This is from distribution of NFI between the 15th to the 18th of February to Ivorian refugees in Liberia. Buckets included blankets, cups, soap and sanitary bags. They were distributed to 1500 households in six villages close to the Ivorian border in Nimba county, at least 70 % of which were headed by women. © CARE / ADRA. I thought it was a tomato. I was wrong. I was about to find out that the key ingredient of Liberian style chicken was seriously hot chillies.
As my nose stared running, my eyes watering and despite the 40 degree sweat I was already experiencing an additional turbo sweat, the waitress smiled at me and said "welcome to Liberia".
I am in Liberia for 3 weeks helping to write proposals to raise funds for CARE's Ivorian refugee response program.
I have now been in Liberia for a week, in the capital city Monrovia and now in Saclepea a town in Nimba county near the border with Côte d'Ivoire. Since the disputed elections in Côte d'Ivoire late last year over 39,000 Ivorian refugees have begun moving across the border into Liberia.
These people have begun moving in fear of what might happen if the elections are not resolved peacefully. At the moment they have been living with host communities but the numbers have now begun to overwhelm the food and water resources of these communities.
CARE, the Government of Liberia and other local and international agencies have are responding to the needs of refugees and host communities in Liberia.
This week CARE and its partner ADRA completed the distribution of hygiene kits to 1,500 refugee and host community households. Many of the people who have crossed the border came with what they could carry and so left a lot of their possessions behind.
The kits included soap, washing powder, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, buckets for water, combs and blankets.
CARE and ADRA are now planning to address the water and sanitation needs of 2,000 refugee and host community households by rehabilitating hand dug wells, constructing new wells to access safe drinking water and constructing latrines for people to use as toilets.
I was planning to go out to the host communities to see what conditions were like, but the roads out to the border regions are so bad that on returning from there the 4x4 I was to take needed a mechanic immediately.
The grinding gears, brakes and dented body work told me that it had been through a battering. Almost five hours to get there and the same to get back meant that it was not possible on this trip.
Today is Sunday and I can hear "this is the day that the lord has made" drifting over from the church down the road. I have been eating my meals at restaurant called the "The place to be". It appears to be a wise choice of name as it the only restaurant I have found in Saclepea, therefore literally the only place to be.
They do a selection of chicken, beef and fish dishes with rice and gravy or soup. I am yet to discover the difference between gravy and soup as they seem to have the same ingredients cooked in the same way, but the waiters are very clear its either gravy or soup, you choose.
Tomorrow I will make my way back to Monrovia with the knowledge that Liberian style chicken is not to be taken lightly and that it's better served with gravy than soup even though they are exactly the same.
Alan Thomlinson is a CARE Emergency Program Officer working in Liberia.
