A trip back home to Sierra Leone

Above: I did forget the name of it, but we passed this beautiful river on our last part of the journey - somewhere between Bo and Freetown. It is peak of dry season right now and the water is very low. It is fascinating to see how much human life and activities is in and around the river. People do their laundry, swim, fish and chat. The river seems to be an integral part of their life and livelihood. However, this may change a lot when the river fills up with water again and rather turns into a risk as many people cannot swim. I am very curious to see how it will look like.

This huge truck managed to drive on the incredible bumpy road all the way to Monrovia, ensuring trade between both countries. But you can imagine, it is quite a nightmare. Transport of goods is a serious challenge and certainly present constraints for intensification of trade activities.

To the right: This is my friend I.. As I said, this trip was a bit about coming home. As many know, I met Isata in 2008/2009 when I was doing my Master research in Freetown. Since then, we have never lost contact and such as three years ago I enjoyed spending time with her and the kids a lot. And as usual, we cooked - this time we prepared greens, the most expensive leaves you can find here, with rice and fish. I am just cleaning the rice of small stones, dirt and millions of ants (which actually bit my fingers annoyingly often).




Lunch time - I really missed eating from the bowl with my fingers. Food was delicious, I did not eat the fish though. But I made people happy by handing over my fish. And in return I got the best part of the rice, which you have to scrape of the pot and which is a little crunchy. To the right, there are Isata's daughters J. (with the jerry can) and S. (blowing the white balloon) as well as a neighbour kid.

Family Picture with I. and the kids. The small one was born in summer last year and he is a real cutie. Being the only boy among all the girls Isata has high expectations for him take care of her economically when she is older and he is grown up. For now,  he does not do much more than babbling, laughing and well, whatever babies do.
My friend M. is missing here as he is taking the picture.

As it was planned, we actually managed to get in a taxi on Staurday and went to Waterloo (small, but busy town, next to Freetown) to see the land site which was purchased with my support and where a now a house shall be build on. So far, you can see preparations for the toilet (lesson learnt: This is what you always do first) and the first bunch of sandbricks which are made by Mr. M. himself. The foundation shall started in the next couple of days and the idea is to finish the first room before the rainy season starts. If they would leave the land like this, they run the risk that it might be sold a second time to someone else and then they have to fight for their rights and this needs to be avoided.

However, although it was great fun and we had a good time together, once again there were some issues which needed to be discussed. Without going into detail, I just realised once more, that I still understand so little of the dynamics, mechanims, the understanding of rationality and personal desires which exist in my friends' Lebenswelt (living environment). But by the end of the day, we managed to reach a mutual understanding in a way that provides the ground for ongoing friendship and learning from each other. And I think that might be the most you could ask for.

And while the men worked on the land, the girls had photo session. All of them like to snap and to be snapped, so we spent an hour with just taking pictures and playing around.
J. and S. were very happy and in a good mood and kept climbing on my back and competed who can sit on my lab.
Both of them are very smart girls and time and time again, I am impressed how self-responsible they act for being just 9 and 12 years old.

I. likes pictures too, so we let the girls snap us. And certainly, the guys like pictures too, so we took some in front of the sandbricks to have a nice thing to remember. The guy in the pink pants is a good friend of M. and currently stays in Waterloo to ensure that the land is safe. As said above, there is a risk that land is sold twice if you don't "occupy" properly. Freetown is about to burst and cannot take any more people, so everyone is looking for new places. Prices for land are skyrocketing and competition is huge. Waterloo is a good choice though as it is connected by paved road with the capital and also has a large market area itself. And it will grow a lot in the upcoming years.

On our way back  to Free- town we certainly stopped at one the markets as Isata wanted to buy a chicken. In the picture, she is asking for advice, but I was not really helpful and recommended to better pick a brown one. Well, she went for white. So, just another passenger joined us and mingled around our feet in the car. Its future is crystal clear - to lay eggs as many as possible and then at one day to serve as proper dinner.

So far my trip to Freetown. Besides spending the weekend with my friends, I was certainly also working. It was an interesting workshop, I spare you the details though as it might be less interesting for you. Take good care, everyone near and far!

General specification

Wow. This has been quite a long time again. So, no discussion about the need for an update, but where to start?

I managed to get tested negative for typhoid and malaria - woohooo!

Maybe we go from the general to the specific. Generally, I am doing very fine. I really like Liberia and so far, not much has happened which made me reconsider my decision to come here and to stay here for a while. As it always happens after a while, life became a kind of routine, although it is a routine with many exceptions and many unexpected incidents.

By now, I was lucky enough to meet quite a number of very nice people I like to hang out with so that the sudden feelings of homesickness and loneliness can be cured if desired. No doubt, I do miss my friends and family a whole lot (even Frankfurt – can you imagine???), but it is good to know that there are people to call nearby as the distance to anywhere else in the world is quite a bit.

Regarding work, it is now getting much better. After having worked so much in January and February without seeing any progress, I got pretty frustrated. Some personal issues were involved and at some point I was actually not completely sure I will be and want to be able to cope with the situation as it was any further. Anyway, things changed a lot and we are still working hard and long hours, but now we see things moving on and proceeding. Catch-up exercise almost completed! And personal issues solved. Work is fun again. And very interesting, so I am happy.

