Turbulence

So, as I think anyone still checking this blog knows, I’ve made some pretty substantial life changes in the past few months. Some of those changes I won’t be talking about here (email me directly if you want more details), but some I will – most notably, the fact that I’ve decided to come back to Liberia for another nine months.

Sunrise over Abidjan, Ivory Coast on my flight into Accra

I’ll be working in the same Ministry where I spent the summer, though on a different project. My new work will involve helping put together part of the new 20 year growth plan for Liberia. I started back here on Friday, so still don’t quite have my feet under me yet. More to come on the work part as it sorts itself out.

In my newly single incarnation, I’ve got a one-bedroom apartment and will be living alone for the first time. My place is in Sinkor, an expat heavy neighborhood with a lot of great restaurants and adjacent to the Capitol Hill area where the Ministry is located. I was ready to sign on when I saw the faux-wood flooring (I’m actually serious about this. I think most tile is depressing and way too Florida, and this is the only building I’ve seen without tile flooring everywhere.), but the sunlight and views really sold me. The place is about half a block from the Indian restaurant in town and two doors down from a great fruit/veg stand and small grocery store. Below are a few before pictures - once I get myself some new lapa and decorating inspiration I'll put up some after pictures.

The living room and kitchen (door to the balcony is to the right of the loveseat)

Kitchen/dining room

 Bedroom, which is actually quite large, though covered well by the world's largest bed

View from my balcony. The building in the background is main compound for UNMIL, the UN Mission in Liberia. My ministry is just behind that. The University of Liberia is to the right of the UNMIL building.

Blogger is now forbidding further photo uploads for this post, so this will have to do for now. After the first photo took forever to load, I started experimenting with compressed photo files to speed things up. Please let me know if they're too grainy or difficult to load for some reason.