HELP LIBERIA FOUNDATION

AFRICAN PEPPER Part II

Posted by Help Liberia Foundation on April 01, 2011

People

The Liberians are very open, friendly and often with a positive attitude to life. Some of the most distinct characteristics of the Liberians is their unusual initiative, perseverance and ability to work really hard.

Quite often they have to work in very hard conditions having no modern tools, using onle the strength of their hands, for disproportionately low salaries.
Common Liberians leed rather poor existence, however, they are used to sharing anything they have with other members of the family, they have hope for a better future. People wear nice clothes, especially women hurrying to church on Sunday mornings. Wearing their colourful lapas (traditional African dresses), they make fantastic impression.

Ice-cream vendor.

Education

Children go to school willingly, provided their parents can afford to pay the school fee. A great number of children and youths do not go to school for various reasons, including the lack of money, poor parents’ control, too long way to school, taking care of the younger siblings or earning money. Most schools on the outskirts of towns have small classes, there are lack of desks and chairs and other teaching materials.

Liberian Kids.

Flora and beaches

The Liberian flora shocks with its colours, rich greenness of plants and rich colours of flowers create an unusual atmosphere. It’s not difficult to guess, that the most imposing plants are palms. Some of them are really huge, especially the ones on the beaches. They are not only beautiful, but also protect from the sun and you can spend some lazy time under them. The beaches here are a great tuouristic potential which is, unfortunately, hardly used.

The palms.

Music

Music In Liberia can be Heard everywhere. It is rhythmic, original and makes you feel like dancing. The natives have always been bound up with music and they are pretty good dancers.

Liberian food

The native cuisine is very tasty. Spicy dishes dominate, with strong pepper, fresh or dry, crushed in a special mortar.
One of the traditional West-African dishes is FU-FU. It is cooked cassava (it looks like a big noodle made from very small grains) with sauce and pieces of meat or fish. The dish is spicy, seasoned with fried sesame and other flavourings. FU-FU is very tasty and, what’s interesting, we don’t chew the pieces of cassava, but swallow them
My favourite dish was cooked fruit of plantin (a kind of banana) with butter, green potatos, rice served with meat-fish sauce and minced green leaves tasting like spinach. Gorgeous!

Fu-fu.

Other photos from Liberia:

Local barber.

Poor women’s segregating coal.

Flowering plant.

The one of beach in Buchanan.

Flora.

Girl’s pounding a palm fruits in a mortar.

By Justyna Maciuszek.