Embassy, Convocation, and (more) Spiders, Oh My!

Let me start off my saying that I will probably update this more often than you all might want to read, so feel free to check in every now and then and skim where you see fit!

Today marks our third full day here at Ricks, and I feel like so much has already happened... it's hard to imagine what an entire year will bring for us! Saturday night we went to a farewell party for a friend of Olu's who works as a director of US Relations in Liberia at one of the US Embassy compounds in Monrovia. Most employees of the embassy live in one of these compounds or just outside one near the embassy in the city. The compound was very nice - the homes even had air conditioning (not central, just wall units... but still!). The party was filled with mostly Americans, a few Liberians, and a few from elsewhere (Lebanon, for example), but it was very interesting to suddenly find myself in a room full of Americans, talking about Liberian history and living in multiple places in Africa as if it were the norm. Overall it was a somewhat surreal experience, almost like a pause on our time at Ricks. It was nice to make some connections though and meet some people we might cross paths with again during our time here.

We got back to Ricks fairly late - around midnight - and slept until about 1pm the next day! I suppose we were still tired from our long days of travel! Sunday was a special day here at Ricks as they celebrated the closing convocation. Note: this is NOT a graduation!! This is a point that was emphasized so many times it was almost hilarious. Here's why. The ministry of education here requires all 12th graders to take a test in order to graduate. We have been told by many that the test is not a good measure of whether a person should graduate, nor a valid assessment of what they have learned in their time at school. The problem is that the ministry of education requires the students to pass this test before they can receive their diplomas and graduate, but the ministry is often quite slow in sendint the test scores back to the school. So a place like Ricks that has a set calendar and parents who plan to come for this graduation, some even from other countries, finds it very difficult to wait for these test results. So yesterday there was a closing convocation here at Ricks where all the traditional elements of a graduation took place... the only element missing was the actual diplomas. Instead, graduates were presented a gift - an empty diploma cover. This kind of peaceful protest shows that, although the government has come a long was here since the war ended about 4 years ago, there is still a long way to go.

Aside from the underlying protest of the event, it was a beautiful ceremony. Ann Elizabeth and I were asked to sit on the front row of seats up on the stage - a position of honor we were not expecting and that certainly felt undeserved. We were formally introduced to the people gathered there - several hundred at least. They definitely outdid us in their outfits for the event, however. Most of the people - especially the women - wore beautiful traditional African clothing, many with elaborate head wraps. Looking out over the audience it was beautiful to see all the color and vibrance represented throughout the crowd. All in all the ceremony lasted about 2.5 hours and featured a student speaker, a guest speaker (the woman who works for the Embassy whose farewell party we attended the night before), several songs by the choir, recognition of the 20 graduates, presentation of awards and scholarships, and several short(er) speached by parents and other guests at the ceremony. It was a special day, and we were grateful to be a part of it!

Last night we finally had the chance to unpack our room and find some kind of organization. We've hung some pictures on the wall and done little things to make our little house feel more like our little home. We're getting more comfortable there, getting used to flusing the toilet with a bucket, and have become fairly efficient bug killers. We (and by we, I mean mostly Ann Elizabeth) killed humungous spider #2 last night in only about 5 minutes... go us! haha. Baby steps my friends, baby steps!

At this point, we have a pause of sorts today as it is a national holiday... flag day! I don't know much about it, and we won't really see the celebrations, but it means we can't really get to our teacher work and meetings and such until tomorrow!

Last but certainly not least, I have some pictures to share! Facebook is being stubborn, so I think I will mostly be using Picasa for all my picture-sharing needs. Check out the first round of pictures (if you don't see them yet, they'll be up very soon... working on it at this moment!): http://picasaweb.google.com/holly.wegman/LifeInLiberiaPart1#

Hope all is well with each of you - thanks again for being a part of this adventure!