All in a day's work

Last week Louis  ( our driver / security guard / production assistant / fixer)  introduced us to his friend Donetta, a radio journalist over at Truth FM Radio 96.1. We explained the project, and  she agreed to come on board.  Last year she produced a radio and TV show about sex workers and offered to make the arrangements for us to talk to some for this film.

I'm just going to back up a minute here and state the obvious. We stand out here, alot.  So there is absolutely no way that we could just walk up to some street girls and ask to talk to them. Without Donetta and Louis, getting these things done would be impossible.   Its not a safety issue, but more an issue of a class and race.  Not only are we white, we are "journalists" . Some people assume that if we take video or pictures of them that we are making money off the images. Understanding this dynamic and also the extreme poverty here, we decided the least we could do is compensate people for their stories.

Many reporters may balk at this stance, but once the barriers come down and we start talking to people its impossible to do nothing at all.  Most of  the foreigners here travel by car and live fairly well off  in walled off compounds; between which many Liberians have constructed sprawling webs of shacks.  Don't get me wrong there is a Liberian middle class, although small. Like in any city, some neighborhoods are better than others.  But the unemployment rate is an estimated 70-80%, with majority of people living on less than $1 a day.

 Donetta  introduced us to two girls from the neighborhood around the radio station.
They agreed to talk to us but didn't want to do it at their homes, frankly because we are white. We paid the security guards at the legislative hall $10 USD to interview them inside.  This was the first of many payoffs we would make as the day went on.

Both girls are in their early 20's. Both have completed high school. Considering the dropout rate is about 80%, this is a feat in and of itself. They got into prostitution simply because after graduation they did not know anyone that could get them a job. In Liberia to get anything done, you need to know someone. There is also a huge problem of teachers soliciting sex and other favors for grades in school. When asked about this, one of the girls admitted dating her principal throughout high school.  He is now one of her johns.

These girls were in the mid range for sex workers, often meeting men in clubs, giving them their phone numbers and meeting up later. On average they sleep with 3-5 men per day for anywhere from 200-250 LD a pop ( around $3.50 USD).  This is definitely on the higher end of the scale.

Both have family live close by that no idea what they are doing.  Even if they did know, its not like there is some sort of social program to get them off the streets. We asked if they wanted to say anything to the world at large and the response was a plea for help, for a job, for any opportunity to get them out of this life. One girl is hooking to hopefully save enough money to go to college but college is a long way off when your world consists of living meal to meal.

These are bright ambitious young women,  not the kind one would expect to find prostituting on the street. Donetta thought both of them were working proper jobs until  she began asking around for people willing to talk to us about their lives as sex workers. One of the girls took us to see her home, which was a room in a shack down in one of the slums between compounds. The last photo is taken inside her bedroom.

 

  

 

"Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don’t."

Today the plan was for Nika and I to escort O's mom B to Todi, the village in the bush where she grew up. Also the place where O was abused as a kid. B has been ostracized from this community. When she finally took O to the hospital (after 4 years, mind you) her husband left her for another woman. But more on this later.

Nika and I went to JFK yesterday afternoon to talk to B and make some plans for this morning's outing. The nurse Emma was planning to join us, as well as our wonderful driver-guard-production assistant Louis. We walk in and Emma says we can't go. There's a problem. She and B start explaining it, and honestly, as good as Nika and I are at understanding Liberian English, we had no clue what she was talking about. A problem? Something outside the house? Something about a dog? A rabid dog maybe? She kept using the word devil.

And yes, she was talking about the devil.

We couldn't go to Todi because the devil was going to be there. And this is not something to mess with. They were worried about our safety because when the devil is there, "anything can happen." We must wait for him to leave. I've done some reading since that conversation and now have a handle on what's going on, and it's no joke.


