So this is Africa... hmm...

So I am here, I am in one piece and I am sweating like a pig. One of those three things is a lie, can you tell which it is? well at the moment I happen to not be sweating like a pig per se, its much more of a light sheen of sweat. Anyone else enjoy that I started my first blog entry ever with a description of sweat? I figure that will probably set the tone for the depth of these entries. oh well....

So I got to Liberia on Wednesday although my body was so mixed up and twisted around I would have believed that it was Monday or Friday or 1945 whatever... but I think I am now all acclimated to the time difference, a mere four hours from DC but then again I had just got accustomed to Seattle time so lets make that like 7 hours instead... or 80 hours your call really. I got into the country alright, I only got a visa stamp for thirty days so I am going to have to go back down to Monrovia and deal with the beureaucracy there for a while at the immigration services. JoeJoe the director of DEN-L picked me up from the airport and drove me straight out to Gbarnga so I have still not even seen the capital yet. First impression of Liberia... well lets do this anicdotally...

The national airport is in the middle of a huge (when i say huge I mean 1 million + acres) Firestone rubber plantation. To leave the airport you must pass through several Firestone checkpoints. The Firestone company leases the land from the government for about 2 cents a year per acre. In contrast they make about $1,200 for a ton of sap from the rubber trees. Each acre produces somewhere between 2-3 tons of sap a month, not a year a month... so lets give the conservative estimate of $3,000 a month per acre for which they pay 2 cents a year... can we say exploitation? That is pretty much the history of Liberia, exploitation and more exploitation.

I was shown to my room where I would be staying once we got to the DEN-L compound, which by the way doesn't the word compound bring images of cults to your mind? I just think i will stay away from the koolaid for the time being. So the compound has quite a few amenities I was not expecting... actually I don't really know what I was expecting. But I have my own room and bathroom which have electricity from 8AM-10:30PM thanks to a generator the size of a midsize car. The water is nice and cold which i have forgotten how refreshing a cold shower can be after waking up in a pool of sweat.

The rest of the compound consists of a few other buildings where people sleep when they come for trainings, a big conference room, a kitchen, a mess hall and an office. Turns out I get all of my meals prepared for me by three of the nicest people you have ever met. They are great but the food, I can tell already, will be monotonous. So far for the three days I have been here we have had fish and rice for three meals and then there was fish and potatoes for another one of the meals.

It rained last night, I am told I am getting here right in the middle of the rainy season, and eventually started to hail. All of the Liberians ran out into the rain to pick up the hail and eat it. I can imagine that for many of them that is the only ice that they see in their lives. Everything I see here has been reminding me of just how priveledged I am. Even here in Liberia I am living a priveledged life as I type on my laptop that cost more money than the people living around me will see in 10 years of work, as i sleep in my bed in my own room the size of the average person here's house. I eat three times a day from meals that are prepared for me, I have nothing to complain about. I am blessed and need to figure out why I am in this position to be so blessed. to steal a line from my favorite hymn... "because I have been given much I too must give." what is the best way for me to do that. I saw parents pushing their children out the door into the rain yesterday with bars of soap in their hands... they didn't really have to push too hard I would imagine as the kids seemed to be loving it. It was an interesting contrast to see the little naked black bodies covered in a thick white lather, and all of this dancing in the pouring rain.

DEN-L had a training yesterday on Gender Policy, trying to come up with a cohesive gender policy for the organiztion. It was an interesting discussion. The issue of Gender equality is sort of a buzz word these days in Liberia as is Child's Rights. It is causing a bit of a commotion which I guess is good in certain way but its bringing it's own set of problems as one might expect. You have to remember that 5 years ago a woman couldn't speak in a room with men in it in any sort of formal setting in many parts of the country, now they have a woman as president. 3 years ago children were carrying AK-47's and involved in some of the worst human rights atrocities you could ever fathom and now they are supposed to go to school. Things are changing here at break nake speed... too fast I wonder? Yesterday at the discussion many of the men in the room said that they needed to take things slowly and only do things at a pace they could feel comfortable at. I was reminded of Martin Luther King's writings from the Birmingham jail when we talked of white preachers that cautioned not to go too fast... MLK pointed out that it was easy for them in their position of priledge to suggest taking things slowly but for the people that were living in oppression they were sick and tired and wanted equality now. I shared my observations and thoughts with the group after which many of the men that had spoken previously quickly agreed with me. Like I said, things are changing quickly in this country, is there such a thing as too fast and too much? or is that just mean thinking from my place of priveldge? Ill think about it some more and let you know, as for me the power goes out in 20 minutes for the day and I need to send out some e-mails. I'll write more later... no lie, I promise.