Linnea Ashley on March 8th, 2010

An 8-year-old Chad D. has had a lasting impression on me. Twenty years ago, when I made a rather lucrative teenage living from babysitting, I was preparing a snack for that precocious little boy when he uttered, “they’re only weevils.” My hand was in a bag of bread preparing to make him a sandwich, but […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 8th, 2010

She looked at me a little confused. Her nose, in the center of a clear teak complexion, crinkled slightly as she shook her head. “hair is something we do as friends, you don’t pay for it.” I had pulled out LD ready to pay her as much for her cornrowing skill (I have more hair […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 8th, 2010

“do you like mangos?” “in Sierra Leone we have different types,” Sierra Leone said. “there is one kind, sheep tongue, that—“ In interrupted him there, “sheep tongue?” I made a face, “That doesn’t sound like anything I want to put in my mouth.” “not tongue, tone. T.O.N.E.” “oh, that’s better,” I smiled. “see, in Creole […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 4th, 2010

There are times when the generosity and kindness of Liberians makes it easy to forget that the country was ravaged by war – or the crisis, as it is often referred. But little things prick the memory and I am reminded. More than the pin pin boys on flashy motorcycles dodging in and out of […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 4th, 2010

The falls the falls People have been talking about Kpatawee since I got here. Eyes glaze over in a look of pure joy and heads shake in wonder. That show of enthusiasm is followed, most often, by a promise to organize a trip to take me. A promise broken more times than I care to […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 4th, 2010

I’m on a porch in the cool evening. The last orange embers of the cooking coals smolder in the distance – light without illumination – their glow does not penetrate the black. The lightening has subsided. What had been an amazing show of God and nature, flashing streaks of white against purple in the curiously […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 2nd, 2010

The smell is what got to me. Despite the buffet of assaults to my sight and sensibility of norms and expectations, it is always the smell of antibiotics – thick as smoke –that permeates the hospital. In the past it has stopped me from venturing beyond the admin area, but today I had purpose that […]

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