Westpoint

Day 5 It's 2013. This year has been intense. Today I finally got to experience Ethiopian food. We took a walk to Ken's favorite place and sat on the porch. He pretty much ordered for us since we had no idea what to get. We got some meat dish and a vegetable dish along with some ethiopian coffee. The coffee was different from the lebanese. Still good, but I think I loved the lebanese coffee the most.

Please enjoy this demonstration of how to eat Ethiopian food by Ken Harper:

It comes out on one plate and there are no utensils. You use Injera, a sponge like bread to grasp the different parts of the dish. We learned there's actually a lot of protein in Injera?

Step 1: Tear off a piece of the Injera

Step 2: Grasp the food. (Can't go wrong, it all tasted good)

Step 3: Make a small pouch of said food that is able to be eaten in a bite or two.

Step 4: Make this face as you enjoy the deliciousness. Welcome to Liberia's Ethiopian food.

It's distinct flavors and textures and overall it was an enjoyable experience.

After lunch, Jess, Jim, and I called David and asked him to take us to various points around the city to scope things out and to start gathering some b-roll. David picked us up and took us to the first place.

It was a little hike down a rocky passage and it looked right out onto the cliff. We enjoyed the view and actually started taking some photos of some people that lived there. We met a woman and her two children  and we were able to photograph them. It was really incredible. I feel like all we have to do is just treat these people like they are humans. Living, breathing, real people. That's all they are. Just like myself. Just like your enemy, your president, your dentist. We feel the same things and we love the same way. So I don't understand how people can't see that. I also realized that I adore kids. I mean, look at his little face.

So we piled into the car and drove to David's second place: Westpoint. Westpoint is the poorest place in Monrovia. People live on top of each other all jammed into a section that borders the Mesurado River. There is only one road to get through and there are only a few strategic places a car can turn around. His little franken-car did incredible well driving over rocks and ruts.

David took us through the road and we were stared at mostly. The three of us are amazing at keeping our smiles up, encouraging people to remember that we are people too. Mostly we can get the kids to smile. They are excited to see us. We got out of the cab then and walked through some narrow allies where people were making bread, hanging clothes, washing babies and playing soccer. It's an area filled with the energy of kids and resilient faces on the adults. We walked to the edge of the river and the kids looked on curiously at us, not sure what to think. David climbed onto the colorful canoe that was tied up, floating in the river. Jim and Jess were a little more hesitant to step up there, so I of course climb up and start walking down it carefully balancing so my photo equipment didn't fall into the water and sink to the depths. The other two followed suit. I'm not sure if Jim let go of the mast the whole time we were on the boat, but I think we all enjoyed it because it was the first time Liberians wanted their photo taken. Two bold boys, maybe seven or eight years old, swam in the river and called out "FLASH ME."

We photographed them and they climbed into the canoe and started doing tricks and jumping off. I looked down into the water and drifting beneath us was garbage floating in the river; old tires, plastic bags, containers, just drifting silently under us only to be disrupted by the kids jumping and splashing into the river.

We shook hands with older guys and chatted with them. I laughed at the kids jumping in and was open with the people we met. As we walked off the canoe the kids on the land had warmed up and they wanted to be photographed too. So we all took turns shooting with our different lenses the different people. It was a crazy place and the kids were essentially playing in garbage, with garbage. They didn't care though. Boys swam naked still at an age where they are unapologetic to who they are. They gathered around for group photos and then raced  to us to look at them.

We spent some time with young fishermen, one of which tried introducing me to his mother. She ran away when she saw my camera. they were goofy and posed on each other and with us. Everyone we met there made us smile.

I hope my pictures can give you some idea as to what it was like. But like I have mentioned before, there's nothing like the real experience. It's an assault on the senses, I couldn't open my eyes wide enough and take everything in.

Finally David took us to the beach. We wanted to record B-roll of the sun setting over the water. There were a ton a people around us and we tried our tactic of allowing them to press the buttons and take some photos of us before we made some photos of them. These kids were super excited to show off their talents to us and see the different photos of each other. We got mobbed by all kinds of young kids talking to us.

