... and the winner is ... soccer!

I participated in my first ever soccer game on sunday. It was so much fun, and we even won 2 - 0.

But back to the beginning of the story. I am in Harper at the moment, and have just come back from a yummy grilled fish dinner down at the port 'restaurant' for our new delegate's arrival, and the departure of my good friend Solange and our head of sub-delegation Jan (who will now be based in Monrovia). So a leaky roof aside (it has been pissing down all night) and a sprint back to the residence in the rain, but some good French company for dinner from our good friends from Solidarites (another water/sanitation NGO), we had a few beers and a good night.

I spent the last 2 weeks in the field in the county of Grand Kru, working with my Field OFficer, two hygiene promotion contractors, and our 4 Liberian Red Cross National Society volunteeers. I have been accompanying them and participating in their activities where they run hygiene promotion sessions with the community and meet with the water committees that manage (or are supposed to!) the pumps we build in their communities. Not always successful, but the idea is that in the long term they need to be able to manage the infrastructure themselves and not rely on ICRC when a little rubber seal breaks inside their pump, because they don't know how to fix it.

I really enjoyed my time in the field, it was great to get out in the countryside and be involved in the field activities we do. Its very depressing and unmotivating being stuck in the office in Monrovia.

Ok back to soccer now. A Liberian friend of mine, Roland, one of our security guards, has been trying to start a football club for a while now, and he approached me to be the sponsor. So, I agreed, this being a good cause - I can contribute to something beneficial for a heap of kids! As sponsor I agreed to buy them one set of uniforms for the junior team, and they have to put the money together for the senior team, both of which I would organise from Monrovia. So I went and bought the first set of blue and yellow jerseys, and sent them to Harper, only to find on my return visit that they had named themselves "Jacqui Football Club", come up with a logo, and printed it on all their jerseys, not to mention the JFC t-shirts with my name blazened across the front. Hilarious.

And so I went to watch them play their first game in uniform two sundays ago. And, perhaps buoyed by my presence (actuallly I think it was the jerseys... yes, that is definitely the reason! I think their awesome coordinated presence was a bit intimidating for the opposition!) they managed to kick ass and win 5-0.

And then I also discovered that an ICRC soccer team had been in training for the past few weeks in order to take on a challenge from the CivPol crew who also had assembled team. Not only this, but I was told on my return from the field (the day before the game) that I would be required to participate in this illustrious match, because CivPol would not play unless we had equal female representation on the field. Not withstanding the fact that I have never played soccer in my life, and don't even know all the rules, I agreed to play. I've been telling myself I should learn to play while I'm here anyway.

So we rocked up to the 'stadium' (use this word tentatively... it's a dusty field with a broken down grandstand in the middle of nowhere) to play, and about an hour after we were supposed to start the match, they turned up and we actually did start (a good illustration of 'Africa time'). None of their females turned up, and our security guard Patience and I were the only participating females, but we didn't care. We just wanted to play.

We had also had trouble finding some soccer jerseys...so Jacqui FC to the rescue! It was quite hilarious to be part of a team with my name on the front. I managed to be on the field for about 25 minutes, not bad considering we had about 2 1/2 teams worth of players. While the ball tended to be on the other wing for most of the time, I was still able to get in there and have a go. Let's just say I was crap, but had a blast, and leave it there :)

We even managed to score 2 goals, and beat the CivPol team who were spearheaded by a Yankee with the unfortunate but VERY appropriate name of Philip Schmucker (and true to his name, he was an absolute schmuck!). So sticking the boot into him was extremely satisfying, and not dampened at all by the fact that afterwards he claimed that we cheated because we had too many more local players than expats (difficult to avoid considering there are only 4 ICRC expats living permanently here, plus a couple of ring-ins like myself!). So all in all, it was a great day, not to mention a good team building exercise that has been talked about all week at the compound.

Tomorrow after work, Solange and I will be taking a canoe trip up the river here, to check out the mangroves and the general river environment. Harper is so beautiful and I am trying to see more of it. By canoe sounds even better!

I am looking forward to the weekend as Solange will be staying with me in Monrovia. Together with a couple of other expats we have lots of plans including a cocktail night, 8-ball, a little road trip to Buchanan, shopping in the market and downtown (we REALLY need to eat some salad after a diet of rice, pasta, pineapple, cucumbers, tinned tomatoes and palm oil here in Harper - our cook is trying hard but the fresh produce available here is very limited to, well, rice, pineapple, palm oil and cucumbers).

