im not white, im shiny

There are a few things you should know about Liberia... 1. Starring at the white person is totally accepted. In fact, instead of just starring, literally drop EVERYTHING you are doing to stare... Its not uncomfortable at all. 2. Being called "shiny" does not mean you have overactive sweat glands. No, they are literally insinuating that you are so white that you shine. 3.Liberia might as well be located on the sun. 4. Telling a Liberian "you think you're getting tan" is the funniest of jokes. (But I swear I'm getting tan) 5. Liberians are the happiest people I've ever met. Lastly, 6. Don't come here unless you're planning on falling in love with the country. :-) now that that's taken care of, I'd like to share my first market experience..... I was on a mission: operation buy lapa (cloth) and take it to a tailor to get a skirt made. Well my friends, when you're shiny, unobservant and have the Liberian English proficiency skills of an infant, you struggle. A lot. As we walked around this massive market, I found myself in the narnia of Liberia. I was SURROUNDED by pig feet, chicken feet, puddles of animal blood and enough flies to populate Utah. My nose hairs instantly fringed off from the funk... Rough. Luckily, we made it out of meat hell and began wondering around something similar to a very large flee market. Here I learned that "Obama lapa" does not mean that Obamas face will be made into a skirt. (Disappointment). From there we got mildly lost but Alas finally found home:). The best part about getting lost though is you can just about ask anyone in your community "where do I live?" And they know.....which begs the question, is it because Im shiny?