The Palaver Hut
The Palaver Hut
In our palaver hut we have a collection of emails, stories and memories.
return to Liberia 23 Cyber-Reunion home page
We received the following email in January 2003:
"Thanks to you and your Group 23 members and all other PCVs who served in the Republic of Liberia. One day, the Liberian Promise of "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" will be realized. The investment of time and effort and dedication to our people will not be in vain.
I enjoyed browsing your website. The pictures and information of a happy past crystallize my commitment for a restored Liberia."
"Dolostown is about one mile from Roberts Field and one mile from Harbel, where Firestone workers lived. We walked through the rubber trees to get to the market. A fascinating experience was to walk through that forest during the two week dry spell in the rainy season, I think it was in July. The pods with seeds on the trees would pop! It was like having popcorn made all around you, not that I could see the pods or seeds falling but you would hear this pop, pop, pop sounds all around you for a few days or a week." Earl
After Sheila had incorrectly sent an email saying we arrived in Liberia on January 4, Frank sent the following:
Funny, I recall that we departed on New Year's Day ( I recall that, because Stanford was playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and it took more than two weeks to find out who prevailed), partially because, once we arrived, the Kucijs commandeered a bus that had a flat, then commandeered the married couples room at the hotel (the one with no screens, no A/C, and seven cots), and later, that same night, in a ballet scene, crushed through the toilet seat cover. So I would set the arrival time as Jan. 2 at Robertsfield and downtown Monrovia.
In the small world department (Part 1)
From Tom: Our daughter, Cari who lives in Montana, was in a meeting dealing with Americorps and Volunteer Montana and struck up a conversation with a young man who happened to be John's son, Josh. We moved into John and Jean's place in Monrovia for our third PC year.
From John: Our oldest son , Joshua, now twenty-six, surprised us by announcing he was joining the Peace Corps. He spent two years in Latvia as a school teacher. The way we got in touch with Tom was through Joshua who met his daughter and found out that her parents had been in Liberia.
In the small world department (Part 2)
From Tom (Sept. 2002):
A second generation of our family is a PCV. Lori, our youngest daughter is in Morocco. She is a conservation management volunteer assigned to a village of 200 people that is located in a National Park in the NE Atlas Mountains. She started her in-country training in February 02 and has been a PCV since April 02.
From Mike (Jan. 2003):
Though I've been following your e-mails the last couple of years I've never written in but this is too much of a coincidence to pass up without comment. That there should be PCV's in the next generation from us is not remarkable, but that they'd be in the same country at the same time is stacking up the coincidences. My daughter Susan is now a PCV in Morocco, having arrived in August and sworn in in October. Susan will be at some kind of regional or group in-service soon and she said she'll try to find out where Lori is and eventually contact her. Small world.
Do you remember these Monrovia restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas?
Rosaline's Restaurant on Carey Street has a selection of 6 to 8 main dishes - all authentically Liberian - for $1.50 each. Rosaline, a warm woman with a shy smile, has managed the restaurant through 10 years of mushrooming popularity. Other restaurants serving local specialties are: Liberian Jungle on Bushrod Island, Rebecca's on Mechlin Street and Ciatta's Restaurant on Centre Street.
For atmosphere and Swiss food, there is Oscar's Chalet next to the Coconut Grove bowling alley at the southern end of Randall Street.
The Château du Bois (on Gurley Street) is Lebanese-owned and has a Continental menu (snails or smoked eel, $2.50), in a supersmooth, air-conditioned atmosphere.
The Atlantic Grill (on Carey Street) offers a tasty lobster thermidor in a Bavarian decor.
Julia Restaurant (on Gurley Street) is a steady favorite, and noted for its pepper steak.
The Italian restaurant is Salvatore's on Benson Street.
American food is served at the Sinkor Supermarket Restaurant, which is a family-style greasy spoon.
Diana's Restaurant (on Broad Street) has high-class hamburgers.
Other restaurants and coffee shops: the Chicken Basket (Union Bank Building on Broad Street), Heinz and Maria (a German-style bakery and tearoom), and Maxim's (on Gurley Street, Lebanese food) The rooftop restaurant at the Ducor Inter-Continental hotel has a buffet at lunchtime that is popular with the city's high-powered international crowd.
The bar area is around Broad and Gurley streets. The California is a respectable bar that was formerly owned by a Spanish woman, and now by a bearded Americo-Liberian with a cool St. Mark's Place accent. Others are the Black and White and the Saloon. For dancing (highlife), the nightclub at the Carlton Hotel is popular; also Ruby's Inn Night Club in Congo Town near St. Joseph's Hospital. There are weekend fetes at Bernard's Beach and Kojenta's Inn in Paynesville.
Vicarious thrills are purveyed by the cities cinemas, among them: Roxy, Centennial, Crown Hill, Gavriel, Rivoli, Sheila, Bushrod Island and Relda.
Taken from Bright Continent: A Shoestring Guide to Sub-Saharan Africa by Susan Blumenthal, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1974.
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