I thought I’d start this off with a picture of my apartment. This is what my room looks like. I’m especially proud of my painting on the wall there. For months I’ve been staying strong and resisting the urge to buy a cliche painting of an African woman drawing water or carrying something on her head. But then I saw this image and I had to have it. First of all the colors are uniquely Liberian and not just generic Africa. I like the kid in the painting because he reminds me of why I’m here. Also, on the wall is the map of Liberia with little post-its that mark where I’ve been. So far I’ve been to 13 out of the 15 counties.

Earlier this month I attended a Barack Obama fundraiser. It was a lot of fun, it was catered and the food was amazing. It was so good. The caterer has since been hired by other friends of mine. They also were strict on making sure that only US citizens were donating. Apparently that’d be illegal if someone from another country donated. The fundraiser was hosted by Jordan Ryan, deputy special representative something of something at UNMIL. Basically the number 2 person for the UN in Liberia. We watched the VP debates and played Palin bingo, you listened for words like “gosh darn”, “energy”, “renegade”, and “hockey mom.”

On the one hand it was really cool to see people so excited about American politics. It was also a very fun social event. At the same time it seemed a little ridiculous to be raising money for Obama here. So many people are in more dire need of money here, and it’s not like Obama is hurting for cash. His campaign budget is roughly half of the Liberian government’s annual budget. I’m told $7000 was raised for Obama that night. That could send 70 Liberian kids to school for a year. I guess the idea is that if Obama is elected USAID will be restored to its former glory and then aid money will flow in, in the millions. But I think the impact those 7000 dollars would have on Liberia is much greater than the impact they have on Obama’s campaign.

Speaking of Obama and helping Liberians, I’ve undertaken a small venture to capitalize on the Obama craze. Inspired by a t-shirt worn by David McCann on his visit over here, I committed some blatant copy right violations, and downloaded an Obama logo from the internet, added the ubiquitous Liberian phrase “trying small” (roughly, “we’re doing our best”) and had it printed on shirts. I then turned the shirts over to my “authorized retailers”, Mr. Smith and his friends. Keep this on the DL, but the shirts cost around $2.50 to make and I told Mr. Smith to sell them to expats for $10. I told him I want my initial investment back, and that he’s free to charge what he wants. Smith and his associates were outside the Obama fundraiser and sold quite a few shirts.

Despite the success the night of the fundraiser, the shirts haven’t been selling as well as I had hopped. I think I may have overestimated the number of liberal expats in Liberia (the folks here for mining and rubber are probably republicans). I also don’t think Mr. Smith has fully grasped the target demographic and how to best reach them. But we’re working on it.

In work related news, I… GT had a box built for the kiosk project, now called MOSES(MObile Story Exchange System). The box will house the MOSES computer when he’s not on the road at the TRC office on 9th street. If you’re in the neighborhood you should check it out. It’s been drawing a lot of attention and I hope to have some formal write-ups on this for the boys, and girls, in Atlanta soon. To the right you can see the box and the carpenters who worked on it.

Finally, Oct 7th was my birthday. I’m now 27. I can’t believe I’m this old. Late 20’s what happened? What do I have to show for all my years? I’m so close to 30 and still don’t think of myself as having a real job. Which I kinda like. I get to do a lot of coo stuff in Africa. So I’m pretty OK with that. It’s just gonna be a while before I can afford a wife and kids, or a mortgage, (not that any one else in America can afford a mortgage right now anyway), or retirement. A lot of people started asking me for my address right before my birthday. So far I’ve received nothing in the mail. So I hope you didn’t send anything important. I also haven’t received my absentee ballot which is a bit of a bummer.

My birthday was celebrated with a few friends at the newly opened Japanase Steak House. That’s the name of the place, “Japanse Steak House”. I’m hoping to have full write-up on it soon. It was good, but very Liberian (took forever, half of the menu wasn’t available, the bill was a mess, you know… the usual).

