Pictures from liberia #1

So I figure I should show you guys some of what we see here instead of talking the whole time. For those interested in the city I have a few pics up of the city and then of the church in Caldwell, some of the dedication of the stadium, and then some of this beach place.

A quick bit of Geography
Map of Liberia

and Monrovia below

The Northern part of the city is the downtown/ business district of Monrovia. the road that goes north across the Mesurado River is the bridge to Bushrod Island, which is really part of Monrovia too, but is more like a suburb of it. As you move down the main road that goes East, you enter capital hill, where most government buildings and such structures as the executive mansion (pictured below) are. Past that is the UN building, also pictured and across from that, next to the University of Liberia, is city hall where I work.

Further down the road is Sinkor, the Suburb where Ryan and I are staying.

SOME LANDMARKS

Here is our friendly neighborhood gas station. In the background is the UN head quarters. Sorry for the long distance shot, but they don't appreciate people taking photos up close. The UN are very strict about their no photos policy in Liberia, which is a shame considering they are one of the more fascinating groups in Liberia at the moment, with soldiers hailing from places like Pakistan, Ukraine and the Phillipines. The UN guards at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the President works are a group of either Indian or Pakistani women, who are clearly from a special group of women security personnel or something. There is clearly a message that they have women protecting the first woman President of Africa, but regardless, these ladies are not to be screwed with. hopefully pictures of them will come, I have some on facebook I think, but will try for more.

Sniper Hill. This already grim looking building, like many other places here, has an extremely haunting story. This building on a hill overlooking the bridge to Bushrod Island was a famous nest for snipers during the war. They would target rebel soldiers and likely civilians trying to cross the bridge. Towards the end of the war there were 3 major offenses by rebel forces coming from the north towards monrovia (called World Wars I, II, and III) this bridge was the main target of forces during those offensives and before when battles were fought inside Monrovia. A lot of lives were taken by people inside the buildings pictured above. No one has renovated them and instead they stand as a constant reminder to people entering Monrovia of the city's terrifying past

The Executive Mansion

This absurdity of a building essentially was meant to honor whatever president what in power at the time and stands out amongst the other structures of monrovia and even would amongst the buildings of any western city. Even there it would stand out as an offensively decadent example of the lack of attention that Liberia's dictators gave their people and instead spent on their own luxury.

CALDWELL PARISH

Ryan and I at the caldwell parish that the fam helped to start, during mass

Odell. This is the lady that runs the childrens program at Caldwell Parish and knows every member of my family. This was my first time meeting her. She is a fantastically friendly and fiercely determined lady.

The rain in Caldwell. This rain drowned out the priests and the readers during half the mass it was incredible.

STADIUM DEDICATION

This is the new stadium that rob build. It is the 3rd largest stadium in Liberia. the day of the dedication was one of the hottest we've had in Liberia so far. Scratch that, easily the hottest. and all the teams from the regional league were standing outside waiting to great the president and then 2 teams played in the first game. I'm sure they were used to it, but I swear I would have collapsed if I had to stand out there for that long, or at least would have needed a new shirt by the time the game started.

Here are "De two white boys" at the party for rob and his stadium

"Doctor" Rob. Getting his degree or something. He was going insane during the ceremony. I've rarely seen someone more triumphant, it was fantastic. All the speakers made even more contributions to the stadium and the league. At one point someone donated tons of balls and equipment and rob just started going insane as the crowd started cheering "Ole ole ole!" It was fantastic to see him so excited about something that was going to make so many people happy.

Anyway, here is rob after getting his tribal robe and degree from the local representative. For a guy that usually dresses himself like guys in GQ this was hysterical to see.

The President was there for the dedication as well. She gave a fantastic speech that was both to the casual and funny. She brought the ceremony much more down to earth than the other speakers did

AAANNNDDD here is King Rob. Triumphant in his seat of honor

THE BEACH

Visit to the beach at some new flashy and really cold resort that I don't plan on returning to, but nevertheless provided us with entertaining images from eastern Europeans playing volleyball to Pakistanis wading in the ocean in capris and t-shirts.

