While I may not be in Liberia - I do have posts that I am remiss in filing.
A few days before I left for the states, Mamie and her children moved into a new apartment not far from our compound.
Mamie asked if we would come visit, if you know us - you only have to ask once and we will be at your doorstep. The day before I left home to return to the US we stopped by to visit Mamie, give her a hug and say a prayer for her new home.
Vamsi and I brought whole chicken, a stock of juice boxes (one of Mamie's favorites) and candy for the children as gifts. I also brought along a plush bear with a tag that read "Michael."
Mamie welcomed us into her home via the a long corridor/alley that sits hidden between two buildings on Randall St - a street we frequently walk along to shop (somehow we missed taking a photo). This slim alley was a bustling thoroughfare of those coming and going from a hidden community tucked away behind the bustle of the city streets - a world-within-a-world. Maybe not the prettiest place on the planet, but certainly one of the most magical locales I have ever stepped foot.
Once you left the high-walled entrance and entered this bustling community - the air changed. Somehow quieter, cleaner, simpler, safer, comforting, and in a sense normal. Of course this was not the end of the journey. Mamie then took us through the maze of mish-moshed miss matched tattered "apartments" and cement "huts" over tumbled walls, past sleeping children, through a variety of drying laundry lines until we arrived at her apartment.
This small three room cement niche, was flanked by a GIANT iron door that shut them in at night, knowing that they can rest secured with no way in except small windows.
Unfortunately, electricity to this area is limited and Mamie was still circumventing the variety of bribes and bureaucracy it takes to get current - but never mind, her family (three of her own children and two of her brother's children) is safe and has a quiet place to call home.
Needless to say, out of all the things we brought, Mamie loved the bear, I asked her to read the tag which took some assistance, and to say that she was ELATED is an understatement. She carried us (and the bear) back Randall St. and stood and watched us leave and when I turned around she was waving the bear's paw good-bye. It struck me just then that I was leaving home the next day - and I cried the whole way back to House #12.
Nearly three weeks since I left Liberia, I thought I could write this post without crying - I should have known better.
