Finding things to do & exploring Ganta

Hello friends and family,

We’re missing you “plenty” as we would say here in Liberia, and are writing to update you on the last month of our lives. So sorry that we have not sent out a post recently; we’ve been very busy with school starting, football matches, and exploring Ganta.

Therese “officially” started the school year 4 weeks ago. In Liberia, the students trickle in day-by-day until about the fourth or fifth week of school. Therese started with 20 or so students ranging from 10th-12th grade, but now has over 390. Now in week three of lab, Therese is teaching her students, among other things, how to measure liquids and lengths using graduated cylinders, syringes, and rulers—very exciting stuff.

In our spare time, we have been trying to find things to do in Ganta. Lucky for us, the Nimba County district tournament for men's football and women’s kickball is this month, and held in Ganta. We watched District 1 tie District 8 in a 1-1 nail-biter that included a penalty kick goal. The prelude was an awesome game of adult kickball, just like you remember from the playground, but way more intense, where District 1 crushed District 8.

We cheered, naturally, for District 1, as that is where we live. We were blown away by the normalcy of the event, as there were covered stands, a field, refs, “concessions,” and excited fans doing organized cheers. It made us happy to see our neighbors, coworkers, and friends enjoying a Saturday afternoon activity together.

The “concessions” consisted of shooters of Liberian liquor, beer, palm wine (locally tapped from palm trees), meat, plantain chips, gum, and assorted snacks and sodas.

We happened to stand next to a Liberian Chinese translator home for the weekend from Monrovia. He was very eager to ask Therese if she knew how to speak Mandarin, and was sad to see the result (Therese can hardly count to ten or say ‘thank you’ in Mandarin).

Some other adventures around Ganta have included Bobby’s exploration of some of the “suburbs” of the city. Bobby recently joined some of his coworkers in registering households around the city to receive free mosquito nets.

The idea is that every few years the Ministry of Health can team up with a handful of NGOs to distribute mosquito bed nets to as many Liberians as possible. Aimed at keeping away malaria carrying mosquitos, the process includes sending volunteers around every county of Liberia to distribute tickets to households, which can later be redeemed for nets at local health facilities and schools. Bobby was averaging 10+ miles walking every day as he practiced his “colloquial” Liberian English and handed out tickets.

Some other fun things we’ve discovered while exploring include some new tasty Liberian treats. Bobby made friends with a boy near his clinic who proudly explained how he and his friends dig up opossum families and capture them to sell in the market. When asked by Bobby what his customers do with his opossums, he replied, “Some can eat them, others can keep them.”

If opossum isn’t for you, Bobby also spotted a wheelbarrow full of live snails on his way home from work (plus you won’t break the bank at only $50 Liberian dollars each.) Despite our hesitance to try the opossum or snails, we have been enjoying some other Liberian snacks, with fried plantain chips and grilled corn being some of our favorites. Bobby even “swallowed” (think how you eat oysters) his first official GB soup while registering households.

While looking for things to entertain ourselves with, we couldn’t help but notice what some of the children do for fun. Undoubtedly one of the favorite toys is made from an abandoned wheel. Known fondly as the “ride the wheel game,” this involves nothing aside from an old tire and a stick (or just your hand if you can’t find a stick). Children will hit the wheel with their stick and try to keep it moving and upright for as long as possible.

Another favorite toy can be made from empty canisters and bottle caps. Although we haven’t yet got an official name for this toy, Bobby has taken to calling it the “race car.” We use a lot of the little food canisters that the children love to make their cars from, which has unfortunately led them to chase us down and sort through our trash whenever we go dump our garbage in the trash pile.

A toy common amongst girls is the “doll,” which is a piece of bamboo like wood with fake hair stuffed into the top, which the girls can then “plaid,” much like they do their own hair. One of the girls in our community did just come back from a Monrovia visit with a new Barbie though, so that’s big news to the other girls.

Next time we write you all we’ll have to update you on the nearing end of the “rainy season,” which is rumored to come with some pretty intense storms. Some of the dirt roads here have already begun to wash out, making some communities challenging to access. That, and we’ll tell you about Bobby’s first attempt at Liberian grass cutting and Therese’s birthday celebration (September 27th!)

Sending love,

Therese and Bobby

Faces covered due to privacy reasons. The content of this website and blog is Therese Joffre’s and Bobby Housel’s alone and does not reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Liberian Government.