Travel
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I thought he’d forgotten. I languished beneath my mosquito net half reading a poorly written novel but mostly succumbing to the brutal heat still lingering in the late afternoon. My morning had been fruitful. My lift into town dropped me far away from the Catholic compound- barely in the city limits. On the side of […]
We almost didn’t stop. The dust, a cloud of cinnamon caught in a sneeze, billowed before us as we raced down the dirt road, gullies carved on either side in anticipation of future rains. We were racing time and honking as pedestrians wandered into what I imagine is usually a deserted strip of road. We […]
Gutz is amazing. Seriously. The man provides, be it food, fun, or perspective. On Super Bowl Sunday halfway around the world…it was football. We gathered around his television set, four Americans, one enthusiastic and one reluctant Liberian. We gathered with fried chicken, plantains, and sweet potatoes, fresh pineapple, and ginger coconut cake. Gutz sweating over […]
Food is one of the great narratives of my life, and yet I am still surprised at how much the taste and lingering delight of a good meal can dictate the texture of my day and orchestrate the flavor of my mood. Food. More than sustenance and survival, for me it is tantamount to joy. […]
generosity
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 […]
Continue reading about generosity