Oh yeah, and a new club opened up in Monrovia. De Javu is Liberia’s latest night club. I headed over there with the roommates and a few other people on opening night. I liked it. The music was at bearable levels, it wasn’t smoky, and the AC was up to par, I didn’t get sweaty or anything. The cover was $15 which is ridiculous. We talked them down to $10 and I would never do it again. I’m morally opposed to covers, especially in the 3rd world. But for opening night I made an exception. The place reminded me of the places I went when I was 18, but not 21. It was a little cheesy, but really good for Liberia.

Finally, I wanted to leave you with this picture from the balcony at the TRC office where I work. Just another day in paradise.

John

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Just a quick update on Mr. Smith and his family’s small business. Last time I had spoken with him he had asked me to give him another loan to build an extension to his house to put the shop. Currently, the Smiths kept all the inventory of their dried goods business in the corner of the their one room house. Expanding would give them some much needed space and give their clients a more professional shopping experience. However, at the same time Mr. Moses, Mr. Smith’s brother (different father, different mother) had also asked that I help pay for him to have his prosthetic leg refinished because it was starting to rub his leg raw, so I did that instead.

But the last time I visited the Smiths I was happy to see that Mr. Smith had gone ahead and taken the initiative to build the extension himself. You can see the extension in the photo at the top. This is definitely another positive sign of Mr. Smith’s business sense and his proactive attitude. So many people would have just waited for me to pay for it for them, so I was very impressed by this. He told me he still needed help getting some shelves installed. We’ll see about that when I get back from Ghana. 

John

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A couple weeks ago Jeff Austin(left) and I went to Sierra Leone to check out Freetown. Jeff had been to Bo in Sierra Leone, but this was my first time in Sierra Leone. Jeff and I both really liked it. Freetown is at the base of some mountains right on the ocean. It’s a beautiful city, and the people were all very nice. In Monrovia it seems that there’s an underlying animosity and sense of entitlement in a lot of people, I didn’t get that feeling in Freetown. People still asked for stuff and hasseled us, but it was far less aggressive. Below are some of the pictures of are times in SL.

The roads in Freetown are much nicer than those in Monrovia. Granted, we didn’t go to some of the more run down parts of the city, but the major roads were notably lacking in potholes compared to the major roads in Monrovia. The run down parts of Monrovia aren’t even paved. At one point Jeff was talking with an expat in Freetown about the roads to Liberia. She went to great lengths to emphasize how bad they were. To which Jeff replied, “But you made it through right? So they can’t be that bad.” She then replied, “No, they were really bad.” Jeff lives in Harper in Liberia. Right now, in the rainy season, no automobile can drive to Harper, the roads are that bad. Thus, Jeff and I concluded that “bad roads” in Liberia and Sierra Leone mean different things. To the right is a picture of some of the wonderful roads in Freetown and in the background the green hills that the city is built on the side of. I really liked the hills, having all that vegetation in plain site on the hills helps to remind you that you’re in what should be a tropical paradise.  While Freetown is a step up from Monrovia it’s still a little under developed. To the left is a picture of another thing I really liked about Freetown, street signs, again something rarely seen in Monrovia.

Another great part of Freetown was the architecture of the buildings, as seen from these two examples. Sierra Leone used to be a British colony at one point, and you can still see their influence in the structures they left behind. The building on the right is of the Justice Ministry. The one on the left is just some building I really liked. I’m sure it’s more important than that, but I’d just be making stuff up if I tried to guess its importance.

Another novelty Jeff and I enjoyed in Freetown was the public Library. As of yet I haven’t seen a public Library in Monrovia. There may be one, I just haven’t seen it. At any rate Jeff and I were way exited to sit and read for a bit. Naturally I found a mid spring 2008 Popular Science. I was really impressed that they had such an intelligent piece of literature. I caught up on the latest gadgets that wouldn’t work in Liberia because we don’t have power there. We stayed at the Library for a good 3 hours. It was wonderful. 

