Sushi's and Sparkling Champagne

On wednesday it's Sayonara Harper.

Besides the "FUN" of preparation and presentation of Field Office Harper Community Empowerment Projects 2204/2005 in BO Monrovia the other additional Fun will be: " Sunday Brunch at the Royal or at the Mamba Point Hotel". I can not explain but it feels like walking around in the desert with miles of the unknown and finally meet your "FATA MORGANA" for real. DRAMA QUEEN maybe but those of you who have experienced the Jakarta Sunday Brunches SAY MY NAME!

Miss my Sunday Brunches at the Intercontinental Jakarta and the Mulia at Senayan. Sunday Brunch was the Occasion of the Sunday. The food was superb and the diversity of choices was fresh and ex cuise.
A starter as always Sushi, Fusion rolls, Oysters with a dash of freshly squeezed lime and the variety of Salmon. Main course a Fresh Salad, Pasta, Roast Beef grilled just the way you like it with a rich Dijon Mustard sauce. Bread, Foreign Delicate Fromages and Chocolate Desserts and more at the end. Sunday Brunch became a tradition we couldn't resist and why should you if you had the choice between a Rolls and an Eastern-European car before the Berlin Wall was taken down. No arguments.

Making reservations for a Sunday Brunch was much more easier than queuing at Mc-Supersize-D. Even the hotel reservation staff recognized our voice over the telephone and the deal was made and a table was always available.

Our, me and my Dutch now UNMIL but previously UNICEF Jakarta staff "partner in crime" also currently working in Liberia (small world), our promotion campagne for Champagne was in-famous and notorious.

Once the restaurant thought that we were "not on speaking terms" since we made our reservations separately for the same Sunday. They expressed their sincere concern and asked why the separation for the Sunday Brunch. That Sunday we joint our party’s and made a reservation with 25 friends and their friends friends and confiscated the largest tables with the sofa's under the mirrored walls.

Not only the food but also the free flow sparkling champagne was very extreme highly appreciated by us regular clientele. Can you imagine free sparkling bubbles from 11.30 am to 3pm and one time even until 10pm (with additional costs of course) because of the cozy atmosphere; in-depth conversations and other heart to heart liaisons were too much fun to waste.

Some one told me once that: “Time is not wasted when you're wasted all the time". We were always allowed by the gérant to have a peek in the stock of the Sunday Brunch's quota. The waiters had at least two extra bottles after Brunch Hours available for our party. I tell you...... the staff in the InterCon already knew us and provided us with all the égards and assistance. We were regulars. In Holland we say: KIND AAN HUIS.

At the Mulia Hotel in Jakarta it's even crazier, B52's and the amazing CHOCLATINI's. Free chocolate martini's (shaken not stirred) with a chocolate ring on the glass. SWEETTT........... All you can drink is actually all you can absorb some people even imagined them selves as sponges and absorbe, absorbe and absorbe. We had some hilarious encounters with choclatini's and B52's. Sunday Brunch in Jakarta (miss my city and my apartment).

Present time in Monrovia/Liberia the Sunday Brunch is small- small. Every week you can try the Lebanese, Chinese or Indian Sunday Brunch cuisine at the Mamba Point Hotel. The Royal is more general in their Sunday Brunch display. But Free flow..........Ice Lemon Tea and fresh fruit juice from a carton. All you can drink does not have the same point of entry like Free Flow Champagne in Jakarta. The venue for the Royal Hotel Sunday Brunch is named after Elvis Presley's crooner "Heart Break Hotel". Yep....Hartbreaking it is but for Liberian Sunday Brunch Standards its better than nothing. Good to know about the wireless internet connection that is available in both venue's.

Close to the Royal they just opened a Sushi resto. Yes, Liberia has it's own first official Sushi Resto. Might as well drop by and check out the raw fish and bubbly "Beluga" eggs next weekend.

Life will never be the same after you experienced Sushi and Sparkling Champagne in Jakarta.

Pictures used for this article are from INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL JAKARTA, thank you guys for regular sending me invitations to attend your cuisine, cigar and wine activities and torture me with this bitter sweet.

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Clear as Mud

The morning of departure to Harper started at 8am. Leaving early means n'sync with the finals of the African Cup of Nations. Wishful thinking.

The first part we managed to pass after the truck was pushed away by a shovel. Our drivers assessed the situation and decided to move on. We saw, we took and we conquered. It was a muddy piece of cake.

The second part was destructive between Karloken and Pleebo, two of our three cars (mine included) got stuck and was sucked into the mud. No movement at all, the wheel kept on spinning, you can smell the burned rubber. In a fancy Spa customers pay a lot of money to be covered by mud. In Liberia being stuck in the mud for more than 2 hours is not the kind of mud treatment I like to pay for.

The road conditions covered our African Cup of Nations plans with MUD.

I was held "hostage" for 2 hours (okay I had AC, music, my Mac and enough food for another 4 hours) before a piece of timber released me from my comfortable air-conditioned "prison cell". A carpenter was passing by with a piece of timber. I persuade him to use the timber to bridge the distance from the car to the dry side of the road. Everybody advised me not to do it, the combination of me and the timber doesn't look too sturdy according to them, but there is no way I'm going to risk my white trousers in that mud. Just love my trousers too much. Indiana Jones eat your heart out, It was shaky but managed to cross.

We had to walk for another half an hour to pass another bad spot before getting rescued by another UNHCR and an UNMIL car (MOSS compliance). People are people and the creative ones use other people's "misery" to create income generating activities. Some women started a basic kitchen camp along the side of the road selling food to people who are stranded because of the horrific road conditions. If the road conditions are not improving in coming weeks than a whole new village will be established on that spot. Just mark my words!

