June in Liberia

Hello everyone!

Lizzy by the seaside Monrovia

One of the many ruined houses by the sea

Time for a fresh blogpost from Liberia I would say: its been a while since I last wrote, and that's not because nothing has been going on! Rainy season has come to the Liberian coast- the last three days were full of heavy rains and intervals of thunder. Leakages spring up in different places, and internet is even slower. Don't worry however- we are still enjoying ourselves!

Liberia has been treating us well: people keep showing us their smiles and are eager to meet and talk with us, fresh fruit like mangos, avocado, bananas and local mangocie and monkeyfruit, is always available, and we now also have a new housemate: Annemarie from the Netherlands! She is working with a different pillar of the project which looks at the capacities of DCRs local partner organisations and will stay with us for about 3 weeks. Lizzy and I are already enjoying her company- and not just because she brought us delicious stroopwafels, dropfruit duos, krijtjes and orange atributes for supporting the Dutch team in the European Championships. On that topic- well what can I say: I enjoyed watching the first two games with the small but cheerful Dutch community in Sajj House, but less so the result. Tonight we go again and wish for the Miracle of Kharkiv!

Jacobtown, Paynesville

Three weeks ago we started training the 50 enumerators we selected based on their application test. Preparing for the trainings was difficult: we were not quite certain yet which modules would actually be in the end version. Luckily we were hosted by the University of Liberia and they were equally gracious in providing us with a beamer to help our classes. Some of the topics discussed in the trainings: the research goals and the program for today, training the basics of interviewing, going through the modules that needed practice, playing a name game to get to know one another, and spreading into different groups. 

Lady waiting for a taxi near Paynesville

However, due to some delays in the Netherlands though we needed to postpone the trainings to coming Monday! This means that we have not trained for a week and a half, and we hope that they haven't forgotten anything. This also unfortunately means that we can't fly back to the Netherlands on the first of August, and need to stay here a week longer. Not bad, but hopefully we still get to enjoy some of the holidays! This week was a relatively quiet one, we mostly worked in the office: reviewing the surveys and questions, planning the trainings and fielddays. Moses, one of the members of ZOA, was so friendly to take us on a trip to Paynesville, a collection of neighbourhoods close to Monrovia, so we could see the ZOA activities there and to get GPS coordinates. We also bought large maps to find the villages we need to go to, and visited multiple car dealerships to get the best deal for when we need 4WDs in the field.

Our enumerator applicants at the University of Liberia

Well, now for a relaxing movie on Sunday due to another shower, and hopefully a good night at Sajj watching the (probably last) game of the Netherlands in the European Championships!

At the Golden Beach enjoying the weekend!

 Cheers,
Bram


      





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