In lieu of an expensive out of country vacation for the holidays myself, Mathew Cramer, Debbie Dezutter, Elena Pellizzaris, Brenda Pigeon, Will Traynor, and Andrew Tyler drove down to Harper, Liberia. Harper is the capital city of Maryland County. It’s on the South Eastern most tip of Liberia. It’s the furthest city you can drive to in Liberia from Monrovia. GPS and Google Map files.

Harper was one of the original cities founded by freed American slaves and has a lot of lovely southern United States influenced architecture. That along with some lovely beaches, and a point or two makes Harper a wonderful destination for a few in-country tourists. We were hoping to just relax in the city, and hopefully discover some new surf spots.

The road to Harper is notorious for being a huge muddy mess. It often becomes completely impassible in the rainy season. But we thought we’d come in the middle of dry season and miss all of that. Boy we’re we wrong.

The problem is a lack of drainage. A puddle of mud forms on the road and then a big 20 ton transport truck drives over it and pushes it down. This makes a little rut. Then another and another. Then after a while the little mud spot is now 6 feet deep “rutt” and even more water and mud have collected in the bottom of it. Then it gets so bad that someone cuts a bypass around that, but then the same thing happens, and the bypass turns into mud and water. As you can see from the picture on the right. These ruts got pretty deep. Here we’re digging out my 4Runner, code named Midnight. The tire ruts were so deep that my suspension was scraping the middle of the “road” and with the low traction I wasn’t able to move forward.

Things started off pretty easy. At first we just encountered low spots in the road with lots of water. Hear on the right you can see Andrew navigating his Xterra, code named Lorma Girl, through a small puddle. However things quickly escalated to 100 yard long ruts full of mud the consistency of oatmeal. On the left is Lorma Girl stuck in a massive rut. On this rut, I had opted to take the incredibly steep bypass to get around it. I’m still kicking myself for not taking a picture of my car scrambling up a 60 degree incline. Andrew opted for the slightly more traditional route and we eventually pushed and pulled him out.

All was well for us until we got about 40 miles south of Kanweaken That’s when we encountered this transport truck stuck in the mud. The truck had been stuck there for over 2 days. What’s more mind numbing is that this vehicle had succeeded in blocking all other traffic on the road. As we pulled up 3 transport trucks and a pick-up were waiting to continue south, and another pick-up was waiting to head north. As we walked up the drivers and passengers in the other vehicles told us to “get out your mats” and take a nap, because it would be a while. The pick-up truck heading north, had been stuck behind the transport truck for a day and a half. A day and a half! Thankfully we were North Americans (Andrew and Elena are Canadian) with a “if it’s not the way you want it, change it” attitude. So we changed it.

We surveyed the situation, decided that the West side of the road was best for a bypass and set to work filling in the mud with dirt, rocks, and bamboo we had cut down. This inspired the captain of the north bound pick-up, who sent his men over to help us dig. Then this inspired the other crews to start building their own road on the other side. After and hour or so of digging and chopping, armed only with two shovels, 3 machetes, and a pick axe, we were across. That was it, that’s all it took, unbelievable. These people had just been sitting there for a day and half. We worked for an hour.

At the risk of being ever so slightly politically incorrect, I’d like to say that this little incident perfectly illustrates what’s wrong with Africa. A problem arises and everyone stops, pulls out their mats and takes a nap. Then some white people show up. These good intentioned, underfunded folks fix the problem just enough to last for them to use it twice, and then leave. Meanwhile, an equally underfunded and unsustainable effort is underway, completely duplicating the other project. I’m not saying why it is this way, or how it got to be such a problem, I’m just saying, that’s the problem. I suppose for this to be a completely accurate analogy I’d have to work in a corruption angle. Anyway…

After that things only got worse and worse. We went through several unbelievably long and muddy ruts. You can see from this picture at the left how deep some of them were. This picture was taken as I stood on the side of the road.  I could literally just walk straight across the top of the car to the other side.

