My Liberian Garden

This post has nothing to do with kids...but I think it's time for a light-hearted post. Since I came back to Liberia, I have spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with seeds in my yard. I've always enjoyed gardening (I come from a line of gardeners...), but it's even more fun in Liberia! There are so many things that grow here that would never grow back home in Georgia! And, there's also problems and pests and plant mysteries that aren't in Georgia either! So, I thought I'd give you a tour of my garden! It's nothing spectacular, and I have a bunch of plants with one tiny tomato to show for it, but it's been a great way to get out in the yard in the evenings to get alittle dirty and sweaty. So, I present to you, Ashley's Liberian Garden.

This is my front yard and house. The best time to garden is when a killer storm is approaching...nice and cool!

You can usually find me here.

Completed nursery...and my sweet boots!  

Momo (and One Love) proud of our nursery!

 The Herb Garden:

Cilantro (which has since bolted) and basil.

There's a frog family that LOVES my basil. Every morning Momo will take the frogs out and throw them over the fence, and every morning they somehow find their way back into the basil. Makes Momo and I laugh!

Oregano and Liberian peppers--like Scotch Bonnet (on nursery).

The front wall...

...includes okra... 

...and cucumber. (And eggplant, which hasn't come up yet)

The tomatoes. My labor of love. Started these from seed in a handy little nursery ($8 at Walmart), and now they're about 3-4 feet tall! I have Brandywine, Early Gray Hybrid and Big Boy planted. Early Gray and Big Boy have done the best.

Only problem is the pests are LOVING all of these new tasty treats! After consulting The Tomato Doctor (my mom & Mr. Bray), I have learned alot about tomato miners.

My one and only tomato--he's pretty cute! He's on my only Early Gray Hybrid plant that survived.

The other half of my nursery (this side is not thatched) is my testing ground. I had some green beans that did amazing, until the bugs ate every last leaf. I had cantaloupe too, until the bugs got them. Currently, I have squash (back left), lettuce (white sticks...I don't think they're working) and every other stick is collard greens.

Buds on a squash plant.

Random 'pumpkin' (more like butternut squash) vine.

 The Exotic Garden:

The barbed wire on top of my fence is nicely camouflaged with beautiful passion fruit vines (the blooms are BEAUTIFUL!). And this year, the passion fruit are already in abundance--usually they don't arrive until July or August. 

Lemongrass

We have probably half a dozen pineapple plants around the yard.

Of course, we can't forget about the 'plum' (mango) tree!

Sugarcane along the front fence. We have sugarcane on three sides of our house, as well as outside the front of our fence. Momo loves his sugarcane!

 As you can see, I practically have an entire produce section in my yard! I also have other things growing--like galia melon (cross between a cantaloupe and honeydew melon)--and there have been plenty of failed attempts too (any flower seeds). And, I've transplanted all kinds of flowers, trees and shrubs into the yard and flowerbeds too. I'm most excited about the bougainvillea that FINALLY stayed alive, after transplanting a stick of another tree, and will probably take 14 years to be big enough to add a bamboo trellis and then turn into hammock central! Oh, and we've transplanted banana trees and coconut trees, and there always seems to be a few 'pawpaw' (papaya) trees growing up out of the compost bin. The gardening has been a fun experiment, and it's also been a fun (usually) project for me, Momo and Amma (my other security guard). We will eventually taste the fruits of our labor, but in the meantime, it's a fun process, and makes me feel like a real [Liberian] gardener!

Fore!

Last week, we enjoyed a much-needed staycation. I've never had a whole week in Liberia to just relax, curl up with a book or two, sleep and explore. On Wednesday, we made plans to go play golf at Firestone...which usually happens about once a year. Despite the heat, sweat and multiple sunscreen applications, we had a blast! I really enjoy golf, and I think all or most of us decided that we should play more regularly. By the time you rent clubs and pay a caddy, green keeper and ball-spotter, it ends up being about $15 (Green fees: weekday $5, weekend $10. Closed on Mondays.). The best part is that you can be absolutely horrible and wear whatever you want (ever golfed in Chacos in the States?! I think not!) and you're still allowed on the course! We played 9 holes in about 3 hours and 15 minutes...which is much better than the last time, which took more than 5 hours! This was only my 3rd time playing golf and I shot 69 on a par 34 course (9 holes), haha. My strategy included hitting the ball in the trees so that you could play in the shade! My strength getting distance and height, and I really should work on my putting! Anyway, here are a few photos from our golfing day at Firestone.

