So I go home tomorrow... I know I know, time has flown by for all three of you my avid readers, thanks Mom, Jo, David and Jen. Ok so that is four not three but anyway, you know numbers arent my thing.
So I have learned a lot of things here in Liberia for example:
- If women have sex with a man with a large penis they will, not can, but will, get cancer.
- Eating too many peanuts will cause you to create too much sperm and your testicles might explode (this conversation was a whole lot of fun with my still patchy understanding of Liberian English, I was positive that I was hearing incorrectly... nope.)
- I learned that anyone that can walk can dance and a nice sunrise is reason enough to dance.
- I learned just how lucky and blessed I am and that because I have been given much in this world, much is expected of me and I too must give.
- I learned that some people would kill to have been able to sit through my, what i thought was boring, math and sciences classes in high school.
- I learned that meat is meat and worrying about pesky details like if it was bat or beef really didnt make much of a difference.
- I learned that I really do love this field that I am in and I can do it for a long long while and feel fulfilled, challenged, and happy.
- I learned that long distance relationships are rough and that I am much more broken than I ever thought I would be.
- I learned that there are a lot of good people out there trying to make the world the way they wish it could be but that its a lot easier to ruin everything then it is to try to fix it.
- I learned that simple unsexy things like roads can make all the difference for a country.
- I learned Malaria usually wont kill you, that is of course, unless you are already weakened by silly things like chronic poverty.
- I learned I really need to learn how to drive a stick shift. That will be my goal at christmas time to learn from zach.
- I learned that I don't need nearly as many physical possessions to make myself happy and that I am far too dependent on the ones that I have right now.
Well these are some of my thoughts right now, I think they are about to cut off the power so I need to go, I like this blog thing though and I am going to keep posting stuff along the way, although I dont know if my insights will be nearly as profound or interesting when I am no longer in such a profound and moving place.
Thank you all for your support.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Matt 1 Banana Snake 0
So it is Sunday. Here at DEN-L in Gbarnga Liberia that means that there is not a whole lot going on. That actually might be a bit of an over statement. There is nothing happening here at all. No one comes in other than a couple of the kitchen staff, there is no electricty which means no computer for movies or anything like that. Everything is closed in town. So I had developed a routine while here.
Usually I wake up, have my own little church service here at the compound (I get weird looks while singing hymns to me myself and I but whatever), then i read a while (today is Audacity of Hope, GO OBAMA!!!!) then I eat lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon sitting on the porch of my building making rings for different people out of coconut shell.
So today I was sitting there carving away at my coconut shell creation working on my masterpiece and Terese came out to talk with me (the intern from Ivory Coast). We were talking a bit when all of a sudden she started shrieking at the top of her lungs. Almost simultaneously, one of the kids that works here, Amos, starts smacking the ground with a mop handle. all this is of course happening behind my back so i dont know what he is doing. I jump up screaming something amazingly eloquent like "what the hell?!?!?" to see a three foot long green banana snake writhing on the ground about a foot or so from where my leg had just been.
I look for a second at the snake who is now hissing at anything and everything and quickly stomp on its head with my heart now pumping like crazy. First thing out of my mouth is "Amos you are my hero." second thing is "was that thing poisonous?" answer "yes, its a very bad snake. It kills many people." good to know right?
Thats my drama for now. So if you are the praying type, make sure to thank God for Amos for me tonight cause without him around I don't know that I would be typing this story now.
Usually I wake up, have my own little church service here at the compound (I get weird looks while singing hymns to me myself and I but whatever), then i read a while (today is Audacity of Hope, GO OBAMA!!!!) then I eat lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon sitting on the porch of my building making rings for different people out of coconut shell.
So today I was sitting there carving away at my coconut shell creation working on my masterpiece and Terese came out to talk with me (the intern from Ivory Coast). We were talking a bit when all of a sudden she started shrieking at the top of her lungs. Almost simultaneously, one of the kids that works here, Amos, starts smacking the ground with a mop handle. all this is of course happening behind my back so i dont know what he is doing. I jump up screaming something amazingly eloquent like "what the hell?!?!?" to see a three foot long green banana snake writhing on the ground about a foot or so from where my leg had just been.
I look for a second at the snake who is now hissing at anything and everything and quickly stomp on its head with my heart now pumping like crazy. First thing out of my mouth is "Amos you are my hero." second thing is "was that thing poisonous?" answer "yes, its a very bad snake. It kills many people." good to know right?
