Not to be outdone by its competition, Cellcom, Liberia’s second largest GSM carrier, has unveiled EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) on its network. A GSM network supporting the EDGE standard in theory should support data rates of 384kbps. But that’s in theory.

I stopped by the Cellcom store the other day to have my SIM card activated and get the access point information.

They set the access point to: web.cellcomnet.net

As of yet I haven’t been able to get this to work. I don’t even see the EDGE icon on my cellphone (Samsung Blackjack). Back when I was in the states I had T-Mobile and the EDGE icon was always on my screen. So I assume it’s an issue with the network. But maybe my SIM card was never properly activated or something?

At any rate, I just thought I’d let the world know that the access point for Cellcom Liberia’s EDGE network is: web.cellcomnet.net

John
<><

Last night I went to the Liberian Basketball Association’s final championship game. The Kings played the Pythons. The match was held at the basketball arena downtown off of Broad Street. When we arrived there were already cars parallel parked all along the road… two deep. So what did we do? We just parked behind another car that was parallel parked in front of other cars blocking them in. This police officer walked up and motioned to us. I thought he was going to tell us not to park there because we were blocking the other cars in. Nope, he just asked that we move further forward so more cars could fit in. I love Liberia.

We paid 100LD each to get in and then walked through the gate. Sean, of Carter Center fame, made the comment, “this is like those basketball courts you see in video games that you don’t think really exists.” It was dusk, the sky was purple with the setting sun, bombed out buildings and the skeleton’s of skyscrapers peeked out just over the stands, six halogen lights on simple poles shown down on the court providing the only light. The stands were concrete block risers with 2″x6″s for seats. They couldn’t be simpler. Boys walked around selling beer, soft drinks, water, and candy. The court was old and worn. Lonestar, the country’s biggest GSM operator, sponsored the arena and had their name on everything.

The game was pretty good. There was a lot of carrying and traveling. And quite a few fouls. But on the whole it wasn’t half bad. It was entertaining to watch. At half time two local artists came out and lip synced to their song. I don’t know why they do that, but it seems to be what you do here when you provide a concert. There were two artists and one mic. It was pretty obvious they weren’t really singing, but everyone loved it. Also entertaining the crowd was a little kid who could bust a move. He couldn’t have been older than 4, but he sure could dance. Everyone went crazy for him. People even threw some LD at him. The kids parents yelled at a few people who got to close to him. It was pretty fun to watch the whole thing.

As they game drew near the final minutes the score was tied. People started standing up and getting really into it. With 50 seconds left the Kings pulled ahead by 2, then by 6. It was clear they were going to win. People started throwing bottles and cans on the court. Lots of yelling started. Some people started screaming at each other. Pewee, Also of Carter Center fame and a legendary photo journalist, looked at us and said, “Lets go.” When a Liberian tells you it’s time to go, it’s time to go. So we left. Thankfully we weren’t blocked in by a 3^rd row of parallel parking so we speed off into the night.

On a completely unrelated note, roads are being fixed all around town. A lot of Monrovia’s worst roads have been fixed. From Freeport to Capital bye pass, and now UN Drive has been the latest to get a face lift. A few months ago they finished up Tubman Blvd. and just the other day I was completely thrown off when UN Drive was blocked because they were redoing the stretch between Center Street and Randal Street, no doubt the bumpiest road in Monrovia. It’s exciting to see this kind of progress. But what am I going to do when the roads here are all smooth and easy to drive down? I’m going to miss that third world feel I’ve come to love, splashing through puddles in an SUV and dodging pot holes on my motorcycle.

On the other side this only highlights how desperately Monrovia needs new roads. The problem is there is one main road, and when that’s blocked, traffic comes to a standstill everywhere. We need a city planning NGO to come to Liberia. Most of the roads already operate at or beyond capacity, buildings are built right up to the edge of the road and what’s left of the side walk is used by small vendors. People mostly walk in the road. I’m not sure there’s enough room to expand the roads in Monrovia even if they could. I kind of think they should just move town 5 miles south towards the airport and plan it out a little better. I’m sure the other utilities have similar problems dealing with the new demands of development and the old plague of misuse. I think it’d solve a lot of problems to just start all new constructions down the road. But that’s probably easier said than done.