One of the best parts of our time in Freetown was staying at the Faduma Guest house.  The owner was a guy named Stone who worked for the Sierra Leonean department of corrections teaching fine arts to those spending their days behind bars. Stone was a very nice host. One day a young man was over to negotiate for his daughter. He was so excited he gave Jeff and I a free beer, what a guy. Stone was also a big fan of American politics. So much so that the night Barack Obama gave his speech at the DNC, Stone woke us up at 2:00am so we could all watch the speech. It was pretty cool seeing people in other countries so excited about American politics… in a positive way. This is much different than the time I came up from a French subway in the middle of an anti-Bush protest.  Stone would watch American news and verbalize his agreement with Obama and Bidden’s speeches. He even talked with us about how ridiculous of a choice Palin is. It was a lot of fun talking with him. To the right is a picture of my room at the Faduma Guest House. The guest house is located at N8.48398, W13.26993.

Other highlights included the public park at the center of town and the many seafood dinners we had. A picture of the park is on the left.  Again, public parks like this are something that don’t exist in Monrovia. The picture on the right is the Hard Rock Restaurant. The restaurant is located on a large, hard rock at the beach.

John

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A while ago I wrote about Mr. Smith. He’s a blind double amputee that I’ve befriended while being here. He’s been my favorite amputee because of his cheerfulness and gratitude. In July he asked me to give him some money so his wife, Ruth, could sell dried goods. I asked him to submit a list of items and prices. The next week he had a shopping list ready for me. So I took his wife and his friend, Moses, to Red Light market where we bought around $100USD worth of goods. They were all excited to have their store fully stocked, and it was kinda exciting for me as well.

So this past week I stopped by to check on the store. Mr. Smith happily told me he had sold 6 bags of rice since I had last seen him. At first I thought, “Hmmm six bags, I was hoping for more like 60, but it’s a start.” But then I saw the empty rice bags on the floor. I realized that in less than a month he had sold 6 50kg bags of rice!!! That’s about 660lbs for you Americans. Not to mention 12 gallons of cooking oil. The picture at the top left is Mr. Smith with his kids and Ruth standing in front of the empty rice bags and oil jugs.

After seeing the empty bags Mr. Smith showed me the tin can he had his savings in. He said every day he puts 50LD in it. I looked at the tin and asked how to open it. Everyone laughed, and said you don’t. You put money in it till it won’t fit anymore and then break it open. He told me he only puts 50LD bills in the can and not 10 x 5LD bills. He also showed me his current cash surplus. It totaled around $30USD. In a country where most people make less than a dollar a day, having $30USD lying around plus a savings tin full of money means you’re doing pretty well. To the right is Mr. Smith with his two children and the business’s money.

So far this seems to have been my first sustainable development success. The phone charging business I helped start when I was here last year is non-existent and the guy never paid me back, though his cell phone scratch card business is doing well. I’ve been told by some amputees at the super market that Ruben, the man I bought the tarp for to cover his house, has sold the tarp. Though when I talk to Ruben he tells me he’s just waiting to save up enough money to buy some woven mats for the walls.

At any rate, I haven’t lessened anyone’s situation and it feels great to see Mr. Smith succeeding. He told me he wants $50USD to buy a tarp and some building materials to construct a small shop on the side of his house. I think Mr. Smith has graduated from charitable donations to loans with interest.

John

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I’m two weeks behind on my blogging and still pretty busy so I’ll be brief, or at least write a lot hastily. Two weeks ago I was able to go again to Robertsport, and once again it was a lot of fun. I traveled with a group that included the wife of one of the President’s senior advisors. So we had our own secret service guard traveling with us. He had a gun and everything, Glock-17 if you’re curious. I even had my car washed alongside the President’s motorcade of secret service vehicles. They were using a pressure washer and after a lot of talking they finally let me use it. I don’t think they understood why I wanted to do their job. I was just excited to be using a pressure washer in a country that doesn’t have running water.