For me the worst part came when after 6 hours of plowing through mud we came to a spot we would later dub “The Triple Header” since it was three amazingly muddy sections all in a row. On the 2nd section Matt Cramer, who scouted out the sections and then relayed his findings back to the drivers via walkie talkies, informed me that I needed to back-up and shoot for the middle entrance to the section. It was pitch black, my windows and mirrors were all covered in mud. I knew Andrew was behind me so I backed up keeping an eye on him over my right shoulder, then BAM. I didn’t even know what I had hit. It was dark and I thought there was just road behind me. Turns out it was a abandoned transport truck. Thankfully, I did no damage to it at all. Sadly, I did total deform the rear drivers side of Midnight, and I busted out two of her windows. It did put a damper on things after that.

Minus smashing up my car, the driving was a lot of fun. The progression went from, “Awesome, some mud.” To, “seriously, the road is still getting worse.” And finally, “Bring it on!” By the end of it I had my technique down. 4 low, cause there’s no point in given it less than all you’ve got and getting stuck in 4 high. Gently, yet quickly, depress the gas peddle till the engine soars to 4000RPMs, then your off. Pretty much keep the wheels pointed in the direction of the rut, when you start to slide steer in the direction of the slide, but then back off when you start to straighten out. When you have to jump from one rut to another over steer into it and then quickly correct. Perhaps one of the best compliments I received on the trip was from an elderly Liberian gentlemen we had picked up outside of Fishtown. After I took the high revving, mud slinging, car bouncing, inaugural drive through our newly constructed road he came up to me with a huge smile on his face and said, “Ahh, you good driver.”

We arrived in Harper, 12 hours after departing, tired, very dirty, but safe, and happy. The good people at the Carter Center were kind enough to let us stay at their incredibly accommodating compound in Harper. I hope Laurie, their Harper office manager, is enjoying the bottle of Champagne we left for her in the fridge. We spent a lot of time, sleeping, reading, and relaxing in hammocks on the back porch. It was a great place to just hang out and enjoy having nothing to do.

Like I said we, or at least Matt and I, were hoping to find some new waves to surf. Unfortunately, the waves just weren’t there. We found some wonderful looking spots, but the swell just wasn’t happening. However, we did find some unbelievably lovely beaches. Like Fish Town beach, shown on the left. This is the first beach I’ve been to in Liberia where the water was calm and shallow 100′ out. Usually in Liberia you take 3 steps in and the water is up to your neck. The beaches are normally very steep, but this was anything but. It was also very pristine, as far as you could see there were no buildings, villages, clearings, anything, just water, sand, and palm trees.

Also at Fish Town was Skeleton Island. A few hundred feet from the beach is a small little island, maybe an acre or so big, where they put their dead. But they just leave the coffins above ground on the island. This makes for some rather macabre sites when you arrive on shore. Someone told me that they used to put the bodies there during the war, but I’m not sure why they still do it, and what really started it.

We also took advantage of being so close to Cote D’ Ivoire and popped over on market day. We didn’t have visas but decided to give it a try. The Liberian immigration officer was very nice to us. He asked us what we wanted to do, looked us over, and told us, “sure, just leave the cars.” He even let us park the cars close to his office so they’d be safe. Which was good since I was missing a couple of windows. So we hired a canoe and paddled across the river. Then the Ivorian immigration guys cared even less. He seemed totally uninterested in us white people. Which is strange, usually boarder crossings are a pain, and we didn’t even have the right papers. Anyway. We hung out for a while. The market wasn’t much but we did drink some Ivorian beer which was a nice change of pace. Cramer, met some nice Liberian ladies who were also there for market day and quickly made friends.

The trip back was pretty good. We took the advice of some locals and took the Karloken to Kanweaken bypass. We still had to go through the Triple Header again, but after that we missed a lot of nastiness, and the road was even a little shorter. Don’t ask why we didn’t do this the first time. Here is a little video montage of our 4WD exploits with some cometary.