Western Africa, and Liberia in particular, are very well known for "secret societies." The male society is Poro, the female Sande. Little is known about the societies because the punishment for telling outsiders about them is death. These societies are based in animist belief, and the leader is a powerful Shaman, otherwise called "the Devil." When rituals and initiations are performed it is believed that the leader transforms into various spirits, wearing masks and doing tribal dances. Sacrifices are common place. (I read one account of a man being asked to sacrifice his biological mother as the initiation rite) When the Poro engage in a ceremony, all who are not members must hide or risk death. Non members are not allowed to see "the devil" at any cost. The devil can be in town for days, weeks, or years. No one knows.

So in our case, because it was the Poro doing their thing in Todi, all women would be forced into hiding in their homes for who knows how long. If we accidentally witnessed the rituals, really bad things could happen to us. Plus, as white foreigners, we would be in even more danger if we so much as snuck a glimpse of the devil (and they know how much we love our cameras). Also consider that Louis would have to either hide with us, or be initiated (which could take days, months, or years)...unless he is already a Poro member (he claims he is not).

We are bummed, I admit. But not stupid. People are regularly sacrificed. Even the UN officials we spoke with said a major roadblock in implementing programs here are the secret societies. It is believed that well over half the population are members, and most powerful political figures are known members - Charles Taylor being the most famous.

Too bad. We will have to wait for the devil to leave town. But all is not lost. We are going to shoot interviews in the large cemetery in Monrovia. The cemetery where people live...in the tombs. They push out the bones and make a residence. It's the bottom of the barrel. The place where slum kids end up when even the slums won't take them.

Think about that for a second. You think your life is tough? Imagine being so poor, so forgotten, so helpless that your only choice is to live in a tomb. Cheers.

Thats all fine but when are we getting roads?

After the police station we went to meet with Madhumita Sarkar, the Joint GBV Programme Manager for the UN and government.  She sits at the ministry of gender helping to implement and coordinate the GBV plan of action and manage the task force comprised of UN agencies, government agencies, INGOS and LNGOS. There are some women you meet that are inspiring no matter what they are doing and Madhumita is one of them. Once again waiting for approval, but hopefully she will be included officially in the project as well. Talking easy. Getting people to agree to be on camera, not so easy.

 Lofty ideas about gender equality and preventing violence are useless without roads to connect people, proper buildings to house them, electricity for a communication network, and the human resources with enough training and education to run things. These are the daily challenges Madhumita and the task force face in an attempt to piece together a sensitized police, judicial, medical, and social policy to elevate the women and protect the children of LIberia.

The GBV plan of action is good. It makes common practical sense. I read all 200 hundred pages or so of it. But its underfunded and requires all of the above components to make it work, which LIberia does not have yet.

But Liberia can have these things. It has passed the critical post conflict period and is now beginning the recovery phase which is when the most investment is needed to stabilize the country. If infrastructure is implemented and investment comes through the combination of aid AND economic opportunity, Liberia could begin to get off its knees and start walking. The challenge is that the beginning of the recovery period is when a lot of NGO's begin to implement their exit strategies leaving gaping holes in services and infrastructure. Thankfully those we have spoke to are confident that the UN mandate will be extended at least until 2012. But is that realistically long enough?

At first glance and on the ground dealing with sexual and gender violence  it seems like very little is being done.  Yes the police are corrput, the courts dont quite work yet. But lets step back a minute, there are police! There are courts! There is policy! Half empty or half full?

The Party Line

Spent the Morning interviewing the Asst. Commissioner of Police, Bennetta Holder warner who is also head of the WACPS ( Women and Children's Protection Section)She graciously gave us a lot of information on the process and the challenges she faces in processing on average 200-250 cases of GBV a month (this includes, domestic violence. rape, child trafficking etc) She is pictured here after the interview as well as some of the posters and materials used in recent awareness campaigns. While they are doing the best with what they have she explained candidly off camera that currently her unit is like a baby at the breast of the UN.

