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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John
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Kate, a freelance reporter, Adam, works for the Clinton Foundation, and I went to Robertsport this weekend to camp and surf. We had a late start and a little trouble at a immigration check point so we arrived a little late. Why you need to have immigration check points in the middle of the country, in counties that don’t border other countries is beyond me. Unfortunately Kate had forgotten her passport so she had to pay a fine. The guards asked if in our country you could just go around with out a passport. Probably not, but you can drive from Florida to California and never be stopped at a check point. On the upside, we did get to pass over some fun little bridges that were being worked on. It was at this point Kate got out and walked. Adam and I stayed with the ship.

Once we made it to Robertsport we put the 4Runner in 4wd and cruised the beach till we found a suitable spot for camping. We found a lovely camp site underneath and old cotton tree. We setup the tent and had a fire going just as it got dark. We had a little trouble with the fire since everything was wet from the rains. Kate and Adam are both British, and they had purchased our food supplies so we had proper meals at all times. For dinner we had toasted bread and bacon or sardines and matubal. For breakfast we had toast, eggs, and tea.

We also had marshmallows after dinner. I haven’t done that in a while. We also went down to the beach and look for phosphorescence every so often we could see a little spec of light. The seas were rough so it was hard to make anything out in all the foam. We also met some very drunk South Africans who had built a small bar on the beach. The bar was empty, but they had plenty of beer. They invited us for a sit so we hung out with them for a while. They have plans to build a hotel on the beach. I think I’d rather the beach stay remote and natural. When we woke-up, they had already started drinking again. One of the guys was like a big kid, half of me was like, “this guy is ridiculous” and half of me was like, “That’s what I wana be like when i grow up.”

After packing up we started up the car to drive down to where the surf is. We made it about 10 yards before the car stalled. (To make things worse I could even get the key out of the ignition. After a little prayer I realized the car was in neutral and wouldn’t let the key out till it was in park… oops) We spent 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong. While waiting we played with some of the kids on the beach. At one point we had a local mechanic come and look at the 4Runner.

The battery was fine so he figured it must be a fuel problem. This is logical. So we checked the fuel line under the car, it was a little loose, but nothing sever. Then we checked the fuel line in the engine. The mechanic wanted to take off the air intake hose and put some gas right into the carburetor. This would be fine, except that the truck is fuel injected. So there is no carburetor, just fuel injectors that precisely and efficiently inject gas right into the cylinder. I asked if he knew about fuel injected engines. He said yes, but then he kept trying to tell me that this little rubber vacuum hose that led into the throttle body was the fuel line. I tried to explain to him that there’s a metal fuel rail on a fuel injected engine, and that’s where the gas enters the fuel injectors . The fuel pressure would be too great for the little rubber hose he found. It was at this point that I realized we were in trouble.

Thankfully, an UNMIL staff member who was near by suggested we check the fuses. We checked them and sure enough, one had been blown. Not only had it been blown, but someone had already wrapped some wire around the fuse to short it out. This wire had fallen loose and caused our problems. We refitted the wire and the cart started fine. I was a little worried about this since fuses are there for a reason, and something at some point had blown it. So I decided to take the truck to a mechanic when I got back to Monrovia.

In the meantime we went surfing. The waves were great. I wish I had pictures but the surfing beach is a hike from where the cars go and we didn’t want to bring valuables with us. The biggest waves were about 6′ high. It was easy to get out and a lot of fun. I even caught a little wave. My only complaint was that it was a little crowded with 5 other surfers in the water at one break, and they were all better than me. So they’d catch a wave before I could and I’d get out of their way so my board wouldn’t get ran over again.

On the whole it was a fun trip with a little excitement. We made it back to Monrovia just fine. We didn’t even get stopped by immigration. The next day I went to the Toyota dealership. I figured they’d have the diagnostic computer for the engine. I wanted to make sure the hack job on the blown fuse hadn’t damaged the engine control unit (ECU). But they didn’t have the diagnostic computer! They only had the one for diesel engines. I asked if anyone in the whole country had it and they told me No Lemon did.

So I went to No Lemon. This place was awesome. It even smelled like a garage in the States. In 3 hours they replaced the blown fuses, tested the ECU, found that the wrong sparks plugs were in the truck, and that the fuel filter had been put on backwards. They fixed it all and then washed the car, all for $125.00. Not too bad. The guy I bought the car from had boasted about how he had only used genuine Toyota spark plugs, he even showed me the receipts. So either he went to great lengths to decieve me, or his mechanic was ripping him off. I imagine it’s the latter.

