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