Again, I think we all agree that Monrovia at some point needs to cleaned-up, but the country is also still very, very poor. To completely destroy someone’s livelihood in a country with 80% unemployment because they’re too close to the sidewalk may not be the best way to help. Further more, Broh’s campaign is being carried out in a very random and ad hoc manner. There’s no transparent process that is being applied to help people know when and what she’ll be doing. Also the law on squatter’s rights and zoning isn’t clear. And even if it is clearly written out in some volume in city hall, the common Liberian has no idea what there rights are, what the law says, and what due process they should expect. Because of Broh’s ties to the president many feel that she can just do whatever she wants. All these things undermine the rest of the governments attempts at earning back the trust of the people through good governance. And finally, it’s much easier to destroy something than to build it back up. Yes she’s cleaned up a lot of shanty towns, but now there’s just piles of rubble. She’s not building new markets to replace the stalls she burnt down (yeah she even burns stuff down), nor is the government supplying land for people to build new homes on.

In response to this an associate of mine has printed up some “Don’t Raze Me Broh” t-shirts. Obviously playing off of the “Don’t Taze Me Bro” line made famous in the US elections last year. The idea is to help people speak out against the poor governance practices Broh is demonstrating. If you want one they’re $8 each. We even have girl sizes. And with each shirt you buy another shirt will be donated to a Liberian to help them protest as well. If you want a shirt drop me a line. Shipping is extra.

Ironically, when two of the t-shirt creators were buying blank shirts in Water Side market,  Broh showed up and slapped one of the vendors just as the t-shirt creators were buying shirts. Broh then stopped to shake the white peoples’ hands. Amazing.

Speaking of victims of Mary Broh… A while ago some of the amputee guys I try to help told me that a guy from Europe named Jean Risse was going to give them over $1000USD to start a car washing business. I was impressed at the amount, that’s quite a loan here. Since the guys would need to email their new business associate I offered to do all of that for them since they don’t exactly have access to reliable internet (technically I don’t have access to reliable internet, but that’s all relative here). So I’ve been emailing with Mr. Risse who works for a microfinance NGO called 2Unite. After a lot of back and forth,  and some pointers  on how to write a business plan, Jean agreed to wire over the funds. So I’ll keep you posted on that. I’m excited for the guys. If all goes well, this could make a huge difference in their lives. Jean put a little blurb about this project on the 2Unite website here, and here it is in English, sorta.

I was at the TRC conference for Reconciliation a few weeks ago. The conference was held at the Unity Conference Center in Virginia, Montserrado County. I was super impressed by how nice this facility was. While it had obviously suffered during the war, it was still a very nice facility. I really like seeing things that remind you of what Liberia was before the war. To that effect I learned this week that the fall in GDP brought on by the war was the largest in recorded history. If you want to see the Unity Conference Center head out towards CeCe beach or hotel Africa and take a right at the sign.

On the way to the Unity Conference Center I was pulled over for not having the safety sticker that says proves my vehicle is safe. I would go off about how ridiculous the stickers are, how you can spot the cars with no bumpers, turn signals, or head lights with out a sticker, and this is just one more way to harass drivers, but that’s not the point. So I talk to the guy for a while and I tell him there’s no process for getting the stickers, that I was never told I needed one at the Ministry of Transport when I registered the vehicle, and that no one really knows where to go to get a sticker. After talking for a while the police officer tells me “The ticket for not having a sticker is $75[USD] (which is absurd), but since you work for TRC, just give me $35[USD].” To which I replied, “I’m not gonna bribe a police officer.” Then the most amazing thing happened. He looked at the window, yelled at the cop who had my license and was writing a ticket, “He’s not gonna bribe us. Lets go.” And they left. Not only that, but they left in such a hurry that the one cop left his hat in the car. Thus the picture above.

I thought long and hard about it, and decided it’d be better to be a nice guy than a jerk, so on the drive home I gave the officer his hat back. I think he’ll leave me alone for a while. And I did finally catch the LNP’s traveling safety inspections, after driving to two different places. Here’s the officer checking that my horn works.

Finally, someone here sent me this picture of a shot up van durring the war. It’s pretty incredible so I just wanted to post it. It really gives you an idea of how bad the fighting was and how intense it got at certain points. I’m told this vehcile used to be parked by the bridge in Freeport.