Thats my drama for now. So if you are the praying type, make sure to thank God for Amos for me tonight cause without him around I don't know that I would be typing this story now.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
just one more week???
how did this happen? my time has come and is nearly gone and what do i have to show for it. well thankfully I think I have gotten a lot out of this trip. I read Jeffery Sachs' "The End of Poverty" this week and he was talking about the different levels of poverty. He mentioned the idea of relative poverty which is what we mostly have in the United States. I mean yeah there are poor people in America but the vast majority of them do not live in dirt floored mud huts and dont have enough caloric intake to sustain life at all, so relatively speaking they are poor compared to the rest of the affluence running around the US. Then there is poverty which is the people in the world that barely have enough to scrape by but they either make enough food that there is some sort of progress or they have some sort of financial income that allows them to at least be stable. This is primarily what I have dealt with before in Asia and in Latin America. Yes there are people in those countries that live in more destitute life shattering poverty but the vast majority are not in any threat of dying from hunger any time soon. Then it comes to extreme dire, one small injury from death poverty which is the vast majority of Africa.
I had realized when I got to Liberia that I had never seen poverty like this before but I didn't really know any of the numbers behind it. I had no idea that I was looking at a whole other ball game. So I have come to think that the lack of development and therefore crippling poverty in Africa comes from a few different things. first, the infrastructure is horrible. there is no running water, no electricity, no roads, one barely functioning airport, no telecommunications no nothing. This last week I was in Lofa. It is now the rainy season and the roads that before were bad bumpy roads are now giant mud pits that you go from one to the next pushing yourself out of. You can not move crops on the roads (85% of Liberians are farmers), you cant get to a hosptial ( as previously explained they are far far away from most of the people), you cant even get to a family members funeral before they have to burry the person because there is no such thing as a morgue or a freezer to hold the body in. You are basically grounded to your village or anything within walking distance. The lack of electricity cuts down of efficiency in other places as well. kids cant study at night or do anything else because there is no light to do it with so that means as of 7:00 pm you are done for the night and the sun doesnt come up again till about 6:30 the next day and you are close to the equator so that pretty much doesnt change all day long. No running water so you spend huge parts of your time looking for water to bathe, clean, wash clothes, cook food etc. and then there is no gas or electricity to cook on so you have to get fire wood which, depending on how long people have lived in your area and how thorouhgly everything is picked through means you are walking quite a distance to find some wood to cook on for the day. basically all your time is spent providing for the basics of life meaning you have no time at all to invest in your future by going to school, growing extra food anything like that.
the next thing I blame is the horrible governance of this country. It can be argued that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia's president) is doing a fairly decent job provided with what she is up against but then again most people would argue the opposite. I just know that Liberia has had like 5-6% growth for the last three years which is almost unheard of post protracted conflict. But between the war and malicious rulers this country has been lead astray continually and this probably explains for why more of the wealth doesnt go into doing things like building the infratructure and investing in health care and eduction. This is one point i disagree with Sachs on. He lets off the leadership pretty blame free saying that its mostly the fault of health reasons and lack of infrastructure but I would argue that the reason there hasnt been money to invest in these areas is because its all going into the American bank accounts of Liberia's elite Americo-Liberian ethnic group.
Then there is health concerns. In liberia that means Malaria and AIDS. everyone gets Malaria all the time. by that I mean Sachs provides statistics that pretty much everyone gets it at least once a year. I thought that was excessive till I started asking everyone about it and they said that that was right on. everyone I have asked as had it at least once in the last year most of them have had it at least two times. Now, Malaria is not nearly as bad as we think of it when we hear it in the states. I mean yeah its bad, it will floor you but unless you are really young or really old its not going to be lethal. that being said it does kill millions every year of the young and the old and those that are already weakened by other things...for example aids, or starvation or any number of other maladies found in abundance here. So when i started thinking about what that means that everyone gets Malaria at least once a year. that means that thats about a week that you are out of commision (Malaria is like having a really really bad flu). So thats one week a year that everyone is out of school, not working on their farm, not able to take care of their kids. one week guaranteed, thats a lot of man hours. not to mention that if Malaria is not treated fast enough it can leave lasting side effects that will dibilitate for life.
