Greetings from Monrovia!
I will sum up the 27 hour travel trip from yesterday by saying that it wore me out.
Not even an 8 dollar cup of coffee from the Brussel’s Starbucks could keep me alert/awake.
I finally did perk up when we arrived in Liberia. Moulton and Victor picked us up and drove us the 45 mins to Monrovia. It was around 8pm when we left the airport and cloudy. Liberia does not have a powergrid and so they nation’s power comes from generators. The only thing that cut the darkness were the dim headlights. I could only see about 20 feet to either side of the road. Occasionally we would see a group of people huddled around a small fire or lantern. Their faces illuminated softly by a flickering light. I was just a fool for not having the cameras out.
I did have my first Malarone induced dream last night. Malarone, taken preventatively for maleria, has a side effect causing vivid dreams, hallucinations, and thinking pink floyd albums could effectively score films. My dream only involved me grinding my teeth until they started to fall out and scatter on what I think was the hotel lobbies floor. The combination of jaw tension, talc texture of my teeth, and the sound of my teeth hitting marble married to produce an vivid and clear HD dream.
Today was just filled with scheduling, planning, and meetings. The first part of the day we worked from the hotel with Medina and Olli. Medina and I have worked together before to produce the EGRA training video. She does a lot of things and she is amazing at the things she does. She also has been to Liberia about 7 or 8 times already so she fills me in on what I should do and how I should act. Olli is the program head of EGRA in Liberia. She also was the first to teach me The Handshake.
Before she taught me The Handshake I felt like John Mayer. Medina, who is basically a mini celebrity among hotel workers at the Mamba, has been introducing me to everyone. I have always taken pride on being good at first impressions, but here in Liberia, when you shake hands, its more a delicate dancing of hands.
There is the initial shake, which moves to the clasp, then briefly back to the shake before the snap. Of course not knowing this order causes confusion, but what really got me was the timing of the snap. Two unfamiliar fingers working together to produce one snap is a lot tougher than it sounds. I have the goal that before I leave Liberia, I want to perform The Handshake with a stranger and have them walk away feeling blessed to be one half of the world’s best dual snap.
We had two meetings today. One at the ministry of education and the other at the US embassy. Both meetings were inspiring. The meetings combined with the views driving through Monrovia today made me realize how lucky and blessed I am. I just find it hard to believe that I am in Liberia about to spend three weeks doing two things that I love; helping others and telling stories. It honestly feels like a dream still. I just hope I can tell stories with Malaronesque clarity.
