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.