One Week In

I have survived my first week in Liberia!!!

It's been an interesting week. I wasn't sleeping well the first few nights, so that just made for one tired Ashley. I was trying to adjust, get some sort of routine and make sense of the chaos that I left behind when I left in July. I spent this weekend getting my room (and life) in order, so I was in bed last night before 10pm! I also went to the beach for a swim yesterday--the water has been cold, but it is just so great to be back at the ocean! Speaking of cold...I have had to use my thin blanket almost every morning! That's how I know that I'm really Liberian, but it's good to be warm. Some of us sat on the front porch yesterday afternoon, playing dominoes and eating popcorn. It was cloudy and my hair was wet from swimming, but I had goosebumps. But, by the end of our game I was sunburned! This is already a strange dry season.

To end on a fun note (I have a more serious post up next). I have discovered the ultimate Liberian doughnut! To make the best use of stale bread, you smother it in creamy peanut butter and then top that with Fundelina. Mmmmm....sometimes you just have to improvise!

Sapo National Park

[Laura (MSF), Andrew (ORR), me (ORR), John (TRC) and Debbie (ORR), about halfway into our 8 hour hike]

Last weekend, a group of us headed 11 hours outside of Monrovia to spend the weekend camping in Sapo National Park. We had heard alot about Sapo...untouched and protected rainforest, elephants and pygmy hippos...we wanted to see if for ourselves. You really can't find much online (or at the FDA office in Monrovia, for that matter) about Sapo. We spent about an hour in the FDA office, asking questions and finding out about all of the requirements in order to make a visit to the park. The man helping us made sure to tell us that we were responsible for our own transportation and we had to bring our own food and water, haha. And, it was $20 per person for the park enterance fee, which we opted to pay once we arrive at the park headquarters.

[The road to Jolly Town and a Upaka tree...run here if you're being chased by elephants]
We left on Friday around 4:30pm and drove 3 hours to Buchanan. We found a spot on the beach where we could drive the car right up on the sand and proceeded to gather firewood and enjoy the the night. We slept on the beach under palm trees and a million stars! We woke up around 5am, spotted a few dolphins playing in the waves and hit the road to Jolly Town, where the park headquarters is located. We arrived around 3pm, met with the warden and then went to meet the village chief and other town elders. It was pretty cool--meeting in the palava hut, explaining why we had come to their park, and asking for permission to be in the park. After the chief told us that their village was our home and that we were welcome anytime, we went back to HQ to pack up our gear and gobble down some hardboiled eggs that had cracked on the bumpy drive. And then the rains came. We let the rain pass over and then started the 45 minute hike toward the Sinoe River, which serves as the park boundary. After we were canoed across the river, we hiked another 30+ minutes to where we set up camp--a clearing called Michael's Camp.

[Our humble abode for the weekend--Michael's Camp]
On Sunday, we woke up at 6am and decided to leave everything at camp and just hike light for the day. We ended up hiking a total of 8 hours! About 5 hours into it, we reached the Sinoe River...we enjoyed taking a swim to cool off! We hiked another 3 hours back to camp, and by that time we were exausted! We made dinner, bathed in the creek and hung out under the tarp because it started to rain. We were so pooped that we were all in bed by 8:30!

[The Sinoe River was perfect for cooling off. My theory was: what you can't see (hippos, crocs, etc.) in the muddy water can't hurt you, right? And check out how HUGE that tree was compared to Junior!]
We woke up at 6am on Monday morning, packed up camp and hiked the hour and a half back to the park HQ. We were met by the warden, some rangers and some fried plantains. We cleaned up alittle, packed the car, and said goodbye to our Sapo friends. By about 9:30am, we were back on the road! We made it to Buchanan in time for dinner and then continued on home after that. After 22 hours of driving and over 12 miles of hiking, it was good to come home, eat some collard greens, get a cold shower and climb into bed! It was an awesome weekend, full of all kinds of adventure, and it was a great time with friends! We didn't see any elephants or hippos...only their tracks...but that's ok...there's always next time!

