Good news (always comes with bad news)

Two days ago, Congress approved Peace Corps Liberia’s proposal to bring volunteers back into the country. Five Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV) assignments are currently up for grabs. These assignments fit within new security measures such as being able to evacuate a volunteer from site within 24 hours, and the five sites were selected partly based on community preparedness for dealing with cases of Ebola virus. Because Ebola cases are still cropping up at higher levels in Sierra Leone and Guinea, the region is still not considered “controlled.”

In any case, after periods of great instability, when re-introducing volunteers to a country, Peace Corps always sends in RPCVs or other equally qualified applicants as the front line for Response. That being said, the Trainees who were evacuated have the option to swear-in for a two-year assignment starting a bit later, in October rather than in early June.

Peace Corps Liberia has done a lot of community work in Ebola awareness and preparedness, especially in the absence of its volunteers. Staff have really concentrated on the issue and are integrating it into newer training and goals for the program as a whole. I’m very excited to see what volunteers get to do, and really do wish that I had time to go back. One my fellow LR-4 RPCVs returned to Liberia with Samaritan’s Purse during the height of the epidemic, has since returned, and plans on going back to Liberia eventually to work unaffiliated and live locally – I so do admire his passion and readiness.

In other news, I’ve been in touch with some community members and students from Vaye Town and Lofa Bridge. Remember how my evacuation was like everything dropped and fell apart? Well, that’s kind of how the school is right now. It’s incredibly disappointing, albeit expected in all honesty, that much of the large-scale successes of from my service, such as school improvement plans, have not been upheld. I’m taking solace in the fact that my students know how their classes SHOULD be functioning. Because they sat in my classrooms, they have better critical thinking and study skills that will help them build and retain their own knowledge, whether or not they receive it from teachers of my former school.

One of my favorite students, Mustapha –the science fair winner and wiz kid with family and financial issues – told me that he isn’t enrolled in school this year. He wishes that I was there to help him out, like I did last year, and that I was there to raise hell about how the school is functioning. I had asked him about how he’s keeping busy – reading any available books, friends’ notes, etc. He replied that although school is in session, nothing is being done. Even when first marking period exams took place last week, almost no one was on campus. In Liberian speak, the campus has been “dry.”

Students and teachers alike are working in diamond mines in Ghabono on the Yamesh River (which flows into Lofa River). One of my friends who owns a mining company, Paul Brown, confirmed this – he simply sent me a picture when I asked how he observed the school’s reopening.

I was a little puzzled because mining is huge in dry season, roughly from November to March. I think the situation speaks to what everybody was up to during the close of school, and how it’s continued. One thing I noticed is that once a kid enters the mines, he’s almost automatically committed himself to it for as long as he is able to perform the labor. I had students who would dive 20 feet, without oxygen tanks or anything, and dig for diamonds while clasping boulders with their feet to stay under. As a weekend activity, students pan for gold using calabashes or sometimes rocker boxes along Lofa River. Some students go to mining areas to sell small homemade goods to miners, who have more disposable income. This is all normal. But occurring on such a large scale outside of prime season really struck me.

I know that Vaye Town is likely not to have a volunteer – certainly not a Response this time around due to location alone – in the coming academic year. The school has not shown willingness to improve on its own. The Volunteer is simply expected to run the show. While this does lead to some improvements during service, it’s obviously not sustainable. Administrators and teachers MUST care and do the bare minimum of keeping the school open and functional with learning inside the classrooms. The slim chances of Peace Corps returning to Vaye Town are also due to my horrendous landlady’s unwillingness to bring my house up to crystal clear safety standards. I did my share of complaining on that one, too, but mostly because my landlady tried to run both the town and school through her own corrupt practices.

That being said, I did almost always feel safe in my community. Even with a house where someone only need slide through an unbarred window or climb through my moldy, rain rotted ceiling tiles, the worst I dealt with was trash on my porch after going away for a weekend. I must’ve told the story about how the community and I needed to break into the house in the middle of the afternoon when I first arrived, fresh from Training. That was interesting start to my service.

I think that one day I might like to write a book. Seriously, there are so many things that I always think to write about, but never do. In the meanwhile, here’s an excellent read about Peace Corps service in Liberia by a fellow blogger who served in the 1960s.

To stay a bit more connected to things, for now, I’ve joined the Board of the nonprofit organization Friends of Liberia as Treasurer. We do lots of fundraising for great programs vetted carefully that help develop Liberia. Maybe one day, I’ll go back to Liberia under the auspices of FOL needs. Some members have been back multiple times, even during periods of war. It’s great to have a multi-generational family with whom to share all the stories 🙂