About leaving the capital for once

Since I came to Liberia I have gotten stuck in Monrovia (except for a day trip to Buchanan where I saw nothing else than the county administration building and the trips to Sierra Leone, but this does not really count) and had not seen much of the country. But eventually the day had come where I was able to escape the capital and to travel up country: I headed off to Foya in Lofa County where a friend/ temporary flatmate/ colleague of mine lives and works to spent a couple of days there before we both travelled back to Monrovia.

Liberia is separated into 15 different counties which serve as administrative units with local authorities in place. Different to neighbouring Sierra Leone (and also Germany) though, Liberia has a rather centralised political system and local officials are not elected by the people living in the respective county, but appointed by the central government in Monrovia which is seen by many as a power-keeping mechanism of the ruling elite in the capital. However, this is just a side note, as I actually wanted to say that Lofa County is the largest county in Liberia, located in the North and rather sparsely populated. It borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea and the distance to Monrovia is quite a bit - geographically and also when it comes to the question if the needs and demands of Lofa people are properly considered in the capital. At least six different tribes (there are about 16 different tribes in entire Liberia) call Lofa their home - the Kpelleh, Lorma, Mandingo, Kissi, Gbandi and Mende. In Foya, the Kissi are the dominant ethic group.

The GIZ programme my friend works for is focussing on food security issues. The team supports local rice and cocoa farmers to increase the cropyield as well as the quality of their products in order to ensure food security on the one hand and increased income through selling more and higher quality products on the other hand.

Before I came to Foya though, I had to make it to Gbarnga, capital of Bong county first as there as there I would get a lift to Foya. So my colleague in Monrovia succeeded in helping me to find someone with a car and at 6am I got picked up by that guy. We kept chatting while we left the greater Monrovia region, mainly about life in Liberia, his family, my work and all that stuff. On the way you have to cross several police and immigration checkpoints (so better have your passport with you). You likely may be asked for a bribe, in particular when you are Liberian and you are squeezed with seven others in a shared taxi on your way to the market to sell cassava leaves. We were lucky and were not even asked, so we hence also avoided long discussions.
However, when we passed the last checkpoint close to Monrovia, he told me: "So, during the war, this was a dangerous checkpoint." I asked why and he explained: "Well, outside, where we are now, there were the rebels. Inside you were safe as the area belonged to Monrovia where the rebels did not go. But it was not easy to get inside. When you came here, you had to kiss a skeleton which they hang up. Or sometime you even had to kiss a freshly chopped man's head, where the blood was dripping from. If you would not kiss that, the rebels would kill you. Very dangerous checkpoint." And he looked at me and laughed. Looking at the driver, who was just about my age, I recalled what he'd just said and froze internally. Having built up a working and living routine here, it is somehow easy to forget about the country's past for a while, and then it will just hit you in situations you wouldn't expect and once again you realize what kind of memories each and every single person in this country carries around.

Market day

Back to driving to Gbarnga though. After crossing huge replantation areas for rubber tree

Foya 'Highway'

s (run by one of the world's largest tire companies Firestone) we made it to the city in just four hours and I jumped in the next car. We instantly left the paved road and for the next six hours I found myself on a sandtrack,  listening to very interesting details about the villages we were rushing through and enjoying the beautiful landscape with its various greens. And then we were in Foya where my friend was waiting to show me around.It is a rather small place, with only about 2000 people living there, three junctions, one 'highway' (still not paved though), one bar, no grocery store, millions of mangotrees, one Ecobank branch as well as one Total gas station to come (no one knows when though) and many friendly people who get themselves through the day somehow.

Blacksmith in Foya

Lappa sale at Foya Market

We spent the weekend preparing a workshop for following Monday, reading, doing Pilates (!!!), walking through the village and certainly going to the market. The market is the weekly highlight and the entire village seems to be on the move. We shopped lappa (African fabric), bread, vegetables and a as a small snack some cassava balls and fried sweet potatoe slices to take away, before we walked back home, already melting in the baking heat. At noon, barely anyone is one his or her feet, everyone is just resting as currently - when dry season turns into rainy season - the heat is just too much. I got used to be sweaty here most of the time, but Foya was even a bit more.