[The track of a bongo...a large animal that's "as big as your tent and taller than you"]

[We survived Sapo! Junior (our awesome guide who wore an Atlanta Braves/Delta shirt), Andrew, Solo (our canoe carrier), Laura, Alfonso (our awesome guide who can call duikers like nobody's business), John, me and Debbie]

Victory 2010- Liberia vs. Gambia

Back on June 1st, I went to my first professional Liberian football (soccer) game. There had been serious advertising to increase ticket sales, and the match was sponsored by the cellphone provider Comium. There were 4 types of tickets that were for sale—the cheapest seats went for 200 & 300LD. There were 2 types of VIP tickets—one for $20USD and the other for $50USD! With each ticket purchase, you got a scratch card (aka minutes on your cell phone)—a 200LD tickets came with a $1USD scratch card. If you were a big spender, and dropped $50USD for a ticket, you got a free cellphone. Anyway, I was not about to get taken advantage of, so I decided to take the cheap (and greatest possibility to have something to blog about) route, and bought the 200LD ticket. My theory was that for about $3USD, I would get a day of entertainment, at least a few stories to tell in the end, and if it was a miserable time and I wanted to go home, I wasn’t wasting a bunch of money. I also brought along Ian and Amanda, who were visiting us to check out ORR’s ministry…and our chief security guard Momo came along for protection.

For days, our security guards kept asking me about going to the game because they wanted to make sure I was really going to “go around the field”. They kept telling me that I should buy a VIP ticket. First of all, there’s no way I would spend $50USD on a ticket to a stupid football game, but I’m poor and talk about a waste of money—to put it into perspective, $50USD can feed about 20 kids here for a week! And, the jacked up ticket prices exist because of all of the UN/NGO people here, and I refuse to fall into that trap. Everyday, the start time of the game changed too—first it was 7pm, then 6pm, then 5pm, then 4pm. I’m still unsure of what time the game actually started at. The guards also kept telling me they were going to “be on the field” around 11am, which sounded ridiculous to me! I didn’t want to sit out in the hot sun (if I would have paid 300LD, I would have been under a covering), listening to super loud Liberian music, and dealing with the constant “white woman” thing. Oh, and I should tell you, we were instructed to bring nothing with us except for our ticket and a water bottle, because anything else would probably get stolen (so, once again, I have no pictures for you). I did cheat and brought 50LD in case I got hungry, along with my phone…just in case…but I kept them in my inside pants pocket away from the pickpocket posses. I did have to swat away a few hands.

Anyway, we decided to go to church with some neighborhood kids, and then made our way to the SKD Sports Complex around 3pm. When we were about a ½ mile from SKD, the rain drops began to fall—which was a good thing, because apparently if it’s raining, that means that Liberia will win. We got dropped off in front of SKD and it was a total zoo! Lines and lines of people standing in the rain, with the ground flooded with water and trash. Unfortunately, because we were white, we were quickly escorted to the front of the line; I think they assumed we were VIP. I hate it when I get special treatment here, because I’m not here to use my skin color as an advantage…but I have to admit, I was grateful to not have to wait in the rain with the hoodlums. We stood outside the stadium’s main gate for probably 15 minutes while Momo talked with the UN peacekeepers and LNP; all the while, people behind us were either angry that the white people cut, or telling the UN & LNP to let the white people in. Too many people were pushing up against the gate, so they wouldn’t open the gate to let us pass through. A Nigerian UN peacekeeper finally told me that they would let us in, but that Momo couldn’t go in with us. I was fed up by this time, and showed the man that we all had tickets and forcefully told him that we weren’t going in without Momo because he was with us and he was there to help us. The Nigerian guy started yelling back at me…something like “fine, then none of you will go in”…and I told him that was fine. The LNP stepped in and started to push us through the gate…everyone got through except for me…and people started to push to try to get through the gate too. By this point, I’m not liking the situation because I’m beginning to picture stampedes and trampling. Ian and Momo turned around and picked me up by my upper body and lifted me up and I crowd surfed over the gate!