I’d also like to take this time to talk about what worked and what didn’t work on the trip. Consider this a little product review of must haves, and must leave behinds for intense off-roading, on roads in developing countries. What broke: My expensive off roading Old Man Emu shock absorber. The bolt on the top where the shock attaches to the frame totally sheared off. This made for a very bouncy ride home. I had to be gentle with Midnight over those bumpy roads or else her back end would just swing out. Also we had a fair bit of over heating. Here Matt and I are pouring more water into the radiator. It seemed that caked on mud had a lot to do with it, but the problem persisted even after a few good cleanings. The 4WD system on the 4Runner. I got stuck in a really small bit of mud coming back from Fish Town and realized my front wheels weren’t spinning. After some Googling on my phone using Lonestar’s GPRS service we figured that the 4Runner had a pneumatically actuated front differential that engaged the front wheels and that, that was the problem.  But Googling on my phone wasn’t super fast or fun, so I called my dad in the states who Googled around some more and then based on his research suggested we switch the suction lines on the pneumatic actuator. Much to my surprise this worked. We just left 4×4 engaged from Harper to Zwedru. No point in taking chances. The brakes also took some intense wear. It seems the 4Runner has a metal plate around the front disc brakes to protect them, instead this just trapped rocks and mud in there and tore up the brake pads. Midnight is currently at No Lemon. Right now I’m just hoping the bill is under a thousand, cause I still have to pay for the body work.

We had 4 Midland GXT1050 walkie talkies with us. They were great for inter car communication, and coordinating our assaults on the rutts, but the chargers didn’t seem to hold the walkie talks tight enough for charging while on the road. I had a pair of Hela spot lights mounted to the front bumper, they were donated by Nick Conway, a friend back in the states. They were absolutely great for the night driving that we shouldn’t have done, but had no choice to do. I was also impressed with my Asolo boots. They were totally covered in mud, but my feet and socks were dry and clean. Also the wicking north face pants, and REI shirt I had were great. Depsite the heat, I recommend long pants for such trips, you’re gonna get dirty. Also the generic tow rope, shovels, machetes, bottles of water, and 2.5 million candle power flashlight were must haves. Andrew had a Wern winch that was super handy for pulling out other people, though we never needed it on our own cars.

And that’s about it,

John.

Just a quick surf post to let all interested parties know that Mamba Point went off today. For the first time since the end of rainy season last year, Mamba Point was rideable, and then some. Myself and others enjoyed some wonderful 6′+ waves that went on for days. We were able to pick-up the waves infront of the orphanage and then hop off when we were even with the old Ducor Hotel. All in all a great day. Looking forward to more large rainy season waves. I wish I had some pictures, but for someone reason everyone wanted to surf, and no one wanted to take pictures. Maybe next time. Today and yesterday a very lage swell has been hitting Liberia. This is responsible for our joy in Mamaba Point. People have told me that Robertsport was also huge today.

For valentines Leah Kaplan and I planned a fundraiser 80’s slow dance party. The funds were to go to a orphanage in Kakata, about an hour or so north of Monrovia. Anyway, it was obviously a lot of fun. We even got a few, not so slow dances in. People even dressed up for it, as evidenced by this photo to the left. We were able to raise well over $400 for the orphanage. To ensure that the money is properly used Orphan Relief and Rescue, a small NGO operating here in Liberia, will oversee the distribution of the money. Regrettably, Leah’s company pulled out of Liberia right before the dance, and she missed it. She was missed

Then the weekend after a few of us went on an exploratory surf trip to Buchanan in Grand Bassa County. Buchanan is about 2 and half hours away from Monrovia. The road there is paved, but it’s so tore up that you have to drive super slow to not hit every pot hole. It’d be better if it wasn’t paved and just smoothed out by the occasional grader or something. I had heard rumors that they fixed the road. These were not true.

