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

<><

I just got back in the office from a wonderful, and slightly long, lunch break. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny,  warm(not hot), and a very light breeze. So light in fact, that it made for very glassy waves. They were small, but compared to what they’ve been lately I’ll take whatever I can get. I tried to go out Saturday and the wind and the current wouldn’t have it. I just paddled, and went no where for 15 minutes. Not very exciting.

So at 1:00 I met up with Keith and Peter for a quick lunch break surf at Thinker’s Village. I hadn’t been to Thinkers in a while so I was shocked to see how much of the beach had been eroded. Several of their concrete palava huts were now lost to the see. It was crazy.

Anyway… The waves were small, but if you waited long enough a 3′ or 4′ wave would come by. We all had a few good rides. Towards the end of the day the wind picked up and the waves started to really suck. But, I can’t complain. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend lunch.

John

<><

Once again I’ve managed to go a month with out any updates. When I started out I thought this would be easier than it is. The hard part is getting the photos up here, and we all know photos make the blog. Like this photo here. See if you can spot the white man standing at Water Side Market.

Water Side is where i took my friends David McCann and Stephanie Kruse when they arrived here to get a taste of Liberia. David and I studied computer science at Georgia Tech together for both our undergrad and grad degrees. He now works for Busy Labs in Accra. Steph and I went to the same church in Atlanta. She teaches special ed in the Gwenette County school system. Steph arrived at the beginning of July and has been helping the TRC with some copy editing.  The following is a brief summary of the high points of our adventures this past month.

I’ve noticed for some time that GATECH-1, my company car in Monrovia, has been riding a little low in the back. Especially when there’s equipment in the back and a back seat full of people. The tire would be an inch from the wheel well when the car is fully loaded. I found myself driving very slowly to avoid bottoming out on every pot hole, and there are a lot of pot holes here.

I took the car to No Lemon garage to see what could be done. Given the nature of the driving the 4Runner would be doing, they recommended heavy duty shocks and springs, which I fully agree with. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the parts in for several weeks. They had to import the parts from their supplier in Australia. So I decided to work on a quick fix in the mean time.

I went down to the rubber market, and found four 4″x1.5″ blocks of rubber. I had the guys at the market cut these up into eight 2″x1.5″ blocks. This set me back a paltry 700LD. I then went home, jacked up the 4Runner, and shoved 4 blocks in between the each coil of the rear springs as shown above. Amazingly, this added about an inch and a half of lift to the rear of the car and fixed the bottoming out. The ride was even pretty good, no squirly backend or anything. This reminded me of the kinds of things friends in my neighborhood would do to raise their pick-ups when we were in high school. Though after a while a few of the blocks of rubber fell out, so a real solution to the problem is needed. I’ll keep you posted.

We also took the MOSES (MObile Story Exchange System, formerly known as the Kiosk) out to Vonzula, Grand Cape Mount county. We were invited to go there by David Kizolu, the TRC county coordinator for Grand Cape Mount. Vonzula is a market town about 20 (I’m making up this number) miles from Sierra Leone. We went on market day so the place was packed. There were some good interactions with MOSES and the locals, lots of good videos were recorded, and as always people seemed excited. I think Steph and David liked it because it was a break from Monrovia and more of a sampling of rural Liberia. Like a lot of places the capital city is not what the rest of the country is like. David and I met a lot of people from the surrounding area, and Stephanie was befriended by every child in the market. Some parents just asked her to the take the kids back with her, she declined.

What trip to Liberia would be complete with out going to Robertsport? So of course Steph, David, Carter Center Sean, and I rented a tent at Nana’s Lodge for a night to soak up the sun and the waves. The surfing was OK on Saturday, but Sunday was rainy and windy. However, we did have a good time walking down the beach. In this picture I’m riding down the sandy cliff of a stream created by rain water running from the hills through the beach and into the ocean.

On July 17th Monrovia saw its first ever trivia night. Founded by Sean Mcleay, trivia night was composed of a round of Liberian trivia, general trivia (music, movies, people, places), and  wild card trivia, with a final question. Between the first three rounds was a special picture question. Our team comprised of David, Steph, new roommate Sabrina, and me. Trivial was held at Taaj Indian Restaurant, with first place receiving a $50USD gift certificate and second place a $20USD gift certificate to Taaj. We dominated the Liberian trivia round but then hit some rough waters with the other two rounds. Thankfully, we had a strong showing in the first picture question and the final question, which was a science question. So we came in second. Not bad for our first try and David’s first full day in town.

