See you later Liberia...

Hello Cote d'Ivoire!

So here I find myself in Abidjan... where, in contrast to Liberia, buildings have multiple floors, roads are paved, showers are hot (WHAT?!  Woo hoo), and food has a flavor other than rice & spice!

And as welcome and surprising as all of those things are, I already miss Liberia.  It's funny how grateful you are the minute you hit paved road, and then shortly there after you find yourself missing the character and constant excitement of the incredibly bumpy dirt ones.  There is a section of a Liberian newspaper that is titled "This too is Libera," and that became a constant mantra between my colleagues and I when crazy things, or things that they knew where strange for me would happen... we would just look at each other and say "This too... IS Liberia!"  Now my friends, I regret to say, "This is no longer Liberia."

I threw the office a party in the name of my departure to say thank you to everyone for their generosity and hospitality over my stay there in Sanniquellie.  After returning from the field, conducting a training of facilitators, on Friday evening... I spent all day Sat. tying up loose ends, picking up my new "suit" from the tailor, shopping, and cooking with the women... to get ready for the party!  There were over 30 people in attendance, and as is the Liberian tradition we had mounds of food, speeches (a rather awkward one given by my boss... oh well), we projected all the photos of my time here on the wall, I was designated the first female honorary town chief and accordingly gifted an African chief's robe, as well as beautiful fabric from the COHESION team (the group of younger people that I worked most closely with), and we ended the night at the one bar in town dancing the night away!  It was truly a night to remember!

Sunday was the day of departure... dun dun dun.  After gifting a few items to friends I have made here, Maurice helped me pack (not an easy task), and we were on our way (with my favorite driver Thomas of course) to the border.  On the way, we stopped at the orphanage to drop off notebooks, pencils, and candy which I had purchased for the children.  Ma Betty and Pa Jonah assured me that they would pray for my journey to be a safe one... for which I am grateful.  The border town was one I had visited before, Loguatou, and where a woman who had attended our workshop invited us to eat lunch... it was bitter sweet as I have now learned the customs, the way in which to eat my rice, cassava leaves, and chicken feet... I sat on a rock under a zinc roof as the rain started to fall... sharing my bowl with Maurice...quietly contemplating that in a matter of minutes I would no longer be a part of my friends' and coworkers lives on a daily basis.

Those who I had shared a "bed" with in the field, those who had invited me to cook at their houses, those who had taught me how to eat fish heads, those who had asked me question upon never-ending question about the U.S., those who had bought my beers or my lunch, those who had helped me when I failed to communicate effectively, those who I had facilitated workshops side by side with, those who had joked and laughed with me to make the time in the office pass more enjoyably, those who had accompanied me on my daily walk to and from the house, those who had introduced me to their families and friends, those who had taught me the ways of the culture... all those who had touched my life in so many countless ways... I couldn't help but feel I was leaving them behind.  Again.

After walking to the immigration office, and going through the rather comical attempt at a formal passport stamping and interview process, and then crossing the short border into Cote d'Ivoire where a boy stood with his AK-47 at the welcome sign and where the driver and I had to pay a bribe to get my stamp... I was on my way.

I had given my cell phone back to the office, the driver didn't speak a lick of English and I had already exhausted my few words of French... so as I sat there staring out the window, I couldn't help but thank God for yet another wonderful experience in a part of the world I had previously never dreamed of coming to, for bringing my path to cross with the paths of yet more amazing people... but I also found myself asking God for the second time this summer: "Why?"  Why me?  Why here?  Why do I keep going places for a relatively short amount of time, and investing so much in people while encouraging them to do the same with me, and then just leave... what is the purpose in that?  These are people that dream of just having a 'friend' from America who will call them... let alone if they would ever get the chance to travel overseas!  And here I come fluttering in... mixing things up... and fluttering back out... what sense is there in that?  How unfair.  And yet...

I wouldn't trade my time in Liberia for anything.  I said the same about Peru, the Jungle, Bolivia, India, DR... etc.  The question that is ALWAYS asked to me by my new found friends... "Kate, will you be back to visit us?  When?"  is one that I find so hard to answer.  From the depths of my being I want to answer "YES!  I'm not deserting or abandoning you... Of course I will be back."  Yet in reality, I have not made my way back to India yet and it has been 8 years... or the Dominican Republic where it has been over 10 years!  However,  I still believe I will go back... because there is something drawing me back there... my friendships.

I refuse to believe that our paths cross on accident or by coincidence in this great big world.  I believe God knows his plan for us and he puts people  in our paths for a purpose and a reason.  I would like to believe that I have had as positive an impact on all these people's lives as they have on mine (though I know that's impossible)... and if that's the case, then  I will keep traveling, keep working, and keep meeting people as long as God provides and allows it.  I don't know what my "calling" is exactly yet, not even sure there is one career or one job out there for me, BUT I do know that I'm getting warmer/closer to what God has planned for me.

If possible I think my heart is getting bigger the more people I meet!  Because right next to the place that the orphans in India have in my heart, there are the indigenous from the Amazon Jungle, and right next to them are the border communities of Liberia... not to mention my friends in D.C., Texas, Illinois, Australia, etc. etc.!  So maybe I've decided to stop questioning God and asking him "why?" (at least in this particular case) because saying "goodbye" is always too hard which is why I choose to believe that if I accept things as they come, search out possibilities and opportunities as well as God's will, and believe that God knows what he's doing... then saying "See you later" instead of "Goodbye" is by far the better option!

So, as I said see you later to Liberia, I said hello to Ivory Coast...by way of DRC truck across the border and then UN flight from Man to Abidjan!  I will be here until Thursday and then it's a 2.5 hour flight to go see Jessi in Burkina Faso for a couple of weeks!

Here are some more pics:

Alberta helping me (more realistically the other way around... I was helping her!) prepare the food for the party!

The women eating while the food was cooking

Singing, dancing, and putting out the food!

Giving my speech after being gowned with the chief's robe!

This is what you get in Liberian dollars when you change a $20 bill ($1,400 Liberty)

The free humanitarian flight that I got to take from Man to Abidjan

I can't believe it's already August!  I hope y'all are surviving the heat wave I heard has been sweeping the US!

Kate