We never found the beach were we’re supposed to. The directions we had said go to the end of the road. We had an in car discussion about what constituted the “end of the road”, and whether the people who wrote the directions were as “hardcore” as we were when defining the end of the road. In our quest for the end we took a sweet jungle by-pass to get around a tractor that was stuck in the middle of a one lane trail along the coast. It was sweet; we were literally driving through the jungle. I love moments like that. Sadly, I got my first flat tire in Africa from this little off-road jaunt.

Finally, after trekking for several minutes off the main road, we arrived at this amazing little village next to a river that let out to the ocean, it was beautiful. Unfortunately, the waves weren’t super great. We did have a fair bit of fun riding the class 1 rapids from the river into the ocean and then riding waves back into the river, just to get pushed back again. That was pretty cool, but took a lot of work to time it right.

In some more technical happenings, my crack squad of research assistants (RAs) and I did some major work to rebuild the wooden enclosure of the MObile Story Exchange System, or MOSES. The old enclosure was designed to be bullet proof. It housed our most important project and so needed to be strong. It also weighed 100lbs, took up all the space in the 4Runner, and had to be plugged in. So we redid a few things. The new system now comes in two halves. The bottom half is the power pack that houses two 12 volt 80amp deep cycle batteries hooked up in parallel and a 1500watt inverter/charger.  To date we’ve never run out of juice and have run for over 8 hours, it’s a thing of beauty. The top half contains an audio amplifier, two 6″x9″ speakers, the laptop MOSES runs on and the Plexiglas panel that the 19″ LCD is bolted too. The new system is much lighter (though the batteries weigh a lot) can easily fit in the back of the 4Runner, and doesn’t need power. It’s great. People at the TRC, where we built it, have told me, “Thanks for the hard work.” I think that’s the Liberian way of saying, “Nice work.”  Since I didn’t really do the hard work for them, and secretly, I really liked getting to use power tools again. My favorite part was getting the drill bits out of the drill for my RAs. The drill was made to be tightened and loosened by hand, but the RAs were hesitant to rev the drill and pop out the drill bit. Special thanks to Matt Cramer and Andrew Tyler for loaning me the tools.

Finally I got the first ticket of my life in Monrovia. I was on Broad street heading west at the Randal Street intersection.  I wanted to do a U-turn and as usual there was the normal crazy traffic, in which you wait your turn, edge forward and then either take your turn or wait for someone to let you in. But instead of pulling up past the little, I don’t even know what to call it, the thing the police stand on in the middle of the intersection to direct traffic, and then turning, I just started to turn. I had pulled about a foot forward when I noticed the cop, who had just noticed me and stood up to direct traffic and stop me. Then he realized I was white and waved me forward. He gave me a lecture about how that was illegal, I should have gone past the police stand.

I knew he was right, and that I was just being lazy with my driving. I didn’t want to “compromise” AKA bribe him to not give me a ticket. In fact, we even had a little tift where I was pointing out why compromising isn’t the way to go and he said, “But why this is Africa, you can’t change Africa”, and I looked him straight in the face and said, “I can try.” I don’t think he liked that very mcuh.One of my friends told me next time I get the, “this is Africa” line I should ask if they like their African salary, or African benefit package, if we should keep the 300 LD (5 USD) bribes, and the 100USD a month salaries. Well, I went with the usual call their bluff since they can’t write tickets and insist on a ticket stategy. To my amzement the commanding officer on the scene had a ticket book. This is defenitly a step forward, though still needs a little polish. For instance I was sited for “wreckless driving” and not obey the directing officer, who wasn’t directing anything till he saw a white man. I also got slapped with a $1500 LD, $25 USD. The cop that pulled me over said, “be nice to my friend and give him one thousand-five.” I’m pretty sure he was really saying, “show this guy he can’t change Africa, charge him a lot”. Everyone I talked to, Liberian and expat, said that was too much. Still beats the ticket price in America, though in America I would have just waited for my light to turn green, and we don’t put crap that you have to drive around in the middle of our intersections.

