Tings Dat Na Too Fine-Oh

Some words I would use to describe being in Liberia include:  loud, colorful, and friendly. However, der are some tings I cannot love too much.

1.) Excessive Beating of Young Children

Parents here beat the shit out of their kids. They don’t properly discipline their kids (reprimanding them at the appropriate moment when the bad behavior is occurring, like you should do with dogs), and usually just give them empty threats. They then let their anger and frustration grow. Once it stews inside the parents for a couple days, the littlest thing can set them off; some Liberian parents are like ticking time bombs. One wrong action and BAMB! They erupt. They shout vulgarities at their children, and while some are admittedly a bit funny, like “I will flok [flog] you until you poo-poo-oh!”, others are much more cruel, such as “You must learn to respect yoself or you will neva do anyting good in yo life and you will become a prostitute!” Then the physical beating ensues. Our neighbor has beaten her daughter, who’s 11, with her slipper (flip-flop), switches of various lengths and thicknesses, and her hands. She’s probably used other objects too. Listening to the sound of a child getting a beating right before bed and then listening to them getting yelled at first thing again the very next morning just plain sucks.

2.) Public Defecation and Urination

While I’ve become desensitized to this, as it’s a daily occurrence, knowing all this human waste is getting into the community’s local water sources, especially during the rainy season, is still unsettling. Each morning, I unlock the wooden shutter to my window and as it’s swinging open, there are many mornings I see a child squatting and taking their morning dump. Sometimes mothers will scoop it up with a shovel and fling it into the bushy area across our street, but most of the time, it’s just left there. I just taught my eight grade about germ transmission and ways to maintain both personal hygiene and community/environmental health. I had to start small-small and define the word feces before I could even explain why it’s so bad for it to just be all over the place! I am very grateful for indoor plumbing and sewage systems. I will never take that for granted after this experience!

3.) Chunking the Dirt Anywhere and Everywhere

People here don’t take out the trash; they chunk the dirt. And the majority of people don’t do it in a mass dumping ground area. There are more small-piles of trash but open pits aren’t often dug into the ground. The trash hardly ever gets buried and just continues to pile up. Sometimes trash gets burned, which smells terrible. Littering here isn’t even seen as a bad thing and is seen as normal behavior. People find it strange when I hoard my trash at school or elsewhere to carry it to the house to throw it our wastebasket. I miss recycling and now value it so much more than I ever have.

4.) The “There’s Always Tomorrow” Mentality

There isn’t always tomorrow, though! Some of my fellow teachers and administrators in my school have the reading comprehension and speed of a middle school student back home, and many students can’t spell most words correctly, let alone construct a simple sentence correctly. They don’t understand how to use capitalization and punctuation correctly, and their grammar is horrendous. It makes sense, because the Liberian English they speak is drastically different from the Standard English they are taught (poorly) in school. Students are promoted just to keep filtering them up through the school system, and due to this, they enter the higher grades lacking basic foundations such as numeracy and literacy. Sometimes it is not their fault, as their previous teachers promote them when the skills are not there, and sometimes the students are at fault, because they bribe their teachers to promote them to the next grade, usually with money and sometimes with sex.

Regardless, the capacity of the youth in this country is greatly lacking, and while we are trying to help, I sometimes feel as if we’re fighting an uphill battle. It’s hard to not be cynical, but I sometimes question the effectiveness of our presence (Peace Corps, other NGOs, etc.). Even if we are making an impact, the developmental progress we’re making isn’t something tangible in the here-and-now. Maybe we’ll see some improvements in the long-run. Maybe literacy will have improved in 50 years, and unemployment won’t be at 80%, but it’s hard to tell. It’s difficult not to feel jaded, but I really don’t know if being here is the best use of American tax dollars. I don’t think my students will really remember the content of the lessons I teach them, but hopefully they will learn some “life skills”, such as honesty, organization, respect (towards themselves and others), and the value of hard work and dedication to an end-goal. Maybe in 50 years the population of the country won’t be primarily made up of uneducated, impoverished youth. (Currently, 60% of the country is under the age of 35, and many people live under $2 USD/day.) And hopefully by that time, more people will be literate and less people will be living in poverty.

5.) Students That Make Fun of the Way We Speak

“No, I don’t like speaking like an idiot, but yes, I have to do it so you can understand me,” is the response I want to give students when I hear them cussing (insulting) me in class, but I don’t. Instead I explain to them that “I know the way I can speak is sounding different but I must speak in dis way so dat you will understand me. I na like to speak in dis way. I am tryin to use da Liberian English small-small and I know it can sound funny and strange to you but if I speak da Standard English, you will not be getting me when I speak.”

It’s just irritating when they cuss me and then I have to go over one of my “Class Values”--respect, what it means and why it’s important--again, for the umpteenth time. Then  there are the few times I get so vexed and tell them I don’t appreciate the insults because I did not leave my home and my family and my friends in America to come to Africa to deal with rude children. Then I also say I sometimes can think the way they are speaking is funny and strange, but I will not cuss them, so don’t cuss me. Then I think, “wow, I really overreacted and let my emotions get the best of me…I shouldn’t be so sensitive, they’re just kids,” but then in other instances I think, “Those ungrateful little turds are so disrespectful, rude, and unappreciative of the sacrifices I’m making to be here!” I can’t speak for other PCVs here, but I’m sure we all face similar situations and go through the same emotional rollercoaster at times. But that’s what we have to deal with here.

While there are many things that are extremely frustrating and/or challenging, I don't want you to get the idea that everything is bad here all the time. It's not at all. I'm just saying things can get rough at times, but one can only hope and try to stay positive that improvements will come. The only way Liberia can go is up, and with the right partners and guidance, we have to believe we’ll get there sooner rather than later.