Naked Man

Last Wednesday was Decoration Day in Liberia. Traditionally, people go to the family graves, clean them up, and decorate. Along with this custom, people also pour beer on the graves. Some people have aiming problems and instead of pouring on the ground, the beer goes into their mouth. This is a simple mistake and I feel the dead understand the difficulty of the pouring task but still appreciate the effort.

With a day off, I found myself driving out of town to relax. This is when I saw naked man. He was completely without clothes, shoes, and did not care. Walking down the side of the road, naked man took up several feet of the car lane causing traffic to veer around him.

I had to say "Naked man", when I saw him. My companion, who has been here longer, completely missed it. After so many years, random naked men can be easily overlooked. While he was not walking fast, the car was heading at a comfortable speed the opposite direction, making the moment brief but notable.

This is not my first naked, or near naked, man to see walking down the street. Once, I had to drive around a naked man laying in the middle of the street downtown. Several times I've seen scarcely clothed men walking around with only a cloth wrapped around them or pants with failing zippers. I was warned of this habit upon my first arrival in the country. Naked men regularly appear when soccer teams score a goal and on holidays with drinking involved. People rarely take much notice of them.

Decoration Day creates a higher probability of a sighting. Besides this, the day is normally very traditional. People travel from cemetery to cemetery to see visit the dead. Like all family holidays, a debate exists as to which graves to visit in the time limits and with traffic issues. A few arguments occur about normal family conflicts. People wear nice clothes and usually everyone's visions of the day do not turn out as expected, running into distant relations, arguments about where to go and how to clean, or simple disappointment from the day not being "perfect".

But for humor, there is always a naked man walking down the street.