Eventful Weekend in Foya

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  Foya, Liberia
Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Saturday, Buddy, Keeley and myself decided to go see more of the Liberian countryside again. This time we wanted to hike up this mountain near a town called Foya-tengia, about 45 minutes from the SP Sub-office. Hopefully this trip wasn't going to give us as many problems as the trip to Mt. Walagizi. The three of us started out and ended up only picking up one SP staff as we drove through the town, so only 4 to start.

When we arrived in Foya-tengia we met the local pastor that Buddy knew from working with the churches in that area, and he informed us that we needed to speak with the Town Chief to receive permission to climb the mountain. Along with the Town Chief came a number of other town officals (the district chiefs, representatives, pastors, etc.) who we explained the purpose of our visit to. They repeatedly asked WHY we would want to hike up to the top of the mountain

The interns of Foya

. Apparently it just isn't normal to them to just hike to the top for fun. After much discussion amongst the town officials it was decided that we needed to ask for permission from the town elders who lived over the hill in "old town" Foya-tengia. At this point, I too was asking myself WHY did we try this again? So, we walked over the next hill to Old Town and met with the town elders (the Mothers and Fathers of Foya-tengia), and after much more discussion (and without going into much detail) we were given their blessing to climb the mountain but an assigned delegation would go along with us. So, by the time we started our hike, we numbered 12 in all.

It turned out to be a great hike and the view and scenery at the top of the mountain was amazing. Hopefully we can go back there again some time. However I think we may be going back to Mt. Walagizi on Friday for a little camping trip.

Saturday night was also the going away/thank you party for myself and Keeley. Keeley (the Canadian intern) has been living in Foya since May 15th and is going home at the end of this week, so the staff decided to throw her a party. Since I'll be leaving Foya and going to work in Bopalu on September 6th, they decided to include me in the party as well instead of having another one in two weeks. It was a very nice and fun evening that consisted of speeches, sketches about Keeley and me, and a gowning ceremony where Keeley and I both received traditional African clothes.

That's about all for now. Just thought that I would share my eventful weekend with you all. Check out the pics, some of them are really good.

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me and Ben (my bossman)	Me and some of the staff	being gowned	Keeley being gowned
DJ Base	Before the party begins	Buddy on a rock	Hiking with the delegation
Buddy in the bush	An awesome place to hike!	Keeley with Foya-tengia in the background	Me on a rock
Bridge on the way to Foya-tengia	Random pic	The Mountain we hiked in Foya-tengia	Keeley getting her 2nd gown
An African Chief??	A member of our delegation	Hiking across the top	Great views!
Hiking to the top	Hiking to the top through the jungle	Pool of water on top of the mountain	Buddy and the delegation

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