I'm here!

Well after more than 30 hours of travel, I arrived at my destination around 7pm last night.  The trip was fairly straightforward and uncomplicated.  Even met two girls from Harvard coming to work in ministries here in Monrovia at the airport in Brussels!  After a few minor altercations with the immigration and customs personnel, I got my bag and the driver was waiting in the crowd for me just as expected.  He took me on an hour long ride of my life into Monrovia, beautiful palm trees, naked children, the setting sun, and lots of interesting traffic... after unlocking and locking about five doors, he dropped me in a huge mostly empty two bedroom apartment by myself and said I think someone will be by to get you in the morning and with that (and a snickers bar and fanta that I gifted him) he was gone.
Whew!  I just sat down and took inventory of where I was, what I had, and just what I should do.  There was a TV but no way to plug it in to the generator, there was a sink but no running water (oh that's right there's a trashcan full of water in the corner... remember like India...) etc. Then there was a knock on my locked and bolted door... it was the woman I had been corresponding with!  Woo hoo!  Someone who spoke my kinda English and knew what was going on!!!
Went to sleep and woke up to the heaviest downpour of rain... back to sleep... woke up to children's voices... back to sleep... finally got out of bed sweating around 10am.  Took my bucket shower and wandered next door to have breakfast with Klara and Jackson (the DRC people).  As it's the weekend no one is in a hurry to do anything I have found :)  I also found that we are RIGHT on the ocean.  Their balcony is quite pleasant with the breeze and sound of the ocean!!!
The security briefing was quite thorough and a bit scary if I do say so myself, BUT they definitely have my back... so that's good to know!
Don't know when I'll get to write again and haven't figured out internet for my phone either (turns out i wish i had a phone company that used sim cards cause they're super cheap here)... oh well.
Oh, and other than surprising everyone with my haircut, they seem to really like it :)  They said it makes me look younger and cuter... haha go figure!
Until whenever!
Kate