16 Days left on Camp

This week flew by, but by comparison was defiantly my hardest yet.Semeh, the founder and CEO of CBW has been in Liberia for the past month and a half, and has to be present for any money to be taken from the bank account in Accra, so no local employee pf CBW has been paid for the month of June. The amount they are paid is already not enough to support a family for one month, so now they are all suffering greatly in attempts to pay bills and buy food. Previous to this we were constantly being asked for money, but this crisis has increased the requests for this much needed resource. Saying no has been hard, but at this point it is even more frustrating, as a large portion of the money we paid to come is supposed to go to paying the stipends. I have helped one of the local workers, as she is the project head of micro-loan and is already treated unfairly by CBW administration and paid much less than any other project head. For the equivalent of CAD$ 25 I was able to buy her enough rice, charcoal and cooking water for her family of 8 for 2 weeks. It is amazing how far such a small amount of money can go here, but at the same time, when everybody needs that small amount, its no longer small. They have not been guaranteed pay until July 26, so I expect many more requests before than, and there is no way to prepare for the look on someones face when you tell them you can not help them.


This week was also very hard, as on Thursday afternoon I was outside talking to one of the kids about paying her school fees, when our neighbours began to beat a young child on our front entry way. I was able to remain relatively calm during this, but then while that child was still screaming they put another face down on the cement step and started whipping her. I couldnt take the sound or image anymore and told them that if they were going to do that to find another place. I have heard children being beaten all over camp several times, but actually seeing it, and having it take place on our step was too much. This resulted in me getting in an arguement with one of the guys, which made my emotional break down even worse. I will never understand how some one who is lucky enough to have children can then treat them as horribly as the children on camp are treated.