We waited for our rescue vehicles in a nearby village. A woman hosted us in her front yard under the cool shade of a tree. I took some pictures of her kids in the backyard while they were preparing food. Bought the woman's home made fried banana chips and distributed among her children. News travels fast and in no-time other children came and there I was doing "small-small food-distribution" to cute little kids. So sweet!!

In the meantime the African Cup of Nations already started, we followed the game over the radio. I closed my eyes and took a nap. My colleagues woke me up when the rescue team came; I continued my nap in the vehicle.

We arrived in Harper in the dark. Egypt won the Cup of Nations and my co-stranded UNMIL colleague lost the bet, he owes me beer.

Glad to be home............

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Fish Town, a town without fish

Currently I am in River Gee on Mission for 5 days and lodged in the UNMIL compound in Fish Town. The Ethiopian Battalion, the Peace Keeping Force in River Gee, is co-sharing and guarding the UNMIL compound. The main recreational activities inside the compound is TV (the Africa Cup and African equivalent of the Bold and the Beautiful), domino and cigarettes. I participate in those three activities. They don't understand me and I don't understand them it's hilarious.

Tomorrow is the African Nations Cup finals: Ivory Coast against host country Egypt.

My lodging of the past five days is an administration office during the day and my sleeping quarters during the night. It is an air-conditioned UN container with the luxury of water and sanitation facility next to the copy machine and the printer. Conditions in the field are not the most comfortable one can imagine. "My container" is a four star hotel compared to what my colleagues are going through every night without AC and with the unsolicited company of the Mosquito Battalion. My host, a 31 year Liberian assistant-administrator, always prepares food for me when I arrive at the compound after a long and a kind of "Paris -Dakar" ride in the districts. We eat together, talk and work on the computer and then around 10 at night he unfolds my military camp bed and goes to the container next door (which is the conference room) where he will spent the night because of curfew.

Every morning I have to pack up my gear because office starts at 8.30 and change my sleeping quarter into an office again. It feels like every morning doing the BBC lifestyle program “Changing Rooms" without the fun and the creative input of the metro sexual interior decorator.

Food in Fish Town / River Gee hmmm........... is not easy if BUSHMEAT (that's how Liberians named the call of the wild) is on the menu. I will not explain in too much detail. Just make up your own mind. I can only say: "Thank God for noodles and crackers".

Field work means, apart from BUSH MEAT, leaving early and in this mission in particular visiting communities in remote areas of the county, identify gaps in basic needs and update the district profile according to several sectors.
This in preparation of a community based recovery program for Liberia in order to accommodate returnees from outside Liberia and to support the communities in their journey to rehabilitation.

Today I went to a remote district named Tienpo. In the whole district only two villages out of the twenty-one can be reached by road. We went on until the road stopped and a village began.
We were invited in a hut and started to explain the objectives of our visit. This time I didn't have to participate in the ceremonial welcome of a new guest. The local rule is before you talk you have to take part in the cola nut ceremony. A refusal might obstruct the course of the meeting. Every new guest in a village supposed to eat a raw cola nut (very bitter), drink water (from an unprotected water source) that symbolize the breast milk of mother earth and a piece of pepper. In some ceremonies a local fermented cassava juice or palm wine will be shared from one glass. In a meeting with 20 men and women this glass will be passed on and as the new guest you can be considered lucky because you will have the first drink. In the past days I have taken part in a few of those ceremonies.

The meeting went well and we were able to compile the data as accurate as possible. I was escorted by some village men to my vehicle, one of them an elderly was holding my hand all the way to our and constantly telling me how grateful he was for my visit because not often people take the time to come and visit their village.
Although I emphasized that my visit is not a guarantee for the establishment of basic facilities he kept on expressing his gratitude.

War is destructive and in communities like in Tienpo the trauma of loss is high and visible. It is not only the loss of personal belongings but also loss in development participation.

Today was my last day in River Gee, mission completed. Fish Town a town without fish.

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The Leatherback Turtle

Dermochelys Coriacea, the latin name for the Leatherback Turtle, has a very special meaning for me. Like any other turtle the Leatherback Turtle carries its house where ever it goes. It provides shelter and protection on its journey.

To me living and working in three different continents of this globe, changing places because of work is like carrying your house every time you change your step along your Journey of Life. Like the female Leatherback Turtle, but for totally different reasons for sure, I want to keep in touch with my "mainland" which is my family and friends and significant others.

Another reason is a journey I did with my parents, my father is from Ohoira and my Mother is from Warbal, in 1976 where I was ceremonial introduced to their kampongs (villages) and traditions on Kai Islands in the beautiful South-East of the Mollucas, Indonesia.

In the Local Story Telling Tradition and Customary Law the Leatherback Turtle takes a significant role. The search of the Leatherback Turtle is illustrated with short stories in a beautiful tale about the Journey of a Traditional Fisherman.
It became an unforgettable experience when my parents took me to the places that were linked to this magical tale and even more alive when I encountered my first and only Leatherback Turtles on beach of Ohoira-Ohoiren.

Understanding the Customary Law and Traditions is the key towards an effective conservation of the Leatherback Turtle in the Kai Islands. If we can protect the Journey of the Leatherback Turtle we also protect our Cultural Heritage from disappearing.

This site will reflects my journey and will allow you to travel with me.

Image of the Leatherback Turtle used for this article is not under copyrights of OHOIRA PRODUCTIONS ©

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