In April in Zwedru, the poor UN had a plane crash. The plane went off the edge of the runway and, as a result of its wheels becoming broken and causing the plane to become unbalanced, one of its wing tips got totally ripped off. Kinda paints an accurate picture of the difficulties of travelling in Liberia! The roads are so shite that planes are essential for our movements around the country.

Speaking of plane crashes, our RED plane had its own altercation last week, where it landed, not so spectacularly, in Zwedru (I think that place is cursed!) and the propellor hit the ground, wrenching one of the blades off which sheared the front end of the cabin (luckily no-one was hurt!). The engine got severely damaged and now we have no plane, and so are relying on the UN plane (a non-broken one) to ferry us around. I was supposed to leave for Monrovia yesterday but because of the plane situation I am waiting til Friday. Apparently we have a scary, one-engine plane coming to shuttle us around, but I don't like the sound of that. Ahhh ... life in Liberia!

Brainwashing in Nyeri; Hippos in Lake Naivasha; and beautiful Mount Kenya.

Jambo!

How are you all? I hope all is well. Thought it was time to make you a bit jealous of the fun I've been having over the past few weeks. I've just come back to earth (literally) after my 3 weeks in Kenya, during which I had a great week's holiday.

I got to watch the world cup final in the Roberts International Airport terminal (hooray!) but at least I had 3 other ICRC buddies to join me, and they also made the flight to Brussels fun. It's kinda crap to have to fly to Europe just to get to Kenya, but it's because our little ICRC plane is unreliable and can't be trusted to get to Freetown where I would normally be able to fly directly to Nairobi. Sigh. So, instead of around five hours on the plane, its more like 15. d'oh!

The first couple of weeks of my time in Kenya I spent on an ICRC Field Integration Course. This is a course to which we are sent in order to better understand the role and functions of ICRC – how and why we do what we do. It's also known as the brainwashing course, for good reason! 10 days of 8am – 7pm of ICRC ICRC ICRC. We covered the activities of all of the ICRC departments, security issues, mandate and principles, finance, International Humanitarian Law, and participated in lots of role plays and group exercises in order to better understand the workings of ICRC. We were arranged into four groups made up of people working right across Africa – Ethiopia, Liberia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia. We even had a token Yankee visiting from Washington J. It was a really multicultural group, and I especially enjoyed it because the expats were the minority – of a group of around 25 there were only about 4 or 5 of us, and the rest were national staff. Everyone, including the facilitators, was great fun!

The course was held in the town of Nyeri, in central Kenya. Our hotel was quite luxurious compared to Monrovia! It was an old British manor set in beautiful gardens just outside of Nyeri – it didn't even seem like we were in Africa, apart from the massive hornbills and ibis flying/running around and the Kikuyu tribal dancers that appeared every lunchtime to put on a show for tourists. During our time there we managed to fit in quite a few beers at the nearby tavern, some games of tennis and soccer, and a river walk (including a visit to a mystical tree that apparently changes your sex if you walk around it 7 times…I tried but my colleagues wanted me to stay as I am…makes you wonder! hehe!).

Once we had completed the course we travelled back to Nairobi. I spent a night in a hotel there as did almost everyone from the course, so the fun continued! We managed to fit in some shopping at the Masaai markets and dinner together, which was a nice way to finish before people flew home. A girl that works for ICRC in Nairobi offered to put me up for a few days, which was great. We have a mutual friend who previously worked here in Liberia. Nice to have a 'local' to show me around. Anna Maria and I went out for leisurely lunches and dinners, more shopping, cruised around town in matatus (taxi buses), and watched girly movies. It was great to do some 'normal' things again.

On Sunday, Anna Maria, two other friends and I set off for Naivasha in central Kenya. We travelled through the Rift Valley (beautiful scenery; it's the breadbasket of Kenya) to Lake Naivasha, where we visited Crescent Island, a private property owned by an English woman. They filmed some of "Out of Africa" there and so they stocked the island with lots of animals, which are now managed on the property. We spent the day wandering around the island, checking out the antelope, giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, hippos and pelicans. It was a great environment to just be a part of, and the scenery was beautiful. We took a boat ride at the end of the day from the Lake Naivasha Country Club to see the hippos more closely. A quick meal and drink at the end to finish off, and it was all gratis. Sweet. It's always good to know people who know people.

Then, the best part of my trip: four days of trekking in Mt Kenya National Park.

