Lesotho Infinity And Beyond: 5 February 2017: Liberia- Kakata

Garden Angels

It was my last day in Milea’s home sweet home of Duoplay. It also happened to be a day that Milea’s school’s teachers decided to have a party. Milea and I sat on the front porch of the principal’s house talking with the other teachers, and I made a small speech thanking them for their hospitality and remarking upon my enjoyment of spending a good amount of time in their little town. There was a small black goat tied up out front that we were admiring for its potential in the very near future to feed us all. Soon it was time for the cooking. The goat was led around back to fulfill its potential, and back there some women were already boiling cassava and pounding it into GB (the play dough starchy mass we all know and love). After Milea and I got our turns to pound the GB, we went around front to where people were already enjoying some fresh palm wine. Shortly, the goat soup was ready, and we all heartily ate it. Balls of GB were scooped up and dipped in the soup, and entire hands went slurpily into mouths to savor each last delectable drop. After only the weird tripe bits were left in the pot and Milea and I were sufficiently overstuffed, we thanked the hosts and excused ourselves from the feast, leaving the rest of the guests, full of goat and palm wine, to chat amongst themselves into the night.

Getting the double-pump on

Since the PC Liberia #1 and #2 staff members had both served their own Peace Corps services in Lesotho as I had, they were very happy to invite me to participate in a gardening training happening in Kakata, a city near the capital. PC Liberia has a permanent training facility there in Kakata which used to be the vacation home of former president Samuel Doe. Doe Palace, as it is known, was donated to the Peace Corps, and they now use it for both pre-service training and other trainings through the year. I had heard lots about Doe Palace from the other volunteers. Somehow I assumed it was spelled “Dough Palace,” and pictured a fabulous castle made of fluffy bread and other baked goods. Sadly, it was just a few normal buildings, but it was a really nice place in any case

Since I was invited to the gardening training but not formally allowed to sleep at Doe Palace (it has dorms as well), the first night I stayed with Caitlin, who is a PCV whose permanent site is in Kakata. It was almost past dark, which is when the PCVs who were sleeping at Doe were supposed to be in for the night. Milea and Trey, two such PCVs, were kind enough to walk me to Caitlin’s house so I didn’t get lost. We were hustling down the street, trying not to be late for curfew, with Milea leading the pack and Trey behind her. At one point, Trey lost his flip flop (“slipper” in Liberian English), and since I was behind him, I thought I’d just scoop it up as I walked past it so we wouldn’t lose any time. Now, dear reader: remember when you were but a wee lass or laddie and you were taking baseball or softball practice for the first time, and your coach told you to yell “mine” or some similar exclamation upon the launching of a fly ball headed in your direction? Well, apparently, the same should be taught with fallen flip flops, because as soon as I bent down to scoop up the shoe, so did Trey. WHAM! My skull made clean contact with his glasses, which in turn made clean contact with his eye. The adrenaline must have started pumping, because we were both fine in the moment, but soon enough I noticed a trickle of blood coming from his eyebrow. He didn’t believe me until he put his hand up to his eye and discovered the bloody mess that had appeared on his face. For the rest of training, his eye was pretty much swollen shut, and the bruise didn’t go away for another week or so. I’m still really sorry, brother. He still won’t forgive me for breaking his glasses or for the black eye, but I think in the end we evened the score.

The rest of training, I sat in on sessions about gardening. Wow, I never knew what I never knew about gardening in a place that is basically dry half the year and monsooning the other half. It was fascinating. We had some sessions indoors to teach us the basic theories, then we worked outside to actually make a garden. I learned such techniques as the double dig, making berms, and the “pop pop” technique of chipping dirt away with a hoe. It was also really cool to get to talk to more Liberia PCVs who were attending the training. What a swell bunch of people, I tell ya.

Next post: I go to Monrovia in the hopes of leaving for America, but Africa has other plans.