Strong like a local.

This morning we went to the other end of town to pump water from the well of the HANDS NGO.  We had twenty 5 gallon jugs plus 3 fifty five gallon barrels to fill.  We did the jugs three times and the barrels twice.  We had some local liberian day workers with us who are hired for the task and we just go along to feel useful.  The leader of the Liberian troupe is Esther.  She has a mammoth smile, talks a mile a minute and readily makes jokes.  I can understand about 2/3 of what she says.  She is entertained by the Americans, but has Liberian pride.  I was honored today when she called me "strong like a Liberian" after I pumped 55 gallons without stopping.  Somewhere during the few hours we were working she went on a tirade about how the women in River Gee are so much stronger than the men.  What we have noticed in this land of incredible unemployment is that it is the women who show up at the gate each morning to see if there is any work.  None of the young men who come up to us daily wanting money to "get to America" show up to lift a finger.  We often see families coming in from the forest after cutting wood.  The woman will have a huge bundle of wood on her head and the men will have a machete balanced on theirs.  The gender roles here are crazy.  Men who I met first and have talked to most focus away from me and totally on the male I am with.  It is maddening.  In a country with a woman president and a workforce in which the women are so prominent it is amazing that they are still seemingly the second class citizens.  

I tried a machete today.  The security guard at HANDS was cutting the grass and I asked him if I could try it.  I was not very good at it.  It was amusing enough to the Liberians the ARC Liberians took pictures of me.  I am thinking mowing the "grass" at the cabin would be much more fun with a machete!

Fish town on a foggy humid morning.