Monrovia, 4th of July in a faraway land, and moving day

Ka tuo! (ka-too-oh)

This is how you say “hello” to a group of people in Mano—the main dialect of our new home in Ganta, Nimba county. Nimba staples include a love of Geebe (a local cuisine that is sometimes served with goat poop) and a more mountainous environment bordering Guinea. Geebe is pounded cassava (a root) boiled into balls, then swallowed with soup. Another speciality of Nimba, is to take goat intestines—including all the undigested food, and sometimes poop—and “filter” it into the soup. They say it tastes “sweet,” and the thought is the leaves that goats eat and don’t digest are good for the body.

We are definitely enjoying our new life in Ganta—where we will be living for our two years of service—but before we dive into Ganta, we need to backup and talk about our last few weeks in Kakata.

Peace Corps sent us to the big city—Monrovia (called by Liberians simply “town”). The biggest highlight was the FOOD. A quote from Bobby after his first lunch of chicken tenders and fries, “I’ve never felt so good, I feel like I’m on the top of the world.” Other highlights were Thai food, ice cream, and grocery shopping for some American treats. Monrovia is also right on the coast, so we got a nice view of the Atlantic just a few blocks from our hotel.

On the way to Monrovia, we got to experience our first Liberian taxi ride (pronounced “tessi” in Liberian English). Taxis and motorbikes are at the center of transportation in Liberia, and most people don’t know how to drive.

Taxis here don’t just seat 4 passengers (1 in the front, 3 in the back), they technically seat 6 passengers (2 in the front, 4 in the back). However, if you really want to go somewhere for cheap, you can sit VIP—in the trunk with it open—or just hold on while riding on the roof. The 1.5 hour taxi ride cost us about $350 LD or $1.75 USD.

The next week we had our 4th of July celebration. We were feeling more patriotic than usual, as Liberia has reminded us just how special America and its values are.

We made a feast of American delicacies including: burgers, homemade mac n’ cheese, chicken nuggets, strawberry cake, ice cream bars, chocolate milk, Arizona Ice Tea, and lots of candy.

The festivities included USA vs. Liberia volleyball and a game of kickball. Bobby hit a home run, literally over the compound’s fence—he’s very proud of this. Also, PC Staff has concluded that Bobby will always be MVP for volleyball as his height aids him to spike and serve the ball well.

We ended the night by meeting up with other volunteers at Kem’s Guesthouse, a small motel with a bar next to Doe Palace. The owner, Kem, welcomes PC volunteers with a quiet place to drink and chat. At Kem’s we busted out Spikeball and played one of our favorite American drinking games.

Can you guess the game? Answer at the bottom…

Our last update is being written from our brand new home here in Ganta. Ganta is very close to the Guinean border, and is the second biggest city in Liberia. Even going back to the early 2000s, Ganta has been seen as an exciting display of what smaller growing cities could look like throughout Liberia and other parts of West Africa. Fun fact, it also claims to have better electricity than Monrovia since its current comes from Ghana through Ivory Coast.

Ganta is where we will reside for the next 2 years as we find ourselves working at Francis Nya Marweah Public School and the Ganta Community Health Clinic. Last week was our first week at our new jobs, as Therese taught a model summer school and Bobby shadowed at his clinic. We’ll be here for another 2 weeks, and then head back to Kakata and Monrovia briefly to complete our last week of training and swear in as official volunteers.

Most of our time outside of work this week has been spent exploring Ganta and setting up our home. Home outfitting has included hiring a carpenter to build us a kitchen table, buying plastic shelves for the house, buying lapa fabric to hang as curtains, and getting our house connected to the power grid.

The community has been very welcoming with children always eager to chat, help us haul water, and play games. Bobby had a welcome ceremony organized by the clinic where he received plantains, bananas, greens, and most notably—a live chicken.

Finally, we celebrated one of our fellow volunteer’s birthday. Dee and Ben are both science lab volunteers (like Therese) and Dee has been in Ganta helping out with model school. Ben (her boyfriend) came to surprise her in Ganta and organized a big Liberian birthday party at the local bakery.

The bakery must have its own mention in the blog as our savior. Stanley’s banana bread and egg burger are both game changers in Ganta.

Sorry for such the long break between blogs, but we will soon be back with many updates on our jobs and our explorations of Ganta.

Thanks again for following our adventures. If you have suggestions, questions, or just want to say hi, please hit reply to this email.

Ko la píé (“ko-la-pee-aye” - Bobby’s recollection of how his clinic coworkers told him to say goodbye in Mano)

Bobby and Therese

PS - we were playing beer die

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.