The surfing was pretty good. Not as great as the week before, but still pretty good. Michael and I from right to play had a lot of good waves. For once we brought other people with us who had cameras. So we have some pictures of us surfing. Nothing to spectacular, but it’s still better than nothing. We also did some dusk surfing and had some awesome pictures of us against the sun set. Thanks to Amy Kirkwood and Gwen for the pictures.

We stayed at Nana’s lodge. After hanging out a bunch in their bar, I finally got to sleep in their tents. It wasn’t half bad for a tent. The power cut out at night, so the fan also cut out, and it got a little hot. The sheets were a little stiff, probably still brand new, but other than that I was happy.

In other news this week Jonathan Saah, who I had posted about a few months ago, received the check for his microloan. He was pretty excited about it. He told me he had already begun talking with the landlord of the place he wants to move his café too. He also assured me that he’d be very timely in his repaying of the loan. I’ll keep you posted on this business venture.

Two Fridays ago myself and a crew from the TRC made it out to Groovies night club. The local band was pretty good and the drinks were reasonable. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with those guys. In this picture Fully and I are hanging out at the table. Other pictures is just really cool looking and of Fully. It has not other purpose for being here than that.

I also had the opportunity to take Mr. Smith, a blind double amputee I’ve come to know, to one of the MercyShips clinics to see if they could help with his eyes. Smith lost his forearms and eye sight in the war. I was told to arrive early at these clinics so Smith and I arrived a little after 7 in the morning and there was already 40 people in line. The folks there seemed a little thrown off that I was in line. I hate pulling the white card, so I told them we’d wait in line like everyone else, but after a while they made us move forward.

Smith is one of my favorite amputee friends because of his constant gratitude and pleasantness. He’s never given me a hard time about not giving him enough and is always happy to know I’m about. Plus, no arms and no eyes in Liberia just can’t be easy.

Sadly the people at the clinic said they wouldn’t be able to help Smith’s eyes. The blindness was caused by scaring to the eyes due to an explosion he encountered in the war, and not because of cataracts or other treatable causes. I was afraid of how Smith might take this, but he was very OK with it. He said he was just thankful to be alive and that God would help him.

After the clinic we both hung out at his place of dwelling for a while. It was modest, but not bad for a guy in his position. I met his wife and youngest son. He told me he had two other children that stay at a mission across town. His friend who leads him around told me that they can make around 200 Liberian dollars a day begging. That’s about $3.50 a day. At the end of the day they split it 50/50 he told me. While that is by no means enough money for anyone, it is enough for them to not starve. Smith asked me if I’d give his wife some money so that she could open up a small shop at the back of their home and sell stuff so he wouldn’t have to beg. I had him write down all the things he’d want to seed the business with and that we’d go shopping next week. I’ll keep you posted on that as well.

This past week was also super busy. I was asked by a diplomatic officer at the US Embassy to give a presentation on our work with the TRC to a congressional delegation that was touring Liberia. USAID had given the TRC half a million dollars and they wanted to know what the TRC was doing. So on Monday I got to present. It was pretty neat. They all seemed impressed by it. I really felt like my Georgia Tech education had prepared me for such an event. Since every project based computer class I took ended with a PowerPoint presentation. I just thought of it as another end of semester presentation and went with it, didn’t even get nervous. On a side note, the fridge in the conference room the delegation had taken over was pretty well stocked with beer and other beverages. They even had Sam Adams. I couldn’t believe it. They would have to flown that over here themselves since you can’t get it here. I was really bummed that I had to present and couldn’t just drink a Sam Adams and listen to the other presentations.

The US Ambassador to Liberia was also at the presentation. I was told that he was so impressed with the presentation that he had my name added to the embassy’s super exclusive July 4th party guest list. So on Friday I went there. That was super cool. It was held at the American School which I had never been to. It was as nice as my high school in the states. A lot of top government officials and foreign representatives where there. The Vice President was there and gave a speech. I think Ellen was out of town, otherwise I’m sure she would have been there. This is a picture of Kristen, who works with me at the TRC for another NGO and me at the party. Kristen’s presentation at the same congressional meeting also got her in the party. Sadly there were no fireworks, but we did get a presentation of the colors and the national anthem. That was very cool.