John

<><

The highlight of the week was the weekend camping/surfing trip to Robertsport. All my surf buddies came out for the weekend and quite a few people from the Mercy Ship were there as well. All told there were probably 20 people on the beach. We camped at Loco Beach which is a 20 minute walk from the road. It was super cool to camp out away from civilization, not that you have to go very far to do that in Liberia, but it was cool to be on a little beach with no other signs of humanity. It’s definitely a very cozy beach. I like it a lot. It is also a very beautiful beach, black volcanic rocks sticking up along the coast, white sand, and lush green jungle. On Sunday the water was super clear. While waiting for a wave you could see schools of fish swimming by. When you were up on wave you could look straight through it to the sand below. It was way awesome.

All the folks who came out were really cool. There were even some really good local surfers out with us in the water. The waves were also pretty good. When the set came in the waves would be around 6 or 7 feet. For a while I surfed at Loco beach, but then realized I was a little out of my league since that’s where all the locals where, and so I headed back down the beach to Shipwreck Beach. It was much more suited to my skill level, and I got a couple of good rides in before I became exhausted. I really need to work on my endurance. Either way I was still really happy with the waves I did catch. At one point I could feel the wave breaking down over me. That was pretty exciting. Not really inside the wave, but getting close.

All in all a really nice time, I got to relax on the beach some, meet some new people and just enjoy God’s green Earth. It’s too bad the upcoming national holiday on Wednesday couldn’t have been moved to Monday. That would have been perfect, though I don’t know if my body could have held up for 3 days. I was pretty sore and worn out Sunday night. Special thanks to Peter Fullerton who provided me with these nice pictures. I’m still without a camera since I was burglarized. If anyone really wants pictures for future posts they can send me a Canon SD1000 powershot… hint, hint.

This week was pretty busy with work. After Tom and Martin left I had a lot of work to do to make sure our video kiosk project is as successful as possible. This meant I got to do a little more wiring, and working with local carpenters, always a good time.

I road in a taxi for the first time since getting my motorcycle, and much to my surprise they were following the governments new law that only one passenger could ride in the front passenger’s seat. The government has said it would crack down on over loading of taxis, so it was good to see it working. Though the people in the taxi had a discussion about how it affects prices. I asked if it was worth the increased safety to pay more, they said yes, but I’m not sure if they really believed it. The back seat of a taxi still seats four.

Gas has also gone up to $4.05USD a gallon. I’m sure that also affects the price of a taxi.

I’ve moved into a new place. I now live in the Old Star Radio building, which is now called the A-Z building. It’s a really nice place. I have my own bedroom and bathroom. We have AC in most of the rooms of the apartment, and power for 10 hours of the day. Not half bad, pretty much luxury actually. I live with Amanda, Adam, and Gwyn. Amanda and Adam both work for the Clinton Foundation. Gwyn is a PhD student studying the political and economic effects of charismatic Pentecostal Christianity. They are all wonderful folks and I couldn’t be happier.

We also have a maid. Something I’m not very used to. I was definitely raised to do everything for myself. I’m kind of proud of it actually. I also believe in, “if you want it done right, you do it yourself.” But I do find myself really enjoying cooking, and not having to think about cleaning it up. I am getting kinda spoiled. I went from a 60 year old house in Atlanta without so much as a dishwasher, to having a maid do the dishes, put up the dishes, wash the pots, and sweep the floor. It’s not half bad, though I’m not sure how I feel about all of this. On the one hand I’m supporting the local economy, providing a job for someone who no doubt could use one. But I don’t like the class inequalities I feel like this promotes, and I don’t want to turn into a spoiled expat who wants all the little annoyances of life done for him. I guess the key is to still do some things myself, especially when I want them done right, and to treat our maid, Noah, with respect and love.

John
<><

I had lunch at Sadia’s the other day, and I figured it was time to do another restaurant review. Overall not half bad, Sadia’s has a fairly varied menu for a Liberian restaurant. Though they were out of jala rice by the time I made it there, granted it was 3:00pm, but who’s counting. Anyway, I had palava sauce and rice. It was pretty good. There was even some beef in the sauce that tasted pretty good. The service was alright and the price wasn’t too bad, 150LD per plate. The décor was also pretty nice for a local restaurant, though I didn’t make it to the bathroom to do my usual check. Though I’m not sure they had one. On the whole a pretty good lunch spot.

Sadia’s
Capital Bye Pass, between UL and Cellcom on the swamp side of the road
Monrovia, Liberia
06-512-386

So a lot of things have happened since I last posted. Usually I like to try and keep things in chronological order and preserve the flow of events from one to another. But to capture the business that was this past week, I’m just going to give little one paragraph accounts of the highlights from this banner week.

