“Brinys! Ready for the bush-o?!” So ready. So ready for the 8 ½ hour jeep ride on the finest roads Liberia has to offer. Headlamp, check. Passport for checkpoints, check. Chlorine, check. Pepto and wipes, check. 2 jeeps and 5 bikes full of our finest surveyors and we’re off. 4 hours of rough riding and a cracked windshield later and we pop in to the last town with “good” food. Into the hut we go for some bush meat, served in bowls with rice that I share with two surveyors. This place is like a dirt sauna with blazing hot food, great combination. “How you like the food?” What is the meat? Shrug. “It’s just bush meat.” Rat? Ben answers from the other end of the hut: “too big for that.” Monkey? Philip: “no, not. I’ve had that.” Ok, I’ll just eat it then. They get a second bowl and we eat up because, “you need to get big. Bush meat make you big.” What’s going to be big is the stomachache I’m going to have when this is all over. I can do this. Digestion of steel, in theory.
Onward! “Man I love IPA, they makin’ me know Liberia.” I realize that many of the surveyors are from the city and haven’t seen much of what we’re seeing. 3 more hours of being tossed around in the back of the jeep, 3 instances of the jeep almost tipping over and they say: “This is Liberia, too. You ok Brinys?” That was my first time hydroplaning on mud, but I’m in the front seat with a seatbelt, so I’m excellent. Are you? Much of their comments about how “this is Liberia, too” came in a tone of surprise. Some of them are experiencing this with me and in some cases I knew more about what we were getting into, at least in terms of the roads. Only one more hour to go.
Success. We’ve made it. Finding a guesthouse wasn’t as easy. We arrived on Valentine’s Night and Camella, who we sent ahead to prepare everything, says finding somewhere for tonight has been hard. “Love is in the air.” You mean prostitution’s in the air? “Hahaha Briny, yes.” We finally find somewhere acceptable (i.e. with mattresses) and decide to set up headquarters for the next two weeks. 7 am meet at HQ and let the tracking begin. From 7-9am we get them prepped, debriefed and sent off to find and survey the ex-coms. 6:30-midnight we take all their data, sync it, load it, talk about problems and update everything. Charge and repeat. Within 3 days we have a system that works and in the middle of the days we stick around HQ and keep track of progress. Except for when 2 teams decided they would essentially draw straws on who takes Brinys out for the day. Where’s my sunscreen? Let’s go!
Once we have a break, Philip, Ben and I go eat at Make Fire. You yell this when you pull back the curtain and enter so he knows you’re there. He also goes by the name Make Fire. Guess what he does. This is the staple place of our diet for all three meals, everyday--our HQ. Dirt floor, metal roof, wood bench. Menu- Tea, Bread, Bread and Egg, Spaghetti. What else do you need really? A clogged artery, perhaps. All of this is covered in oil, thrown into a plastic bowl and served with a side of mayonnaise. The tea is actually tea with a ton of condensed milk. Washed? Maybe. Good thing I brought Pepto. I love me some Make Fire.
Every night is a hectic recap of the surveyors’ day. I went to three towns to find them (dang).They died (oh, dang). My PDA stopped working (ughhhhh). I have three guys who say they are the same guy (no, they are not all Patrick). We should announce their names on the radio (we did, twice). Who gets the phones? (ex-combatants who were in the control group. I quizzed you on this!). Did you give that respondent a phone? Yea. Where’s the tracking sheet? He had it (what are you, 5?). I need to keep track of 1000 phones and sims here, try and find the sheet…please.
12 hr days of finding people is rough, but kudos to them. They’re doing it and doing it well. We trust them to know what needs to be done to find these people. Working into late hours of the night to bring everything in and smooth out all the kinks is rough too, but worth it. When this HQ is cleared, all we need is a trip to our HQ again. Make Fire! One tea-o!
They function so well that we move on early. Back to the Monrovia tomorrow, leaving a team behind to function on their own. The other six teams head back with us and break off to other counties. The bounty hunting continues, but this time without Brinys. I think.