I’ve also been taking GT’s kiosk video project out and about. We went to Robertsport and Tubmanburg. I have some video of the unit being used here. It’s kind of crude, but get’s the point across. While at Tubmanburg we visited blue lake. Also, some of you may notice that Stephanie Kruse is now here with me. She’s hanging out and enjoying all that Liberia has to offer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get her hooked up with a little bit of something to do while she’s here other than watching me work.

Finally this weekend two of my roommates left, Amanda Leese and Gwen. We had a going away party for them and Gwen, who is a PhD candidate study Pentecostal Christianity, was “flowered” by one of the churches she attends for her going away. We both got all dressed up in more traditional dress for the occasion. I was told we were fortunate that the service only last 2 hours instead of 4.

John
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So this wasn’t the best weekend I’ve had in Liberia. Friday was Prayer and Fasting day in Liberia which is a national holiday. In light of this, Michael and I went surfing at Silver beach Friday morning. Silver beach is the “surfing beach”. We had been introduced to it by our other surfing buddies. We had gone there a few other times and never had any problems. Two other guys met us out there, Kevin and Keith. They left at 9:30am or so. Michael and I got out of the water around 10:00am. When we got to the 4Runner we saw glass on the sand. Someone had thrown a rock through the rear windshield and stolen Michael’s and my bags.

This was a bit of a bummer. We asked around the beach, but of course, no one saw anything. I had brought my backpack along that I keep most of my things in. Resources here are pretty limited so I usually keep everything I need in one bag and just take that everywhere. It’s very convenient, but doesn’t work so hot when someone steals your bag. Thankfully my phone and my eye glasses weren’t in my bag. I was wearing my glasses and had my phone with me when I was driving. They never checked the center console where the phone was. Thanks God. But I did lose my digital camera, two pocket knives, my polarized sunglasses, my head lamp, my wallet with all my ID, (but not my passport) and $150USD, and all my surfing gear. Michael also lost a lot of important things, including his phone.

Thankfully a few days before I had decided that I should have a cash stash at home, just in case I really needed money in a hurry. So that worked out really well. Since Friday was a holiday the banks were all closed.

I was told that the place I had parked on the beach wasn’t very good because the car was in front of a fence that hid it from the main road. I thought it was a good idea to park there because it was closer to me. Not that I could have just hoped out of the water and stopped these guys. It was also stupid for us to just leave two bags in the back of the car, and have all our stuff in two bags. Live and learn. When I go surfing in the states I just take my keys, driver’s license and visa. I should have done that here.

On the upside the surfing was really good. Both Michael and I caught a few good waves. I noticed that my stamina is increasing. I’m able to paddle a lot more without getting super tired. Now I just get really tired. Also, my right shoulder, which I had an operation on because I dislocated it a lot in high school, didn’t bother me as much. I think it’s getting stronger.

Saturday Michael and I went shopping to replace our lost stuff. I bought two new backpacks. One to take to the beach, and one to take to work. I so miss my sweet Osprey Stratos 24 liter backpack. It was awesome. It’s probably the thing I’m most bummed about getting stolen. It was bright yellow so I’m hoping I’ll see some kid walking down the street with it, and I can buy it off of him. I’m not holding my breath. For $15 I bought two cheap Chinese made backpacks. I’m just waiting for the zippers to split open and the seems to come undone.

The thieves stole Michael’s phone. We called the number and they answered. The guy who answered told us he just had been given the SIM card by someone and he didn’t take any of our things. Yeah right. We’ll we told him we’d like to give him a reward for the SIM card because we wanted the numbers on the SIM card. We made it very clear that we weren’t looking to get anyone in trouble, we just cared about the phone numbers. He told us to meet him at a market Saturday at 9:00am. We showed up, he didn’t. It would have been cool had we retrieved the SIM card.

I’m also bummed about the camera being stolen. I fear this will make the blog far less interesting. For those of you who like pictures, I’m sorry.