Boy from the village swimming in the river which is used to irrigate the rice

Rice Farmers

On Monday, after an early run in the morning towards the border to Sierra Leona and after my friend finished her workshop, we left for a field trip and I got introduced into the specialities of how to properly grow rice. Water is the key to success. Grow rice in water, and you won't have problems with grass, the rice will grow quicker and be more resilient. Grow it in drylands, and you won't succeed. Well, this was obviously a little too simplistic, but indeed the GIZ programme supports the community members / farmers to build up dams and to establish irrigation systems to ensure that the rice always will have sufficient water. I found it extremly interesting and hope to learn more about cocoa farming next time when I'll be there.

Kpatawee waterfall

The next morning we left Foya early the next morning to head back to Monrovia. My colleague came along as she had some thing to sort out in the capital. Travelling together is more fun than just being on your own so we decided to seize the ooportunity to have an overnight stay in Gbarnga and to visit the beautiful Kpatawee waterfalls. It is quite a highlight as it is actually signposted as a Ecotourism Sight - one of the very few they have in this country. Obviously it is taken advantage of it and you have to pay an entrance fee: After paying 100 Liberian Dollars each (about 1 Euro each) which ist meant to be spent on community development (although the man in charge was not sure if that will be spend on building a school or drilling a well - difficult decision, in particular as he could also just keep it for himself.....) and a nice ride through large rice farming areas, we reached the lower waterfall and it was just perfect.

Upper waterfall

River in the thick forest

Quiet and beautiful, no people around (apart from an older man who was forced to get dressed when we came) and huge trees - I have not seen any bigger so far. As we knew that there is also an upper waterfall, we decided to climb up there and our colleague and super reliable driver served as a perfect guide. He literally ran through the forest (although you could barely see that he lifted his feet - it was highly impressive) and it was a challenge to catch up with him. Which means it is not true that Liberians are slow walkers - they are just smart walkers: Taking their time in the heat of the day, where is no shade, they are fast and extremely efficient walkers as soon as the air cools down a little and trees are covering the tracks.

Downstream view from the upper waterfall

So eventually we sat on a big rock in the river and enjoyed the cool breeze while small butterflies were dancing around us, greedily soaking the salt from our skin. Definitely worth the effort to get there. On our way back we met a couple of Liberians - members of the community next by - who were on their way to do some fishing, carrying fishing rods and machetes along. I have to admit, once again, when they moved through the thick and sounding forest it did look way more elegant than it did for me and my friend.

After a sleep-over in Gbarnga and an spontaneuous meet-and-greet with a 24cm long and 1,5cm thick centipede which ended with the centipede being kicked out of the room and me being a little disgusted, we returned to Monrovia the next day and went straight into the office. It was a great chance to see more of the country than just Monrovia and I am looking forwards to travel a bit more inner country in the upcoming months.

Banana

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!

A Presidential Couple of Days

This has been interesting past days. I guess, when I posted last, some of the stuff I am writing about had already taken place, but were not included as I wrote the post earlier that I actually posted it. Anyway, here we go – my presidential couple of days started on Sunday, January 8 and ended on Monday, January 16. Sounds exiting? It is  - at least it was for me.

Playing the game – Soccer Match at SKD

On Sunday the week before last week, I got kindly invited by my flatmate to join her and her boss to watch a football match at the National Stadium, called SKD. They had a tournament going on between teams of the different counties and on this day the final was supposed to take place. The stadium was a crazy place – thousands and thousands of people, trying to get the last tickety, trying to actually show their tickets and to get access, people jumping over fences and just in the middle of all the chaos, a couple of police men, who found their way through the crows by beating everyone  who would not jump out of their way severely with a bat. Not so nice to see, and clearly a problem as I think the police men were just too few in numbers and using their bat seemed to be the only valid option in their eyes.  However, we were lucky as we were actually sitting in the VIP area – just a couple of seats behind – and yes, here is the presidential linkage – the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her main opponent Winston Tubman and Prince Johnson who came third in the last election. Well, I did not talk to them though, but it was nice to watch them anyway. The match was good as well. I am pretty sure I have not seen so many fouls and wanna be-fouls in one single match though. In the end, Margibi won against Nimba County with 2:0 – a well-deserved victory.

