Are you coming back?

December 20, 2013

“Are you coming back? “, the Director of Administration, who is familiar with my robbery, asked yesterday. I replied that the only way I was not coming back was if I died. I said you might be asking when I am leaving before my tour is finished.

I have so much yet to do. There is the entire shake-up of the Security Force, maybe the entire administration, new teaching techniques to try, Peace Corps grant to implement, new businesses to try, condoms to distribute, term papers to grade and final exams to give, fulfill my promise to my Histology class to perform “The Histo Rap”, and try new ways Liberians eat glop on rice.

Besides all those reasons, the university has no money to pay faculty, staff, or workers. We three Peace Corps teachers and about 10 Nigerians who are both paid by our respective governments may be the only ones here after the Christmas break. Although in all fairness Liberians are not happy about not being paid, but almost expect it. Public school teachers have not been paid for eighteen months, and we westerners wonder why they accept money for grades.

 Outside of the constantly blowing red dust you breathe and makes your eyes feel like sandpaper, the weather is the best I have experienced. It is the beginning of the dry season while everything is still green and the sun shines brightly. Liberians are freezing and think this is cold. It is their winter.

The down side is missing my family, but they realize by now that their husband and father is a little whacko and is constantly looking for new stories to tell around the kitchen table.

Countryside stroll

When leaving the academic world and campus of Cuttington University, these are some of the sights you see.

Rolling upland hills with lush vegetation

Ruins of houses where families once lived and prospered

A Liberian Family

                                                                          A Liberian village family.                                                                                                                                                  Two youngest girls belong to daughter in back row.                                                            Missing are oldest son and father who left four years ago

 

 

Edina comes to Liberia

December 19, 2013

Edina, Minnesota comes to Liberia

Sunrise. This picture has nothing to do with Edina

Thanks, Teri

December 17, 2013

Immunology Class, 2013

My immunology class wants to thank you Teri for the supply of condoms you made available to them.

With some amount of trepidation, but with the encouragement of other Liberians my immunology lection on HIV and AIDS turned to prevention. With banana and condom, I demonstration how to properly put on a condom to the video recording of several smart phones.

A girl asked if I had any extra condoms which I had. I began to distribute one to a student. Bedlam quickly ensued as one was not enough. Soon my supply was gone as students swapped lubricated for non-lubricated and visa versa. The girls were most aggressive.

Next came the use of lubricants. Only water soluble lubricants I informed. No hand or body lotions. "Is spit ok?" a female asked. "Sure" I said.

The males countered with "what about female condoms?" "Not for HIV prevention" the ladies chimed in.

The noise level rose to such a level, that an instructor for the next room came over to ask us to be quieter.

Later that evening, two boys approached me asking if I had any more condoms. The word was out from friends who are my students. At my house, I gave them what was left, requesting hey be distributed between men and women.

I see a tremendous need for HIV education here coupled with the availability of a consistent supply condoms. Handing out a single condom is not enough. There is just no place for students to get them and they need them. There is little exposure to the real effects HIV can have on their lives.

It is unfortunate that in society there are force which deny the existance or frequency of this disease and also the perception that America is trying to blame its AIDS problems on Africans. The subject is highly charged but the problem is real.

Again, my students want to thank you, Teri.

Liberian Christmas

December 16, 2013

What is Christmas like in Liberia?  I have been trying to find out.

Last Sunday was Children’s Christmas. Just what that means I am not sure. I did hear them practicing “Felix Navidad” at the campus Episcopalian church.  It sounded like the Jose Feliciano version with the only Spanish being Felix Navidad, complete with Puerto Rican accent. Maybe Children’s Christmas means they get to sing some songs in church.

As for Christmas carols, the best I could get from my students is the “Twelve Days of Christmas”. We made to the third day and had to stop to start more academic matters. I sang part of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”. They never heard of it. That was good, because I any know the first verse.

As to academic matters, most instructors have suspended classes this week as students are anxious to get home. Not this crinch. We are having classes as I rush to cover the remaining material which will be on the final exam. When the students started to moan, I told them that since they pay such a high tuition, I wanted to make sure they got their monies worth. I have a feeling I wasn’t too convincing.