We're Official

Got press credentials from the UN, which even though we probably will never use them, made us feel pretty special.  See below!

a simple twist of fate

In January 2009 I met another little girl we'll call "C." C was in the same ward as O at JFK Hospital when I met her. She was curled up in a ball, in shock, not talking to anyone. I found out that she too was there because of sexual abuse. It had been going on for years, her family didn't believe her, and it was someone close to them who C says did it. She didn't have the extreme physical damage O has, but the emotional damage was obvious.

C and O became quick friends, and C really warmed up to all of us. She's a sweet girl under all that pain. She was all smiles, even despite that fact that the accused man came to the hospital twice, threatening to kill her if she talks.

One day in January I went upstairs to see them both and C was gone. She had been sent to a "safe house." Her stay at JFK was over and we never got to say goodbye. There are a few of these houses around, in unknown locations, where little girls get sent particularly if the perpetrator is threatening them.

Obviously I have kept tabs on O since January. I knew exactly where she'd be when Nika and I got here. But I never thought for a second that I'd see C again.

Flash forward to today, August 27.

Nika and I went to a meeting with some safe house women, on referral from MSF. We had always planned to get to one, but didn't know who to contact.
Sitting there, doing our normal pitch yet again, I mention "a little girl in JFK" and start to explain O's case...I am immediately interrupted by the program director with "Yes, you must mean O! She and her mom B were living here for awhile this past spring."

I was shocked. I had no idea that O had spent time at a safe house recently, let alone this very one.

As the conversation went on something occurred to me, and I asked about C. Well, not only was this the safe house C went to, but she was still there! 8 months later. Can you imagine?

They explained that she's a special case to them and they let her stay as long as she wants. Her family never returned to get her, basically abandoning her. I was overcome with joy that I would actually be seeing C again, and utter sadness that this little girl was abandoned. Apparently the man who abused her was still in the community and her family doesn't want the liability of having her around.

Sooo, the good news: We will be hanging out with C (and the other safe house girls) next week. The bad news: Not only must this little girl endure what was done to her, but her family left her behind. Luckily her new "family" at the home love her very much.

Hospitals and Expat Movie Night

Been a while since we've update so Im going to back the summary up to Tuesday.
Or first stop tuesday morning was the Benson clinic run by MSF ( Doctors without Borders). There are two MSF hospitals in Liberia, Benson and Island hospital.
They are the only FREE hospitals in the entire country. We met first with the hospital director of Benson Clinic. She gave us a very practical rundown of the situation on the ground regarding sexual violence against children. She then gave us a tour from the maternity ward to the ICU. Benson is a pediatric hospital which at this point only takes critical patients. Many of the children were there because of complications from Malaria, malnutrition, tetanus and burns, things that in the west do not fall under the category of emergency or critical care. Since most cooking is done on the ground level here many children, especially toddlers stumble and fall into boiling water often times ending up covered in severe burns.

From there we went to THINK, a local NGO offering counseling and support services to victims of SV. Support services for survivors were originally run out of the Benson Clinic but turned over the the local NGO about a year or so ago. More on THINK in future posts.

Then it was on to Island hospital, also run by MSF which has the only free 24 hour SV clinic in the country. We spoke with the director there but were not given access to the facility or permission to quote him, which is unfortnate because it was really informative. Hopefully we will receive permission from MSF to speak with both facilities officially for the project. Rightly so MSF is incredibly protective about media access and the work they are doing, which I might add saves lives against unimaginable odds.

A couple of expats that we met at Benson invited us to movie night, which I learned after the film has been nicknamed "genocide tuesdays". We watched Shooting Dogs, a fictional film about the Rwandan genocide. It was really surreal and awkward to sit with a bunch of europeans in a cafe in Liberia (which is still very much a "post conflict society") and watch a film about Rwanda; especially considering President Sirleaf has banned certain documentary films from being officially ( you can get really good bootleg DVDs) shown in LIberia because its too soon after the conflict. I offered to copy off some of the movies on my hard drive for next weeks screenings.

