Half way done.

My day began with water hauling.  Why not?  It has every morning for a long time.  We need water and I am willing to help.  We have a system to get it out of the river that works great- if everyone shows up.  

Today they did not.  Bright side?  I got good exercise.  Dark side?  I was very crabby at those who refuse to pitch in.  We are at a common point in communal living.  A few do the majority of the work.  We show up for meetings, we participate in fire drills.  In short, we carry the group.  My experience in this type of dynamic is that hard feelings now will even out and most of the non participants will end up contributing.  That is really hard to believe now, but usual history does not lie.  

Water crew.

After water Cher, Mark, and I walked an hour to Teajiliken, a little village an hour walk from here.  We knew there was no medical clinic but since some are assessing schools I volunteered to do that.

We met with the assistant principal of the school.  He declared right away that they needed a new building.  There are 127 students in nursery to sixth grade.  They have 5 teachers, all men.  They said they need a female teacher "to take care of the kids."  He admitted the men have tempers.  He claims they should have supplies though admitted he was not sure when the government would provide.  Here are pictures of the school.  My assessment?  They need a building!

School kitchen.  The kids get bulgar wheat at 1030 am.  They begin at 815 and are done by 1245 Monday through Friday.

After our walk we came back to afternoon electricity which was a real treat.

This evening I went down to Joes patio to talk with folks and catch up on our days.  The conversations were curt and snippy and snarky.  Again, we are at the midway point.  One conversation was about female circumcision.  One member of our team is older and from one of the tribes around Bong County.  He has a lot of pride in his heritage and culture.  He believes female circumcision is an important part of that heritage.  He particularly values the education that goes along with the surgery- education teaching women to be subservient to their men and holding very particular roles in society and the household.  Well you can imagine what was swirling around in the brains of the women gathered.  Everyone was determined to sway him which was not possible.  He is a strongly principled man and he has carefully sorted out his life in a way that makes sense to him.  It was a recipe for horrible and uncomfortable communication and was compounded by that fact that, yes, we are half way done.  I went back after everyone had left.  He explained that the women of Liberia don't know sexual pleasure anyway and the practice of female circumcision has kept teenage pregnancy almost nonexistent in his tribe.  He denies any knowledge of adverse side effects of the procedure in his tribe.  In his social structure women are respected and revered but should be educated in the traditional ways.  At the same time he values school education for women.  His daughters have advanced degrees and white collar jobs.  It is the new meeting the old and he values both and has decided for himself how to reconcile the two.  He also acknowledged the fact that I am not crazy.  He said most definitely the men I meet defer to any man which accompanies me.  It is part of the culture.  Wow.  I really really don't want to live here.  

This evening we had a meeting that was poorly attended and a fire drill that was not taken seriously.  Our leadership is weak and it really shows.  AND.......we are half way done.