A Week At Work and A Weekend At Home

The week passed pretty quickly as we had quite some stuff to do and my colleague had to stay in Europe longer than expected, so I spent many hours on project management things and trying to get a better understanding of what I am/ we are actually doing here. Work in progress though. But apart from that, I obviously had a lot of first time. First time going to the Campus, first time eating Potatoe Greens in Liberia, first time having a ride on a pen-pen (the local motorbikes – although this was actually already on Sunday), first time having a run longer than 40min, first time buying veggies on the market, etc, etc.  On Friday night we had a Farewell party for one girl who was also working for GIZ as consultant but now went back to Germany. A real loss for our office! But a good party anyway. Whoever is not familiar yet, with the most played song in Sierra Leone and Liberia (and I would bet on this one), click here and “Chop my money” will never leave you again. Saturday and Sunday turned out to be rather boring. I fell sick with a stupid cold and had to work anyway, so I some hours in the office and many at home, trying to recover while watching “How I Met Your Mother”  - exciting life, you think? Will get better soon. I promise.

Inauguration Day

Monrovia on Inauguration Day - red, blue and white all over

And as I said, my presidential couple of days ended on January 16, the day where the president officially started her second term. So if nothing goes totally wrong, this country will be ruled for the next five years by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Fair enough. As we did not manage to get tickets for the inauguration itself, we gathered in front of the TV at Cape Hotel (our office was closed due to various reasons, and power went off at home, so we escaped to the restaurant at Cape Hotel), and tried to follow the ceremony. Not much luck on this side, as the quality of pictures being broadcasted was horrible. So we grabbed our cells, switched on the radios and listened to the speeches instead of watching them. After some hours of work, I decided to get back home and have a walk through the city, hoping to see the president. Well, a “walk” in Liberia is not quite like as it might be in other places, but it was nice anyway. The city was surprisingly empty (most roads were blocked though for security reasons), but I found some people gathering at one corner. I asked around and found out that they were waiting for the President to pass by, so I decided to join them. However, after 30-45min I had to accept that I was indeed ready to meet the President again, but apparently she was not. Two frien

Instructions How to Vote - Left Overs from the last elections in October on a compound wall

ds came along and picked me up and we continued strolling the city which was just highly interesting. Some pictures below may give you first impressions, more to follow in th upcoming weeks. Don’t get confused by the assumingly grey weather on the pictures – we do have blue sky and it is hot, but it is Harmattan (desert wind) season right now, which brings a lot of dust in the city and makes everything looking misty and grey.

That’s it for now – more coming up soon, at some point certainly also a bit more analytical and interpretative instead of just descriptive. Time will come.
 Take good of yourself and your beloved ones and talk soon!

Westpoint, Monrovia - one of the largest slum areas in the city

Variety of Fresh Fish, caught just by standing on the bridge and using a thin string, a hook, some shiny things along the string and nothing else. Quite impressive to watch!

View from the Bridge in Monrovia

Better Now Than Never - Update from West Africa

Wow, I cannot necessarily claim, that I stood up to my promise to continuously update the blog. Sorry for that, but anyway, a new year has started with new opportunities to make it better than before.

Happy New Year to all of you – may it be a satisfying one, leaving you with a smile on your face! I hope you all had a great festive season with a lot on happy moments with friends and family. I had  - so thank you very much to everyone I was able and allowed to stay with, visit and visited by. It was so good to see you all.
Back to business now. When I posted last, I left you with some nice pictures and stories from Maputo where I attend a network meeting. Life remained busy afterwards, but to make a long story short: I got back to Freetown,

"Family Picture" (Isata, Jojo, a new little trouble maker on my lap, Momoh) in Freetown -
it was great to be back and to be remembered, even after three years