I was able to get the rear windshield replaced on Saturday. I was really impressed that they got it done in less than 6 hours. Not half bad.

I reported the incident to the police department by the beach. That was an experience. It’s this little building made of concrete blocks with no power. There were 6 police officers hanging around. At the back of the station was a holding cell with a re-bar door over the opening. The gentlemen in the cell were in the back of the cell out of site. But they made quite a racket. It was pretty intense.

I told them I wanted to file a report and they pulled out a notebook and wrote out all that I told them. They were all pretty nice. I asked for a copy of the police report for Michael to give to his company since the SIM card that was stolen was there’s and they were like, “You have to go the main station for that.”

Not to be deterred from surfing, Michael and I went back to the beach Sunday morning. We took Michael’s car and driver to the beach. Michael brought his stuff in a plastic grocery bag. I brought my $5 backpack that I had bought the day before. As soon as we turned down the road to get to the beach we saw two police officers on patrol. I guess my time at the police station paid off.

Once again we had a great day of surfing. We both caught some good waves, and we had a good work out. But, when I got out of the water I found a two inch hole in the bottom of my board. I think it happened when a wave picked me up and dropped me on my board. I put my foot down to try and land on the board, and I remember it feeling soft when I landed. Not that I really landed, more just hit the board on my way down. The hole fits my heal perfectly so I’m pretty sure that where it came from. Anyway it’s fixable, but keeps me out of the water for the next few days to give the board time to dry and to apply a patch job.

So not the best weekend ever, but it was still not half bad. It could have been a lot worse. I’ve had stuff stolen from my back yard in Atlanta, and I didn’t come to Liberia to be safe and secure. I still had a fun weekend, and God blessed me with a positive outlook on the whole thing. I don’t feel bitter towards Liberia and life is a little simpler now. I mean I no longer have to debate with myself whether I want to take my camera when I go places. I know I’ll miss the camera when I want to take a picture of stuff, but I never felt down this weekend. So thank God for that.

In other news, the amputee guys that I gave $50 to for a t-shirt and their rent did give me a hand written receipt. I was kind of hoping for something a little more official, but this is consistent with the environment. I asked for the phone number of the landlord and they gave me that. I called him, and I had a really hard time understanding him. I could understand that the guys lived at his place, and that he charges 600LD ($5USD) a month. But I couldn’t get a clear answer as to whether they put down $50 for the next year. I guess I’ll know in a month or two if they still live in the same place.

Tony, the head of the amputee guys also gave me a letter requesting a loan of $40. He wants to add this to his savings of $40 and buy umbrellas to sell in the rainy season. I like the idea, but I think this is a violation of our agreement that he wouldn’t ask me for money any more. Since I just lost $150 the Etherton micro-bank is out of commission for a while so this gives me time to reflect more on this business proposal.

John
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In my post about the African Amputee Football Cup of Champions I made some comments about the size of the field and the lack of proper equipment for the team. I received an email from Jim Loudon former goal keeper for the USA national amputee soccer team. Mr. Loudon played in four amputee soccer World Cup tournaments, and is the only American goal keeper to have a shut-out in international play. He had the following to say about my comments:

The reason the field is smaller than a regulation soccer field is because the amputee game is seven a side instead of eleven a side. Smaller pitch for a smaller team. Anticipating your next question, no, I don’t know why they chose seven a side, but it’s what they play in the Paralympics, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that was a factor. Amputee soccer is not yet a Paralympic event, “but we’re working on it,” or so they say.

The comment “I’m sure the American amputee soccer team isn’t using one-size-fits-all crutches” drew a chuckle — as a matter of fact, the American team *ALWAYS* used one-size-fits-all crutches (Team USA went belly-up after the 2001 World Cup). As far as I know, Brazil is the only team regularly equipping its players with custom crutches. They use aluminum, btw.

So there you have it. Two things can be learned from this:

1) Ask a question on the internet and someone will answer you.

2) Don’t assume the richest country in the world can outfit the players who represent it with suitable equipment.

John

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