even more like home

Although I sometimes hate myself for it, our home here seems extremely luxurious - far fancier than our homes in New York and Philly. But our apartment is too big, even for four adults. It seems as though the only design criteria for the place was simply: As Big As Possible.

Because our kitchen is so gigantic, it used to be a somewhat difficult place for cooking. It has relatively little counter space, and I would resort - as I did in New York and London - to using the microwave as a pot stand or the floor as a an extra dish rack. So Peter, because he takes excellent care of me, commissioned a local carpenter to build us a kitchen island:



Having the island made our preparations for Saturday night's dinner party easy. Again we went to the fish market, and bought two large fish. Apparently, we bought two mullets. Here I am, looking both pleased and terrified by the fish.

Peter carved the mullets into several huge fillets, and again we had a feast of sweet, firm fish. Amazingly, we found red bell peppers at the market - banged up for sure, but the woman selling them cut off the bad parts and sold them to us at about $1.30/ pound.

For a starter we had some freshly popped (on the stove!) popcorn, and for dinner, we had grilled fish with a spicy pineapple chutney, grilled red peppers, roasted plantains, and a thai-style cabbage/grapefruit/peanut salad. Homemade mango ice cream for dessert. (Ok, the ice cream didn't exactly freeze, so we had very cold, chunky mango milkshakes.) I have to say, it was pretty damn good.

a normal weekend, sort of

Every once in a while, we have a weekend that's normal...almost. Last Saturday, we decided to go buy some fish for dinner. That's something we often used to do at home. So we went to the fish market down the street. There were five-foot long barracudas and giant red groupers - a bit much for the two of us, so we bought a "small" grouper:



For dinner that night we grilled a third of it: two thick, meaty steaks and its enormous head. With a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a few splashes of lime juice, it was magic.


Later that night, I completed one of my numerous culinary experiments: homemade challah. Not too difficult, as it turns out (even if one accidentally uses cold water, instead of warm). Here's Pete, showing it off to our roommate, Jim.

Not quite as puffy as I'd hoped...but I'll try again next weekend.

Sunday was a beautiful day - maybe the best we've had. After two straight days of rain, the air was clear, rather than muggy. On days like these, Liberia seems like a pretty happy place. I printed out the Sunday New York Times crossword, and lounged around on the couch.

Before heading down to the pool, Peter and I made lunch. Putzing around the kitchen in our bathing suits, listening to the radio, it didn't seem so different than the time we spent in Florida last December, or in St. Maarten several months before that.

We used the leftover grilled fish and the challah to make fish salad sandwiches for lunch. At home, we would have had tuna salad on bagels, potato chips on the side, and maybe an apple for dessert. Here we have grouper salad on challah, plaintain chips on the side, and papaya for dessert. Pretty close, right? (Diet Coke on ice, in both cases.)

Not bad at all, for a Sunday afternoon.

more signs

As I've said before, very few signs here are printed. This is changing slowly, but for the most part, bumper stickers, signboards, and sometimes even bulletin boards are hand painted. Here are two of my recent favorites:






I didn't realize "the people" needed or wanted table tennis, but hey, who am I to say?

rain, rain, go away

About 10 days ago, I was scheduled to travel by helicopter to northwestern Liberia to inspect some road rehabilitation works.



Here's my colleague, Paul, from the EC, in the red shirt:


We wear headphones to block out the noise of the chopper.


One of the Ukrainian UN pilots gave a short pre-flight talk (wear your seat belts, we'll be there in 45 minutes), and then we were off! Since the helicopter flies very close to the ground (apparently about 500 feet above the ground, the views were fantastic.


I like this photo because it shows the swampiness of the land around Monrovia. During the rainy season, clogged drains and flooding are a huge problem - more on that later.


But after 20 minutes, I felt the chopper tilt a bit, and bear left - we were turning around. It was too loud to talk, so one of the other passengers was gesturing to her colleague, holding her hands in front of her face, wiggling her fingers and moving them down...rain in the distance.

We returned to Monrovia's small, domestic airport, Spriggs-Payne, and reluctantly climbed out of the helicopter. Maybe next time.

another guest

For weeks, Peter and his coworkers (and especially our roommate, Denise) have been preparing for today's visit from a man who could sort of be described as Peter's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss...former President of the United States, Bill Clinton.

For weeks, Denise and others have been developing potential visit schedules for President Clinton and the "delegation" accompanying him: celebrities, US government officials, Foundation staff, and press. The final schedule included a visit to a market, a hotel funded in part by the Clinton Global Initiative, a radio interview, and a reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is serving as the President's official office until the Executive Mansion rehabilition is completed.

Our role today was to stay at MoFA, herd people along, and provide logistical support. (I actually was just tagging along, since I don't actually work for the Foundation.) Here are the buses of the delegation and press entering the MoFA parking lot:



Our first task was to arrange the bag lunches for the delegation. The sandwiches, supplied by a local grocery store, came with the usual fillings- ham, turkey, cheese - and with more exotic flavors: crab, mortadella, and "c. bocon" (Canadian bacon, we realized.)


Later, President Clinton greeted each and every one of the Foundation's Liberia staff - and posed for pictures all of them. (Unfortunately I don't have Peter's, but the Foundation HQ apparently will send it to us in the next few months.) Here's Denise:

After that, he made some official remarks in a small auditorium downstairs. The best part (in my opinion) of his talk was his last point. He encouraged Liberians to stay the course, and described what has happened in Rwanda. Four years after the end of the Rwandan genocide, the GDP per capita was less than $300, but now, 10 years after that point, the per capita GDP has nearly quadrupled. We read about it all the time, but it's still heartening to hear the message: Stay with the program, and support your progressive government.

We then exited into the lobby, for a short reception. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf walked right in front of me!


And that was that.