Paying the ticket was surprisingly pleasant. I had to go to the Ministry of Finance, pay the ticket, then take the receipt to the police station. The nice ladies in the ticket department were very helpful and had everything processed in a matter of minutes. To ensure that I paid my ticket the ticketing officer took my dirver’s license, and again I was amazed that they had it there waiting for me. So law and order is, slowly, coming back to Liberia.

So first of all let’s talk about the surfing. It’s been getting good lately. This picture to the left was taken at Kendeja, 30 minutes from where I live. And yes, that is me on that lovely little wave. It’s a still from a video that a friend took, so excuse the poor quality. This past weekend I was at Robertsport where we had 8′-10′ waves. I caught the biggest, longest, and awesomest wave of my life there. I was at Shipwreck beach, 100 meters away from the rocks where the shipwreck is, and I ended up past the next set of rocks, being dragged towards the 3rd set of rocks. It was sick. Sadly, my video crew wasn’t there. But I’m looking forward to more big rainy season waves.

Now onto some old business, Barack Obama became the president of America, and this was a very exciting time for people here. A large group of Americans and caring internationals gathered at the Krystal Ocean View hotel to watch the inauguration. A lot of Liberians were very excited. Everyone that was anyone had their Barack Obama t-shirt on

Not to be outdone by Americans, back in America a couple of true patriots threw an inaugural ball here. They hired the band from Garden Cafe which was a great choice. Those guys played all the latest hits, as well as some classics. As they night whined down they let Amy Kirkwood play guitar while I played bass. I haven’t played bass in a long time, so I enjoyed the chance to play. It was also nice surprising my friends with a hidden talent. Thankfully Amy played the only 2 songs I know how to play, Sweet Home Alabama and Steve Miller’s the Joker.

As part of my research duties I toured the Nancy Doe Market on 5th street in Sinkor. As you can see this is no ordinary African market. This 3 story concrete structure gives the market ladies (and a few guys) shade and a safe place to setup shop. You can find pretty much everything here, from the peppers pictured below, to rice, oil, and even the African version of Tupperware.

Finally we come to the issue of traffic. The past couple of weeks Chinese contractors have been painting the lines on the newly paved roads. While this is great news, especially when trying to decide what lane you’re in at night; it has caused some of the worst traffic I’ve ever seen. While it lacks the awe inspiring glory of a 16 lane parking lot in Atlanta, the halting of Monrovia’s only thoroughfare through town completely incapacitates the city.

This is only made worse by government employees, who are a little over zealous about getting to work on time, hoping over and driving in the wrong lane. Twice I’ve nearly had head on collisions with people who think they really need to be on time. Which is interesting, given that Liberia is not known for being punctual? I understand the President and Vice President have certain security concerns to worry about, so they get to drive in my lane of traffic, but it’s a little dangerous to the rest of us when every other government big wig comes flying around the corner in my lane. Hopefully, this will stop once the traffic resumes its usual level of chaos.

I just wanted to make a quick post saying that the surf has picked up noticeably in these last couple of weeks. We went from really small, disorganized and choppy waves to really small, organized, nicely shaped and consistent waves. So still small, but a lot of fun to ride and easy to catch. The later being important to me. The sets are even coming in a lot quicker than before. I’m hoping this marks the transition from the messy rainy season waves to the pretty dry season waves. I’ll keep ya posed.

Another change I’ve observed lately, that could possibly be related to the improved waves, is the weather. It’s been… almost cold. The other night I was beginning to almost start to regret wearing shorts. I drove home with the windows down and heater on. Kinda like what I would do in October in Atlanta. It was fantastic. The mornings have also been nice and… not hot. So that’s been very nice. It’s kinda like winter… sorta.

These two pics are me surfing in Robertsport. Again, not the biggest waves, but good clean fun none the less.

