A little bit of the US, and time on our own in the city!

Yesterday Holly and I spent our first day in Monrovia by ourselves. We took advantage of the opportunity and made a whole day out of it. We left school at 9:30am and were dropped off at the US embassy, where we attended a town hall meeting for all Americans living in Liberia. The meeting was held in the Public Affairs building, inside the library. We took our seats in the room with about 40 other Americans. After about 10 minutes we were both freezing. Our hair was sticking up on our arms and we were covered in goosebumps. We tried to take advantage of the air conditioning, but we realized that we are starting to get used to not having it. The US ambassador and the consular spoke to us about the role of the US embassy, and how we would/could interact with them if necessary. Most of the information were things that we already knew, but it helped to put faces with names, and make some connections that would be helpful if we ever had some kind of emergency.

The meeting was over around noon, and we decided to walk to Mamba Point, which was maybe a 1/2 mile away. On the way we stopped and looked at some African artwork that was beautiful. We are already starting to make a mental note of some things that we want to get before we go home. As we walked down the road, with the beach to our right, it occurred to us that we were on our own. It was a good feeling of independence! We went to the Mamba Point Hotel and enjoyed a delicious lunch! We had pita and humus, cheeseburgers and fries, and dessert. It was a lot of food, and we were completely full when we were done. After lunch we stayed at the hotel for the afternoon and enjoyed the air conditioning, comfortable couches, and the consistent internet. Mr. David, the driver at Ricks, picked us up at 4:30pm. We went home and enjoyed a restful evening, still too full to eat dinner.

We do not have days like this very often, but when we do it is a nice treat. We were even reminded what a flushing toilet sounds like, although it almost seemed foreign to us. It also took be a minute to realize what was different when I washed my hands in hot water, then it occurred to me that it was the hot water, haha. The ambassador said that it generally takes about 3 months to become adjusted to a new place, and as we are closely reaching our 3 month mark, I believe this to be true. Liberia is starting to feel like home in many ways. Sometimes I forget what air conditioning feels like, or I look for a bucket of water in a bathroom that doesn't need one. There are still days when I miss some of the luxuries at home, but those days are becoming fewer and farther between.