No Santa Claus in Liberia.  What they have is “The Beggar Man”. He comes to you dressed in rags and you give him something. It is a retro Santa Claus for a retro country where taking is a necessity. 

I asked if overseas Liberians came here to visit family over Christmas. They said no. This probably explains why the flights leaving Liberia are full.

There are no decorations or lights that I can see. If there are any adornments to the landscape, it is the appearance of Christmas birds. These white egret-like birds have migrated down from Europe to eat Liberian bugs in the grass. Beautiful they are. If this is all the decoration you get here, they are enough to celebrate the holidays.

Christmas birds feasting on bugs

Coping

December 13, 2013

Coping with cultural differences is the biggest challenge faced when living in a very different culture. Liberia is a special case with difficulties frustrating even the most veteran foreigner.  

An ex-Peace Corps Volunteer who served many years ago in Cameroon and now works for an organization funded by the U.S.,  stopped by yesterday to share Peace Corps stories and bring a gift of cheese. He had just met with the President of Cuttington wondering why the university had thrown out of class over 70 U.S. paid scholarship agricultural students for non-payment of tuition when in fact the tuition money is ready to be sent as soon as the university submits a proper invoice.

He also wonders about non-use of the $30,000 generator given to the university to supply the agricultural school and nearby buildings with power when university generators fail.  The president states he didn’t want the students to riot because the agricultural school got preferential treatment. The new generator sits securely locked beneath my house waiting to be stolen and put to good use somewhere else.

My big challenge  is coping with the total lack of concern about another person’s time. For example, a girl comes up to me at the end of class wondering if I would look at the rough draft of her term paper. I say I will be at my office in a minute as soon as I put my things away. I wait 30 minutes for Magdelene. I ask her later where she was. She says she was hungry and went to get something to eat. Another student again says he will come to my office after class, another no show. “What happened,  Zienu?” I ask. No response. “I am on my way right now” is another phrase which means, “ I intend to come, but really can’t. However, I do plan to come eventually”. Just drives me crazy.

Appointment times in some countries mean, the meeting will happen, just later than scheduled. Here you have no idea about anything, especially if it’s officially written. Even the school calendar lists the date for 2014 Easter break as March 31, which happens to the date for Easter 2013 (2014 Easter is April 20th). Ah, the wonder of cut and paste.

What makes Liberia especially difficult for me is the pretense of being a smaller version of the United States, but underneath that façade is pure Liberia. You are constantly being shown one thing of what you think you know, but then you get “sucker punched” with something else.   Other Africans have the same coping problems as I have. At least that fact gives me some solace.

How do you...?

December 9, 2013

 How do you talk to a man whose brother and sister were killed in Liberia’s civil war and who has lived through horrors too real to be imagined? How can you ask him about doing his job when he hasn’t been paid his meager salary for months? How do you act when a university administrator walks by dressed to the nines?  What is this world in which I find myself?

Senyea Road Project

December 7, 2013

Early this morning the group, Developing Every Society to National (DES-N), of Cuttington students with whom I am trying to assist took on clearing a road at a nearby village of Senyea. These are kids who are doing these projects on their own. They just want to make things better and to demonstrate how people can help one another. I am trying to get them a grant so they can continue their work.

Their long-term plan is to build an orphanage. Short-term they want to provide some food to help with the unbalanced diet for the homeless and orphaned children, train mothers on parenatl care, and provide clothes and school supplies to encourage children to attend school.

DES-N volunteers clearing the road with soft hands, unused to a bush knife

Some of the student volunteers

Accounts Receivable

December 5, 2013

You just have to love how Cuttington University collects tuition payments.

Today two people from the Financial Office commandeered my classroom asking students in the class to show their tuition receipts. Those without receipts were told to leave immediately and were not supposed to re-enter classes until the tuition was paid in full.

All my class got up and headed for the door. I asked them to wait outside in the hall until the "intruders" had left. All then returned to the classroom. I wrote on the board “This is not a class”. We continued with the lesson.

University President’s Meeting

December 3, 2013

A sudden private meeting was called today for the eleven foreign instructors housed at the university by the President of Cuttington University, Dr. Henrique Tokpa, with the subject being “Acquaintance meeting”.