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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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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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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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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While at Cuttington Dr. Best and I watched the artsy-about-Africa-foreign-film Bamako on the kiosk. Clearly a good use of its 19” wide screen and built in speakers. The viewing experience was great, the movie was terribly boring. We both decided we’re not artsy enough for such films. I also got sick and threw up a few times. Despite my sickness I drove Dr. Best and Dr. Long to the airport in time to catch their flights home. We took the scenic route and passed through the Firestone plantation. It was really pretty on a rainy Liberian Saturday. The road was also in great quality. I guess that’s what you can do when you’re an exploitive multi-national.

So when I got home that night I was feeling a bit achy, so on the advice of a few friends and 50 Liberian dollars I got tested. Sure enough, I had malaria. It was 8pm so no doctors were available. So there was much debate on what course of action I should take next. Finally I decided upon the ACT treatment. It set me back 120 Liberian dollars. Who needs insurance with such prices? I was a little worried because everyone said the treatment would wear me out and I had a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

Thankfully I woke up Sunday feeling just slightly under the weather. So I decided to go for it and attend the Liberia vs. Senegal football match. Worrisome from the match two weeks ago, I arrived early and drove my motorcycle in case I needed to make a quick getaway. The first thing I noticed was that there was no traffic. This was in stark contrast to the crazy line of cars that formed in front of the stadium last time. A local branch of the Ministry of Youth and Sports even let me park my bike inside their compound. They were very nice. This picture to the left is of me and my apartment mate Gwen Heaner. We were all decked out for the game in our red white and blue.

The first thing that you noticed about this game was that your ticket not only had a gate number, but a row and a seat number. Kind of like a real sporting event. There were no crazy lines to get in the gate. I walked up, showed my ticket and was immediately let in. Everything was calm. There was no craziness at all. We walked in and found freshly painted seat numbers on every seat in the stadium. Lonestar Cell, Liberia’s largest GSM operator, sponsored the game and was handing out free water and cool aid, Liberian’s call it “juice.” This was to prevent the overheating and dehydration that caused deaths two weeks earlier. This was very much appreciated because Sunday was a very hot day.

Inside the stadium things were festive, but under control. Fans were drunk and singing 3 hours before the game but it never got out of hand. The stadium was almost empty. The cheapest seats were $5 USD which isn’t too expensive. The game was also broadcast on local television, so perhaps after the last debacle people thought it best just to watch on TV. Either way, it was all for the best because FIFA had observers at the match to ensure that Liberia could handle a FIFA sanctioned game. It would have been a terrible blow to Liberia for them to lose that privilege.

The Lone Stars, Liberia’s team, even played much better than last time. They were much better about passing the ball and held Senegal to a 2-2 draw. All the goals were scored in the last half of play.

This was unfortunate because I left after the 1st half to meet up with two friends on the Mercy Ship. Kim Robinson and Peter Fullerton were both leaving the ship, though Kim is coming back in August. They’ve both been really good friends to me and I’ve enjoyed their company immensely. Kim calls herself my African mom, which I’m fine with. We could use more moms in the world. She’s an amazing woman of Christ. I should be so lucky. We attend the evening service together then had Star Bucks coffee in the ships commons area.

On Monday the Malaria meds caught up with me. I felt absolutely worthless. My stomach hurt and I had no energy. I even had trouble concentrating and was completely unproductive, which might have been the worst of it for me. I hate feeling like I’m not doing stuff. What made it worse was that I was stuck at home with no electricity so there really wasn’t much I could do if I had felt up to it. Looking back on things I realized that I had felt really tired most of the week. I thought that I was just worn out from our busy schedule of meetings and things. So I was kind of glad that it wasn’t keeping up with two of my seniors that had worn me out, just malaria.

I was still pretty out of it on Tuesday. I also think that the medicine messed with my head. My thoughts would race a lot and I’d lie in bed thinking of the things I needed to be doing stressing out that I wasn’t getting stuff done and really worrying a lot. More than I would normally. I really wanted to go home. It was the most homesick I’ve been. I even kept telling myself that it was just the medicine, but it wasn’t much fun.

