You’re Canadian, you shouldn’t be cold!

July 26, 2012

Yep, you guessed it – I’m freezing right now.  I’d love to actually see what the temperature is;, it’s probably around 20 degrees would be my guess.  It’s been raining a lot in the past few weeks, almost every day for several hours.  I walk about twenty minutes through a swamp and market to and from my work at the health center, and it’s been interesting to see how fast the path deteriorates.  Same goes for the roads.  It’s funny, I got caught in heavy rain as I was walking home the other day and so I stopped underneath a shelter in the market until it lightened up a bit.  One vendor about my age was trying very hard to sell me fake nails, and he just didn’t understand why I didn’t want them! 

So this past week I’ve spent all of my time working in the ER.  The past few days have been very stressful and pretty frustrating actually.  There are two rotations here, and the first rotation has an amazing nurse who I love.  She is supportive and is very good at letting me do everything that I’m competent to do, and then teaching or showing me how to do new things.  She is very good and has helped me learn a huge amount.  However this week it’s been the other rotation, and I’ve had a rather hard go of it.  There’s a physician’s aid scheduled to be working in the ER, but because I’m there he stays in his office all day and reads, or even leaves the health center.  This leaves me running the ER by myself and with no reliable support person.  Honestly, the hardest part is keeping my emotions in check when this guy comes back, because he often is quite annoyed that I’m not able to run the place very smoothly.  Because I haven’t been trained to diagnose and prescribe medications, and I’m not comfortable doing so outside of my scope of practice with medications and conditions that I don’t understand well!  So it’s been a bit of a rough week.  Although that being said, there have been a lot of very interesting cases and wounds coming in this week, so it’s also been very good in that manner.  I have about one week left at this health center and then I’ll be moving back to Ganta to find other work. 

I was just thinking, it’s a shame I wrote about food when I did.  The day after I posted about Liberian food, I had a true culinary experience to write home about.  The ambulance hit and killed a ground squirrel, so they brought it home and the guards cooked it up and we ate it for supper!  Honestly, it tasted really good too, the meat was very sweet.  I was at the market yesterday, and we saw monkey and dog meat [they call it white bucket].  I’d love to get a chance to try both, we’ll see if that pops up.

My motor biking has plateaued for the moment, and I haven’t had a lesson since Sunday.  I actually had a bit of an accident on Sunday, the bike fell over on top of me and I scraped up my arm and hand a bit and got some killer bruises.  It’s kind of embarrassing because everybody asks how I got hurt when they see the scrapes on my arm, they always laugh when I say “well, I was learning how to drive motorbike when…”!  It’s good for me though, it’s put a solid healthy dose of fear into me for the next time I drive.  That motorbike is heavy!

Yep, so I’ve been keeping [fairly] safe and healthy and I’m still very much enjoying Liberia.  The picture was taken in the market I walk through every day to get to and from work.  The market day is every Tuesday, so it wasn't open when I took this!

A Day in the ER

July 18, 2012

So today I was in the ER again today, and had a very busy day.  We had our normal influx of malaria patients – send them to the lab for a definite diagnosis and give them a prescription and off they go, unless it’s really serious.  I’ve been learning so much, especially in the ER because they have me doing screening, histories, admissions, diagnoses, and prescriptions.  All on unfamiliar illnesses with people who have major trouble understanding my accent!  Talk about a fast learning curve!  One of the physician’s aides has been particularly helpful to my learning by explaining everything to me.  Today however, was a particularly exciting day in the ER.  There was a motorbike accident today, and we received four wounded men who promptly bled all over our floor.  One had a broken foot and a large head wound, while the others got away with shock, vomit, sutures and minor wounds.  I think one walked out of the ER with an undiagnosed broken foot [his foot looked like yours Mom], but who knows.  I’ve noticed this before, but it was particularly apparent today that they don’t really use analgesia here.  People are very vocal about even minor pain, but when it comes down to it these patients are going through a lot of painful procedures without anything for pain control.  Tylenol and ASA are the only things being prescribed, and Lidocaine is used sometimes with suturing.  Other than that, grit your teeth and deal with the pain.  I found it very interesting and good experience, but it was also quite sobering.  I will be very careful on motorbikes from now on.

