feel good Africa story, our roof got fixed yesterday!  When I got home people were working on it.  Last night we apparently had another storm (I slept quite solidly through it) but Jen heard it.  She said that it was loud and that she was worried about our apartment, but this morning, on close inspection, no water!  Yay! 

Speaking of our apartment, I’ve meaning to mention our pictures.  The landlord put pictures up around the house. (The ones I said yesterday are covered in mold.)  What I forgot to mention about these pictures is that they didn’t take the cardboard off which covers the corners during movement.  So, all of the pictures in our house have cardboard triangles on all of the corners.  We’ve discussed taking them off ourselves but it’s much more entertaining to leave them on.

There’s a Black Adder showing tonight at Mike the Brit’s house.  He shares an apartment with some other Brit’s.  I said I’d go but I’m fairly exhausted with little to no desire to head out there.  They live past Dawalla market.  I’m feeling like a little chillaxin time is necessary. 

Well, another couple of hours and the workday will be over.  Currently trying to get a trip to Greenville approved.  Greenville is South of Monrovia by about 150 miles.  We’ll be flying via helicopter though to get there.  Driving wise, it would probably take an entire day, literally, with how bad the roads are.  If we can get this trip pushed through, then, I’ll be down there from Mon – Wed next week <sigh, no blogging for me! But, I’m sure I’ll have quite a bit on Thursday>   The purpose of the trip is to go look at a rubber plantation down there.  Liberia has quite a few rubber plantations, including one owned by Firestone.  As I’m in the Natural Resources part of JMAC, part of my duties is to be knowledgeable on all of the rubber plantations here in Liberia.  Best way to really understand a place is to go and visit it.  I’m working on a good reason to go to Abidjan but, so far, I haven’t figured one out.  I have not given up yet though!

Enjoy your weekend!

Drip… Drip… Drip Drip DRIPDRIPDRIP…. Happy New Year?

Ni hao.

CRASH! CRASH! BANG! CRASHBANGCRASH! Drip… drip… drip…. DRIPDRIPDRIP!!! And so my night and my early morning went.  Initially I woke up and heard the crash, after a while I figured out that it was storming, and that the crash was the water against what I’m guessing is tin (all houses seem to have it) on the roof.  So, I threw the covers over my head and tried to think of that Norah Jones song about listening to the rain on a tin roof.  (I’m guessing she was referring to sweet little summer rain taps vice torrential downpour…) Anyway, it worked for a while until I heard, THE DRIP.  Let me tell you Murphy is a Son of a Bi… well, you get the picture.  As I was trying to fall asleep after the crashing noises, I thought, “well, at least the roof keeps the water out.”  And it did… until 5:45 when it stopped.  Right beside my head it began.  Actually, it really began in the living room… or maybe it was the dining room… it might have been the hallway… either way, my ceiling began dripping water onto my bed and the table beside my bed.  Drip is not an appropriate word, more like, a steady flow, a light one, but, enough so that I had to move my mattress and lean it against the wall.  Okay, I’m about to start whining so, if you’d rather not hear (uh, read), you should move onto Paragraph 2.  If you’re still here, please get the cheese ready to go with it, because, I’m going to need a lot!  So, this past weekend my neck started to hurt pretty bad.  I took Monday and Tuesday off from the gym, then went on Wednesday (no weights, just some light cardio).  Thursday morning I took off again because it was starting to hurt (I tried to get to the gym too quickly, not giving myself enough time to heal and all of that…)  anyway, well, in my attempt to move the mattress I pulled my neck… again.  I could have left the mattress but here’s the situation, my house is a magnet for mold.  There is mold growing in the pictures in the picture frames, there’s mold in the cabinet in the dining room, mold on the mattress in the spare room… So, I was trying to save my mattress from the same fate.  Have I talked about my mattress?  My mattress is one giant foam pad.  You know, that yellow foam stuff?  I think it’s about 3 inches.  Well, I’m told after sleeping on it for a while it will eventually get some give.  When I first laid on it, it was the equivalent of laying on a kitchen table.  So, I’ve been sleeping on this hard, mold free mattress for some time.  It’s not much, but, it’s mine.  And now… now I’m almost positive that it’s going to get moldy.  My plan is to turn that area facing down, and turn it so that it’s at the end of the bed.  Of course, it just occurred to me that it’s probably already going to be back on the bed when I get home… <sigh>… The ironic part of all of this (actually, it may not be irony but just ol’ Murphy again) is that this weekend on the train ride I said to Mike the Brit, “how does that tin on top of those shacks keep all of the water out during the rainy season… wow, that must be rough.”  Well, I guess I have my answer… And what’s worse, perhaps the biggest kicker in the pants, is that our rent is $2650 US dollars (not including fuel and security).  TIA (This Is Africa – quote from Blood Diamonds)

So, I’m done whining.  Moving onto better things about last night.  Before the rain Corrie, Anne and I went to the Chinese Transport Battalion’s area to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Because, why wouldn’t we celebrate Chinese New Year in Liberia?  Anyway, it was (as is everything else here) an experience.  They had decorated their area with the normal red lanterns, but they also had collages of pictures up, half focused on the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.  All of this was outside with a large stage set up.  After the initial speeches they opened up the food areas.  Lots of pretty authentic Chinese food (no beef with broccoli or Kung Pao chicken here).  Then the drinks began, first a canned tea, then one type of beer, then another… We actually saved one of the beers (Chrysanthemum beer) because it had the Olympic logo on it (seemed like a good souvenir).  After that began the entertainment.  I dunno, I was thinking it would be rather traditional… well, there were traditional parts – a guy did a solo on a Chinese flute and a Chinese string instrument (names escape me) – but then there were the 5 guys dressed like ballerinas in all white doing a ballet recital, there was the emcee who said he’s going to do a song and proceeded to sing La Isla Bonita (all in uniform), and other such activities… We left before the karaoke began.  It was entertaining.  If I can figure out how to put movies on this thing, maybe I’ll be able to download some. 

Tonight we’ve been invited to the Pakistani General’s farewell dinner.  Most of us weren’t sure about going because it’s in Tubmanberg.  Tubmanberg is over an hour from here when it’s light out.  That’s not the big deal except that it starts at 8 and curfew is at 12.  Unfortunately last night a Pakistani Lieutenant Colonel brought the General to our table and said that we would be attending… I don’t know why he said that, but, well, now we’re going.  We’ll eat, watch some of the entertainment, and then jump in the car and head home.  Hopefully, get some sleep before going to work tomorrow…  It’s a great honor to be invited, I know.  If the roads weren’t crappy and I didn’t have to work I think I’d be more excited.  I think I’m just cranky.

Ooh, Irene, one of our translators, just brought in some African style clothes for us to have a look at.  Gotta run!  I might make it out of here with non-Pakistani gift items yet!