An Unexpected End to a Crazy Beautiful Journey

Hello from Accra, Ghana!

Why are we writing you from the Ghana airport? We’ll get to that, but first let’s talk about the most unique funeral we’ve ever attended.

Prince Johnson, a controversial warlord during the 14 year Liberian civil wars, turned successful senator, passed away on November 28th. Johnson is fiercely loved and hated in Liberia depending on who you ask. Supporters sight his dedication to and developing of his home county Nimba in the years that followed the wars. Haters have difficulty looking past his role in the brutality of the war, including his part in the assassination of the former president.

We weren’t about to take sides, but we were extremely curious to witness what was in store for the funeral service that took 2 months to plan. On January 15th Johnson’s body was placed in a glass casket and paraded through Liberia on the 4 hour drive from Monrovia to Nimba before he was laid to rest.

Thousands of Liberians gathered along the main paved road crossing the country to witness the body and massive parade. We lined up with the crowd in the heart of Ganta and saw the massive police escort and entourage of government officials and VIPs.

Other news from last month included some Bobby and Therese teaching collabs. Bobby joined Therese to teach a 2 week long health class to all of Therese’s senior high students. Topics included hand washing, hygiene, sexual reproduction, menstruation, and malaria. The students were super engaged and mature as they asked lots of great questions while Therese and Bobby tried to demystify topics and debunk local myths.

We also started a Saturday computer class upon request of Therese’s students and Bobby’s clinic coworkers. We began from square one, teaching students who had never touched a mouse how to hold it and turn on the computer. It was definitely a challenge, but the students seemed to have so much fun!

We spent the rest of this past month hanging out with our closest friends. We played lots of volleyball, introduced Monopoly Deal to Liberia, continued to grow Spikeball’s fanbase in West Africa, and even cooked GB from scratch.

GB, as you may remember, is the beloved cassava based staple of Nimba county that is “swallowed” rather than chewed. The cooking process is lengthy and requires some aggressive mortar and pestle “beating.”

Cynthia and Albert definitely carried the team, despite Cynthia being 6 months pregnant! Although GB is admittedly not our favorite Liberian dish, it came out pretty tasty.

Unfortunately last month we had to take a medical trip to Monrovia to get some Bobby hemorrhoids and Therese parasitic worms taken care of. Once Therese’s nausea and stomach pain subsided and Bobby’s butt stopped bleeding, we were able to catch the quarterfinals of “the county meet.”

The county meet is an annual soccer tournament between all 15 counties in Liberia. Nimba qualified and played against Margibi (where we did our training) at the largest stadium in Liberia. Sadly Nimba lost in a penalty kick shootout, but the sliver lining was Therese’s beautiful new Nimba shirt, gifted to her from our friends Dee and Ben. The fans absolutely loved it.

Our time in Monrovia was otherwise uneventful as we rested up and got to enjoy some good food and shopping. Our drive home however had other plans.

Up until this drive, we’d had very good luck with the taxi system that transports all of Liberia. It was clear our luck had ran out when we heard a loud explosion as we hit the halfway point on the 4 hour drive home to Ganta.

At first glance, no big deal, just a flat tire. But then we discovered the spare tire was also flat. So off went our driver, rolling his flat spare tire away down the road into the middle of nowheresville in search for help as we were left on the side of the road.

After about an hour our driver appeared back with the “fixed” flat tire. That lasted about another 30 minutes before it started violently hissing air. No need to fear, we jumped out, confirmed it was flat, and with the encouragement of our trusty driver, continued to drive on it until reaching a nearby town.

Despite our driver insisting that we could just put some more air in the tire and be a-okay, we opted to join a new taxi. After catching a connecting car in Gbarnga, we reached home after six hours.

Now let’s reveal our big news we hinted at in the beginning…

After nine months serving in Liberia, we are heading back to the US due to a “medical separation” and “interrupted service.” As many of you know, Bobby does weird stuff in his sleep—looking at you Mary Beth, Noah and Adam. He sleepwalks, talks, gets scared, and tries to check on the mosquito net in the middle of the night.

After reporting these sleep issues to Peace Corps before coming to Liberia (and getting cleared) and then mentioning its reoccurrence while being here in Liberia, the doctors in D.C. deemed Bobby too risky to keep serving. AKA they think he could fall and get hurt while sleepwalking, injure Therese in his sleep, or pose other dangers to himself.

Thus, Bobby is “medically separated,” which is sort of like being medically discharged from the military. And because Therese and Bobby came to Liberia together as a couple, she was issued a status of “interrupted service.”

Overall, we were devastated by the news and attempted for five straight days to reverse the decision. There were a lot of frustrated phone calls with Peace Corps and too many tears when telling our closest friends and community. Although sad, people were really understanding and kept telling us that God must have a different plan for us, and to stay optimistic. The sudden departure forced us to remember all the great things about Liberia and our service and forget many of the hardships of the last 9 months.

When all said and done, we had about a week to throw a party, move out of our community, and say goodbye to Ganta. Bobby was able to be with his clinic staff and visit all his community health assistants “in the bush.” Therese was able to administer her semester exam, announce the news, and take plenty of pictures with her students. She even let them friend her on Facebook to keep in touch. Additionally, she gave crash courses to her colleagues on all the main labs for the national exams that 12th grade students take in May.

Finally, we had one last weekend with our two good Peace Corps friends Dee and Ben. We played volleyball, ate good food, and reminisced about our times together. They also helped us throw one last going away party for our friends. We ate jollof rice and had Stanley (our favorite bakery owner) bake a beautiful going away cake.

We are incredibly sad to leave, but even more grateful to have come. Liberia completely challenged damn near everything we thought we knew about the world, especially global aid and developing nations. It was incredibly hard, but also rewarding. We will never forget our families we are leaving behind in Liberia.

Leaving Liberia and going straight home on such a low note did not sound appealing to us, so we decided to find a silver lining. As we write this blog, we have just left Liberia and are en route to Seoul, South Korea. From there we will travel on to Vietnam, India (for Holi), Japan (for cherry blossom season), and Thailand (for Thai New Year), before returning back to the US at the beginning of May.

Another silver lining is that we can’t wait to see all you guys a lot sooner than expected!

Thanks for the never ending love and support,

Bobby and Therese

P.S. - send Asia trip recommendations!

P.P.S. - we will be in Ohio and Michigan from mid May to end of June.