FIO is the Theme of My Trip so Far

Since touching down in Liberia, I have spent most of my time attempting to learn a new culture.  Clearly I have a lot to catch up on.  Liberians speak English, for the most part, but I would call it more of a Liberian English slang.  I am starting to get an ear for it, but have had to say, "huh" "come again" and "sure" (though I have no idea what I agreed to) many times already.  From the airport to Kakata, we drove through the Firestone Plantation, which has a huge presence in Liberia.  After about an hour on dirt, and finally paved but heavily potholed roads, we arrived at our place in Kakata.

Cribs: Liberia Addition

 Our Humble Abode

 View from our casa

 Living room.  2 nights in a row we had a bat fly in here.  On the first night I grabbed my computer and army crawled to my room.  On the second, one of the guys who lives here happened to be out back so I quickly ran and got him.  He proceeded to assess the problem, grab a broom, and with one hit I kid you not, knock the sh*t out of the bat.  Then just to reaffirm his savageness he then picked it up and poked it while laughing at me...

Where the "Malaria" doesn't happen... Get it?

They released the iPhone 5 over here already!

Some kids playing soccer right outside our place.

Meals have been a bit of a difficult thing for us.  It took us a bit to figure out how the system works.  But once we did, the lady who takes care of our house also makes us dinners (we aren't allowed to cook).  Typical dinner is similar to this: white rice and some unidentified fish.  I figure it's just better to not know...  Other than that, we eat a lot of bread, oranges, and bananas.  We have started to discover some of the little treats around Kakata, but that is taking more exploring.

This is Harrison.  He is the main guy helping us with our school.  Without him, we would be nowhere.  I found it funny that all Liberians do the same handshake.  It's essentially a high-five, followed by a snap as you release.  It doesn't matter if you are meeting an elderly lady or a young kid, it's all the same.

Main strip in town.  

I would have uploaded more pictures but I don't even want to admit how long these took.  It's funny, we had cell phones and wireless internet right away (it's the only option in Kakata).  But the internet moves at like 1st grade connection speed.  I don't know how Liberians have such patience.  Well, I will try and upload more next week.  As always email me if you are bored justmpratt@gmail.com and I will email you back but it probably won't get there until I get back.