Girls Day Out

Today we were picked up by the Sheppards, a family we recently met and clicked with. We had dinner with them last Sunday and had a great time getting to know them better. This family has lived here since the 1980's doing missionary work; they call Liberia their home. All five of their children have grown up here, but now live in the states, with the exception of their last son who is 15. He and Lawrence hit it off and played on the trampoline for hours. They also have a Liberian foster son who is 3 years old, and they are looking to adopt him when adoptions open back up. Their daughter in law to be has been here for the last 7 weeks visiting, and seeing the country where her fiance grew up. All of us girls love her and we get along well.
So, we got picked up around 1pm, dropped Luke off at their house to play, and went to "The Sajj" for lunch. It's a small little Indian restaurant off to the side of the road and kind of hidden from view. If you weren't shown where it was, you wouldn't be able to find it. The restaurant was built around some already existing trees. They have incorporated the trees into the overall design by carving images into them. We noticed from the past few times we've been here, that this is where the white people hang out. When I walked in I was like, "Whoa! White people!"
After lunch we drove down town to a little place called Bannesville. There is a large open-air market here where they sell lots of clothes, shoes, bags, belts and many other things. I saw a few brand names like "Gap" and "Ed Hardy" and "Ann Taylor". Many of the clothes were nice and have never been worn. There were rows and rows of little shops or cubicles that the sellers had for themselves. The lay out is hard to explain. One roof covered all of these makeshift shops. It was made out of corrugated tin and old bags; wooden posts held the whole thing up. The floor is just the dirt on the ground with some seashells mixed in. There were lots of puddles and mud from the recent rain. (But today we were lucky because it was hot and sunny.) Each person has their own little section where they are selling their merchandise. We didn't buy much, only a few things here and there. But seeing everything was the fun part. We wanted to take a picture in the beginning, but all the ladies saw our camera and kept asking to get their pictures with us. It was funny, and they like to see themselves in the picture frame, so we agreed.
One of the crazy stories for today was when we were walking down an isle and two girls were walking towards us with buckets on their heads. When we got closer we realized that there were monkey arms in it! The Liberians, supposedly, really like monkey meat, but I'm none too eager to try it myself. A boy in the market picked up an arm and pushed it towards me. I screamed and hit him hard in the arm. I didn't feel too bad about it ;)
When we were done shopping, we walked out the entrance and passed some women selling different food items under an umbrella. We heard that Kiane (Kai-ann) was really good and that we should try it. The ingredients are crushed up peanuts, cassava and sugar. Then you just pack it really hard together, and you have a little treat. It was pretty good! But then again what do I know? I have been deprived of good American sweets for 10 weeks now. (Haha!)
I know I will miss the Liberian food when I return home though.
~Meg