ahh you are fine oh!

liberians use oh more than canadians use eh... one of my favourite things about liberian english. that and the serious sense of humour.

its insane and intense being back. lots has changed, lots of people have moved and a lot feels exactly like how i left it.

the kids are psyched to have a volunteer back... prosper (twin sister of prince.. wrote about him last year) is as hilarious as ever. her attitude has gotten way bigger and whenever we go walking together she holds my hand and dances madly singing some no no song that requires a lot of kicking. we move slowly. the family that used to be across the road from me has moved but is still around a lot. its crazy to see how much older they seem after a year.

anyway. the kids are great but the work is draining. there are as always, a million ideas coming from the liberians for projects that require money that i dont have. so, im turning to you guys to see whats out there.

first.. an internet cafe. this is the organizations lifeline right now, in the absence of volunteers. the $19-32 that it generates a day is paying the bills and will hopefully one day, pay the staff who havent been paid in months. it also allows children to go to school for free. as it stands, we've got about 300 in school and half have paid the $1 they're supposed to pay to register. the rest are just sort of there... which is good. i love that CBW is there for kids to just go to school, hectic as it may be at times.

second. student sponsorship. the organization (hope foundation) that i have been working with to sell bags is, to say the least, struggling. i have faith that we can turn it around but in the mean time, we owe a lot of money for student sponsorship. they are at a very good school on camp and it is roughly $50 to send a kid to school for one term.

i took economics last year in a last ditch attempt to understand a tiny bit of what is going on. we spent time reading sachs and learning about the poverty trap.. too poor to save any money to invest and grow. serious hand to mouth kind of thing. that seems to be what is going on with hope foundation and i dont know what to do. i dont think many economists have figured it out either. what is important though is that these kids are able to stay in school. i am working to develop a better sponsor a child system where you could meet the kid. if there is ANY interest here, please let me know (eat.to.feed.liberians@gmail.com).

anyway. there it is for now. im sorry to make a blog about asking for money but that quite literally is the only thing i think about here.

oh and.. after a day of trying to cook for myself (and by cook i mean buy bread..) ive gotten comfort to come back. ive missed my diet of incredible spice, cabbage, rice, fresh fruit and of course, fanice (ice cream that comes from the ghanaian dickie dee).