September!?!?

Public Transport. (08.30.10)
Aw public transport in Liberia, the bane of my existence, but also one of the greatest joys of my life. I had spent the early part of my day bouncing back down the red dirt road toward Zwedru in a pickup truck. We had to make it back to the Dru because funds were running low, and life without money means a life without food. So reluctantly we popped into the pickup truck and away we bounced down the road stopping every 5 minutes to pick up new passengers and shove them in the back, seeing as the small cab was overflowing with people and luggage (5 people people and 3 bags in total). I sat crunched in an uncomfortable and awkward position for 4 hours as our driver lazily made his way to our destination. Upon reaching Zwedru we walked about for bit picking up a few necessaries for safety and security of our house; after we met one of the vols who lives there and headed to the bank. We spent the next 2.5 hours at the bank doing our transactions, and finally finished and headed to grab a bite to eat, this would be the first thing I had eaten in 36 hours save the 3 double stuffed oreos I had for dinner the night before and 3 more I had this morning for breakfast. The meal was exquisite fried chicken, a “hamburger”, and potato salad. With our bellies full, we headed back to the taxi station to make it back to Kaewekan. After minimal argument and price haggling me, my roommate and 5 other Liberian men smashed into the yellow taxi cab that was to bump back across the red dirt road, which at this point had become a small red river due to the copious amounts of rain that day. We were moving slow to say the least as the cab was either getting stuck or slipping about the road, and every time we started to make good time we were stopped at a checkpoint and hassled about something or other until the immigrations officers were bribed satisfactorily. The car was alive with conversation about the bullshit of the checkpoint, how the Land Cruiser was the king of Liberian roads, and how the paving of this particular road would make Liberian life much better. We were also discussing the new mine that is being prospected an hour past Zwedru, as we talked day light slipped away and as it did I hung my head out the window to breath some fresh air, rather than the gasoline fumes that filled the cab. I watched as the light shrunk away on to its next destination, watched as the vast rainforest that sprawled out before me became nothing more than outlines of the gigantic trees that lay beyond the road. By this point it had become pitch black and I was watching the tall green grass that was illuminated by our headlights fly by. The grass and trees crept right up the road, the jungle was trying to reclaim what was rightfully its, and we are merely borrowing for the time being. I brought my head back in the car and chatted for a bit longer, than put it back out again, I closed my eyes and let the cool African night air blow threw my blonde hair, and listened to the sounds of the jungle. Now that I could no longer see it I could most certainly hear it, the calls of insects and frogs silencing the sound of our small engine. As we passed through one part the trees blocked out the night sky, we were swallowed by the jungle, we were in a tiny isolated bubble, the only thing that existed to me was us in the car and what our dim head lights showed up ahead, I closed my eyes again and relished in the fact that we were the only living souls out here, I breathed in deep and opened my eyes again to see that the blanket of clouds had broken up just enough to get a peek at the brilliantly beaming stars the night sky had to offer. I stared at them in amazement for a brief time feeling my utter tininess in the world, and as I did so, smashed against the door of this old Toyota corolla, sweaty and exhausted I thought to myself “why o why do I get to be this lucky?” I could be packed into a tiny cubicle or classroom, like many of my friends were at this very moment in America, but I was driving down an amazing red river hair blowing in cool night air, breathing the cleanest air in this world and staring into the seemingly endless array of stars our galaxy has to offer. This my friends is it, this is life as it was meant to be lived. Never in my life have I felt so at peace, so fucking happy. Breath deep, this is life and we only get one chance at it, so live it the fuck up however you see fit, for me this is it.

Drawing water. (08.31.10)
It’s really fucking hard. Pumping it, or pulling it from the well and carrying large amounts of it long distances and uphillish back to your house is really fucking hard because oddly enough in large amounts the combination of 2 parts hydrogen and one part oxygen is exceedingly heavy.
I also cooked some dinner tonight for the first time at the new site. I started simple with some spaghetti and garlic bread. The vols who lived here previous of us had left some turtle shell noodles and some sphagetti noodles so I decided to be economical and use those, poor choice. After 45 minutes of getting the coal started and the water boiling I dumped the noods in. The sphageck noods went well enough no problems there just some noodles, the turtle shell noods, well that’s a different story. I poored them into the boiling water without a bit of inspection first, what the hell was I thinking!?!? This is Africa and those noods had been sitting about for 4 months!!! Well when the noods came out so did some extra protein in the form of a bunch of little bugs. Now in America that’s enough to end a meal right there, throw those noods out and start over, not here. I told my roommate who was equally not appalled by the bug thing and we found a new game/pastime called fishing the bug out of our damn noodles. When they would zoom past in the boiling water you would try to catch them with a spoon. After a bit of doing this we agreed the boiling water would take care of any of the germs and the extra protein couldn’t hurt so finished up the sauce and bread and we crushed down on the food. Seeing as it was not fishy or oily it was the greatest thing either of us had eaten in a well forever. It is amazing how good, shitty sauce, noods, and a few spices can taste after not having had them for awhile.
O I forgot to mention yesterday the people in the cab told us even more about the cassava snake! Apparently you can eat it, and it is very delicious? It also makes a great cure for yellow fever or malaria, which leads me to two questions 1. Is there anything that this fucking snake cannot do? 2. Who the fuck is daring enough to battle this mighty beast just so they can have some dinner?
Well that’s about all I know, I believe for the month of September I am gonna try to go technology free, lets see how long I last shall we. Talk to you in October or whenever I crack (probs sooner than the ‘Tobes)