In our quest to find touristy things to do in Monrovia, which isn’t easy, we ended up at the Monrovia Breweries, home of Liberia’s own Club Beer. When we first arrived we were told we had to submit a written request for a tour and then management would get back to us. These guys wouldn’t have any sweet talking, they were all business. But they did tell us that maybe we should come back at 2:00 when the boss man was back from lunch. So I left my business card and we went on our way. After lunch and a way fun ride on a random dusty road we came back to the Brewery.

We talked for a while, and again were told we needed to submit a request in writing. Then, right as we had started up our motorcycles to leave, they flag us down and said, “Why didn’t you tell us you were the people that left the business card? Come on in.” Apparently my business card constituted a request in writing, or something like that. So the assistant brew master, a very nice man named Sampon, took us on a full tour.

It was amazing. One of the best things I’ve done in Liberia. The picture on the top left is me in the brew house control room with one of the guys that runs the system. The picture on the right is of cans of hop extract. They don’t use fresh hops because it takes too long to ship them over from Germany.

There were several outstanding things about the tour, but for me the most amazing was that we saw no other white people working there. The whole place was run by Liberians, and these were some serious, on the ball, and very professional Liberians. Though the plant is Swiss owned it was so nice to see it Liberian run. Often I find myself struggling here with the lack of capacity in human capital, so it was very refreshing to see such an operation so well run by Liberians.

Another thing I enjoyed about the tour was the lack of OSHA/FDA restrictions. We went everywhere and saw everything. It was great. No, “don’t walk there it’s slippery or.”, “We can’t go past this point with out washing our hands.” It was all access. I mean we’re all adults, we don’t need the government telling us to walk slowly on a wet floor, I can see it’s wet. Though I must say that the plant was very clean, neat, and sanitary. They showed us all the things they do to clean out the system between brews. They also answered every question we asked. No, “That’s a trade secret.”

Some facts I found intersting about the plant.

• Contrary to popular belief the plant did shut down during the war.
• They brew Club Beer, and are licensed to brew Guiness Stout and Guiness Malta, very impressive.
• They brew a little less than 5 million gallons a year.
• They don’t export because they can’t meet the local demand as is!!
• Obviously clean water is important to them, so I was very surprised to learn that they mainly get water from the city of Monrovia. They said it’s usually pretty pure and if they do anything at all to the water they only add a little chlorine. They said the real problem is when they have to get water from other sources, then it’s not clean.
• A crate of 12 large club beers wholesales for 860LD. On average they retial for 100LD per bottle. So a profit of 28LD per bottle. That’s almost $0.50USD.

At the end of the tour we saw their bottling operation, also impressive, and had a absolutely delicious club beer. It was so hoppy and fresh. I asked when it was made, “yesterday”, was the reply. Amazing!

On that same day we also visited Hotel Africa. Built for a continent wide conference in the 70’s, Hotel Africa was at one time the largest hotel in Liberia, and I’m told it had the largest swimming pool in West Africa, and maybe all of Africa. As you can tell from the picture the building was very impressive. The pool is in the shape of Africa. In addition to the hotel there were casinos, restaurants and boutiques.

I was super impressed to see dry wall in the rubble. I haven’t seen dry wall since I’ve been here. They also had duct work lying around from the hotel’s HVAC system. Again, something I haven’t seen working here since I arrived.

I’ll end with a little bit about my life in Liberia. To the right is a picture of my favorite meal to cook here. I call it “John’s Skillet Surprise.” Because of the uncertainty of refrigeration and the price of most food items I’ve adapted by pan frying some potatoes and onions, and then adding adding eggs. Some times cheese or avocado can be added, a little garlic is nice as well. Often I’ll serve skillet surprise with ketchup. It’s around $2.00USD to make a plate of skillet surprise and refrigeration isn’t required for the meals components. Though I do prefer to keep the eggs refrigerated most of the day.

Is skillet surprise tasty? Just look at Sean’s face.

John

<><

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
<><

So first things first, now that I finally have a camera again I’ve decided to put some pictures up of the place I moved into May 1st. This is the view from our front porch. As you can see we’re overlooking Mamba Point to the right and off in the distance is Capital Hill. It’s a great view, and note the hammocks. I don’t think it gets any better than lying out in a hammock swaying in the breeze. Next time I’ll try to remember to take some shots of the inside of the place. I suppose some people might find that interesting. Click on the picture to see the rest of my pictures from the balcony.

Anyway, so this past weekend I went to, you guessed it, Robertsport. Kent, from Universal Outreach Foundation, and I spent Saturday and Sunday surfing it up. Saturday was pretty windy. The waves were choppy and the wind kept pushing us around. It was another one of those days where you spend all your time paddling to be in the right spot, and then are never really being in the right spot when a wave comes. Needless to say I didn’t have much luck. But it was good to get out after being sidelined by bosses in town and malaria.