One ryan callahan sizing up the waves and whether he can take them... he decided he couldn't

This was just a really interesting group of people walking down the beach way in the distance from us... I just thought it was a cool shot, and for those who know Tim Brooke, it looked like one of his paintings to me

Best shot of the day. surfers in liberia. bahahahaha

Anyway, this took over a day to upload all these guys so I'll leave it at that. But I already have more to put up and hopefully they'll come soon.

O

A week in Monrovia

Blog #2

Not much has changed since our last blog spot. This is largely because my last post was something like 3 or four days ago. Liberia is much the same. Its still the type of place where you almost hope for 10-12 hour work days because there’s little else to do but sit in the Liberian version of trashy US sports bars watching the world cup, which before Saturday really hasn’t been that great.

But don’t get me wrong, exciting and fun things do still happen, and I’ve started to appreciate the beauties of this place instead of focusing on what it lacks. It has all the makings of a nice tropical getaway. It would be a nice place to visit if it weren’t for 14 years of non-stop civil war. I don’t mean to sound sarcastic or cynical, its just funny in a really really screwed up and sad way. It really would be a nice place to come visit.

Work at city hall continues as it has. It’s good to be able to get into a project while I’m here and actually learn about what’s going on. It can be a little frustrating at the same time though as much of what I do is dependent on the presence of directors of different city departments who are always is meetings or off doing “something else”. Its still good to get an idea of the way things run in Monrovia. I’m trying to get a hold of the directors of Health and Sanitation as well as environmental health before I leave which should be interesting.

This weekend was pretty action packed. On Friday Ryan and I decided to act on Helene Cooper’s article in the New York Times on Monrovia’s restaurant scene and checked out a rib house called PA’s grill house for some taste of home- ribs and wings. Both were great and had a Liberian flavor to them. While their we ran into our family friend Rob who was having a stadium he built dedicated the next day and invited us to attend it.

The next day we headed out to New Kru Town (45 minutes north of Monrovia with Monrovia traffic- the equivalent of a parking lot) to see the dedication of the new stadium. It was a sight to see. It must have been half the town that gathered at the stadium, which had a new set of stands that could hold about 400 people if I remember correctly. Rob was running around like the king of the place, which he was for the day, as everyone else was running around with “THANK YOUR ROBERT” tee shirts. Speeches were made by almost everyone conceivable to thank Rob, which lasted for about 2 hours before the President finally got up and had her say. Her speech was easily the best out of all of them. She has a way of channeling the spirit of a ceremony in the way she speaks that many others lack. She joked with the crowd and encouraged their cheers helping to psych them up for the first game football match (I’m trying to train myself to stop saying “Soccer Game”) in the new stadium.

We decided we’d had enough of the sun eventually and headed out. We were almost at the main road when we were semi attacked on the road. A bunch of clearly drunk “bad boys” saw Ryan and I in the car and stood in front of it not letting us pass and even got on the sides of the car demanding that we give them money. Luckily our driver, Mohammed stopped trying to talk the guys down and started to just drive. They got out of the way and let us pass. It wasn’t so much a frightening experience as it was an enlightening one to the aggression that still exists in some people here.

That night we watched the US fall to Ghana in our local sports bar- for all the georgetowners or DCers reading this, this is Liberia’s version of Rhino. It really wasn’t that bad as far as I’m concerned. Yea it sucks that the US lost, but at least we lost to Ghana (a team I can route for) and not some team like Uruguay. It was also kind of cool while walking home seeing how excited the whole city was to have an African team still in the competition.

