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Leaving Ceremony

27^th July 2006
The 27^thof July turned out to be my last night on camp. I had mistakenly thought that I had paid my fees up until the 15^th of August. Turns out that I had only paid up until the 1^st of August.

I could of paid another $US250 for another two weeks, or go to Burkina Faso and Mali with Matty. I chose to go Burkina Faso and Mali. The corruption at CBW had annoyed me too much to stay and who could resist going to Timbuktu? Not me, that's for sure.

The Leaving Ceremony
CBW puts on a combined leaving ceremony for all of the departing volunteers. Each head of department says a few words to thank the people who had helped them out. Each volunteer is presented with a shirt or a gown, a pair of sandals and a certificate of appreciation. The shirt I was given was pretty cool. The sandals I was given didn't not even come close to fitting me despite me tracing my feet out days before.

Every volunteer also gets the chance to say a few words. Most of the speeches were pretty much the same. "Ummm... I'm not really use to public speaking, but .... Errr... Thanks for having me and... Ummmm. I enjoyed the experience immensely, and uh, take care everyone."

I lurv talking to crowds and wanted to say more than "Umm... Thank you"'.

I'm sure some people were worried that I would launch into another scathing attack on CBW. I didn't. There is a time and place for that sort of thing and this was neither.

My speech went something like this:

Six months ago I knew there was a country called Liberia. That was about it. I could not of even placed it on a map.

Today, not only can I place it on a map, but I can tell you that Liberians are suffering here and in Liberia at the hands of greedy men.

But I have hope for Liberia. I know that one day Liberia's ship will come in and it will be a glorious day.

You will have wise men on your ship. The wise men will remind you time and time again that the whole wide world will be watching you. And the world will be watching. I will be watching.

The enemies of Liberia will try to confuse the ship. They will lie and deceive to change its course. But their words will not be understood as they're spoken. The captain of the ship will steer a true course.

The enemies of Liberia will think it's a dream. They'll pinch themselves and squeal and they'll know that's it for real. And you will tell them, "No. You're days are numbered and you will meet all our demands."

And on that day when Liberia's ship comes in, I will weep. I will weep because Liberia would of suffered too long. And I will also weep because Liberia, at last, will have her freedom.

(With apologies to Bob Dylan.)

We'll that's approximately how it went. I spoke quite slowly and repeated several phrases to make sure the Liberians could understand me.

I got a huge extended applause after my little speech. I even heard Semeh Roberts say, "He's the man", which was a little odd considering our little Tête-à-tête the day before. Several Liberians asked me if they could have a copy of the speech.

The ceremony also provided a good chance to snap some photos of friends before I went. I was particularly happy to get one of Dixon and I. Dixon is one of the few Liberian friends that I made. I also got photos of Renee and I (Renee is a Filipino girl living in the States), Martha (Girlfriend!) and I and Elise and I. I wish I had gotten more.

The After-Match
After the formal proceedings had wrapped up it was time for the traditional drinking and dancing. Each volunteer put in 20,000 cedi ($NZ 3.45) so that all the local employees could have a beer or two.

And have a beer or two they did. Several male employees took great joy in dancing erotic dances with the female international volunteers.

I was pretty wasted by the time the dancing began and just couldn't get into it. I had been wiped out the previous day with - I think - malaria. Which is a tad ironic considering how I had previously mocked it. I took the full course of you-have-malaria medication^* and recovered pretty quickly.

So I didn't manage to take any pictures of the after-match. I will include this one though from the previous leaving ceremony because I know that Karen loves it so much.

Wrap Up
The leaving ceremony was nice. I think I was always going to be a little disappointed with it though. It could have never lived up to the extraordinary farewell parties I was given when I left the Philippines. See here, here and here for my Filipino farewell parties.

^*You-Have-Malaria pills, multivitamins, paracetamol and folic acid, which cost me 23,000 cedi ($NZ 3.96).

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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