Second Full Day Here

Here we are again, eating breakfast/lunch and using the internet. MacDella and the kids went to Church, but the driver drove me and Tammy to another hotel. We passed by the president's palace, the US Embassy, and the military barracks. Brian and Meghan (if you're reading this), I saw a UN AIDS building! We need to add a newspaper from Liberia to our project! I don't think we have one right now. They also have advertisements telling women what to do if they're raped. It would be interesting to see what the newspapers have to say about the campaigns and everything. Maybe I'll find some newspapers and bring them back for Dr. Pollock. :)

Yesterday after we ate at the hotel, we went to an orphanage. The children there loved the camera. A few of them stepped up as my tour guides and showed me around the outside of the orphanage. Then the man who ran the orphanage called them back and put them in two lines. MacDella, Tammy, and two of the girls who work with MacDella traced all of their feet on notebook paper. I was just taping them. It was the best way we knew to measure their feet. MacDella has shoes to give to the children for Christmas, and she needed to have their shoe size so we could match up shoes for each of them. Last night we spent a while going through all of the boxes MacDella has in her apartment and organizing all of the shoes.

On the way to the orphanage, we had to drive through the market. Traffic was horrible! There were so many people there. I was impressed with the women who could carry things on their heads. They can carry just about anything. It didn't seem to matter what size or shape. The women also tied their babies onto their backs with blankets. The babies looked so cute just sitting there and staring and everything.

On the way home from the orphanage, MacDella had the driver stop so she could buy coconuts from a guy on the side of the road. He and some other people had just gotten them and were cutting off the outsides right there. I thought she was just buying one for herself but then she offered them to us! I drank the juice. :) Actually, MacDella mentioned that she didn't have straws to drink the juice with, but guess who happened to have some straws in her bag? The girls who were working with us were laughing at me because I had everything you could think of in my bag..straws, tissues for when the juice was spilling all over us, and antibacterial wipes to wipe our hands. I get it all from my mom. Be prepared for everything!

I guess that's it for now. I don't think I'll be able to use the internet on Monday or Tuesday. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow for the party on Christmas. But I'll be back here again to update you on the happenings of our stay.

Oh, and let me put up a picture...I have a video that I'd love to put up, but it's too big and taking too long to upload. It was of the crazy streets at the market. But here's a picture I took when we were driving. All those people are on the back of a truck. Not safe! They could fall, especially since the roads are so bumpy. I read that the taxis and cars here are always over packed, and it's definitely true.

We're Here!

We made it! We got to MacDella's apartment around 11:00 last night. In terms of home time, Justin dropped me off at Tammy's at noon on Thursday, and we finally arrived around 6:00pm on Friday. My whole trip (starting at Tammy's house) was more than 24 hours!

It's nice to be here and be done with traveling. The trip went pretty fast. We couldn't sleep on the first flight from New York to Belgium, but we slept in the airport in Brussels and on the second flight. We stopped in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, and then we came to Monrovia. The flight will go directly to Belgium on the way back, with no stops. I hope the trip home goes just as fast as the trip here did. I think it will feel longer because I'll be anxious to get home.

MacDella warned us that the airport was small, but it was a very interesting experience. We just walked down some steps from the plane and across a little ways to the building. There were different lines for Liberian citizens and others so they could check our passports. Then we had to wait for our luggage. It was crazy trying to get our bags. So many people were in one little room. But then I think it was a little crazier outside. The driver had found me and Tammy in the airport and had let me talk to MacDella on his phone so we knew she was waiting outside. He found someone outside to help me carry my many bags (I shouldn't have packed stuff in so many bags). There was a whole bunch of people outside trying to help us, but MacDella says that they just try to touch your bags so they can say they did something and claim that you have to pay them.

OH, and the roads were ridiculous! There were lots of potholes because it's after the rainy season. The driver used both sides of the road. It was like a maze trying to get around them all. And everyone beeps and passes each other on the road. They're all in a hurry to get somewhere. And tons of people were walking on the side of the road. It wasn't a road that I would walk on by myself at night (or expect to see others walking on), but here it's considered a highway. MacDella said that we couldn't see the little villages along the side because it was dark. But she pointed out a few of the orphanages. We stopped by her friend's house to see his yard. He offered to let her use it for her Christmas party. His house was so nice. It had this big balcony. I definitely want to go up there and get some good shots of the kids on Christmas. :)

It's more interesting (and less scary) to see it here during the day. People are always on the street. There were little shacks along one wall with shops. We say an old woman sweeping her little place. These two little kids saw me and Tammy waiting in the car when MacDella stopped at the laundromat, and they were pointing and smiling and waving to us.

We're in the Royal Hotel now. It's a nice cafe with wireless internet. We all ordered eggs and bacon and toast (real food! and not airplane food). I'm wearing my money belt and my bug spray. I think we might be visiting two orphanages later and maybe the market. The little girls that live with MacDella are so cute! Me and Tammy gave them the crayons and coloring books and sketch books that we bought them. Belle, who's three years old, was reading the letters on the back of a book that Tammy's reading. I don't know if she can read, but she was spelling all of the words for us. And she was telling us the colors in our room. She thought brown was blue sometimes, but she'll get it right soon.

I don't know how often we'll come to use the internet. It's not working in MacDella's apartment, but I should be back sometime. Sorry I don't have any pictures today!

I'm being safe. :)

Tammy updated her blog, too. Her posts are shorter and probably much more organized. Sorry mine is so long. I can't help it.

The Start of Something New

So this is my blog for my Christmas in Liberia. For those of you who don't know, it all started last semester in my Interactive Journalism class. I received an email from Tammy Tibbetts asking our class for a partner for a project. She already had talked with our professor and had a topic for a story. Her partner would be the web designer. It sounded perfect to me. I recognized Tammy from the Tutoring Center, and I knew she would be a good partner for the project. I had no idea what I was getting into when I sent her that email asking if she'd like me as her partner. 

Tammy did all of the writing and reporting for our digital storytelling project, and I did the web design. Our project was about MacDella Cooper, a Liberian refugee who went to our school and then started her own foundation in New York. The MacDella Cooper Foundation (MCF) has many projects, including raising money to help support and education children in Liberia. While we were working on our project, MacDella took a trip to Liberia and was away for a few weeks. Tammy and I talked about what our project would be like if we could follow MacDella to Liberia with a video camera. We were just being wishful thinkers at the time, but then the idea of a documentary popped into our heads. We knew that MacDella took volunteers and held a Christmas party for 600+ orphans in Liberia every year. Why couldn't we be those volunteers and take a camera with us? 

After we talked to MacDella, she agreed to let us make a documentary about her and her foundation's work. Now, my senior project is the documentary version of our digital storytelling project. This is why I'm going to Liberia this Christmas. Of course, I'm sad about not being at home for our traditional Polish dinner on Christmas Eve, for opening my stocking on Christmas morning, and for all of my family's other holiday traditions. But I'm excited, too. As Tammy says, it's an adventure. I think it'll be a Christmas I'll never forget. 

This blog is just so my family and friends can keep up with what I'm doing in Liberia (and so that I won't forget it all later). If you want to read more sophisticated and professional writing, you can visit Tammy's blog. She's going to be blogging for marieclaire.com!