Arrival!

Hey everyone this is Ryan! Dayna is busy working on a Saturday so being the sweet and caring guy I am I decided to help her out with this whole blogging thing.

We arrived here in Liberia last Sunday and have been here for our first week. Liberia is very different from the other country I've been in mostly because of the poverty level. All of my other travels had nice places where you could find an escape, but Liberia really has none. It is amazing to see the way people live throughout the city and the way the war has affected the country. There is still a lot of war damage and displaced peoples as the country gets itself off the ground and there is a lot of work to be done. I went on a tour through the downtown Monrovia area and was amazed how crowded and congested it was. People just mill around, walking everywhere. There are buildings which were destroyed in the war and are now filled with people who have no home but now live in the bombed out buildings. People just live wherever they can find shelter it seems. Liberia is truly an amazing place thus far.

I have not started working with my project but will on Monday and I am really looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to my first trips "upcountry" to the smaller villages where SP is working.

Dayna has hit the ground running from when we got here. She only had a few days with the finance director who she is replacing, so it was a mad dash to get her caught up to speed. It is very overwhelming at times so I am staying out of her way, I mean supporting her the best I can.

Our living arrangements are very good. We have a generator that is on a few hours a day and then battery power the rest of the day. The battery's do not last all night sometimes and then our fans wont work and it gets hot, but I think we'll get used to that. We live above a church with security and a fence and the whole bit so it is very safe. Right beneath us people are living in their shacks so it is a very strange feeling to be living so closely to such poverty. But I can say that the roosters that they own start crowing at 6 am and dont stop all day. Hopefully I can get used to that, but I don't know. Those roosters are loud.

Well that's it for now! We are working on taking some pictures and will post them as soon as we do.