So I dont know what that was all about but it was on my mind recently. Basically that I was blindsided that I thought I had seen dire poverty and knew what it was but now realize that i didnt have a clue what i was talking about and if i had a clue i didnt really have any sort of understanding what that clue was alluding to. And still, just because I have seen it close up doesn't mean i really understand. I mean I stop in the villages stay for a few days and then get in my giant toyota land cruiser (by the way, i have a testimony of the amazingness of that machine and what it can do, holy crap is it a powerful powerful beast!) and drive back here to the compound and take a shower, hop on the internet and get a cold drink... what do I know? I'm forced to admit that I know nothing.
I had realized when I got to Liberia that I had never seen poverty like this before but I didn't really know any of the numbers behind it. I had no idea that I was looking at a whole other ball game. So I have come to think that the lack of development and therefore crippling poverty in Africa comes from a few different things. first, the infrastructure is horrible. there is no running water, no electricity, no roads, one barely functioning airport, no telecommunications no nothing. This last week I was in Lofa. It is now the rainy season and the roads that before were bad bumpy roads are now giant mud pits that you go from one to the next pushing yourself out of. You can not move crops on the roads (85% of Liberians are farmers), you cant get to a hosptial ( as previously explained they are far far away from most of the people), you cant even get to a family members funeral before they have to burry the person because there is no such thing as a morgue or a freezer to hold the body in. You are basically grounded to your village or anything within walking distance. The lack of electricity cuts down of efficiency in other places as well. kids cant study at night or do anything else because there is no light to do it with so that means as of 7:00 pm you are done for the night and the sun doesnt come up again till about 6:30 the next day and you are close to the equator so that pretty much doesnt change all day long. No running water so you spend huge parts of your time looking for water to bathe, clean, wash clothes, cook food etc. and then there is no gas or electricity to cook on so you have to get fire wood which, depending on how long people have lived in your area and how thorouhgly everything is picked through means you are walking quite a distance to find some wood to cook on for the day. basically all your time is spent providing for the basics of life meaning you have no time at all to invest in your future by going to school, growing extra food anything like that.
the next thing I blame is the horrible governance of this country. It can be argued that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia's president) is doing a fairly decent job provided with what she is up against but then again most people would argue the opposite. I just know that Liberia has had like 5-6% growth for the last three years which is almost unheard of post protracted conflict. But between the war and malicious rulers this country has been lead astray continually and this probably explains for why more of the wealth doesnt go into doing things like building the infratructure and investing in health care and eduction. This is one point i disagree with Sachs on. He lets off the leadership pretty blame free saying that its mostly the fault of health reasons and lack of infrastructure but I would argue that the reason there hasnt been money to invest in these areas is because its all going into the American bank accounts of Liberia's elite Americo-Liberian ethnic group.
Then there is health concerns. In liberia that means Malaria and AIDS. everyone gets Malaria all the time. by that I mean Sachs provides statistics that pretty much everyone gets it at least once a year. I thought that was excessive till I started asking everyone about it and they said that that was right on. everyone I have asked as had it at least once in the last year most of them have had it at least two times. Now, Malaria is not nearly as bad as we think of it when we hear it in the states. I mean yeah its bad, it will floor you but unless you are really young or really old its not going to be lethal. that being said it does kill millions every year of the young and the old and those that are already weakened by other things...for example aids, or starvation or any number of other maladies found in abundance here. So when i started thinking about what that means that everyone gets Malaria at least once a year. that means that thats about a week that you are out of commision (Malaria is like having a really really bad flu). So thats one week a year that everyone is out of school, not working on their farm, not able to take care of their kids. one week guaranteed, thats a lot of man hours. not to mention that if Malaria is not treated fast enough it can leave lasting side effects that will dibilitate for life.
So I dont know what that was all about but it was on my mind recently. Basically that I was blindsided that I thought I had seen dire poverty and knew what it was but now realize that i didnt have a clue what i was talking about and if i had a clue i didnt really have any sort of understanding what that clue was alluding to. And still, just because I have seen it close up doesn't mean i really understand. I mean I stop in the villages stay for a few days and then get in my giant toyota land cruiser (by the way, i have a testimony of the amazingness of that machine and what it can do, holy crap is it a powerful powerful beast!) and drive back here to the compound and take a shower, hop on the internet and get a cold drink... what do I know? I'm forced to admit that I know nothing.
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