I walked to the edge of the water and I remember thinking it was the first day of the year 2013. I started thinking about the different things I've seen in the 23 years I've lived and the opportunities I've been presented with. It was an introspective moment for me and I was very optimistic for myself and for the project we had agreed to tackle in Liberia. It's only the beginning.

Visiting Front Page Africa

Day 3

It was a day of relaxation. (sort of) We woke up around 11 and got ready to go out. We walked to a hotel and had some food from there. I had a kebab and it was different from the kebabs in Germany and Austria. Jess had hummus and it might be the best hummus I've ever had. I also had mango juice and Ken and Jess had this Lebanese coffee or something like that. apparently it was really good.

This is our new kitten friend. we take turns tossing him french fries. So sweet!

We hung out there for about an hour and a half until we found out they don't have internet. So we walked over to Dona Maria's, the pizza and ice cream shop.

We did some research on the journalists and picked people we will be following around and getting more of their story. I have Mae who is incredibly famous in Liberia. She's had to go into hiding a few times because of the controversy of her stories. We had "ice cream" at Dona Marias, but it looked like gelato and it tasted like the most fake strawberry thing I've ever had. like a lip balm and ice cream mixed together.

At around 5 we left to go to Front Page Africa and meet people and take a look around.

We met Rodney Sieh and Wade Williams, another journalist. We got to see the printing presses and shake hands with a lot of people who work there. We got an idea of what their days are like by talking to Wade. She's an awesome and inspiring woman who raises two daughters and works 10-14 hours a day a few days a week. She likes to do stories on governmental issues. Rodney has gone to jail a few times for various stories as well. Both are really inspiring.

After we stood and talked to them for a few hours, we left and stopped at a place for some food. They got my order wrong, so I'm not sure what I ate but it was chicken and potatoes and garlic wrapped up. it was delicious. We ate with David, our driver. Dinner discussions ranged from religion to New Narratives. This is a really good, insightful group that I'm with. After we got back to the hotel we went through our audio gear and tried to figure things out and synchronize everything.

Fingers crossed I don't screw up the audio. I'm a year ahead of the other two in school despite me being younger, so I definitely feel like it's on my shoulders.

We have stereo mics, zoom h4ns, lav mics, and a shotgun mic. We have the stuff, we just have little to none training. So I guess we'll see how everything goes.

Day Once

Today I technically went to bed around 6 am. And technically we had to leave the house before noon. So I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. My stomach had started to hurt around the early hours and it didn't get better. I figured I had just had too much fun the night before and what I needed was water and a nice meal. We went to a restaurant in the square and sat out in the sunshine to eat. I decided to take it easy and have a coffee and a large bowl of fruit for lunch (and some bread that came on the table).

It was a really nice long lunch. We talked about what we wanted to do for the rest of our time there. We were supposed to go to Leon which is a city famous for leather, but Guanajuato seemed to have caught the eyes of the ladies and they were eager to explore this city. Oscar and I said we would think about splitting up and maybe visiting Leon for a few hours.

 (photo by Esme Brandon ©)

After lunch, we started walking around a little bit. We saw an alley that is famous because of a story. Basically the story is about forbidden love. A girl and boy meet. They live across the street from one another and the street is so narrow they could kiss across is while standing on their balconies. So they fall in love and the father of the girl catches them up there and tells the girl she'll kill her if he catches them together again. Kill…his own daughter. Anyways, he catches them again and does kill her. The end. It was really awesome seeing the place and hearing the story from Oscar.

(photo by Esme Brandon ©)

(photo by Esme Brandon ©)

(The rest of these photos are Esme's and Sarah's because I wasn't strong enough to keep lifting my camera. pathetic, but look how beautiful this city is)

Thankfully Oscar took my camera as we walked a little further. After a bit more shopping, I was feeling awful, and I thought if I went back to the car I might be able to rest a little and feel better. I walked through the tunnels to reach the car (which took about 45 minutes. there's a vast amount of tunnels and the car was farther than we thought.

