If you are hungry, go to them! They share with you whatever they have. They have the habit of sharing their food with anyone near them. I visited a family in the evening. They were preparing food of the day. In what they called soup, there were cassava leaves, chicken, fish, vegetables, etc., etc. They mixed it with rice. They invited me to join the four ready to relish the meals. We shared the two spoons available too.
All of us ate from the same plate. Ordinary Liberians eat only once a day. They share whatever they have, though insufficient, with all those who are with them. If you are one among them and you do not have a place to stay, do not worry. They are ready to give you shelter. They cherish these values learnt during the seven years of civil war, from 1989 to 1996. They ran for life and took shelter in the forests. All of them took care of each other. They were not sure at what time and how one would die. They walked miles and miles. They survived on leaves and insects and learnt good lessons of sharing whatever they had.
Even today, as you find them at meals, they are ready with this welcoming note, “come, let us eat.” Even the little Liberian children follow this unwritten directive which we often forfeit in our “civilized” life settings. They do not start eating before they invite those who are near.