colonial legacies...

last night a friend asked when thanksgiving was. liberians apparently celebrate thanksgiving... a nod to their colonial masters i suppose.

i think i've mentioned this before but liberia was an unofficial american colony (the country was basically a dumping spot for black americans). as such, america holds a special spot in liberian hearts.

compared to ghanaians, they speak with an american accent. i didn't actually notice this until the other day when i was at a bank with a ghanaian and i wondered if she was purposely putting on a british accent. i'd heard that at call centers in india they train employees to do that.. maybe ecobank does the same. turns out though, its just leftover from british rule. ecobank is a pan african bank so it would be weird for them to train their employees with western accents. maybe barclays does that.

the liberian flag is i suppose another blatant sign of who used to rule the place. if you dont know it.. its an american flag but with only one star. way simpler to draw. the capital, monrovia, is also named after US president james monroe. apparently the guy was pretty into the colonization of liberia. JFK hospital is a prominent hospital in monrovia as well..

anyway.

this past week on camp has gone quickly. im just rounding the halfway point which is insane.

we've been spending a lot of time working out kinks in the beans/fish/rice system and coming up with a really solid set of checks and balances for when i leave. for people that know me personally... i like to work in shades of grey. a lot. i dont plan, and im not huge into structure. we're doing all of that this week, and then some. its good though. regimented, but i always underestimate how important structure is here.

for the bags.. we've just sent off another shipment to canada. i hear there is a wait list for the sacs which is incredible. i'll carry home as many as possible when i come back at the beginning of december. email eat.to.feed.liberians@gmail.com if you want on that wait list. ill put up a picture of the bags on the blog but if youre in kitchener, you should see them kicking around. my sister nora is manning the operation while im away. along with the sacs there are also loads of organizer bags ($3 each now) and yoga mat bags/sports bags. all the profits go towards supporting an organization here on camp that sponsors underprivileged kids to go to school.

thats about it for now..