How to Pack for Liberia

This post is intended as a packing guide for the new volunteers (the LR-5 group) that are set to arrive in Liberia in June. For the rest of you, it might shed some light onto the (material) things that are most valuable to Angie and me, and which things are hardest to find in-country.

Our Most-Valued Items:– Headlamp (Black Diamond, Petzl, etc) and rechargeable batteries with charger
– Quality hiking sandals (Tevas, Keens, Chacos, etc)
– Good mid-sized travel backpack (you will walk long distances with your bag)
– Underwear (available in-country, but nothing feels like home like a pair of broken-in briefs)
– Durable, waterproof wristwatch (Your watch may be the official time-keeper at school)
– Digital camera (photos are easily our most-valued possessions)
– Laptop w/movies and other media
– USB drives for backing up digital photos (photos are irreplaceable, make lots of backups!)
– Tampons (only available in the capital city for an outrageous price)
– Can opener (or you can use a knife and a rock like our neighbors)
– Vegetable peeler (potatoes, cucumbers, ginger, eggplant, pumpkin, etc. all await you)
– Printed photos of family, friends, and home (for yourself and to show to people)
– Guitar (or anything else that brings you pure joy)

Other recommended items (may or may not be available in-country):– Large Ziplock bags (keep things dry and ant-free)
– Small sports ball pump for neighborhood kids’ footballs (we use ours almost every day)
– Good water bottle (Sigg, Kleen Kanteen, Nalgene, etc)
– Microfiber cloth for cleaning glasses (ever-present dust can scratch your lenses)
– Spices (to add variety to the small variety of vegetables available)

Note: Pretty much anything can be purchased in the capital city – from radios to textbooks to soft-serve ice cream. However, volunteers’ sites can be anywhere from 45 minutes to 22 hours from Monrovia. Your distance from Monrovia will greatly affect your accessibility to these things. Regardless, on any given weekend, you will find volunteers making the trek to Monrovia to stock up on peanut butter, canned vegetables, and Sriracha sauce.

Items we brought but easily could have purchased in Liberia:– Clothes (any clothing item, new or used, is here, but bring enough for your time in training!)
– Towels/wash clothes/bedding (same deal as clothes)
– Toiletries (unless you have a preferred brand; again, bring enough for your first three months!)
– Standard office supplies, e.g. paper, pens, pencils, tape, glue, scissors
– Tools and hardware (hammer, nails, screws, etc.)
– Sleeping bag (it’s hot; most people sleep with only a sheet)

How to Pack for Anywhere

One of the most helpful and humbling pieces of advice for packing is this: People live in Liberia. Their personal needs are not that different from yours. Most likely, you will find anything you need here. The same is true throughout the world.

If you forget something, its not the end of the world. You may learn that you didn’t really need it. You may be able to improvise a solution. By making minor adjustments in your lifestyle, you will become a more flexible and mindful individual. If you do find you really need or miss something, you aren’t without options. For a premium, you can buy it in the capital city. Or you can get it mailed to you. Ideally, as with the people you love, you can consciously delay that sweet day when you are together once again.

Here is everything that Ben brought.

Some things never got used while others were indispensible

Gala Day 2014

Last Friday was Gala Day at our high school. Gala Day is something like Homecoming in the US, essentially celebrating the school and inviting alumni to return. This year, the school celebrated its 88th anniversary. For two weeks, the school prepared for a big day of games, food, and pageantry.

Queen Contest

The Gala Day activities start with the Queen Contest, two weeks before the actual Gala Day. The Queen Contest is a beauty pageant where, instead of relying on grace and charm, the contestants raise cash during a raucous fundraising affair. Before the contest, the Queens each post a “biography” that fluidly combines boasting, mudslinging, and a propensity for fantastic claims. Shown below are the past two years’ of bios. Get ready to be shocked. None of these girls will be competing for Miss Congeniality.

The Queen Contest involves one contestant from each grade/section in the school. Therefore, we had twelve contestants this year (12A/B/C, 11A/B/C/D…). Because the primary objective of the Queen Contest is to raise money, each class nominates their candidate based on whose family is wealthiest. In the lead-up to the contest, the candidates solicit friends, family, and community members for financial support. As you read in the bios, the candidates are quick to boast their financial means, even if they are grossly exaggerated.

At the actual contest, each of the contestants dresses in her finest gown and marches with her entourage to the front of the auditorium. There, she sits behind a basket where she collects the money that will win her the crown.

In successive rounds, money is collected from classmates, students, faculty, parents, and community members. It is loud and chaotic, but everyone enjoys the festive mood. At the end of each round, the money is counted and a running total is announced. The drama builds as people hold onto their money until the latter rounds, hoping at the last minute to put their favorite candidate over the top. Parents are often looked upon to help with the final push. In the words of one organizer, “If a parent really loves their child, they will pay for her to win.” After the final round, all the money is tallied, and the winner is announced. This year’s queen raised $35,000 Liberian Dollars, which is about $435 USD. This is an impressive sum considering most people donate less than $100 LD, or about a dollar.

