Harper Real Estate

Since I moved into the new “Uptown” guesthouse I have not shared any images of my new Apartment.
Actually there is nothing great to be sharing about. To give you an impression: During heavy rainfall we will be provided a free indoor swimming pool Olympic size. Not to mention the kitchen sink thinking it is a pond with a cascade because the water cannot be drained.
Welcome to Harper where plumbers and “technicians” violating basic human rights by not doing their job ehhhh...... well paid job.

Currently my room is occupied by a colleague who is on a stand-by list to be “EVACUATED” to another place of his choice.
I was away for one month and he moved into the room (with my knowledge) until his renovation will be finished. You might have guessed that Real Estate in Liberia has not the same kind of entry point like the West. Of Europe of course.
In the meantime I am temporary accommodated across my room to be. My door handle is a suicide weapon unintentionally and cannot be locked from the inside. Security security!!!!!

I am not complaining only anxiously waiting to get unpacked.

Rainy day in Harper the weather is cool but damp a great day to walk around and to take photographs.
After a Saturday of depressive DVD’s (Alone in the dark, Home at the end of the world and Ocean’s 12) and ceiling staring until the ceiling almost lost its paint it’s time to take control of life.

Love to walk on a Sunday especially because everyone is going to church. Quiet and peaceful as a Sunday should be. Harper is a city that could be the decor of Savannah after the civil war. The structures are beautiful and even now it has been looted and destroyed but still you can discover a glimpse of the Souterhn Belle.

Gone with the wind. Some locations have stunning views on the ocean. If was George Weah I would open a hotel in Harper especially with the amount of international NGO and UNMIL employees.
It is not always romantic “Gone With The Wind” but more a reality check on structures. “ Gone with the walls, roof and other constructions that makes a house a house. Still you can rent these structures. For rent..... can you imagine the quality of real REAL ESTATE in Harper? It is hilarious and great for pictures.

Visited the Free Masons House and went all the way to the top overlooking Harper and Devils Point.
Remaining of a grandeur era is still breathing inside the structure. Greek pillars with Ionic and Doric decoration. A rich colourful mosaic still intact on the front wall decorated with Freemason equipment and the sun covering the whole length of the building.
The grandmaster room with a view on top of the building with four floors emphasizing the east, west, north and south. Illuminati atmosphere crossed my mind while looking over hazy Harper. Two long metal spikes with the Freemason symbols functioning as sun catchers on a sunny day.

Across from the Free Mason House is the house that used to be the home of President Tubman.
The interior used to be amazing. Marble winding staircases, fragments of late twenties hand printed wallpaper and heavy damaged wooden panels remaining of rich decorative walls.
The tiles in the kitchen are still intact and it looks even better than the ones in our guesthouse. A giant vault is situated in the cellar (it was dark and I was alone with some guys so did not go there) unopened. They think there might be some gold bars or other valuables inside waiting to be released from captivity. Until now no-one knows how to open, so like Indiana Jones!
A deck on top of this 3 stories high mansion overlooking Harper 360°. Stunning!!

Now it is the house of approximately 30 returnee families or maybe even more.

The Navy owns it.
I was sitting in this ruin overlooking the beach, bay, waves and the distant ocean.

It was a good day. I went home put on the music that I have been downloading on my I-Pod and started to do ceiling staring again but this time the paint did not came off.

Real Estate in Harper might be healing at times.

An Empty Ribbon

The Leatherback Turtle returns home for life significant reason or in this case a bereavement significant reason.

My journey home was paved with a deep intense sadness and it seems like every step only brings me further away from home.
Three days of travelling lasted like three years and every minute lasted like a never-ending hallway in a lost but never found.

That morning I received a phone call at my office desk in Harper. I was in the middle of preparing transportation to support road rehab.
Never entered my mind that the office is going to arrange my own transportation that same morning to the Netherlands.

My sister was on the other end of the line. Her voice already told me even before she could tell me. Imagine yourself in a quicksand sucking you down in a dark suffocating negative spiral and the sand closes down all the light above you. You try to breath, cry and control yourself all at the same time while the words handcuffed your fists of anger and strangles tight around your lungs pressing all the oxygen you have left to endure the moments ahead of you.
How cruel is life when you receive this message and realizing the distance between those you need and those who needs you.
How more cruelty can life bear when you have to deliver the message of mortality knowing it will cause an instant pain beyond ones imagination.

The impact of these simple words "zij is er niet meer”, (she's not there) rises above everything and covered your existence with a cloth of darkness. Darkness that will remain until .......... who knows when? Simple words put together in one sentence emphasizing an unthinkable future without her, my first of sisters.
Mortality revealed a hidden cruel dimension of the word PAIN and LOSS.

Travelled home, home where sadness and family were waiting together for my return.
Strong enough to travel and strong enough to fool myself thinking I’m strong enough to stop the rain from cascading down. Waterfalls of tears challenging my strength not to fall in pieces. Tears constantly raining inside my head hiding behind a facade of a soft summer breeze. Satanic dilemma between fiction and non-fiction.
In and out planes travelling light. People all around and yet isolated in grief.
Harper - Monrovia - Accra – Amsterdam - Vaassen. Destination reality!

When I left Harper a colleague told me to take courage. I took courage and spoke on her funeral on behalf of my family.
Amazed myself with the calmness of the same summer breeze that took me home.
In the speech I referred to the moment when I ordered the floral arrangement for her wooden carrier. Orchids were her favourite.
There were two ribbons attached to the floral arrangement. One ribbon with the inscription: “dari Adik-adik mu” from your younger siblings.
The other was empty. The florist asked if we want to inscribe some ordinairy tomb graffiti such as “Rest In Peace”.

None of that. The ribbon was too short and words were not enough to express our loss and above all our un-conditional love. Only the emptiness of the ribbon can emphasized the emptiness she left behind.