Once we got to the car, my stomach started being incredibly talented and it was break dancing. I swear I felt like I was in the movie Alien and at any moment something would tear right through my stomach lining. I promptly fell asleep while poor Oscar charged his phone and basically waited patiently for me. We drove back to the house to take a nap before dinner while the girls continued to take in the city. They had an incredible time walking through markets and eating on the rooftops that overlooked the entire city.

I slept some more and woke up close to dinner time feeling somewhat okay. We were to go to the fanciest restaurant in the city (Remember how I said earlier that most of our meals were around 100 pesos, well this place's most expensive dinner was 260 pesos). Even the most fancy place was barely $25 and it had incredible food.

Melissa had been talking to one of the photographers from the night before who said he could get us into a movie premier and after party, after dinner. I decided to just see how dinner went before I planned the rest of my night. Oscar was still napping and opted for sleep, so for dinner it was just us four girls. We went just as the sun was setting, it was a gorgeous view from above as we looked down on the city that was littered with a dark blue from the sky and twinkling lights. The inside was softly lit and had really elegant soft jazz. Sarah and Melissa ordered the steaks, Esme ordered this fancy pork stew, and I got a small dinner salad. They also had cactus appetizers, wine, and a cornbread dessert. Everything was delicious.

I decided to go home after that, because I was still super sick. We cabbed it back to the house where I found Oscar still sleeping, and he decided the continue to sleep than go with the girls. I almost watched a movie, but it wasn't long before I was curling up in the fetal position and trying to sleep.

NOTE: This was the end of my night… However I probably missed one of the coolest things. The girls got into another VIP party where Melissa was hanging out with one of the top Mexican Actors (his name might be sebastian zurita?). Esme and Sarah were dancing around with other men. They ended up staying out until 6 am and coming back into the house loud and happy. It was a disappointment to miss, but I couldn't even be mad because there was no way I could have gone out.

Mexico Day Uno

So, I've had the opportunity for the last two weeks to embark on a journey to teach kids about multimedia storytelling. I came across this opportunity from a facebook post on my schools facebook and applied on a whim. Sure, I know storytelling, of course, I can edit. Do I know Spanish? no. So now that I have internet and to soothe my sadness of leaving, I'm going to be posting about my journey, posting photographs, and trying to illustrate the amazing experience of Mexico.

Days Uno

My trip started with me leaving my parents house in St. Louis and flying to Texas. The flight was slightly delayed so I rushed right onto my flight for Mexico without even a second thought. Our plane took off and it was about halfway to Mexico when I realized I didn't have any address for the place I was staying at, no excuse for being in Mexico, and I wasn't entirely sure I was going to find Sarah, who was scheduled to meet me in the airport.

I got to customs and told them I was just visiting Mexico, and like magic, I was let in. After fumbling around because my knowledge of Spanish is non-existant, I finally found my bag and the exit. Luckily Sarah found me right away. Glad she knew what I looked like because I didn't recognize her at all.

We took a cab to our host house in Mexico City, took one step into her apartment, and fell in love with it. It's a one bedroom with two bathrooms, an entire wall that's a glass door and leads outside to the small balcony. It was gorgeous, in a fantastic neighborhood, and was modernly decorated. We all fell in love with the place.

Sarah and I then went out for my first taste at real mexican food. We each had a few tacos, I had one with mole sauce, pollo (chicken), and a third one. The difference was the corn tortillas instead of flour. After we asked for the bill, the waiters brought out complimentary rice pudding. We paid, and they brought out six small cups each containing a different liquid. One was fermented oat juice, another was fermented cactus juice, one tasted like mud, two were fruity. They were really odd but it was great tasting all these new things.

Finally they brought out one more free thing. It was a margarita but it was made from mezcal and not tequila. I couldn't even bear to take more than a few sips it was so incredibly bitter and weird tasting. We left with barely drinking it, and left a good tip for the guys who brought us all the free food we tried. I know they got a kick out of our attempts at spanish too.

Sarah and I went back to the apartment and met person number two on the trip: Melissa. She had our leftovers and we enjoyed her overabundance of energy because she napped for her whole day flight into Mexico.

Melissa on the left and and Sarah on the right showing off their courage bracelets.