The cash piles up

Counting the money

Gala Day

For the Gala Day itself, another school is “challenged” to participate in the day’s activities. Soccer, kickball, and quizzing are the main events, but other favorites include a sack race, eating contest, egg race, and thread-the-needle (literally threading a needle while walking). All matches are deemed “friendly matches” so that no one’s reputation is sullied by a defeat.

Sack Race

Egg Race

The Thread-the-Needle Race

Eating Contest competitors eat rice and cassava

As the hosts, our school is responsible for room and board for the visiting school. Our students are responsible for hosting one or more guests at their homes, since no local hotel can host 150 people. This year, Angie coordinated the cooking, which involved trips to dozens of vendors and the purchase of hundreds of pounds of rice, oil, peppers, fish, onions, chicken, salt, and peanut butter. Angie and a team of students spent three solid days shopping and cooking for two hundred guests. All the cooking was done over an open fire. It was no small feat.

The cooking team

Angie stirs the pot

“Slashing” potato greens

The Gala Day program itself happens in the school’s auditorium. The program includes choral selections, speeches, a traditional African drama by the drama team, news readings by the cress club, and the crowning of the Queen. It is a lengthy program. The procession of the Queen and the twenty-member choir, alone, took ten minutes. The drama was halted after twenty-five minutes, to the disappointment of the drama team.

The morning and night schools both crown a Queen

The Drama Team in their African regalia

During the program, invited guests, faculty, and staff sit on a raised platform. Those with highest honor sit front-and-center. On the platform, with the honor of a raised seat comes the unspoken privilege of a cold soft drink. This year, the budget didn’t allow for everyone to have a soft drink. This created a small uproar after the program. Lesson learned: always buy plenty of soft drinks!

The keynote speaker at the program was a Representative in our county. Someone “big” is always invited, because along with a speech comes the expectation that the guest will make a sizable and public donation to the school. This is understood by all, which leads many potential speakers to decline the “honor.”

In Liberia, we have been part of many programs and heard lots of “edgy” speeches. The Gala Day speech was no exception. This year the keynote speaker focused on corruption in schools and how students and teachers need to stop cheating and bribing. Many in the audience laughed knowingly. Others nodded in approval. At any rate, everyone acknowledged the problem and didn’t seem to resent the speaker’s directness.

After the morning’s relay races, the program, and lunch, it’s off to the big games: quizzing, soccer, and kickball. This year, the quizzing team (of which Ben is the assistant coach) was defeated under suspicious circumstances, i.e. the visiting team was fed half of the questions in advance. After quizzing, everyone heads out to the local soccer field for an afternoon of kickball and soccer.

Wrap-up

As stated by the principal, Gala Day 2104 was, “a success to some percentage.” While there are hiccups with any major event, the day went reasonably well and the students all had a great time. For us, we enjoyed the preparations and spending time with our students outside of the classroom. More than likely this will be our last Gala Day, but we are part of the school family now,and we know we will be welcome to return anytime.

Gala Day Angie & Ben

Video Games: A Message to Our Nephew

When Angie and I were getting ready to leave for Liberia, we explained our upcoming trip to our nieces and nephews. To capture their imaginations and entice them for a visit to Africa, we used vivid descriptions of all the big animals we would see. They were excited at the idea of coming to visit us. However, when our six-year-old nephew (now seven) inquired about video games in Liberia, the story quickly changed. When he learned that Liberia doesn’t have electricity, and therefore wouldn’t have video games, he quickly nixed any possibility of a visit.

Miller, I have one message for you: Liberia has video games!

In some of Liberia’s bigger towns, local kids (and young men) can get their fix of video gaming at a locally-run Playstation Booth. These booths operate much the same way as a charging booth (see previous post), but instead of charging piles of cell phones, the little generator out back provides juice to a television and video game system. Most booths feature the slightly-outdated Playstation 2 console, but some boast the newer Playstation 3. Most of the games are soccer-related and feed Liberia’s national soccer fever. Twenty Liberian dollars buys a dopamine-hungry kid twenty minutes of video joy.

Only one question remains for our nephew: “Miller, when shall we plan for your arrival?”

Even developing Africa needs a video game fix

It’s all fun and games till the gas runs out

Technology on the Rise

When Angie and I touched down in Liberia almost two years ago, Liberia was known as one of the world’s few remaining “internet dead zones.” That didn’t bode well for us über-connected Americans. Since our arrival, the Internet, as well as most other technology, has proven to be an adjustment, if not a challenge. From the locals, we’ve learned how to handle our technology needs in a variety of creative ways.

