CODEL
CODEL is a 4-letter word to many people who work at embassies (yes, I know it has 5 letters). It’s an acronym that stands for Congressional Delegation. You get it, a bunch of “very important” people coming to visit the embassy, everyone freaks out because the visit has to be just right and normal work for the people involved in preparing for it seems to go by the wayside for a week to three (poor Kristin, she was the USAID CODEL officer). You can probably figure out where this is going, I got sucked into the CODEL that took place earlier this month.
As far as CODELS go, it wasn’t that bad - 5 House members, the House Parliamentarian, staffers and a couple of family members. They were on the ground in Liberia for a bit under 48 hours, the first of 4 or 5 African countries they were visiting. They arrived late on a Saturday night on a military flight (don’t feel bad for them, one staffer said it was basically a commercial jet where all the seats are business class . . . it was the best she’d slept all week) and I was part of the Sunday site visit.
Lousie and I were the site officers for a visit to Klay in Bomi County. Why Klay? Well, it’s the biggest town in the Speaker of the House’s (Liberia) home district [now wouldn’t it be great if Steven Colbert would do his “Better Know a District” segment in Liberia?]. The Congressional Delegation was made up of several members of the House Democracy Coalition (a bi-partisan group of representatives that target support to emerging democracies around the world), and a couple of other members who have supported programs in the countries being visited. In Klay, two Liberian Representatives, a Liberian Senator and the County’s Superintendent were hosting a town hall meeting where locals could ask their representatives questions.
Klay is a rural county and saw its share of action in the civil wars. The town hall (with lunch, of course) was held at a newly opened agricultural training facility that had several newly renovated buildings. As you can tell, not all the buildings had been renovated. Parts of the day were sunny, others had rain (light to very heavy), and it was hot and humid.
The CODEL was given a traditional greeting, where they were asked to depart their vehicles, watch dancers and then get escorted to the lunch building by their guests and dancers.
And if you think the Congresswoman to the right, in purple, looks like she was about to start dancing, well you would be right. That cane on the ground was hers, but when the music started, she started clapping and the next thing you know she’s dancing with the little girl. I am, however, smart enough not to go posting such photos on the internet!
As part of the festivities, a member of the local Poro secret society paid the group a visit.
It was a bit odd, because people did not pay much attention to this figure, though they gave it a wide berth. He didn’t do anything to call attention, he just approached the group and walked around, with the guy in front of him occasionally hitting him with the stick (and alternately grooming the strands so that it would hide his pant legs). I didn’t get anyone to tell me the meaning of this character, but I think part of the culture is to ignore him. He made an appearance inside the town hall and again, everyone ignored him.
First was lunch and following lunch was the town hall meeting. The town hall was, well, a town hall as you’d see in the US.
There were way-too-long speeches by too many politicians, but once the questions started the place became very lively. It was interesting to see how the citizens were willing to complain about lack of services or to identify particular needs in their different areas. The folks came from all over the districts and the needs from one community were not the same as another.
One unfortunate thing is that the air conditioners did not work (even though the building had been inaugurated by the President just a week previously). In grand third world tradition, no one could locate the AC control units, so the brand new units went unused. As a result, the temperature in the room started rising quickly, and the humidity became stifling with the periodic thunderstorms outside during the 1 - 1/2 hour town hall meeting.
At one point I went outside to check on the preparations for the CODEL to leave the site. I noticed the Parliamentarian had left the building to cool off and had started taking photos of little kids. Digital cameras with the ability to show kids their photos immediately are a big hit around the world. Here’s the best of the shots I had of him and the group of kids he had swarmed around him.
As the town hall ended, another group of Poro (male) or Sande (female) arrived and this time engaged in dancing with the dancers. Once again, it was a traditional send-off, which made for a successful CODEL site visit.
Lucky for me, that was the end of my work day. Fortunately, the guest list for the reception at the Ambassador’s residence was too large by half and my name was one of the 30 names that got dropped. Now that made my day! Why? Because that evening I got to go down to the Mamba Point hotel where the bartender had reserved my usual bar stool and I got to drink good German Hefeweizen and watch Spain beat Italy in the European Cup final!
That was a great end to a good day!