Tom, Aldoph, Laye, and I went to Buchana to do more cell phone usage surveys. On the way over there we stopped at a bridge to take some pictures and enjoy the scenery. I was walking along the bridge when all of a sudden I heard a loud explosion. I thought, “There’s no way something blew up, something big must have fallen, but what?” We were in the middle of the jungle, no big trash bins or other modern junk to be dropped. I spun around and 100 yards from the bridge was a huge water spout where something indeed had blown up. Now I was thinking the war was back on and we were being shelled. It turns out the man in the canoe 20 feet from the water spout was fishing… with dynamite. Apparently this is somewhat common. I was even told that this method of fishing is less preferable since the fish don’t stay fresh as long. Probably cause they’re blown up.

After the water fell back down, the man jumped in, and started throwing fish in the canoe. I feel like now I can go back to America and know that I indeed have seen everything. Tom and I also continued making research across Liberia. Here and here is the video from driving to Barpulo.

Continuing a theme from this summer I made two trips to the emergency room in one week. The first time was to take one of the security guards at the Carter Center to the ER to see his son who had been hit by a motorcycle. His son had a little cut above his eye, but was otherwise alright. I hear that he is now doing fine.

The 2nd time occurred after doing some kiosk testing at the University of Liberia. We were packing up when a bus drove through and clipped a power line. The line fell down and we all backed up to avoid getting zapped. A car drove up and people yelled at the driver to not drive over the line, but he kept coming. I’m not exactly sure what happened next because I didn’t see it, but I think a security guard was trying to move the wire before the car hit it and was either zapped by the line and cut himself falling down, or was cut by the wire when the car rolled over it and pulled it taunt, either way he hit the ground and when he got up he was bleeding everywhere from his chin.

Thankfully, the week before I had decided that it was ridiculous that I was riding around in a country with no emergency medical response system without so much as a Band-Aid in the car. So I made a first aid kit for GATECH-1. To treat the wounded man I went back to my days as a volunteer firefighter with Station 17 in St. John’s county, FL, I did the thing you should always do first in such a situation, I put on latex gloves. Then I grabbed some gauss and told the man to apply pressure to his chin. While trying to find out how the man was feeling and what he’d like to do next. A crowd had gathered and the driver of the car was now yelling and getting very, very belligerent. He was just going crazy yelling at people, and of course, people were yelling back, even the injured security guard would take the gauss away and yell back at him.

After a minute of this I walked away. I didn’t want to be in the middle of a brawl, and my efforts to help were being ignored. Thankfully, a second later a lady brought over the security guard and asked that we take him to the hospital. At this point his supervisor had shown up so we had him accompany us to the hospital. I still need to call the supervisor to find out how the guard is doing. The cut wasn’t too bad, nothing life threatening, but he definitely needed a few stitches.

Earlier at the University of Liberia, I had a great discussion with some students about American politics. Who is going to win our election is a big deal. One guy said McCain was going to win. I asked why and he said because some American’s don’t want a woman as president, and some don’t want a black man, so McCain is the only one left. Another said the he had been watching American news shows and the news anchor had made a remark that even he could beat McCain right now.

It was so nice to have a real, intelligent, and fun conversation with Liberians. It was very cool to hear their thoughts. One man told me how much he loved watching Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Earlier that week Sean from the Carter Center, Tom, and I had been making fun of Wolf Blitzer for his style of reporting. Always saying things like, “Now for those people who are at home, and who can’t see what you’re seeing, over there, where you are, on the ground, tell us what you see happening right now.” The Liberian gentleman said he liked Wolf’s calm composure. I said, “Of course he’s calm. He’s in America.”

Here are some pictures of our video kiosk project being tested around Monrovia. Check out that sweet tent.

We picked up a new GT person for the week. Martin Bednar is a master’s student who had worked on the video kiosk project and also wanted to test some ideas for aN Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for cell phones. IVRs are what you get when you call a place and hear, “For finance press 1, for…” This was Martin’s first time in Sub-Saharan Africa, so Tom and I decided to have some fun with him. We had our research assistants, Aldoph and Laye, hold up a sign with Martin’s name on it. We told them to meet Martin and tell him that we had been delayed and that we wouldn’t be able to meet Martin at the airport. We also told them to tell him that it wasn’t safe to take taxis, so they’d have to walk 40 miles to town. We hid around the corner and watched martin get out of the airport, meet, the guys, and then start walking down the road. It was pretty funny, and Martin handled it well. He didn’t freak out about any of it. I was kinda impressed.

