This last week my boss, Dr. Michael Best arrived in Monrovia. He was in South Africa, and swung through for a week before heading to Kenya, Thailand, Korea, and finally back to the States. Dr. Best, who insisted that I call him Mike, holds a joint appointment in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. Mike has been working with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa for the last 10 years. That’s back before it was cool.

So upon Mikes arrival we were in non-stop meetings. We meet with one senator, two presidents of universities, one CEO, a couple chairman, several ministers, and some folks from civil society groups. It was kind of fun. It makes you feel important to meet all these people. At least it makes me feel important.

Some highlights from these meetings include the Sr. Senator from Grand Bassa county. I was really impressed with the Liberian Senate building. It’s very nice on the inside. It has a mural carved out of wood in its rotunda. Very nice. Also, the meeting we had with the CEO of Cellcom, Liberia’s 2nd largest cellular provider, included a tour of their computing room. Very impressive. Another moment where I felt I was back in America. We also went to the US embassy. Lots of security. My first bomb proof door in Liberia. Nice landscaping. The food wasn’t so hot though. I feel we could have done a little better.

We also undertook an epic 36 hour trip to visit the TRC commissioners in Zwedru. We rented a Mitsubishi Pajero along with a driver, and drove 10 hours from Monrovia to Zwedru. Stayed at a really nice guest house, met with the chairman in the morning, and then drove straight back in time for dinner. This was Mikes first time out of Monrovia. He said he liked the trip out to Zwedru, but could have done with out the trip back. The photo on the left is the might River Cess, and to the right is the road right before the rains came in. Then we went mudding for 80km.

In Zwedru we waited a while at night by the UNMIL compound and there were a couple of kids sitting by the street doing school work. I was told they sit there because UNMIL has a street light. So the kids options are sitting in front of the UNMIL compound, or no light at all. I was pretty impressed. You wouldn’t find American youth so diligently pouring over their books if the power goes out.

To the left is me with some kids at the TRC hearing. When I walked by they said, “Take our picture.” Usually people are quite offended that you take their picture. Usually because they want you to pay. Sometimes I’ll take a picture of a sign or building, and someone will happen to be in it. They’ll come up to me and be like, “you should ask me first”, or “You take my photo to America you give me something small.” But not these kids. They just wanted to make friends.

It was nice having someone to hang out with that new me back in the states. I liked talking about what’s going on back in Atlanta and at Georgia Tech. We also had some good talks about the exciting election drama that is taking place with out me in the States. I hope Mike enjoyed it as much as I did.

Also did a little surfing this week. My friend Michael from Right to Play just bought a board. So we did back-to-back 7am surfing this weekend. A few good waves were had, and we both got the snot kicked out of us a couple of times. Nothing like sitting at lunch an hour after surfing and having water randomly run out of your nose. Michael also bought a guitar. So now we can sit fire side after a long day of surfing and serenade the ladies. We just need to find ladies. In the mean time Michael’s driver, Edwin, serenaded us.

You know sitting on my board looking out to the sea reminded me so much of surfing back in Florida. It was great. I felt right back at home…till I turned around and saw the bombed out buildings and trash on the beach. I also found myself with a strong craving for fast food breakfast. Especially McDonalds. Like Pavlov’s dog, I had been so trained to expect McDonalds after early morning surfing, that all I could do when I closed my eyes was see processed scrambled eggs, pancakes from a powder, and a solid nugget of hash browns. Sadly Michael and I couldn’t find a McDonalds within 1000 miles. It also felt really good the night before to leave the bar early and tell people, “I’m surfing in the morning, I need to be in bed soon.” Can’t wait to do it again.
John
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