First Update from Liberia!

Hello friends and blog readers! I am very happy to say "Hello from Liberia!" We arrived safely here last night around 8pm, made it through customs without too much excitement, and were met at the airport by Olu, our principal, and his wife, Otolee. The airport was quite the bustling place, with people eager to help with our bags or give us a ride into the city... the airport was just a small one-story building, so I think it all felt busier than in may have in a bigger building!

From the airport we were taken to dinner at to dinner at a restaurant connected to a hotel where many UN officials stay. Ann Elizabeth and I both had "chicken Liberian style", which was a half chicken cooked in a red somewhat spicy sauce with lots of onions and peppers. I felt brave for trying the spicy dish, and actually didn't find it too spicy! It was delicious though, and definitely gave us a good impression of Liberian cuisine... although we're told it's not totally representative :)

From there we came back to the school... about 30 miles outside of Monrovia... and were taken to our new home. It's a small "guest house" used for groups who visit campus. It has 2 bedrooms with 2 beds each, but Ann Elizabeth and I decided we would much rather share a room! haha. So, we made up our beds, and before long were sound asleep. Our house is an interesting place to sleep.... no air conditioning, so the windown are all open (although we do have screens, which is a definite plus!), but it means you can hear all the sounds from outside. From people talking to roosters crowing, we could hear it all...

This morning we had some new adventures to tackle. First, HUGE spider. Those who know me well know I am completely arachnophobic, so you can imagine my delight at this little adventure. After about 20 minutes of fervent prayer, ridiculous scheming, and wimpy swats with a fly swatter, we finally defeated the beast. Don't worry, I have a picture I'll upload ASAP! (note that was spider 1 of 3 we have killed so far today, and it is only 5:00 pm - we are 4 hours ahead of eastern time)

Next was our task to wash our hair... the water isn't working in our house at the moment (water runs off solar power, and it's rainy season, so there isn't enough sun to supply the pressure). So we had a big bucket and we just did the pour method. No big deal, but just a different part of our routine!

Olu then came by to take us for a tour of campus. Ricks, and Liberia in general, is truly beautiful. It's a very lush green environment, surrounded by palm trees and a jungle-esque landscape. The school is on over a thousand acres of property owned by Ricks, but buildings are only on a very small portion of that land. We were able to see the school buildings, the library, and even a small farm on campus (cows, goats, pigs, bunnies, ducks, and chickens). We have begun to meet the many people of Ricks - some of the over 100 employees, and some of the students. Everyone we met has been extremely friendly and welcoming, and have made us feel so welcome to be here. I think it is going to be a wonderful place to spend the year :)

After our tour, we were taken to the supermarket in the Duall market. What a busy place! It's hard to describe for you all a picture of the market... the streets are absolutely bustling with people selling everything you could want to buy - clothes, rice, produce, bread, fish, shoes, tubs, blankets, fabric... pretty much anything you can think of! We didn't shop the street vendors this time and instead went into a little indoor market, filled with many more American food items than I expected! We bought enough food to hopefully last us a week or so (noodles, tomato sauce, rice, beans, bread, PB, Jelly... basically a college diet! haha). I did feel like an American tourist shopping in the store filled with all the American foods, but I think for now that is OK... hopefully we'll learn how to shop the market in the next few weeks!

After coming back, we took an amazing nap and are now up at the school building using the internet!

Now that I have given you entirely too much detail about our first 24 hours or so, I will wrap this up by saying that we are genuinely excited to be here... it still feels surreal that we are actually here in this place we have been thinking about for so very long. What an amazing year it is going to be...