I spent 2 hours at Eco Bank trying to get my money out to pay rent. It was by far the most unpleasant thing I’ve endured while in Africa. Somehow it bothered me more than getting my stuff stolen. It was quite a test of patience. I just had to remind myself how fortunate I was to have money in a bank, and a place to pay rent for. Not to mention that I purposefully chose to come to a country with such an arcane banking system. But it really made me wonder how they can be so slow. I mean they do have computers at the counters. They aren’t looking up balances in a ledger somewhere. At least, I hope not.

I walked in on David “Deacon” Cortie at the Carter Center counting petty cash. He probably had $10,000USD on the table. I was like, “Whoa that’s a lot of money.” He said, “No this is nothing.” And I was like well that’s still a lot to me. He then told me how during the war he worked for MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and had helped them bring money in from Sierra Leone. During the war banks wouldn’t send wire transfers to Liberia, and airlines wouldn’t fly to Liberia, so David would drive to Sierra Leone and pick up $300,000USD to pay MSF’s expenses in Liberia!!! I couldn’t believe it. He said the white people where too scared of being killed by rebels so he would drive over there, hide all of the $100s under the upholstery and then drive back like nothing was up!!! Crazy.

For those of you who saw my post about Jonathan needing a micro loan, he has received the requested amount. I’ll keep you all posted on his progress. Thanks for all the interests. I had several people contact me.

It was raining the other day and I was leaving my apartment with the headlights and wipers on. The security guard ran up and tapped on my window. I rolled it down and he goes, “your lights are on!” He thought I had accidently turned them on and was worried I’d run the battery down. I explained to him how it was illegal to not have your lights on in such conditions where I come from. All I could think was that this country has a way to go. It really makes me sad, and angry, when I see all the totally dangerous stuff people do on the road here. I feel Sad because they’re going to kill themselves, and others, and angry, because it’s so pointless. So often motorcyclists don’t have their lights on at night, or will ride around with the helmet right in front of them on the handle bars, but not on their head. I just don’t think they know that when I plow into them at night because I can’t see them, they’ll die because they aren’t wearing a helmet. Or they think it’s cool to not have their lights on and not wear helmets. The later is even a problem in the states.

I’ve been pulled over 3 times this week. The first time was in the 4Runner. I think I was a victim of racial profiling, and not having NGO license plates. The cop told me he pulled me over because people often drive with expired or invalid license plates. I showed him the paper work and he let me go. I was then pulled over at the same intersection again on my bike for the same reason. I showed him the license plate on the back of my bike and he let me go. I was afraid he was pulling me over for passing cars on the right. Nope, just wanted to make sure my papers were in order.

The 3rd time I was pulled over because the guy from the TRC who I was giving a ride to didn’t have a helmet on. He said I was being arrested and would have to take my bike to the central police station. I asked how we would get there, and he said he’d ride with me up there. So I asked where his helmet was. He said he didn’t need one. So I asked why, if I was being pulled over for a passenger not having a helmet, he wouldn’t need one. How can you uphold the law, if you don’t practice it yourself? So after five minutes he let me go. If I had known I was going to be giving rides I would have brought my extra helmet with me. From my above statements I do believe in helmet use. I would carry the extra helmet with me everywhere if it wouldn’t get stolen.

And finally I was driving down Tubman Blvd with Sean, and another guy, when 3 UNMIL tanks pulled out from 9th street in front of us. To be honest they weren’t really tanks, just armored personal carriers, but they had tank tracks, and machine guns. It was kinda surreal driving behind tanks on the road. They were just cruising along like it was nothing. I didn’t have to pull over for them or anything like when the president drives through. Sean told me to get closer behind them to take a picture. I was like, “yeah right they might shoot us.” Sean said, “It’s the UN. They can’t shoot us.” Oh the UN.

Later that night I managed to get the Carter Center pick-up stuck when I tried to drive over a sidewalk after being blocked in at golden beach. I hadn’t counted on the rear wheels digging out the dirt by the sidewalk making the drop off from sidewalk to ground taller than the tire. I also didn’t know that I had to lock the front wheels to get 4×4 to work. Thankfully some nice folks came and we lifted the truck out. Sean can’t drive stick and so I’m his night time driver.

And speaking of Golden Beach, the famous beach front dining experience in Monrovia, Golden Beach’s beach is about half the size of what it was. This past weekend a huge swell came in from somewhere in the Atlantic. It brought 10 to 15 foot waves that reshaped the landscape. Michael and I tried to go out and surf them, but we couldn’t get out, we just got really tired really fast. At any rate, a lot of beaches here are now really small.

And that’s Liberia.

John
<><