Once we all made it through the first gate, we began to walk around the outside of the stadium to pick a gate to try to find seats (mind you, it’s still raining). We immediately realized that the place was absolutely packed, and that we should have listened to the guys and come earlier. I’m talking so packed that people were climbing the spotlight poles to see the game! We walked all the way around the whole stadium, trying to find a gate that wasn’t completely packed—getting an actual seat inside the stadium was completely out of the picture. We had an offer to sit in the VIP area, if we were willing to dish out some money—but we had 150LD between the four of us. We ended up going to Gate 1, and Momo and Ian stood up with the crowd in the breezeway so they could somewhat see the field, but they mostly relied on the jumbo-tron. Amanda and I stood outside the gate in the walkway. We made friends with a guy who’s a visiting professor at UMU (the only other white guy around), and we unfortunately made ‘friends’ with some really obnoxious Liberians. I spent the whole game turning down proposals, giving marriage advice, explaining why you can’t approach me the same way you approach a Liberian woman (another blog topic in itself), what I was doing in Liberia, why I believe what I believe, etc. etc. etc. They had had alittle too much sweet wine, and were adamant on being in love with me and wanting me to be their wife—I was completely annoyed! We had planned to leave when there was about 15 minutes left, just to avoid any angry fans or possible riots. We ended up staying until the end…the game ended in a tie—1 to 1….probably the most peaceful way for the game to end. After everyone began to file out, Amanda and I decided we should at least see the field, so we headed inside. I saw the field!

We walked home from SKD (15 minute walk), and most Liberians couldn’t believe that the “white people were walking and not driving”. By the time we reached the house, we were told that some people had died at the stadium. The next morning we heard that 9 people had died at the game—the final tally turned out to be 10. Most of the people died from suffocation or from being trampled. The paper also talked about a handrail collapsing on a staircase and people “falling to their deaths”, but I’m pretty certain that is false. I saw the collapsed handrail when I got to the stadium, and there was no commotion around the area or anything. There has been talk that Comium printed more tickets than what the stadium could hold…and also that people had photocopied tickets…not to mention how many people just bribed their way in. Anyway, it’s really sad that people lost their life from spending their Sunday afternoon at a football game. I started thinking about how at home I never show up at Turner Field for a Braves game and think that I might not make it out alive. It’s a pretty crazy thing to think about! There’s another game this Sunday, and supposedly things have been done to prevent over-crowdedness like last time. I’ve also been told that they won’t sell any tickets until the day before, to cut down on counterfeit tickets. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to take another try at seeing a Liberian football game. I’ll let you know!

I Don't Think...

...this is against the rules. I'm going to talk about something other than Liberia. That's ok, right?

So, my family has been in Italy for the past 8 days, and they're coming home tomorrow night. I've been Susie-Homemaker all week, and as a result, I was watching Oprah [which I never do] the other day, and this cake recipe sounded super good! For those of you who don't know, one thing on my dream list is to own a bakery. I bake often, and I've done one wedding cake...and 2 years later I'm still recovering, haha. I know what you're thinking--alittle opposite of roughing it in Liberia, eh?


I admit, tonight I've only eaten the crumbs smothered in the leftover icing [am I the only one who does that?] but that alone was awesome! Anyway, I wanted to share the recipe with those of you who bake...or are thinking about baking...or need to bake something for Easter dinner...or just have a sweet tooth [which I have!].

Art Smith's Hummingbird Cake

(This cake is one of the most requested desserts at Art Smith's Chicago restaurant, Table Fifty-Two)

Serves 12

Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups chopped ripe bananas
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans

Icing:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar (about 4 1/2 cups sifted)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

- To make the cake, position racks in the center and bottom third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Lightly butter two 9" round cake pans, sprinkle evenly with flour and tap out the excess. (If you wish, butter the pans, line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, then flour the pans and tap out the excess.)

- Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, stir or whisk the bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs and vanilla until combined. Do not use an electric mixer. Pour into the dry mixture and fold together with a large spatula just until smooth. Do not beat. Fold in the pecans. Spread evenly into the pans.

- Bake until the cake springs back when pressed in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the cakes to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks (remove the parchment paper now if using). Turn right side up and cool completely.

- To make the icing: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in the sugar, then the vanilla, to make a smooth icing.

- Place 1 cake layer, upside down on a serving platter. Spread with about 2/3 cup of the icing. Top with the second layer, right side up. Spread the reaming icing over the top and sides of the cake. The cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored, uncovered in the refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

The crumbs and icing were rich (cream cheese frosting), but I like it sweet! I'll post a picture tomorrow after my camera returns from Italy....unless my family devours the cake before I can get a pic. I'll bid you goodnight with a picture of my all-time favorite cake that I've made....for John Ryan's 1st Birthday!