Speaking of which, I have some very exciting news.  I have learned how to drive motorbike!  I had my first lesson yesterday, and practiced again today shifting into higher gears.  I’ve been deemed competent, although I haven’t ventured to the roads yet so that’ll be my test.  It’s very safe too – the guy who’s been teaching me is a doctor, so I’m set for life!  :)  [joking!]  That’s true, but I am also being very careful, no worries!  

So yeah, in summary I'm really loving Liberia.  

Food on the Brain

July 16, 2012

So I have two important things on the brain right now: palm oil and fish bones.  Firstly, palm oil is delicious and Liberians certainly love to cook with it.  It’s making me break out actually, but it’s so totally worth it.  Tonight I had Liberian sweet potato and arrow (? It’s a root) with a fish and palm oil soup [every sauce here is called a soup.  From what I can tell, if it’s eaten with rice and is cooked/served in separate bowls, you’re eating soup!!].  I almost died of pleasure at the potato and arrow root with the palm oil, but the fish bones are really starting to get on my nerves!  Today I successfully swallowed three fish bones in two meals, and not for lack of taking my time picking them out and chewing properly!  I swear, they appear out of nowhere – bam!  By the end of my portion I’ve caught myself starting to wonder if it’s actually worth the work!

One of the things I was really excited about coming here for was the chance to try new foods.  This might be embarrassing, but I figured I’d give the food an honourable mention and fill you in on what I’ve been filling my stomach with for the past almost four weeks!  To put it simply: rice, palm oil, beans, potato greens, hot peppers and fish or chicken.  From what I’ve experienced so far, you can make a lot of Liberian food using those ingredients.  So palm oil is nothing like what I was expecting.  First off, it’s red and doesn’t just taste like oil.  It actually has a unique flavour which is amazing.  It also stains everything it touches; clothes, skin, whatever.  White girl that I am, that does present somewhat of an awkward problem at work where there is no silverware and eating with your hands is expected!  I’m sure I’ve provided the staff at the health center with a generous share of amusement as they watched the white girl “eat like an African”!  One of the staff was teasing me today, and told me to use a spoon – he then spelled spoon on his hand and said, “This is a Liberian spoon!” 

So I’ve only found one food item that I really don’t care for: fufu.  It’s one of three cassava variations available here [fufu, jhibi (?), and dumboy], and comes as a sticky paste.  You roll it into bite-sized balls in your hands and then dunk it in a fish soup [sauce] that’s made to be very slimy to help the fufu go down easy.  The taste isn’t terrible, but combined with the texture it’s definitely not my favourite.  I do like jhibi though when I’ve had it.  The one time I’ve had dumboy, I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat it the proper way, so I don’t feel like I can speak for it. 

In terms of fresh fruits and vegetables, the options are fairly limited.  That being said, bananas are ubiquitous and super cheap.  Pineapples are harder to find, but cost 50LD for the large ones so the price makes up for it when you can find them [there are roughly 75LD in 1USD]!  I’ve been particularly enjoying the avocados, which are known here as butter pears.  They can also be hard to find, but for a large avocado you pay 15LD.

The street food has also been interesting when I’ve gotten the chance to try it.  I tried a ‘meat pie’ in Ganta the other day, and noticed that it had no meat but contained plenty of hot peppers and oddly enough, spaghetti noodles.  It certainly tasted fine though.  The rice bread is also quite good, almost like banana bread but not as sweet and much denser.  Corn is all over the place but I haven’t bought any yet.  I’ve enjoyed the coconut a lot; I prefer the older ones with more meat, but the coconut water in the young coconuts isn’t bad either.  I’m very sad that mango season is over, but I got a good share of mangoes while I was still in Monrovia during my first week here.  I think my favourite street food is the boiled peanuts.  They’re amazing.  You pay 5LD for a huge handful of peanuts, and then you get to shell them and it’s absolutely fantastic.  I picked up a fried plantain at the market earlier this week, which was really tasty.  I also bought some bread that the woman said was shortbread – it’s not any kind of short bread I’ve ever experienced.  I don’t know yet whether or not I like it, but either way it’s interesting!

So there’s my thoughts on food, you might have noticed that I’m a big fan!  Haha.

I need to be FAT.

