Devotions

The whole team meets at 8am every morning in the palava hut for Team Devotions – singing, a short talk by one of the team or a visiting pastor, and prayers for team members and for the day ahead. The same happens with the teams in the field sites, and it’s a great way to start the morning, spending time in the cool of the day before the heat builds, a reminder of what it’s all about and who we’re doing this for.

I was asked to lead the devotions this morning, and since Tearfund UK are spending today in prayer and fasting, focusing on chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Philippians, I spent a while in my free time this week reading through these verses and preparing a 15 min talk for this morning.

I thought I’d got some good points together, and hoped that it was helpful to the team. However, the only feedback I’ve got so far is that I am greeted with a big Liberian handshake and a cry of ‘preacher-woman!’, and the finance manager who missed Devotions this morning said he asked another staff member who was there what it was all about, and she said she didn’t know because she couldn’t understand my English…

This is all very good for my humility, which after all is what Philippians 2 is all about, so I think I will chalk it up a success – for me anyhow

“Cow Poo Poo Conflict”

 

Today was the last of an excellent five day Workshop run by Tearfund for its management staff from the three field sites, as well as some local partners, covering a range of ‘Good Practice’ topics from Performance Management, Beneficiary Accountability and Gender issues through to Conflict and Conflict Sensitivity.

 

It was great meeting national staff from all over the programme, especially those I’ll be working directly with once I get up country to Nimba. It was also a great introduction to interpreting the Liberian accent (adopt an American accent, talk at speed, missing out all your consonants and running all your words together, and add ‘o?’ at the end of every sentence and you begin to approach the experience) and Liberian turns of phrase: when discussing different types of conflict (no conflict, surface level conflict which is easy to resolve since it has no deep roots, latent conflict bubbling under the surface ready to erupt when disturbed, and full blown open conflict), one participant brilliantly summed up the current latent conflict in Liberia by likening it to “Cow Poo Poo Conflict, hey, crusty and unremarkable on the surface, but soft and terrible when cracked, o?”. I like.

 

When discussing gender issues in project planning, it was a wake up call to realise that even some of the national project staff (though a minority) were of the opinion that women are weak-minded and should not necessarily be involved in decision-making processes. It’s bound to reinforce the danger that women’s views are left out when planning interventions with the community. Tearfund itself of course strongly advocates mainstreaming these gender issues in the design and implementation of all their programmes, working hard to promote inclusiveness and ensure equal participation, but it’s a reminder that the local context, belief and tradition make this challenging. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works in practice when I get into the field in a few weeks time.

 

A jam-packed six day working week in the heat and humidity has wiped me out, and today was a nicely low key Sunday, with church and a wander along the (beautiful unless you look too closely at the tide-line rubbish) beach. The rainy season is on its way, the skies are overcast and there have been a few short showers, but the wellies are still in the cupboard for now. Thought I did meet a guy called Wellington in the workshop this week if that counts…?

Mobile phone

I now have a Liberian mobile – number on contact page if you fancy giving me a call!

Little Black Dresses and Wellington Boots

 

After 2 weeks of thorough briefing at Tearfund HQ just outside London on the intricacies of the Liberia Programme, on how to approach checkpoints and how to use a VHF radio, I arrived in Monrovia late on Wednesday.

 

On recommendation from the Deputy Programme Director whom I met as she was passing through Tearfund HQ for a conference, in my luggage were both wellie boots (flowery Laura Ashley at Homebase, no less) and a Little Black Dress, items I never thought I’d be taking to a post-conflict African nation. And despite the chaos of Monrovia Airport – a cacophony of noise, officials waving papers around and stamping anything that moved, the most overloaded luggage conveyer belt you’ve ever seen with enormous plastic-bound bags and boxes rolling off onto toes and being chucked back on, the sweaty heat and crush of bodies - both my bags arrived in one piece (2 pieces?) so I won’t have to wear wellies to a formal event, or the LBD to wade through swamps in the rainy season… 

 

It’s great being in West Africa again, although I think it’s going to take me some time to get used to the humidity and the heat – the generator goes off at midnight and comes on again at 6am, so the ceiling fans don’t work between those times and it’s like lying on a damp mattress in a sauna – nice.

 

The Tearfund compound is a little way out of central Monrovia, within a larger secure compound in which a number of aid agencies and Liberian NGOs are based, including AEL (Tearfund’s main partner in Liberia), Samaritan’s Purse, some missionary organisations, and a small hospital, school, church and clinic. The best bit is that the compound is bordered on one side by…the beach! I somehow seem to fall on my feet with my overseas travel – The Gambia, The Maldives and now Liberia all with their beautiful coastlines. However, because of the security situation we’re separated from it by the Tearfund compound fence, and it’s only safe to wander along when there are others around. The UN come here to swim, so yesterday there were a whole load of pasty German-looking guys in speedos. Will try to upload photos (of the beach, not the speedos) to the flickr site.

 

Security is fairly light, since there are loads of UNMIL (UN) soldiers around – I think the second largest deployment of UN troops in the world. This makes Monrovia relatively safe and gives Liberia the chance to develop and train its own police force, but the peace is fairly precarious, especially if and when UNMIL leaves.

 

Drove into Monrovia last night, past the port where Mercy Ships’ Africa Mercy is docked – lots of the ship staff chilling out on the quay in deckchairs watching the sunset – and along Monrovia’s strangely American-looking wide roads with their boulevard signs. It’s a funny place – many of the buildings we passed look prosperous-gone-to-seed, and the only real sign of the recent conflict are the numerous UN barracks, ubiquitous ‘no guns’ signs and the large advert boards along the roads put up by USAID or the government with messages about working together, ‘No Mob Violence’, and how to get help if you have been raped.

 

**

 

I’ve got a million documents to read on security procedures, as well as how all the parts of the Liberia programme are funded, so I’ll leave it there, except to tell you the all important Cockroach Count: only 2 so far, disturbed in the kitchen in the middle of the night, ick ick but am trying to behave like a grown up. There are very few mosquitoes since it’s not yet the rainy season plus we’re on the coast. Think it might be worse when I head up to the jungly Nimba County where I’ll be permanently based in a couple of weeks time.

 

No call yet to wear either the Little Black Dress or the wellies…will keep you posted…