Film is a sanitary experience no matter how tough or violent the subject matter is. You cant smell the Urine everywhere, or taste the exhaust fumes in your mouth, or dodge the sewage you see on the screen. There is only intellectual empathy and not an emotional connection to what you are witnessing. Working with O and her mom there really is no way that we cannot be involved to some level or degree, to offer some help in exchange for their time.

Most fictional films we see about Africa involve war and large groups of men running around killing one another which is doing nothing to end stereotyping at all. Truth be that Africa is so much more than war,poverty, and suffering. Things are hard, but there is a hope a determination that equally matches the apathy I encounter everyday at home.

You give to get.

In the month leading up to the trip here Arizona was in the news because 4 Liberian boys gang raped a little girl. It was all over CNN, and many people immediately referenced this story to me when they heard about our trip/film.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/07/29/liberia.sex.crimes/index.html?iref=newssearch

But today we found ourselves in a very similar situation, on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Liberian friends, newspapers in hand, asking "Did you hear about the American UN guy?"

http://www.newdemocratnews.com/story.php?record_id=1522&sub=14

He committed suicide after being exposed as a child pornography ring leader, among other things. The headline reads in giant bold letters "SUICIDE IN SEX RING."

Prior to this, Nika and I spent all day in meetings. We talked to a reporter about the rampant "give to get" mentality here. Young girls, as sex workers, with their bodies as the absolute only way to put food in their families mouths. Many mothers not only know about their daughters prostitution, but they send them out to do it. With no education, no skills, and frankly no other chance...these girls have only their bodies as value.

In addition, it's just as big a problem in the schools. Girls here are routinely made to give "favors" to pass classes, get a good grade, or avoid detention. Same for jobs. Liberian girls often pass job interviews but then have to give "favors" to actually get the position. Same for trials. Same for police help. Same for money to survive. Same for...you get the idea.

You can imagine the sinking feeling in my stomach when I heard a US man, here to represent peace, had been accused of perpetuating these very issues.

To do these things, after living here and seeing this around him day after day, is sickening. He killed himself, and rightfully so, if he really did commit those crimes.
This is a country where most girls make the choice: sell body or starve to death.

Yesterday, our securityguard/driver Louis said something I hadn't considered. He said that Liberia will never be ok again, never flourish, unless it is not run by Liberians. He feels that only an international ruler and government will fix this country. I'm not sure that he's wrong, but I'm also not sure that international forces are any better. Today's headlines are case in point.

Flag Day

Today was our first "real" day of production. We got up this morning and broke O and her mom out of the hospital for a trip to their apartment and to the beach. We showed up in normal clothes and not scrubs so there was a little opposition to us filming, but I used my charm and was still got a great shot of O and leaving the hospital. I think she was really excited to go out for a few hours. Their apartment is about a 40 min drive from the city proper. The main roads have been reconditioned over the last year, but a good part of the day was spent avoiding small pond size puddles on dirt roads. Although the roads were no where near as bad as I was expecting, the way people have been talking about them over the last few days. O got to see some of her friends in the neighborhood and her mom picked some corn to take back with her to sell in Monrovia.

We then went to Golden Beach, an expat restaurant, hung out had some lunch and played in the sand. The beaches here are quite nice, although the Undertow is really strong this time of year so no swimming.

We had a long discussion with B about the project , to let her know that we are hoping to show the film in Liberia but will protect O's identity at all costs. I wanted to make sure that there is really informed consent about being central characters in a film about Violence against women, since the topic is such a sensitive one particularly for survivors. We need to be very careful to not do anything that will make O stand out any more than she does as she grows up here.Its already really hard for her and her mom because she is sick all the time.