Good Bye to Sierra Leone

stayed there for another two weeks, working and preparing myself, and eventually made it over to Monrovia on November 19, moving into my  new room on November 20. We actually got the permission to travel over land (I was extremely relieved as I had 50kgs to bring along, and I really did not want to carry that stuff back to Lungi Airport, Freetown, then to Ghana and finally to Monrovia) and it was great. A colleague travelled with me, and we spent some 12 hours amusing hours in our (at least in the beginning) shiny white GIZ car, eating cookies, chatting with our drivers and enjoying the green landscape. A great part of the trip was done on red tarmac roads, so it got quite bumpy and there was no chance to even read. My personal highlight was the crossing of a river, which, as we had heard before, could be managed by using a ferry. In my naïve mind, the term ferry was associated with something like a ship with an engine, connecting the two shores by going back and forth. I was wrong. The ferry turned out to be a floating something with would fit 2 cars, 3 motorbikes and a couple of people. It was made of wood and was manually driven – meaning, it had no engine. Instead, there was quite advanced system made of iron wires and different kind of ropes, which were used to pull the ferry over. As we did not really paid for the cruise, I felt that I might should offer my support and help pulling the ropes. The guys accepted, but I am not completely sure that I was an actual help.

Osman has to show his driving skills when entering the "ferry"

Pulling the "ferry"

Heading over

Work eventually started on November 21, and it went on without a break until Dec 11, when I went back to Germany to finish some training and spent Christmas at home. These three weeks in Monrovia were just extremely busy, including very long days in the office, working on weekends and facing new challenges every other second. But eventually it was done and most likely I could not have asked for a more intense introduction into the project. Although I would have preferred to be able have some time to actually get familiar with everything, at least now I do know the project and our partners already quite well. My colleague is very nice and so is our intern, so I am sure, over time we will become quite a good team. As I did expect (at least to some extent), I got quite some responsibility, which is nice, as it creates room for change and gives you the chance to actively promote and follow-up your own ideas. So, summarizing on the job situation, I know that I will face many challenges and that it won’t be always easy, but I also know that I find it super interesting and that it was the right choice to come. 

Getting the social life started is certainly also a challenge and will take some more time. I cannot really tell how many expats (short for expatriates = Auswanderer, a term which is usually used for all the ‘white’ people who came here for work) live in Monrovia, but it seems to be a vibrant community. The first weeks are usually a lot of small-talk, trying to adjust yourself – so this is pretty much what I gonna do for the next couple of weeks: Trying to make people to like me. And obviously trying to like them... However, I have already met some quite nice people, so I am quite hopeful. Plus, I was once again extremely lucky with my flat mates - both of them are just great and I felt home from the first day on. Thanks for making the embedding so easy, ladies!
My room is really nice (see the picture) and it got even nicer when I returned from Germany, as I brought a lot of photos, a great calendar which I got as a farewell present from some wonderful friends (Jakob, Risotto recipe is up now and I even found risotto rice, so will give it a try soon), some family memories on pictures arranged by my Mom (thank you so much!), IKEA lamps, my sewing machine, the best coffee/espresso maker ever (Sophie, come on over here!!), excellent Ethiopian coffee (thanks to Cat!) and much more which will definitely help me to feel like home. And the rest of the apartment is also absolutely fine.

My very own Liberian paradise

View from our balcony - realities could not differ more

We got electricity about 13 hours a day (produced by a generator, which is off during the day, when we are at work anyway) and 24/7 during the weekend, piped and even hot running water, we have iron doors, security guards, barb wire on the compound walls, big cars in the parking lot –as you can see, we are quite well set and yes, we do live an expat life. I am also thinking about buying a car. At work, I am good because we got a driver and he would drive me wherever I would ask him for, but in my spare time, it is sometime difficult to get around as I am not supposed to walk in the dark and sunset is already around 6.30pm. The car won’t be one of these huge land rovers though. I rather go for an ordinary car, which I can use within Monrovia and also outside as long as the roads don’t go too bad. I think, as I never appeared to be an off-road racer, I should be fine with that. Plus, a smaller car does not eat up so much fuel and pollute the environment less. I only have to find a car now; this is the next thing on my Challenges-in-Liberia-list.

Waterside Market, Centre of Monrovia

Yep, that’s it. I will write more very soon, but I think, when you actually managed to read all of this stuff, you definitely deserve a break. Congratulations for making it up to here though and thank you for your interest!
Take good care of yourself and all your beloved ones!