So yup, still way behind on the blog.

One of the notable things that has happened recently was the full moon party at Nana’s Lodge in Robertsport. Back in October Leah and I were talking about the lack of beach parties in a country with amazing beaches. So we decided to have one. We continued to talk and decided that what we needed was not just a party but an all inclusive weekend. So we talked to Musa, co-owner of Nana’s Lodge. We asked if we brought him 50 people paying $100 for all you can eat and drink for a night and two days if he could take care of the rest. Knowing a good deal when he sees one, Musa said yes. After further discussion we decided that 10% of the proceeds should go to a local charity in Robertsport. We didn’t want it to look like a bunch of white people were just partying it up for no good reason. So we gave $500 to the St. John’s Episcopal High School reconstruction fund.

We got to take a tour of the school and it was amazing. It was one of those few places you go to in Liberia and realize how nice the country was before the war came and ruined it for everyone. I hope the money will go far towards restoring the place to its original beauty. In this picture you can see the old church building on the school campus.

My favorite part of the party was the midnight moon light surf. I’m told that we picked the brightest full moon in the last 25 years for our party. So surfing at night was a lot of fun. The best part was that the water was so clear. We could see our shadows on the sand below as we floated over in the water with just the moon light. It was so amazing. One of those moments everything is so amazing it makes you wana believe in God.

Christmas has also happened since I last wrote. A mass exodus of expats occurred, but me, and a brave few, remained behind to hold down the fort. Christmas in Liberia was pretty nice. It was hot and sunny like every day here, so it didn’t feel at all like Christmas. Things quieted down a little and it was nice to relax at Christmas instead of running around from event to event. I spent Christmas day at my friend Christy’s apartment with my roommate Vishal, Leah, the people form Orphan Relief and Rescue, and Jacob and Keith, who do health work here. We had brunch, which seems to be very much in style amongst expats in Monrovia. Vishal and I headed out for a Christmas day surf.

In celebration of Christmas Monrovia decked the halls, or at least decked a few sidewalks and street lights. The street lights were quite impressive. As you can see from this picture on the left, lights were strung from light pole to light pole in front of the executive mansion. Lights also graced Broad Street and the bridge to Bushrod Island. It was beautiful. While it does seem kinda like a waste of money while people are hungry, laying in dilapidated hospitals, and standing in class rooms with no chairs, but it is a very nice sign of progress and hope. Not long ago the Liberian Electric Company (LEC) wasn’t operational, now they can power Christmas lights. Not bad.

Right down the street from the mansion, at UN Drive and Camp Johnson road, was this wonderful display of Christmas tackiness. How a mechanical dancing Santa made it to Liberia is beyond me. I’m just glad that this isn’t how the government chose to show its Christmas spirit.

In this picture flat mate Vishal and I are giving our security guards their Christmas present. We bought a 50kg bag of rice for the day shift, and one for the night shift. I think that made us their favorite tenants. We also gave our maid the week off. I don’t think she really understood it at the time, I don’t think she’s used to taking a Christmas holiday. I also realized later that she probably thought we were trying to get rid of her with out giving her a gift. So we called her up and had her come back over and take the first crack at the bag of rice. She seemed happy after that.

A lot of Liberians asked me for “my Christmas.” Another popular saying was “my Christmas on you-O.” While I do like to help those I can, the entitlement that people asked with really bothered me, especially when people who I’ve already helped a lot were asking me for their cut. It was obvious that it wasn’t about friendship or being nice to the ones you love, it was about them getting something out of me. Granted, they live on the edge of absolute poverity and starvation, so they have every reason to take advantage of any situation that presents itself, but just the way they go about it, is so… not enticing. I’d really like it if one low income Liberian would get it, and figure out that they’ll do so much better if they really are my friend.

But all in all it’s been pretty darn good, and I’m blessed enough this holiday season to give out a few “my Christmases” to people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

John

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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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John
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