Germany

     This is a funny title for a blog from Liberia, but that is where I am.  I flew out of Monrovia last night and arrived at my brother's appartment in Berlin late this morning.  I left Tappita one week before that to work on a grant request for Heart to Heart.  There was a lot of work to do with a very short deadline.   After a lot of progress, we decided that we didn't have enough time to finish that part of the grant request so we concentrated on another funding line that was listed in the funding oportunity.  Once we called off my line, it was too close to my departure to go back to Tappita, so I flew directly out of Monrovia.

     Monrovia is a lot different than Tappita.  It is definately deep in the developing world but it also has lots of expats and non governmental organizations.  That lead the local economy to adapt and a bunch of resturants and hotels arose to meet the demand.  While there isn't much that would get an epicure excited, there is some variety and it is safe.  The hotel where I stayed was clean, had doorways that I didn't have to duck through and had toilets that flushed.  It may seem that my standards for hotels  aren't high, but it is so much better than we had in Tappita.  I was more isolated in Monrovia.  Yes, Julie or Brian was there, but not the people that I spent 5 months working with.  In Monrovia, much of the time was spent locked in my hotel room, away from distractions, writing or researching the grant request.  It felt a little like a golden prison.  But, it got the job done.  

     It will be interesting to see Berlin.  I haven't done anything here yet but take the subway with my brother's wife and put my bags down in their apartment.  We'll go out this evening when my brother finishes his classes.  Despite living in (West) Germany for over 4 years, I never visited Berlin.  I will spend a week here before flying to Dublin to meet Jo, Jan and Ric.  I still don't know how I will react emotionally.  I don't feel anything weird now but I did spend 5 months in a pretty weird place.  I remember when I flew out of Iraq in 2004.  The first place we landed was in Germany and I remember the contrast as pretty jarring.  We will see.

     There were so many other really odd things about Liberia.  With a little more free time now, I will continue to write and post.  Thanks for following along with me on this and keep all those in West Africa in prayer.