By Wednesday I felt a lot better. I had finished my ACT treatments and now had my head and my strength, but alas, the generator was out at the TRC. So I visited the supermarket and ran into my amputee soccer team friends. Rueben, the guy I talk with the most from the soccer team, wanted me to buy some tarpaulin for their “house”. It’s the rainy season and their house doesn’t have a roof. He said they need a roof so they didn’t get cold. I still don’t understand how they call it cold, I call comfortable, but that’s beside the point. So I let Rueben show me the house. It was a two room stick framed house with no roof. He said they had woven mats for the walls, but didn’t want to put them up without a roof to keep things from getting ruined.

So since I had a free day and the “I’m getting over malaria” excuse to not work, Rueben and I drove to the Red Light market to buy some tarpaulin. I hate Red Light market, it’s one perpetual traffic jam caused by bad planning, poorly enforced rules, and unregulated capitalism. As far as I know it’s the biggest market in all of Liberia. It’s just a mess. The ride there wasn’t as much fun as I had hoped it to be. It was awkward. Reuben’s a good guy, a bit pushy with the begging, but a good guy, we just have a hard time talking. His Liberian English and my American English don’t mix very well. But we did get to talk about his wife and two kids, and whether or not the Lone Stars would make it to South Africa in 2010, still a lot of awkward silence. So after waiting in traffic for an hour we pulled up to the spot where the tarpaulin guys were. There’s no way I was going to leave the car alone in this placed so I stayed in the car while Reuben got the goods. 15 minutes later he returned with the tarpaulin.

On the whole I felt pretty good. For $35 USD I had literally put a roof over someone’s head. In this case it was half of the soccer team’s heads. Reuben didn’t say much, but I could tell from the smile on his face he was excited. He had me drop him off were the guys lived who would help him put the roof on. I guess being an amputee you need some help with these kinds of things. I plan to go back and get some after shots of the house. I really hope this works out for them.

John
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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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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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The field was in really good condition. The grass looked well taken care of, and the lines were clearly marked. My only complaint was that the field was smaller than a regulation soccer field. They may only have one leg, but that one leg is just as strong as anyone else’s. They could easily clear the ball from one end of the field to the other. If it were up to me the field would be longer. That’s all I’m saying.

The players all had professional uniforms and looked very sharp. If it weren’t for the peeling paint on the stadium and their lack of limbs, you would think you were watching professional players. I did notice that none of them had custom crutches that properly fit them. They all seemed to be playing with your standard one-size-fits-all aluminum crutch. One guy even had a pair of wood crutches that looked to be made out of a couple of sticks. This is a shame. These guys should have custom-made carbon fiber crutches with silicon gel pads and specially formulated rubber feet that are made to take the abuse of this sport. I know Tech has a prosthetics department, so I tried to think of who I should email over there to see if they can help. If you know, please tell me. Gabe and I talked about how you would think someone would sponsor these guys with some high tech equipment. I’m sure there’s some company out there that makes this kind of stuff that could easily afford to donate some equipment. I’m sure the American amputee soccer team isn’t using one-size-fits-all crutches.

All of that aside, the game was a lot of fun to watch. The players can pull some sick moves when they plant their crutches and then come swinging at the ball. We even saw a few slides. The action is pretty non-stop. It’s amazing to watch two players chasing after the ball. They can move pretty fast. The players also didn’t take any falls. I hate watching pro-soccer when one player barely taps another and the guy goes down grabbing his knee. There was none of that. These guys are too good for it. The crowd was also really into it, which made it even better. They would cheer and yell whenever something happened. Many times, people here will make a high pitched “eeeh” when something happens that surprises them. So it was cool to hear a whole crowd of people “eeeh” when a player pulled an awesome move.

When we left, Nigeria was up 1-0. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we went. I’d love to go again.

Later that evening I went to the Mercy Ship for a Bible study. I had my camera with me, and the sunset was pretty, so I took a few pictures of Freeport at dusk. I downloaded a hacked firmware update for my Canon PowerShot SD1000 that lets me shoot pictures in RAW format. I’m told this should preserve more of the color depth of my images compared with the camera saving them as JPGs. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but the colors did seem a little more vivid. Hope you like them.

John
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