Liberia wins

Today Liberia won. That is something we often say when things don't quite go as planned (which is often.) Now, I know that things not going as planned can and does happen everywhere, it is part of life. It just seems like it happens more often here. Or maybe the reasons why things change makes it seem more surreal. This is a place where I daily see motorcycle drivers carrying three passengers, a 5 gallon container of diesel fuel, a 50 lb bag of rice, and a mattress-- all at the same time. Or we could play a game counting how many men we see peeing in a day. Government buildings don't always have electricity. You never know what you are going to get.

So back to today. This morning Cramer, Ashley and I headed for town to run some errands. We had eight stops on our list. Traffic can be terrible driving into Monrovia so we try and consolidate trips. Of the eight stops two were successful. TWO out of eight! The person we were supposed to meet with was not in the office (oh yea, I had a funeral today.) The bike was already sold. The registration papers for our vehicles are still not done (it has been over two weeks now). Someone else, not there. You get the idea. Lunch didn't even work out as I had hoped, the place I wanted to go was closed (on Friday?). At a certain point you wonder why you even left the house? Slightly discouraged, but with full stomachs nonetheless we headed back to our office.

We always go to a certain orphanage on Friday afternoons. It is a favorite of ours where we love to sit under the mango tree and enjoy the breeze and the children. As we are loading up the pick-up to go we have an unscheduled visitor-- a friend with a sick child. Quick assessment and referral to the clinic and then we are off. A little late, but hey, this is Liberia. We stop to buy rice. No rice. Well, not the kind we wanted, we are forced to buy a  more expensive type. As we are trying to pull out, a huge truck (filled with rice I might add) drives up next to us and threatens to topple over on top of us. We get out just in time, headed for the orphanage again. 

As we are driving down the street dodging motorbikes, pedestrians and chickens we see a sign that the road is closed. It is completely blocked off, paving is being done. So we turn around to try another route. Traffic is at a stand-still, not looking good. After an eight-point turn to get back out of the traffic jam and almost overturning a woman's grilled meat stand we are back on the road trying for our third and final option to get there. Things are looking pretty good until we hit construction. Again. The same road construction is blocking the road from two directions and where we need to be is smack-dab in the middle. We come to a stop as six Liberian men are yelling at us to turn around. At this point we were getting pretty frustrated, the kids were expecting us, we'd been trying to get to the orphanage for over an hour (usually takes seven minutes), it had been a long day. So, when I saw other trucks and motorbikes on the road we (the white people) couldn't use, I 'exchanged some words' with the men on the street-- to no avail, we still had to turn around. Argh!

Back at the office we decided we were not going to let Liberia stop us today. Something was going to go right! So, we decided to walk to the orphanage. I could not carry the 100 lb bag of rice, so that will have to be delivered another day, but we repacked our things, changed into shorts and started the 40 minute walk back to the orphanage. Believe it or not we made it! A good thing too because all our kiddos were waiting for us with their drums and other instruments ready to go. 

We were two hours late, but we were there. We danced and sang and limboed and played games and took silly pictures and laughed and sat under the mango tree and enjoyed the breeze and the children. And a few hours later we walked back home with the cool evening sea breeze at our face. And at home Ma Mary's rice was waiting for us so we sat and watched the sun set on the front porch while we ate our dinner. And despite everything, it really was a good day. I guess Liberia did win after all.