The roads across Monrovia are dirt. Sweat works as glue for a red-brown dust, sticking to skin. Trash eludes the sidewalks in a humid gust of wind. The streets are flooded with all walks of life: some of the children appear younger from malnourishment. Either smiling or in an angry haze, the offspring who survived the Civil War in Africa, welcome the American tourists.
21-year-old Salem State University student, Charlie Spence, reflects on his experience in Monrovia, Liberia while he is back on his American campus. “You realize, nothing matters. I don’t care if my hair is messy in class today, I just saw a man who got his leg chopped off when he was seven, hobbling around at age 30.”
Charlie Spence joined four other students and two professors on a 10 day journey to Liberia, Africa on an alternative spring break trip to help rebuild their community.
Spence began his college education as an undeclared major with a need to do something larger than take general education classes and go to the gym. After withdrawing from his freshman year classes and almost joining the Military, he postponed his drop-out and continued in classes, thanks to his parents convincing. In 2018, Spence met Dr. Greg Carroll, Peace and Peacebuilding professor at Salem State.
“I walked into class late and Greg was showing a slideshow from his travels to Africa. At the end, he asked, ‘Who wants to go?’ And I said ‘I do’, even though I just met him and had no idea what he was talking about.” After class, Greg explained to Spence that he has been taking trips to Africa since just after the Civil War with his colleagues. After larger-funding universities such as Harvard and Boston University joined Greg on the trips, promising to return with supplies to help rebuild their communities, they returned to America and never went back. Greg made sure he went back in 2004, and continued to go nearly every year since.
However, their trip for 2018 fell through, and Spence felt defeated. When talking with Charlie’s mom, Joanne Spence, she described her anger towards Salem State by saying, “This school is a fuckhole.” For the rest of the spring semester, Spence didn’t hear anything about the trip, as if the idea was never there to begin with.
In the fall of 2018, Spence had Greg as a professor again, and their trip to Africa was put back on the table. Spence, Greg, another professor and four other students he’d never met, arranged the trip and booked flights. They funded their trip by using Crowdfunding, a website through Salem State that allows online donations to go entirely towards their expenses.
Spence says he wasn’t nervous until the night before the trip, until he suddenly realized, “Oh fuck, I’m going to Africa tomorrow.”
On Friday, March eighth, the group set off on a two-day journey from Boston, Massachusetts, to Washington D.C, from there to Brussels, and finally Brussels to Monrovia. Spence reflected on his travels, saying, “After flying and layovers for 48 hours, wearing these jeans, and a sweatshirt, it was so fucking hot. When we got off the plane, it was 100 percent humidity, you feel it first around your ankles. I was in predator mode.”
The group of American travelers stayed in a compound in Monrovia. Spence says, “I never felt in danger. We were right on the water, but I always felt kind of dirty.” There is no running water besides what is caught from rainfalls, so showers were taken with buckets of boiling water and a ladle, and the toilets flushed by dumping water into the toilet. The beds, Spence described as, “Hard like the freshman dorm twin beds with no mattress topper.”
The group spent the first day at West Point in Monrovia, “to shock your system”. The slums of America would never compare to the slums of Africa, post-Civil war. The streets were never fully rebuilt, and it is hard to handle nearly any manual labor since it is usually between 90 to 105 degrees. Few areas have power, let alone internet or WiFi, and the cities cut off the power at the end of everyday.
After spending time in Monrovia, the group headed to Ghanta. Spence and other students were given surveys to ask the locals, in hopes of retrieving information about their lives to further help their situations. Spence remembers the questions being, “‘Where were you during the Civil War?’ And ‘are your parents alive?’ They were heavy, and we had to be prepared for that.”
Aside from surveys, the main task the group worked on was Ghanta’s fish pond. The fish pond at the small, 1800’s school needs to be sterilized in order to keep the fish alive. Spence says he worked on keeping the water at a certain acidity, since it is only sterilized once a year. They also measured the fish to see if they were staying healthy throughout the year and to know whether or not to eat the fish.
Spence says the food was delicious, eating mostly beans and rice. Greg suggested everyone bring Imodium for upset stomachs, and everyone’s favorite snacks from home.
The people of Liberia were either very welcoming, or very reserved. Since most people questioned what the Americans were doing there, in hopes of them helping and not just observing, it was best to do every task to the fullest to prove your worth. Spence’s advice for work was to “do everything with love and care”.
After 10 days, Spence and the others returned home. “I found a new appreciation for very basic things, running water, plumbing, not sweating, laying in a comfortable bed. You come back and realize so little matters.” Spence shares his greatest piece of advice for the trip, “Act like you’ve been there before, not like a tourist. Don’t be so surprised by how things are because they live like that everyday, it’s not shocking to them that it’s hot and they have no power or water. Keep yourself grounded and don’t act like you’re doing something amazing. Leave some things on your to-do list, like you’re coming back, because like I am in 2020, you just might.”
LThomps Art 