Sunday though was perfect. The wind died down, the sun came out and a lot of good surfing was had. I caught quite a few waves and had some nice long rides. I even caught a couple rides were I surfed all the way across the beach and had to stop before hitting the rocks on the other side. That was a super cool feeling. I think I’m starting to finally get the hang of things. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it again before I forget.

Kent and I stayed at the UNMIL guest house. I had no idea they had a guest house, but Kent had stayed there before, so we tried it again. We walked up to the little UNMIL compound in Robertsport and asked to stay there. They let us. It was really nice and easy. We had our own rooms with power and AC all night, that’s better than my apartment in Monrovia. And best of all we didn’t have to pay. It seemed a little too nice, but I was cool with it for sure.

They also had this palava hut at the compound with mats nailed to the ceiling. I thought it looked pretty cool so I took a picture. Kent and I hung out at the palava hut for a bit Saturday after surfing, but before returning to the beach and hanging out at Nana’s Lodge. This is the place I wrote about last time I was in RP. I met the new manager, a guy named Dan from Canada. He was really nice, we played darts together on a team, we came out 1-1. Nana’s was about the same as last time. Though now they have a satellite TV dish, but no TV.

They’ve also started serving dinner at Nana’s. Kent and I stuck around for the Liberian chicken and rice which was the meal of the day. It was really good. The chicken was well cooked and the rice was nicely seasoned, but without burning my mouth out. Best of all they had a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the table. The meal was $15 USD, which is a bit much for a local dish, but considering the context of a “beach resort” bar on a nearly deserted beach, I decided to let it slide. The next day I started a tab at Nana’s when I came back from surfing and bought a Coke. I had no money on me so I started the tab. If all goes according to plan I’ll be staying at Nana’s next week so I’ll settle my accounts then. Be expecting a full write-up of staying in their “luxury tents” next week, or the week after if I’m busy.

I end this post with a pic of some friends. From left to right we have Amy (does public health, Mike’s girlfriend, learning to surf), Mike(works for Right To Play, surfs with me, dates Amy), Me, and Gwen(PhD student studying Pentecostal Christianity in Liberia, and my apartment mate). They are all very cool people. And I’m quite happy to know them.

John
<><

I’m really behind in my blogging so I’m trying to catch up. A couple weeks ago my good friend Parker McGee came into town for a week. Parker, who is a computer science undergrad at Georgia Tech, has been working alongside me on our TRC related projects. Parker did all the implementation of the graphic design of the TRC webpage, and a good deal of the other coding. He now handles things State side while I’m in Liberia.

Parker flew in on the week before my boss, Michael Best, and my boss’s boss, Bill Long, were scheduled to arrive and the week before the TRC would be in the US to hold hearings in Minnesota, which I was supposed to setup a live webcast of for viewing in Monrovia. This was going to be a busy week.

Thankfully, this week was also when 2 of my roommates were out of the country. So Parker got his own room in what is called the “real world apartment” in the A-Z building of Mamba Point. Speaking of the A-Z building, I received my first piece of corporate mail in Liberia. A few weeks ago I was trying to find out what my dividend was from REI and I decided to go ahead and update my address, “why not”, I thought. Then, I got a call from someone saying they had a letter for me. I met the mailman at my place and he had my REI dividend letter in hand. I was pretty impressed with REI.

Anyway… So the most notable thing parker and I did was visit what’s left of the Ducor Hotel. In its prime the Ducor was a luxurious 5 star hotel overlooking Monrovia. Then during the civil war Charles Taylor’s Anti-Terrorist Unit (The ATU) took over the place and destroyed it. When we walked around it you could tell that it used to be really nice. Hanging from the ceiling was what’s left of a central HVAC system. I haven’t seen such a system in 6 months. Our driver knew a few of the guards at the hotel so we were able to get in without any trouble. I’m told that the former Libyan owners are planning on opening the place back up. As such, they have hired some security and kicked all the squatters out. When we got there we were lucky enough to have our own armed UNMIL escort. Parker said it threw him off to have a guy walking around with an AK-47 next to us. I thought it was cool.

The view from the roof is amazing. By far the tallest point in all of Monrovia you are able to see the entire city in every direction. It was really cool. We had a good view of the waves breaking around Mamba Point, which I had a chance to surf the next day. I really liked the break. The waves were decently sized and broke nice and slow and easy. Not the most thrilling ride, but just right for me. It was a little tricky getting out past the rocks. There’s no beach at Mamba Point, just rocks and water. But with some fancy footwork and careful timing we made it out all right. That day was probably my best day of surfing yet. I caught several good waves that took me for nice long rides. I even got some practice carving it up.