And special thanks to Kate for taking all these pictures and documenting our adventure.

John
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This past Sunday Kevin, Marcel, Peter and I went to Robertsport to go surfing. Kevin and Marcel work for Samaritan’s Purse. Peter is a local who surfer, who has made friends with the Samaritan’s Purse guys. I woke-up at 5:30am, and road my bike to meet up with Kevin and Marcel. We then picked up Peter and were gone by 6.  Kevin drove pretty efficiently, so we made it to Robertsport from ELWA junction in 2:15:00.  Not half bad.

We first dropped Marcel off to do some kayaking.  Peter, Kevin, and I then headed off to the beach. After unloading the boards from the roof of the Land Cruiser, we walked for 20 minutes to Loco Beach. At one point we had to cut through the bush. It felt pretty cool to drive down a two tire-track dirt road to a beach, then hiking 20 minutes through the jungle to get to the waves.

We drove 2 plus hours at 6:00am because Robertsport has a point break. That is a point along the coast that the waves break around.  In our case, this creates a wave that reliably breaks from left to right. The only problem is the point is made of rocks. So there are a few rocks in the water to keep an eye out for. Most of the time the water is deep enough that this isn’t an issue, but you  do have to be careful not to surf to close to shore.

Some of the waves were pretty big. Kevin thought they were around 5’ to 6’. They were bigger and more powerful than the waves I was used to, so I never got up. It was a good work out and I learned a lot. Kevin and Peter both had some good rides. Peter is a really strong swimmer, so he was able to paddle into any wave, ride it in, and then paddle back, all without taking a break. Kevin was practicing riding up on top of the breaking waves.

Sadly, all three of our boards were damaged in the course of the day. Peter’s board incurred a mysterious stab mark. Later in the day, Kevin and I tried catching the same wave. Kevin’s board cut across mine leaving a little gash. My board knocked Kevin’s fin loose. Kevin also banged- up his hand on his board.

Thankfully all the damages were repairable, so it was still a good day. Just getting to see the beach at Robertsport was nice. Tan sandy beaches, blue water, and lush green jungle laid over jagged hills, the beach is simply beautiful. We were the only people on the beach. It was our own little private slice of heaven.

John
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So week two has drawn to an end. Here’s a list of the exciting events that have transpired. I meant to make some of these their own separate posts, but who has time for that?

I went to church this weekend. Last time I was here I met a local pastor, Luther Tarpeh, who was trained in Nigeria during the war and has since returned. He’s traveled quite a bit, and is well educated so I enjoy hearing him speak. My favorite driver and entrepreneur, Jonathan Saah, drove me to church. We had my surfboard on the roof of his car, and since church is on the way to the beach, I figured we’d kill two birds with one stone. On the way to church, we got pulled over by the local authorities for violating the traffic law by having something tied to the roof. Jonathan talked to them about it; I talked to them about it. I tried to get a more clear definition of this particular law in question but to no avail. So I asked if the car had a roof rack would it be OK? They said yes because it was made to carry things. So I explained that I had bought the surf bag and straps in America just to put this surfboard on this car. Showing that this was indeed made to carry surfboards on cars. At this point, we had been there for like 5 minutes and they had checked Jonathan’s paper work, which was legit. So they got bored, realized we weren’t going to give them a bribe, and let us go. Jonathan and I had a good laugh about the experience.

The church service was pretty good - a little different than what I was used to, but pretty good. I enjoyed Luther’s message on using our spiritual gifts for God, but they had this PA setup in this little bitty concrete classroom. I’m pretty sure they had no need for a PA in such a room, but they did, and the treble was turned all the way up. It was painfully loud. I wondered if the PA was broken, if no one knew how to operate an equalizer, or if this was the style, to play your music as loud as possible, or a bit of all three. It turned out the PA was Chinese, and all the labels on the knobs where in Chinese. Which is why they weren’t able to correctly tune the sound. Next time I’ll offer my assistance before the service. They had a 10 minute time when people gave testimonies of what God had done in their lives this week. I really liked that. I’m a big fan of the power of the personal story. One lady talked about how her daughter, who had been sick for a month, got better the day after her and the pastor prayed for her. I was also impressed with Luther’s desire to keep things on time. The church had much more of a charismatic flair than I am used to, as you’d expect in Africa, but Luther was the man in following God’s desire for order.

