Day 4 It's New Years Eve. We slept in once again. I have a feeling once we actually need to start waking up early, it's going to be rough. We had a lunch meeting at 2 so we took the time before that to try out some audio equipment and practice our interviewing skills on one another. It was a good idea because we all made mistakes, so now we just need to learn from them.
We went to a hotel to meet and eat with the Fellows and we were starving since we had yet to eat that day. However we had to wait for the others to get there so it was about an hour before we got some food in us. I had lebenese coffee which is, to date, the best cup of coffee i have ever had. For my meal I had hummus, olive oil, and pita bread. It was incredible.
So we finally met the main female journalists that are the focus of our stories. There's Wade, we met her the other day, Mae (my story), Teetee, and Teecee, and also Chase the graphic designer was there as well. We talked with them all about their stories and their lives. I really connected with Teetee I think. She was excited for 2012 to be over, she said there were too many deaths this year. Most people who want 2012 over are upset over the end of a relationship or a bad grade or two. These woman have dealt with some real issues and it's inspiring being in their presence.
Mae is quite a character. She sort of ligths a room with her presence. She's loud and opinionated but i like that about her. She's got some fire in her soul. I'm excited to work with her and learn from her.
I talked to Chase a lot during the lunch because he and I both have fine arts in common. It was an enjoyable meal and we got to share some of our stories with the woman and let them see who we are and trust us.
After lunch, we walked to the grocery store to pick up some waters and maybe snack or something.
There was a whole congregation of people outside there asking for money, some couldn't walk.
Ken is an incredible person and he almost always tries to buy an extra bag of rice to give to someone less fortunate out there. This time it was a guy in a wheel chair who started eating the rice raw out of the bag.
That made me stop and think.
Teetee was going to be on a news show that recapped the top stories of 2012 and invited two of us to come and watch the recording of it. Meanwhile Jim was asked to hang out with Wade and take some photos on the beach with her. So we split up with David taking us across the city. On the way there were say a giant fight break out in the middle of the road that we were supposed to go down. I saw people wailing on each other. David put the car in reverse and just started driving backwards down the street until we hit a side street and then we went around the giant fight.
On this trip we saw a lot of garbage on the streets and people out partying for the new year. Jess and I finally made it to the tv station and we got to sit in and watch Teetee. She was articulate and professional. It was really amazing watching her and we also got to go behind the scenes and see the men working in the back. We were there for a little over and hour and a half and at the end we talked to Teetee about new years in Liberia. They go to church that night for about 4 hours and bring in the new year in church. Then they all go out dancing and partying. Rodney says the party lasts for days into the new year as well.
Afterwards David picked us up and took us to "Miami Beach" where Ken had met up with a friend of his and some of her friends. We introduced ourselves and sat around a table on the beach listening to the ocean and musing about life. It was an hour into the night when I found out that Ken's friend Nora, her boyfriend is the most famous rapper in Liberia, Takun J. We were also hanging out with another famous musician in the group, but not as famous as him. People kept coming up to him and kissing his hands. Turns out the music playing at this beach was his new album and everyone was jamming out to it. It was a pretty surreal night.
At midnight I yelled it out and we all got up and hugged each other. Jess said she was going to run into the ocean and I told her I would come to. We literally ran down to the ocean and starting running into the water. I was marveling at my life at that point. It was kind of amazing to bring in the new year by dancing in the atlantic ocean, in Africa. The water was ridiculously warm too.
I just have to add that I also lost a flip flop in the ocean.
We stayed a little longer and then I hopped back to David's cab so we could go to the hotel. I finally got to talk to my parents and wish them a happy new year.