Tensions are high, especially after a similar robbery occurred last week to a foreign instructor while he was sleeping. He was awakened as robbers shook his locked bedroom door after entering his house through an unbarred window. The university security guard scheduled at his site called in absent. This is the second time he was robbed, but the first while he was in his house.

After a lengthy talk about his own life and the traumatic history of Cuttington, he brought up the subject about the deteriorating and troubling security situation at the university. As he explained how this part of Liberia was the headquarters for rebel forces and how many of the men were soldiers, schooled in the ways of crime, it became evident, albeit unsaid, he was afraid of the prospect of not being able to get foreign instructors, but his own personal safety.
 
He told about the lack of money, especially unpaid government obligations, affecting physical security improvements and how a number of administrators were delaying their salaries to help pay for some immediate concerns. He said that just that morning he decided to half the responsibilities of the Administrative Director to whom security reports. The university was also considering hiring a private security company to replace it university security employees. Finally he mentioned a committee was established to investigate the security force.

I mentioned to him about my survey of students and faculty about whether they trusted the university’s security force and how everyone said security people could not be trusted, indeed were the cause of university crime. If this is the perception, then the university had a huge problem.

I said that I have extensive experience with security issues and that I would be happy to work with the committee on their investigation. I also said it was important to have access to the security department’s logs and personnel records. He welcomed the opportunity to have me be on the committee. As an aside, earlier that morning I had sent an email to the Peace Corps Country Director to see if he could inquire about allowing me access to records. He was off post and had not read the email.

I also mentioned to Dr. Tokpa  I hoped an investigation would clear the security force and help to restore its stature, but if the security was implicated, the consequences for the university could be serious. He said he wanted to make the university a safe place like it was when he was a Cuttington student.

Peace Corps has security procedures and physical barrier requirements for its volunteers. Unfortunately, they were lax in my situation, now remedied. The other foreigners, mostly paid for by government of Nigeria, don’t have any such security requirements as a condition for their housing and the females are particularly frightened for their safety.

As we say here, TIA, “This is Africa”. Who knows what happens next.  All I wanted was a chance to catch those suckers who visited me three weeks ago. I smell blood and am on the scent. Wish me well.

A Thanksgiving Birhday

November 28, 2013

A Thanksgiving Day Birthday ranks high in my book. It takes years for it to happen and 2013 was one of those years. Mine was this year. Just think of the expectations to feast on turkey as you blow out 72 candles to people singing "Happy Birthday Day to You". Well that is the fantasy. Reality is a little different.

Every year the US Ambassador host a pot luck Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Ambassador's residence for Department of State employees, of which Peace Corps is included. In Liberia her house is located on the old embassy grounds which is a park-like setting, now replaced by the new embassy which is a fortress housed only by US Marines. US Embassy staff also open their homes for some Peace Corps Volunteers for overnight stays.I chose to stay with a family.

It just so happens that the young family consisted of the wife, Alexis, who is an embassy employee, her husband, Esteban, and their 1 1/2 year old son. What is unusual is that the son's name is Nicholas and that Esteban also has a November 28th birthday.

The really important thing is that Esteban is a great cook. His Wednesday night dinner of fish tacos and Thursday breakfast simply filled me up. The Thanksgiving potluck just could not compete.

The home stay gave me an inside look at what embassy life is like. Simply, it is transferring everything American to a foreign land. They can ship 700 pounds of food, car, and other items. The living accommodations are made to make an American feel right at home. There is almost no interaction with the people on the street. Embassy personnel make decisions in a vacuum, based on what hired consultants write, who in tturn get their information from previous hired consultants. 

Old US Embassy grounds

I could go on about how the Peace Corps is probably the only department in the US government that actually has face-to-face interaction with what is really happening in a country, but I won't.

I do miss my family at times like this because they appreciate what a Thanksgiving Day birthday means to a person like me.  

My US Embassy quest family in Monrovia, Esteban, Alexis, and son, Nicholas

View from Embassy, looking towards the USA

Here I am teaching the technique of "moaning" to a Peace Corps Volunteer on the Embassy grass

Peace Corps Volunteers is Liberia. Where's Nick?