Nadine, our third roomie, came back beginning of February, now being properly employed by GIZ. Unfortunately she has already left again as she is based up country in Foya and only returning to Monrovia once in a while. It’s a bit unfortunate as she is a pretty good roomie, but at least I have a good reason to travel a little outside the capital to visit her. Actually, I will drive up to Gbarnga in mid of April, where I will meet Nadine and then we continue to Foya where I stay for few days before we both go back down to Monrovia to attend just another training. Wosh, after all these workshops and trainings I will have attended by the end of the year, I should be an expert in everything.

Once again - crossing the river on the way to Freetown

Talking about travel I should mention that I am going to Sierra Leone on Thursday next week. I went there a month ago and now we have to go again to attend a planning workshop involving both countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

As I missed to see Isata, Momoh, Jojo, Sally and the little trouble maker last time when I was there, I am kind of happy to go again. As you may know, I was involved in some land buying issues, so now there is land to build a proper shelter, and Momoh just graduated from college and got his final documents, which is a great reason to celebrate.

Momoh, just in case you read that: I am very much impressed and proud! Fingers are crossed for successful job hunting! 

Stunning landscape

So, when I will be in Freetown we will get in a taxi and go altogether to Waterloo to visit the land site.

Talking about leaving, I should also mention that our great intern Max will leave the country right by tomorrow. This is also very unfortunate as he has been a great office companion for the past couple of months and he was a great support to the project and a perfectly fitting and very valuable team member. So Max, in case that you read this – thanks for everything, you will be missed as friend and colleague and good luck in Berlin!

So, that was the general update, now we are getting to the specifics with some highlights from the private and the work sphere:

Opening of the LEITI Resource Centre

Peter and Max in front of the new Resource Centre

After weeks of hard preparatory work, the first Resource Centre – a small library stocked with books and documents on resource governance and related issues – was eventually opened in the facilities of the Liberian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). The German Ambassador gave the key note speech and members of the Multi-Stakeholder Group steering the LEITI process welcomed very much the initiative. The idea behind is to provide easy access to information on natural resources and its management and governance for the civil society, students from the university and the general public. More can be found in this article.

Lazy Raft Day on St. Paul’s River

Sunday morning, 11am. Few people were gathering down at a site near St. Paul’s River somewhere on Bushroad Island (is that actually true???). Over time, the crowd gets bigger, majority of them are expats. Cellcom is doing constant promotion, Vuvuzelas and first drinks are handed out. And people are waiting. And waiting. Big pig gets prepared to end up on the BBQ. Some people dressed in white Shirts are busily running around. And people are waiting. Waiting for what?

Well, on March 3, the 3^rd Lazy Raft Day, organized by Barefoot Safari, took place and it was just great fun. Starting with some hours delay (this is about the waiting), about 80 people eventually jumped on barges, rafts, tubes and whatever can float and started rafting down St- Paul’s river. I was in the water for about 3 hours non-stop, tangling myself to a tube or string and let the water carry me along. The sun was shining; there was music, nice people and the stunning landscape of Liberia. So I enjoyed every single minute and I did not even get sick although I swallowed at least 3 liters of river water. When we returned it was already dark and the big pig was ready to be eaten (which people did instantly).

More pictures will follow – have to find some from others as I did not take any myself during the actual trip.

Shopping in Monrovia

When I came back to Monrovia in January, there was definitely no need for any shopping. All this running around in Germany and the hours of packing I spend before my departure really did not want to make me buy anything in a long time. Did I mention that I brought about 80-90kg of stuff back here?

Making pots

Anyway, after two months of being shopping-absent, I felt that I need to buy something nice and something which is not food. Or toilet tissues. Or bug spray. As shopping opportunities are somehow limited in Monrovia, I decided to go plant shopping. There are some really nice places along the main road in Monrovia and so a friend of mine and I chartered a cab and bought some really nice green plants in big pots. I got one for my room, one for the living room and one for the office and guess what – they are all still alive. I also stopped at Kasawa, a nice tailor shop in town, and got a table cloth and large blanket. And for some reason I felt very happy afterwards and still do when I see my plants and the blanket and everything. Apparently some small shopping adventure once in a while is very much needed.

Car Hunting

Nadine and I would like to buy a car. We know which car we want – a cute, little Toyota RAV4. However, buying one is apparently not as easy as we thought. Our experiences so far are rather disappointing and it seems that some man (meaning male) power is needed to get things proceeding. This is frustrating, in particular for such emancipated ladies as we obviously are…

Well, this is the story: I got in touch with a used car dealer from Nigeria who is running a garage here in Monrovia. We talked about what we want and one day I got a text saying that a RAV4 would be available for a test drive. So we agreed on a time and went there on a Saturday morning to check out the car. Surprising detail here: There was no car. The dealer only invited us to find out if we are “fine ladies”. So instead of checking out a car, we got checked out. I am pretty sure you can imagine that I was furious. And speechless. At least almost. I expressed my deep disappointment and left. This clear condemnation of the dealer's behavior however only resulted in an invitation for lunch. Obviously, I did not go. 

Anyway, after some weeks I got another SMS saying he just got the perfect car for us and came up with a reasonable price. As I am convinced that people should get second chances, I agreed to see the car, but took two colleagues along who have advanced mechanical skills. The dealer actually presented two cars, one of them seemed to just have come out an accident. My colleagues looked at both cars and agreed: “Well, Juliane, this is nothing for the future after tomorrow.”  So here we are. No car. No reliable dealer. But a lunch date. Story to be continued.

Ok, actually I will close for today. This is a pretty long post. Thanks for reading and I hope you are well. Take good care and I miss ya all!