AND:

I came, I saw and I conquered that mountain! The highest point that trekkers can go (ie without mountaineering/rock climbing gear) is Point Lenana, at 4985m (the bastion is a lot higher and scarier!). So, with my guide Chris and porter Joseph in tow, I set off on Monday afternoon on the Sirimon route. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, with long sloping misty valleys, rocky outcrops, strange succulent-like plants, and mountain streams. The journey was almost completely quiet apart from the sound of your feet crunching on the stones. Wildlife was almost absent, apart from a few species of birds and some cute little critters called Rock Hyrax (that looked a bit like giant hamsters!). Well actually, I thought they were cute until I tried to give one of them a bit of my biscuit, and the little bastard tried to bite me.

There are mountain huts along the way in which you can stay, so you don't need to take a tent (although you can if you want to lug one up a mountain). It was really nice to have someone to carry all the food and cooking gear, and to serve up hot meals and cups of tea! The nights were bloody freezing, and so I was wearing all of the clothes I packed while sleeping in the huts. They didn't have fires in the huts (you can't take wood from the park) so hot drinks, beanies and hot waterbottles were in order. My toes felt like they were missing for most of the trip.

Unfortunately it seemed that it was peak noisy-English-schoolkids-outdoor-ed-camp season, and they filled the huts each night. At least they were having fun. For the rest of us it was nice to meet people from all around the world. I got to know an Aussie and Kiwi best, who were travelling together and maintained the same pace as me.

It wasn't tough going until the actual ascent up the peak; the first day was three hours of trudging through the rain (although spotting elephants made it worthwhile), the second day was 6 hours to Shipton's Camp, which is right under the mountain. I spent the third day there to acclimatise for the climb. I'm glad I did, because some people attempted it early the next day straight after arriving, got altitude sickness, and had to come back down the mountain. It was also a beautiful place to hang out and absorb the scenery. I took a climb up the mountain to a saddle and could look down on another valley which had two Tarn Lakes, and there are also some glaciers on the mountain you can view from above.

The fourth day was the toughest. Arising at 3am, head torches ready to go, 6 of us (4 Dutch guys and a pommy gal), plus our guides, set off up the mountain. It was a 3 hour slog up some steep, slippery, rocky terrain (and I'm glad I couldn't see how close I was to the edge), but totally worth it when we reached the summit to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful to see the light fall on the peaks jutting out around us from a sea of cloud, and to see the changing colours of the rocks as the sun rose. There was also a huge glacier that we looked down upon from our lofty perch.

It was about four hours walking back down the other side, to the Mintos campsite, where I had a much-needed breakfast and sleep in the sun! We took the Chogoria route, which is longer but very scenic; beautiful deep valleys carved out by rivers, with proteas and other wildflowers abundant along the ridge which the track follows. There had recently been a fire come through, but the vigorous regrowth of the wildflowers provided a beautiful contrast with the black stalks of the proteas. It was 6 hours of walking the Chogoria route until we reached the bandas (huts) at the campsite, where we had an awesome warm log fire...

Unfortunately the last day's walk proved to be a long, wet and muddy one back to the National Park gate. The track, navigable by vehicles, was thick with red, sticky clay, 10km of which which we trudged through for 4 hours until we reached the waiting troupie. I managed to stack it twice, good work Jac! My guides were quite amused. My Aussie and Kiwi mates were there waiting for us – their original plan to walk the 30km back to the gate was foiled by the rain and mud! Chains on the wheels were a great help for the troopy J. We were transported to the town of Chogoria and then by taxi back to Nairobi. I was totally buggered afterwards…Friday night was spent definitely crashed out on Anna Maria's couch.

I had all of Saturday to do some last minute sightseeing and shopping in Nairobi, and had a nice dinner with Anna Maria and my Kenyan mate Robin before heading to the airport. It was a really enjoyable, although exhausting, 3 weeks in Kenya.

I'm writing this having only been back for one day, and tomorrow I fly to Voinjama to spend a week following up on the WatHab assessment that I arranged before I jetted off to Kenya. A few interesting things have been happening here since I left; some parts of Monrovia actually now have street lights (it was one of Ellen's presidential campaign promises, and although they chopped down a lot of the street trees (sigh!) and the lights are running on generators, the upside is that you can see when you're driving). The government is also working on repairing the hydroelectric plant, so hopefully they soon won't be using megalitres of fuel to light the city.

There was also a fire in the presidential palace on Independence Day (26^th July) – and there is a UN investigation happening as we speak.

So, lala salaam ('good night' in Kikuyu). Kwaheri!