Electricity

Most of Liberia doesn’t have electricity. Those places that do have electricity, or current as it called in the vernacular, get it from a diesel or gasoline-powered generator. Generators range in size from roaring, trailer-sized monstrosities that power whole apartment buildings down to tiny 2.5 horse-power motors puttering out back. And while our own house is wired, we don’t have a generator. To thrive in the darkness, we use our headlamps for schoolwork, reading, and general navigation in our house. Most Liberians use candles or cheaply-made Chinese flashlights powered by wimpy dry-cell AA or D batteries.

Phones

Land-based telephone lines currently don’t exist in Liberia. Any cables that were once there (and there were some) were long ago sold for scrap metal. All telephone communication happens via cell phone, including all government and emergency services. Cell phones, like anywhere in the world, are ubiquitous. Cell phones, like much of the Liberian economy, are pay-as-you-go. Phone contracts are non-existent. Credit is added by purchasing “scratch cards” in various dollar increments. Cards are available in $1, $5, or the rare $20 USD amounts. The most popular is the $1 card, which is enough for ten to twenty minutes of local calls. When that credit runs out, Liberians are notorious for “beeping” one another. Beeping (also known as flashing) involves calling a friend, letting it ring once, and then hanging up. The hope is that the receiver has enough credit to call you back and take on the charges. Thankfully, with our Liberian cell phones, we can make cheap calls to the US. Our $5 scratch card lasts us through a few good calls to family and friends. The phone has been our lifeline with our loved ones.

A local “scratch card” vendor

Cell phones are still relatively new and consequently are still a status symbol. So too, cell phone etiquette lags behind the western world. Ringtones are loud and calls are always answered, regardless of the venue. Professionals answer their phones during meetings, teachers answer calls during class – even church is not too sacred.

Charging Booths

Everyone owns a cell phone. Whether or not the phone battery is charged is a different issue. Being that electricity is not available in most homes, Liberians take their phones to the neighborhood “charging booth.” A charging booth is a small wooden shack with a small gasoline generator in back. Inside the shack is a tangled mass of power strips, extension cords, splitters, power adapters, and wires. At the terminus of each cord is a charging cell phone. The customer’s cell phone is exchanged for a laminated ticket with a number on it. The charging booth attendant plugs in the phone and the customer returns for it in a few hours. Fifteen Liberian dollars (twenty cents USD) covers the cost of the fuel burned to generate the electricity that charges the phone.

The Charging Booth

Somehow they always find your phone

We have had many moments when our own phone or computer batteries give out. This leads to interrupted phone calls, partly-watched movies, and half-written emails. The tasks will resume again when an ample charging supply is found, either at a charging booth or some place with a generator. This could be minutes or days later. Eventually, we find the life-giving electricity that keeps us connected.

Internet and Computing

The Internet has reached Liberia, but we’ve had to modify our expectations when it comes to availability and speed. To get on the web, we generally use a cellular modem. We plug the USB-stick into our computer, click connect, and get online. It’s very easy to get online that way, with some caveats: 1. The laptop is charged (50% likelihood) 2. There is credit on our account (70% likelihood) 3. The cellular network is good (75% likelihood). Mathematically, we can use this option 26.25% of the time. So, roughly three quarters of the time, we have to find another way. There are a few places around that provide internet access, but they are unreliable and costly. Internet cafes haven’t really hit Liberia yet. There are some rudimentary shops with a few machines, but they are only in the largest cities. The average Liberian doesn’t have access to the internet, or even a computer.

When we do employ the USB-stick method to get online, the internet is slow – harkening to the days of dial-up. And we pay fifteen cents for every megabyte downloaded. We “recharge” our account in the same way as with phones – scratch cards. We buy them in $5 increments, which sometimes can go quickly. Angie once spent $10 to watch a single Youtube video for school. Checking email usually costs about 75 cents.

In response to our cyberspace challenges, we’ve had to limit our internet usage to email, Facebook, and the blog. Anything beyond those few things requires too much bandwidth and/or too much patience. We aren’t up to date on the latest news, sports, or really anything outside of what we hear from people. Websites such as CNN with its scrolling pictures and flash are simply impossible and would probably crash the entire system.

Progress

Even though technology has provided many moments of frustration, it has been our godsend and lifeline. More importantly, it is providing critical services to the Liberian government, businesses, and the people. Cell phone technology holds the country together. Electricity is becoming more available and hydroelectric plants are being built. A fiber-optic cable recently connected Liberia to the main Internet pipeline and the rest of the world. Liberia is no longer an internet dead zone. There is a long way to go, but progress is being made. For us, the telephone has become our primary way to keep the home fires a-burning. With the internet, we are limited in our usage, but we are using it wisely and effectively. In general, we are thankful that we have the tools to stay in touch with those we care about. In short, thank God for slow internet.