This church is located in Harbel, which is in the Firestone rubber plantation. I’m not a big fan of Firestone, and today didn’t make me like them anymore. The majority of the church members work for and live on the Firestone plantation. After the church service we had a baptism. They said it was going to be in the river. So I thought, “cool, a nice baptism in a cool tropical river.” It turned out to be a damned up river where everyone washes their clothes, and as best I could tell, where the sewer run-off goes; it was disgusting. Luther prayed that God would bless the water; I prayed that he would sterilize it. It just blew my mind that this is how these people live, and they find it acceptable to swim in such filth. It’s also revolting that an American company, that could easily afford to provide clean running water for it’s employees and proper sanitation, doesn’t. There’s no way they’d expect an American employee to live this way, and what’s the difference between an American and Liberian? I’d pay $10 more for a tire if I knew these people would be living an acceptable life. In Firestone’s defense, they do provide housing, schools, and a clinic for their employees, and their employees are the fortunate 20% of Liberians who have jobs, but Firestone still falls far short.

It was cool to see the baptism and the excitement of the people there. They kept singing “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,” which was really cool. I’m a big fan of their prolific use of old hymns. No Passion CDs or talk of the latest David Crowder album here. They have some local songs that I’m sure I’d like if I could understand them. I really like old hymns.

The night before, at a party, I met a girl who’s boyfriend surfed. So after church I met up with them at Al Jehazi beach. Apparently, this is the beach to surf at. I met four other surfers there. The waves were pretty big, and I didn’t get up, which sucked, but it was still cool meeting other surfers. I’m hoping to surf with them more. In the pictures to the right you can see Sam catching a nice ride.

Saturday I went surfing at Thinker’s Village beach. In this picture, you can see me seconds before getting nailed.

In other news, I obtained by residency permit on Monday. I’m now able to live here for a year. I received a TRC ID card. Now I’m all official. And my first Ecobank checkbook arrived. At first, I wasn’t too impressed; the checks are just stapled together. But then I noticed that they do have holograms, so now I’m impressed. My Wachovia checks don’t have holograms.

This is a picture of the TRC public hearings in the Centennial Pavilion in downtown Monrovia just so you guys can get an idea of what they look like. This is the building where Liberians inaugurate their presidents.

John

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Saturday I caught a ride with the fine folk at the Clinton Foundation to Sajj beach. This was my second time there. I didn’t like it much the first time since the break is about 300m from the shore and there are rocks in the water, which at some points stick out of the water. The last time I was here I couldn’t get out past the break. I was way out of shape. This time I went out north of the break and then came in behind it. I was still exhausted from the long haul out there and didn’t get up on any waves. The waves break suddenly and all at once across the span of the wave. Ideally, the wave would break from one end to the other in a smooth fashion.

But, on Sunday I chartered a taxi to Thinker’s Beach. While the waves still broke all at once, the break was only 100m, or so from shore, and no rocks. I had a great time. It was easy to get out past the break, and I was able to get up on 3 waves. I met a German fellow named Martin who also brought a board to Liberia. He has a nice 7’-6” fun shaped board. But when he ordered his board it didn’t come with a leash, so he was using a rope which was beating him up. At the end of the day Martin even gave me a lift back into town, which was way sweet. Saved me the $7 for a taxi ride back into town.

There were also a few boogie borders out there. I think with some more practice I’ll get better at catching a wave and then turning into it. A few waves did break from end to end, but being at such a low skill level, I wasn’t able to take advantage of this, nor did I have the patience to wait for such perfect waves. The only down side I saw with my experience was the cost of a bottle of water at Thinker’s Beach, $3. A little steep.

John

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So I got to do a little surfing this weekend. I met Layal, a Canadian who works for the NGO Right to Play. They use games as a means to teach children life and health skills. She has a car and likes to go to the beach, so Sunday we went down to a beach club a few miles south of town. The beach club was nice, but the waves were bad. The break was like 200 meters from shore with some rocks in between. So I got a great workout, and learned that I’m really out of shape (no surprise there). I almost got up once or twice, but mainly just worked on strengthening the arms.

I’m hoping to find some more surfing buddies so we can go together after work and stuff. It looks like GT will be getting a car here which will be awesome for surfing. I’ll keep you guys posted on that.

John

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