I liked it so much that I came back to do it again the next day. This time I brought Parker. Parker said when he lived in California he had gone surfing so I felt pretty good about bringing him out. Though this day the waves were really small and there just wasn’t much to ride. The waves that did break, broke a little too close to the rocks for me. I got up once when I rode the long board Parker was using. Coming out of the water Parker had his board under his arm between him and the wave. A wave came and knocked him over the rocks. Somehow he managed to escape without a cut, though the board lost a fin in the incident.

Parker and I also had the opportunity to appear on UNMIL radio to talk about Georgia Tech’s work with the TRC, plug the webcast on the TRC’s website, and talk about our work with the kiosk. I don’t have the copy of that recording yet, but as soon as I do I’ll post it.

Special thanks to Parker for all the photos.

John
<><

So once again I went out to Robertsport in search of clean waves, beautiful beaches, and good times. As always the beaches were beautiful, and good times were had. Sadly the waves were a little choppy and the current was super strong. I had to be continuously moving to stay in the same place. It was tiring and frustrating to always be in the wrong place and then have to paddle back. I also managed to put a little gash in my board when trying to get out over some rocks. So the surfing could have been better. I managed to get a couple of good rides in and a great workout. A bad day at the beach is still better than a good day working.

The real excitement of this trip, as Sean, Carter Center, Lauren, ARC, and I discovered was Nana’s Lodge. A few months ago when I was here I met some South Africans who said they were going to build a hotel out of “five-star tents.” Needless to say I found this a little questionable. But sure enough, there on the beach were some pretty nice looking tents built on wooden decks in the beach front hill side. The tents were the kind of tent you’d think of the army pitching when they needed a field hospital, not a family camping trip. Each tent had two very nice beds, a fan, and a mini-fridge. I thought they were really nice. You could be comfortable, but still feel like you were taking in nature. The tents are $100.00 USD a night, though you can squeeze as many people in a tent as you like. With two beds you could comfortably sleep 2 people in a room, 4 if you don’t mind doubling up. The guy we talked to said, “You could probably get 16 people in there if you all slept on the floor.” Somehow I think he looked at us and knew we were all right out of college.

We had brought our own tent, and hadn’t budgeted for $100, so we slept right outside of the lodge. The guys who ran the place, Joe, Enky, and Musa were very nice and let us park our car in their lot and use their facilities.

They also have a pretty nice bar with reasonably priced drinks, darts, and a sand floor. The sand floor was my favorite part. We stayed up playing Jenga with team America vs.Canada vs. South Africa. After that Sean, Lauren, and I had a headlamp strobe dance party. We thought we were pretty cool. In the morning we had an amazing breakfast: Eggs, bacon, Sausages (hotdogs), milk, coffee, cereal and fruit. I couldn’t believe it. It was so good.

On the whole I like the lodge. It seems to have been done well. The construction seems solid and no doubt business will be good. They said they were booked solid for the next two weeks. I am slightly worried that the unspoiled beauty of Robertsport is now going to fade. Granted you can still walk 20 minutes down the beach and find yourself in paradise with no trace of humanity, I just hope it stays that way. This kind of tourism could do a lot for the local economy or it could lead to more foreign exploitation. I also worry about the safety on the beach. They have security at Nana’s, but now the beach will draw more attention from the wrong kind of crowd. At the moment things seem fine, I hope they stay that way.

If you want to book a tent at Nana’s Lodge call Joe Richards (+231-6-814-795).

If you want something a little more wilderness and a little less luxury call Sam Browne(+231-6-604-084). Sam is a local fisherman in Robertport who has been very helpful in arranging for the safety and security of several of the camping trips I’ve been on at Robertsport. We’ve paid him $10 USD per car to keep the vehicles safe and a little extra to keep an eye on the tents. He’s also helped some clueless expats when they needed it. This past trip we were struggling to get a fire started with rain soaked wood. Out of nowhere Sam and another guy show up with a piece of scrap metal with a pile of red hot coals. We were also a little worried about our stuff being by itself as we headed out for Nana’s bar. I felt confident Sam would keep the place secure, but being his first time, Sean had his doubts asking, “Where is this Sam guy anyway?” Probably 5 seconds later Sam and a small entourage appeared out of the darkness. Sam was there to make sure everything was ok. I told Sam what we wanted to do and our predicament. He said no problem, looked at a member of his party and said, “Stay here and watch their stuff.” When we returned a few hours later, the same man was curled up next to our tent with a sleeping bag. Everything was still there. I’m not sure how much I like the thought of someone sleeping on the beach to guard my fancy, over priced camping gear so I can drink a beer, but he’s getting more money doing that than he would otherwise. And I’d rather contribute directly to the local economy than through a private security service. So if $100 for a tent is a little steep or you wana have a more primitive camping experience, call Sam. Otherwise, call Joe.

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
<><

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
<><

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
<><