June 30, 2012

Ok, so I’ve always thought that I’m a reasonably flexible person in most situations.  That’s so being tested here, wow.  This is a whole new level of necessary flexibility that’s somewhat intimidating.  While I was still in Monrovia I was chatting with one of the organization founders and she said something that I really liked and has impacted me.  She said that to be a missionary, you must be fat: Flexible, Adaptable, and Trusting in God.  I liked that for several reasons: one, it sounds amazing, and two, it’s really true.  That’s just been really stuck in my mind for the past couple of days, especially with what’s been going on and the uncertainty regarding what I’ll be doing while I’m here.

So a few days before I arrived in Liberia, the funding for the main health project of Equip Liberia was given to a different organization.  Translation: the work that was planned for me no longer exists with Equip Liberia.  The handovers start in about a week or two from now, and before August is over they will all have been handed over to the other organization.  It’s kind of a weird time to be here doing healthcare then, since it’s all being terminated.  Equip had originally planned for me to work at the main health care center in a small town called Saclepie, but it will be handed over within two weeks.  So I ended up travelling to Ganta to try and figure something out from there, and help out as possible.  I was told to make myself comfortable in Ganta for at least a few days.  Yesterday I was at a meeting with staff and I was speaking with one of the midwives, and we made a decision that I would move to Saclepie to work until the handover as soon as we could get a ride on an ambulance that was passing through.  Literally within thirty minutes I was on an ambulance headed towards Saclepie!  The absolute definition of a split decision, my friends!  Tonight is my second night here in Saclepie, and so far I really like it.  It’s much smaller than Ganta, and doesn’t even have a gas station.  Needless to say, there’s no grocery store either.  The house is very nice though: everything is bright blue – walls, floors and curtains all!  There is no running water, but the house does have electricity for five hours every day.  Honestly, I’m surprised at how little the water/electricity thing bothers me.  It’s really just a little inconvenience that can easily be gotten used to. 

I’ve met so many people in the past week and a bit.  The Liberian people are so friendly and welcoming.  The culture is so interesting, I feel like there is so much to learn!  I went with two friends to a graduation celebration today, and it so was such a neat thing.  There was dancing, and the traditional body paint on the women.  As people entered, the women did a traditional dance type-thing with you, to welcome you to the party.  They danced around you, hugged and kissed you on both cheeks as they sang in their tribal language.  It was beautiful.  I’m really glad I got that opportunity.  

Dancing goats, speed ruts and lightening

June 29, 2012

Ok, so since I don’t have access to internet here I’ve been writing as things have been happening.  My plan is to backdate everything and post up to date when I get a chance.  Sorry for the explosion!

So after false tries on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we finally made the drive up to Nimba county yesterday (last Thursday).  We got a late start out of Monrovia; we had hoped to leave the office around noon but didn’t get out of the city until after 4pm.  The drive was beautiful though, and I experienced many new sights and smells.  The one that most sticks out in my mind is rubber.  Important rubber fact number one: burning rubber smells terrible.  I’m not talking about the burning tire kind of rubber smell either, it’s much more pungent.  It’s a smell that I will never forget, you smell it so often here especially while driving.  Rubber trees are all over the place here, and it’s very cool how they harvest the rubber.  It seems to be very similar to maple syrup collection, just tap the tree and collect the sap.  They add some chemical which reacts with the sap to make it into a solid.  There are Firestone rubber stations where Firestone buys the rubber from people.  I haven’t been able to get a price, but everyone says that rubber is very profitable. 

So the drive from Monrovia was a great experience.  The first three hours of the drive are on “good roads”, which back home would be considered pretty terrible with potholes left right and center and chickens all over the place.  But the last two hours are really what is worth writing home about, that is what you call an intense road.  I wish I could show the size of some of these potholes, combined with how many there are: it’s ridiculous.  I don’t know how normal cars can travel on that road, it was bad in a land cruiser - I got a fair share of air time on that ride (and enjoyed it all)!   It was really surreal though, because we reached the bad part of the road right when it was getting dark.  As we drove along, I started to notice flashes of lightening; it was really a neat experience.  Travelling to a new place on bad roads in a crowded vehicle during a lightning storm certainly meets my criteria for an exciting adventure.  The Liberians say that when you drive on bad roads, you are dancing.  So I can officially say that I have danced in the rain during a lightning storm!  I love it!