There is a chance we may still be here for the birth of O's little brother or sister, which would be really exciting. I also began my introductory lessens in Pele this afternoon! From there we drove all the way cross town to Lower Virginia for afternoon lunch at our Liberian friends house. It was really good! Crab beef and crawfish in palm oil with spices over rice. Cassava and Yucca are the same thing which makes me really happy cause I love Yucca. Her house was beautiful and really quiet, even with all of the family, 15 dogs and 6 cats. Since it's the rainy season everything is just really lush and green. Over lunch we sorted out the driver and car situation, which is a great relief! Also learned about perfume tree ( which smells a lot like lavender and is a great addition to our room) We forgot to bring beer so her driver took us back into town for a bit of a drive about. We stopped at the Old Africa Hotel, which was first occupied by Charles Taylor's forces and then the Rebels in the Civil War. We took some photos and video from the inside and from the back side of the beach. There was still some war time graffiti on the walls.

Back at the hotel we met another friend who came to join us for coffee. I think Monrovia is a small town trapped in a big city cause every time we meet someone they already know the other people we know. It is one of the most welcoming places I have been so far, and its nice to know how small this big world is sometimes. Tomorrow its the Ministry of Information and off to Benson Clinic.

This is Africa....part_1

The problem with Liberia is poverty. Poverty and corruption. There's a million ways to circumvent the issue, but it's the truth and just how things work here.
This country is recovering but very slowly. As hopeful and well intentioned as we and the other groups here providing infrastructure and support are, it's going to take quite a while for this country to rebuild, think maybe 4-5 generations from now, assuming no major wars.

We've posted some photos of O and her mom at the hospital and talked about how much fun O has with the camera, (which by the way is true. She really seems to get everyone around her to loosen up.) We've even posted really cute animal pictures.
But the truth is the conditions here in Liberia are bad.

 

 

Take JFK Hospital for example. There are about 12-15 women per ward in the OBGYN and Fistula Unit,  with running water only in the OR's. All the women have their own buckets to use for the bathroom. Medicine is scarce with some of the nurses running private pharmacies in town. We've just waltzed right in dressed like doctors and have been able to wander the whole hospital, no questions asked. There is a brand new wing that would put any European or American hospital to shame but for some reason its not open yet. I've also heard of warehouses of new equipment and supplies caught up in so much red tape that no one can use them. Yet the nurses and staff are caring and doing the best with what they have. Women are being helped.

O's mom B is due to have another baby in about a month. (I'll post photos tomorrow after our beach trip.) She's SUPER pregnant but has that awesome glow that only pregnant women get. Unless we can help find her a job here in Monrovia, she will probably take O back to the bush with her to have her new baby, which with O's condition pretty much guarantees an upcoming infection. But given B's current situation, she doesn't have any other options. Currently for money she makes the 2 day trek into the bush to buy oil and soap and then returns to sell it on the streets of Monrovia. She can't do that until after she has the baby, so right now she's not working. Our daily gifts of breakfast have been a warmly welcomed addition to their day.

Being a foreigner here is extremely expensive, even though the conversation rate is 70 LD to 1 US. The hotel we are staying in is basically a compound and charges about 5x the local rates for things in USD. Simply because it can. Dinner for two here is about $30. We had dinner for two last night with plenty of beer in town for around $7 USD.
There also seems to be the assumption here that even though we are in Africa, we don't want to interact with the local population, which is not the case. For example, we asked for a cab this morning at the hotel because it was raining out. The security guard flagged one down (for a tip of course) made everyone get out and then gave us the taxi. I was a little taken aback considering we were only going about 5 blocks, we completely would have fit with the other passengers.

Just one more example, The hotel wants $80-$125 USD / day for a driver.
We talked to some Liberian friends here and realized the going rate for LIberians is $5 USD / day. We agreed to pay $10 cause that seemed fair for long days with an unreliable schedule and probably some trips out to the Bush, so starting tomorrow we will have alot more mobility and wont have to commandeer other people's taxis. Hopefully we can really start to get the around Monrovia start shooting. Apparently the city even has a couple of dance clubs which I am pretty eager to check out one evening.