Onward! “Man I love IPA, they makin’ me know Liberia.” I realize that many of the surveyors are from the city and haven’t seen much of what we’re seeing. 3 more hours of being tossed around in the back of the jeep, 3 instances of the jeep almost tipping over and they say: “This is Liberia, too. You ok Brinys?” That was my first time hydroplaning on mud, but I’m in the front seat with a seatbelt, so I’m excellent. Are you? Much of their comments about how “this is Liberia, too” came in a tone of surprise. Some of them are experiencing this with me and in some cases I knew more about what we were getting into, at least in terms of the roads. Only one more hour to go.
Success. We’ve made it. Finding a guesthouse wasn’t as easy. We arrived on Valentine’s Night and Camella, who we sent ahead to prepare everything, says finding somewhere for tonight has been hard. “Love is in the air.” You mean prostitution’s in the air? “Hahaha Briny, yes.” We finally find somewhere acceptable (i.e. with mattresses) and decide to set up headquarters for the next two weeks. 7 am meet at HQ and let the tracking begin. From 7-9am we get them prepped, debriefed and sent off to find and survey the ex-coms. 6:30-midnight we take all their data, sync it, load it, talk about problems and update everything. Charge and repeat. Within 3 days we have a system that works and in the middle of the days we stick around HQ and keep track of progress. Except for when 2 teams decided they would essentially draw straws on who takes Brinys out for the day. Where’s my sunscreen? Let’s go!
Once we have a break, Philip, Ben and I go eat at Make Fire. You yell this when you pull back the curtain and enter so he knows you’re there. He also goes by the name Make Fire. Guess what he does. This is the staple place of our diet for all three meals, everyday--our HQ. Dirt floor, metal roof, wood bench. Menu- Tea, Bread, Bread and Egg, Spaghetti. What else do you need really? A clogged artery, perhaps. All of this is covered in oil, thrown into a plastic bowl and served with a side of mayonnaise. The tea is actually tea with a ton of condensed milk. Washed? Maybe. Good thing I brought Pepto. I love me some Make Fire.
Every night is a hectic recap of the surveyors’ day. I went to three towns to find them (dang).They died (oh, dang). My PDA stopped working (ughhhhh). I have three guys who say they are the same guy (no, they are not all Patrick). We should announce their names on the radio (we did, twice). Who gets the phones? (ex-combatants who were in the control group. I quizzed you on this!). Did you give that respondent a phone? Yea. Where’s the tracking sheet? He had it (what are you, 5?). I need to keep track of 1000 phones and sims here, try and find the sheet…please.
12 hr days of finding people is rough, but kudos to them. They’re doing it and doing it well. We trust them to know what needs to be done to find these people. Working into late hours of the night to bring everything in and smooth out all the kinks is rough too, but worth it. When this HQ is cleared, all we need is a trip to our HQ again. Make Fire! One tea-o!
They function so well that we move on early. Back to the Monrovia tomorrow, leaving a team behind to function on their own. The other six teams head back with us and break off to other counties. The bounty hunting continues, but this time without Brinys. I think.
served with a side of mayonnaise. so you're ready to start our restaurant- you baconning me crazy. perfect.
ReplyDeletesounds like you're doing pretty interesting work, even if it sounds like you're only sleeping 3 hours a night. bounty hunting sounds fun.
Hey Brinys! seems like you've adjusted quite well. Have you got the hand signals down yet? Glad you're getting some tea over there even if it's with condensed milk. So what exactly is bush meat?
ReplyDeleteAlright I'm going to head to starbucks to enjoy a mocha for you.
I haven't seen any bacon yet. when I do we can get rolling! Big fan of the mayo are we veronica?
ReplyDeleteI do have the hand signals down sabina, yay! The tea I make in my place is better. I think I'll need a check up if i get any more condensed milk. Yea, you go have a mocha...for the next 5 months for me, thanks....
You got it friend!!! Till I get a job this is my fav pass time - reading your blog in Starbucks lol
ReplyDelete