Anyway this morning I went to Caldwell parish again for mass. While the mass itself was a little weird, it was kind of cool as all the kids took it upon themselves to surround me in the pew and try and get my attention all mass long. They’re all very playful during mass, even as the ushers give them stern warnings to be observant and solemn. I like them a lot more when they’re playing games during mass. They It was kind of awesome to when I moved to stand only to realize one of the smaller kids had been resting his head on my leg.

After that Ryan and I went out to some resort on the beach out towards the airport. I think people have told me the name something like 20 times and I still can’t remember what the goddamn place is called. That’s ok by me however as I don’t really feel like going out there ever again. While the bar and the resort itself were nice, it felt so cold and strangely separated from where it was. Instead of embracing Liberia it was the type of place that seemed to do everything it could to make you forget you were in Liberia. Instead it felt cold and distant. It really gave me a weird vibe to be honest, and I kind of couldn’t wait to leave when we arrived. The one part that was fun was we finally got to go swimming in the ocean here, which was both fun and kind of terrifying. Its absurd how strong the tide is here.

Also got to see some surfers on the beach which was one of the more surreal sights ever in Liberia, even though, looking at the waves, I can see why they came.

So that’s my update for now. If you’ve managed to get to the end of this novel of a blog post you’re either Rachel or a champion. I'm trying to load the camera soon to get some picks and videos up and will do that as soon as possible. Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys are all doing well back home or wherever you are.

Much love,

O

Back to Liberia

So this is my first real blog entry and I can tell this is going to be difficult deciding which details to include and which not to. If I were to say everything that has happened or that I’ve noticed, this would literally take forever. So I will try and keep this focused, if not necessarily brief. Besides, I know no one really wants to know everything and that my “adventures” aren’t that interesting or worth a movie deal or anything… yet.

So my year began with a fantastic four day vacation in London where I really got a feel for the city for the first time despite having been there many times before. There was a great “Kenya reunion” as Madeleine and I met up with our two childhood friends from Kenya, Hannah and Rebecca.

From there I have gone to Liberia. I’m in Monrovia now for the first time since I was here last three years ago, and am again lucky to have Ryan, who came with me last time here as well. The amount of change that has occurred in that time is astounding. The roads are smooth. There are lights on the streets and even an extra two lanes. When I was last here in 2007, the place was clearly in the most preliminary stages of its recovery. There were no streetlights. Everyone had their own generators. The roads were rough and congested. The evidence of the 14-year civil war that had ravaged the country and capital city were still very evident.

While it is still clearly a poor country, it is also clearly one that has seen times of peace since the war. There are new buildings being built all over the place down the main street. Car dealerships, new government buildings, and total gas stations with those “bonjour” quick shops in them. Anyway, the point is, things are starting to look up for Liberia.

Yesterday Ryan and I went out to Caldwell about 30 minutes outside of Monrovia to the Jesuit Parish my family helped to start. The Parish was great to see, although like any other place it has its problems.

Work has been ok. I started today at Mayor Broh’s office. Working for the mayor of the capital city of course seemed like a dream job of sorts from the states. And while I still have no second thoughts about it, it definitely was not what I expected. Its incredibly chaotic in the office, I’m kind of amazed that people get anything done.

Anyway, Liberian life is as interesting, chaotic, and at the same time somewhat dull as I remembered. Life pretty much consists of working hard during the day and just chilling at home. There is very little else to do in the way of restaurants, movie theaters or any other outside entertainment. I guess there are the Chinese “massage parlors”, but odds are I stay away from them.

Hope all are well back home. And I hope that my first real post has been succinct enough for some of you to actually read all the way through it.

I have no catchphrase luckily to end my posts with (which is defininitely for the better so I’ll just say peace

O

Here We Go

OK so as many of you know, in less than one week I'm off to work in Zambia for a year, maybe more. As I'm really terrible at emailing mass groups of people I've decided to start this blog and let you guys decide for yourselves whether or not my travels and deep reflections are interesting enough instead of bombarding your (very busy) inboxes every other week.

Anyway I hope this blog entertains, informs and enlightens many of you, see you all in a year