I really want to take some photos in the streets. The hand painted signs are great and the people beautiful, but so far I have been really hesitant to whip out the camera for fear of offending anyone. I'm not here as a tourist but as a documentarian, but the difference to someone on the other end of my camera is negligible. Our Liberian friends cautioned us yesterday to wait until we have a driver/ security. She even mentioned that even as a Liberian, when she goes to the market her driver carries her purse.

From what we've gathered our first few days here, the law is tenuous. There is the UNMIL force and some police, but it seems the most common form of solving a problem is mob justice. We've been cautioned not to walk around on our own but have been fine so far. I think that's because we are dressed like doctors when we go out so people just leave us alone. On the flip side Liberians are super warm and friendly and even though some of the guys thought it was pretty funny, they still helped us catch a taxi on our own.

The truth is I need to balance my desire to make this film, with the reality of the situation of LIberia, and the fact that we unknowingly arrived on a national holiday and we REALLY need to get out of this hotel, which will hopefully happen later this week. We've only been here three days after all, and Monday is a national holiday so I'm sure if I just hold on there will be plenty of Liberian culture to experience in the coming weeks.

Liberia's youngest photographer

Another morning at JFK Hospital. O loves the camera, and she is causing a real scene around the wards. The women all break into hysterics as soon as O enters the room. She took something like 130 photos. You can see a few here, as well as her self portrait.

Nika and I are trying to provide a little education as well. Tic Tac Toe, writing her name...the basics to start. Tomorrow is an approved trip to the beach. Since O has her medical condition to be mindful of, i think taking photos at the beach is perfect...not playing in the sand.

Dinner at a friend's cousin's restaurant, Little Nikita in downtown Monrovia. She's doing some amazing things here in Liberia including putting the girls who work for her through school. I'm very excited to eat there throughout the rest our stay and talk to her on camera for the film. Not only is the food great there but the people are super nice.
Upon returning to our hotel we discovered an unlikely friendship, a black back and a cat. While they may be super cute I think the black back will eventually be dinner sometime in the future but he's living it up while he's got the time! Unfortunately, the baby black back pictured was already on its way to Market earlier in the day..
I just learned that the black back is an endangered species and only lives in Guinea and Liberia.
The red one is actually really rare, so we've all been hoping it does not get eaten.

O gets a doll, but prefers the camera. My kind of girl.

We spent the morning with O and her mom at the hospital. I remember that O really liked using the camera herself, so after a short lesson she took it from me and started running around the hospital. She took photos of every single woman patient there, in the middle of lunch! It was adorable. We want to get O out of the hospital for a day, maybe a beach trip is in order. Since she's not in school, the least we can do is try to provide a little more stimulation than a hospital bed. If the doctors approve the beach, it will happen Monday. I also want her to use the camera more, maybe even take some video. She seems very into it, and again, the stimulation is important I think.
I had gotten word in the states that O wanted a doll, so here she is with her mom and her photographer Barbie. O's mom keeps referring to the doll as her new grandchild. There is a lot of laughter in that woman's ward at JFK.

After 26 hours of planes and buses and a fabulous lunch in Casablanca we finally arrived in Liberia last night around 1:30 am, only and hour and a half late. The night was gorgeous and rainy and the drive to Monrovia was smooth on the newly paved road. After such a quiet drive in I wasn't quite prepared for the bustling street this morning. Although we discovered that catching a taxi was as easy as it is in NY!

Our first stop today was the UN where we met with the Minister of Public Information who agreed to put us in touch with the head of the gender Coordination Unit and give us UN accreditation for the production.

After picking up cell phones we made a quick visit to JFK hospital to spend some time with O and her mom. Both are doing well and it looks like O will have a little brother or sister sometime in the next 4 weeks. A couple of Club Beers later and now its time to catch up on some rest.

Production begins August 20th

This blog will go live on August 20th when we begin production.

We'll be posting updates and observations throughout our time in Liberia.

More information and a film synopsis here.