NicoleS

Our flight was canceled for today so I guess I have to retract my previous entry about our last day in Liberia. We leave tomorrow. Ill be home Sunday.... read more

Our final day in Liberia was as much as we could hope for. We spent the morning at the Orphanage and used the craft supplies we bought with a large group of kids. Spending over two hours with a bulk supply of large sheets of yellow paper ended in a room covered in yellow paper chains, kids in crowns, and small scraps everywhere.... The teachers merely shrugged and said don't worry about it when we asked how we should begin to clean up the mess. It was a good end to our visits there. After leaving we headed to the Sisters of Mother Theresa and spent the afternoon with the smaller kids. We'd only been there the day before but they greeted us with hugs and smiles. We left to tears and hugs and poopy diapers. ... read more

We planned to spend half the day at an Aids Hospice and the other half at the Orphanage. Unfortunately Reverend Stevens, our coordinator for the orphanage, said he didn't expect there to be many kids today due to the torrential rain (and inadequate facilities for indoor acitivities), so instead we opted to spend the majority of the day at the Hospice. Run by the Sisters of Mother Theresa, the Hospice does a variety of things. We only briefly saw the adult wing and then headed upstairs to see the children. We spent the remainder of our day with them. The children (around 30, and for the most part under 2 years old) were there for a variety of reasons: malnutrition, aids, orphans, and other ailments. Some will only be there for a short period of time ... read more

The Majority of the Liberian Community extended their weekend in honor Independance Day and so most offices and businesses were closed. We were unable to volunteer ( though Joyce did get to visit the Monrovian Prison with the Minister of Justice) so instead a small group of us did some sightseeing. We began by driving to Providence Island, the place Freed American Slaves first touched ground on the Mayflower (not to be confused with the Pilgrim's Mayflower). Small and quaint, the place reminded me of something in the middle of the Delaware River inn Philadelphia. We took a few snapshots and then continued. After the island we went to the Africa Hotel. Originally an incredibly opulent hotel on the coast, the Africa Hotel was gradually destroyed during the war, windows blown out, rooms ravaged, and systematically ... read more

Happy 26th! Every year Liberia has an "official" government celebration in various areas of the country. This year it was in Nimba. Due to fears related to riots, or merely celebrating that could potentially get a little crazy (for lack of a better word) we decided agaisnt going to the party/festival and instead spent the day at Blue Lake, a recreation spot about 2 hours outside Monrovia. What appeared to us as an old Quarry, Blue Lake, has been molded into a tourist destination. A small beach, a dock, a diving board, picnic benches, a dj, and food and drinks for sale completed the transformation. We swam and ate and all in all had a nice lazy day. We got back to the guest house early and plan to have a nice dinner and then sleep... ... read more

Prior to coming, Moses only told his Aunt that he was traveling to Liberia for a month. Upon arrival, the news spread almost immediately. We've already visited and had dinner with alot of friends and family, and it seems every day and every hour someone is arriving at the Guest House to say hello. We've been stopped in the street and in restaurants and in Markets when someone recognizes Alberta, Moses, or Helena from elementary school, or church, or the neighborhood or something similar. It has been simultaneously amazing and exhausting for the group. Today we headed to St. Paul's in Kakata for Church services. This is Moses home church and it was understandably emotional for him. We woke up early to make the journey out and arrived in Kakata 30 minutes before the service. He ... read more

We had our second wedding today. It was for one of Alberta's relatives. With the last wedding starting so late (2-3 hours after the proposed time) we decided we'd plan for a late start so we wouldn't have to wait around in a stuffy church. The wedding was supposed to start at noon so we left promptly at 1pm. Unfortunately we didn't account for Independance Day Weekend Traffic and ended up missing the entire ceremony except the closing remarks. After that we headed straight for the reception. I felt like a wedding crasher. This one seemed a little more like the weddings I know (but then again I missed the ceremony) The bride was in a gown that I could undoubtedly see in the U.S., the cake was tiered and there was a tossing of the ... read more

We had another great day at the orphanage... this time with sunscreen. The children seemed alot more comfortable with us and we with them. The younger kids seemed to choose one of us and then held onto our hands for the rest of the day. Thanks for all the ideas, we tried out a variety of games and the kids seemed to enjoy the change. After the orphanage we headed to a soccer game. It hasn't been publicized much (for fear of riots) but starting today there is a tournament this weekend with the Liberian Team, Ghanian Team and the Team from Guinea (Guinean?). We saw Guinea versus Liberia and it was quite an experience. Tickets were about 3 dollars and were printed on computer paper with clip-art graphics. We walked in past security that consisted ... read more

Today was long and tiring in the best way possible. We drove out to the orphanage that we visited last week and spent the entirety of the day playing outside in the hot sun with well over 75 kids. I think Ive mentioned it before, but if I haven't: Liberia is currently experiencing it's rainy season and so we've managed to be without sunburn ...until today. The boys are 5 shades darker on their faces than their chests. Kim and I have shoulders the color of tomatoes. With the supplies we bought we played jump rope, tug-of-war, chinese jump rope, duck duck goose, soccer, kickball, red light green light, as well as a few games that Ive never seen before that they taught us. One of my favorites that Ill need to bring back was this ... read more

Coming back from Phebe, oddly felt like coming home. The staff and longterm guests welcomed us back with hugs and "we missed you's" and our waiter at the restaurant next door (where we always eat) asked how the trip went. Our beds seemed familiar, we were excited to have internet again, and all was well. Unfortunately we've been out of running water, but our rain barrels have remained full enough to take sponge baths, so we'll ignore the lack of running water. Today consisted almost entirely of catching up. We made Western Union Runs, Gift runs, money runs, settled bills, bought water for the rest of our trip, did other assorted tasks and mapped out our final days here (lots of small trips post volunteering have been planned and potentially a soccer game this weekend as ... read more