I had the chance to visit Kpatawee Falls in Bong County earlier this month. I drove up there with Gaurav, Meredith, Andrew, and Guthrie. We had originally started off with a few other people but their vehicle broke down not to far from Monrovia, so we forged on alone. We drove up Saturday afternoon and stayed at a guest house right outside of Gbanga. The name of the guest house escapes me, but it was a nice place. I brought my GPS along for the trip and have a Google Earth file of the trip including both the hiking and the driving, and for those of you who own a Garmin GPS you can import this Garmin Data file into your GPS if you want to follow our path.

Guthrie had been to the falls before and had been to the first and second falls, and had heard of a 3rd set of falls, but wasn’t sure how far they were. So we packed as though we’d be on a 6 hour hike, but it ended up being much shorter than that. I think it took us just under an hour to reach the third and final falls, which weren’t that impressive. The picture at the right is the 2nd set of falls. And the picture up top is the 1st set of falls.

The parking area is right at the foot of the first set of falls and is fenced in and well groomed. We arrived really early so there was no one there when we set out, but when we returned there were a few locals standing guard. They charged us few Liberian Dollars per person for security and upkeep of the park. They even gave us a receipt. It was all very professional. We ended up having a lot of fun swimming around the falls. A couple kids from a nearby village showed us which rocks you could jump off of and not break your neck, so it was a lot of fun. The picture to the left  is the parking lot, and the one on the right is looking down from the top of the falls. On the way home we made this short little film.

In other news Flag Day was August 24th and I celebrated by decking out the car with this Liberian flag. Someone had the good business sense to get a bunch of these flags in time for the Liberian Independence (Independence from what?) day and Flag Day. I don’t know who it is, but it’s a great idea. Tons of cars had them and it’s nice to see some patriotism in Liberia.

Running off the success of the “Don’t Raze Me Broh” shirts, which you can see our lovely spokesmodels wearing here, we’ve made a 2nd run of “Trying Small” Obama shirts. We’ve even started to experiment with white ink. If you want one, act quickly, they’re flying off the shelf.

Finally, I wanted to thank the Carter Center Liberia for making the best bumper sticker of all time. So far I haven’t been pulled over. Check out the use of that article.

So let me give a little background here. Mary Broh is the Mayor of Monrovia, well sorta. She wasn’t elected by the people, she was appointed by Ellen, and I’m not sure (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that her appointment has been confirmed by the rest of the government. Broh has made headlines with her aggressive clean up campaign in Monrovia. She’s even sparked some public disturbances. While the city needs to be cleaned up, and definitely needs to have some zoning and right of way laws enforced Broh’s methods are a little harsh for such a fragile country. She just shows up and bulldozes homes and businesses that aren’t up to code, knocks over street stalls, kicks over wheel barrow and scratch card booths. She’s even physically assaulted a few marketeers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you’re like me, an expat driving around Liberia with a private car license plate, you probably get pulled over all for various traffic infractions you didn’t even you know you committed. If you’re fortunate enough to have a UNMIL, Republic of Liberia, Consular Diplomat, or Non-Governmental Organization (this only works when it’s on a shiny white SUV) license plate, this doesn’t apply to you. You can drive like an idiot all day long and not get pulled over.

The problem is, aside from the socioeconomic profiling that stems from corruption, that no one really knows the traffic law. Can I legally put a surf board on the roof of a taxi? Is it illegal to make a U-turn when there are no traffic signs in the country? What is the speed limit on a pot holed road in a shanty town?

Well, a while ago I got pulled over and after talking my way out of it, I agreed to buy a copy of the Liberian Vehicle Traffic law from the officer for $20. A day later I had my copy of the law. It was in a very nicely bound book. Each page seemed to be photocopied out of an even older book. Just by looking at it I got the feeling that somewhere, some Liberian police officer was missing his copy.

I think the law is dated to some time around the ’70s. So it may not be the most up to date law, but it’s the only law you can get. There’s no driver’s hand book, or other publication that informs the public on how to drive. In light of this lack of information I’ve posted the entirety of the book here for anyone to educate themselves on how to drive in Liberia. I also had a little help from an independent scanning contractor.  I hope this will lead to a better informed, and safer driving public. If nothing else I’d especially like to point out section 6.35.6, which discusses the use of high beams. This is one of my pet peevs here.

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 1 – Cover to p369 (8 pages).pdf (5.1mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 2 – p370 to p376 (7 pages).pdf (2.9mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 3 – p377 to p400 (24 pages).pdf (10.2mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 4 – p401 to p420 (20 pages).pdf (8.5mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 5 – p421 to p439 (20 pages).pdf (8.1mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 6 – p440 to p446 (7 pages).pdf (2.9mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 7 – p447 to p458 (11 pages).pdf (4.5mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 8 – p459 to p467 (9 pages).pdf (3.7mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law 9 – p468 to p492 (25 pages).pdf (11.6mb)

LIB Vehicle Traffic Law(pdfs).zip (57.8mb)

So last we left off, Adam and I were in Prague and had seen some hills, watched the latest X-men movie and listened to some classical Music. To the left is our favorite sausage stand in Prague. I do miss $2.00 sausages.

Towards the end of our stay in Prague we discovered the areas around the castle where the moat and the gardens are.  I really liked this area. Mainly because it wasn’t super toursity. There were hardly any people there. I think it’s because I live in Liberia, but touristy stuff just doesn’t appeal to me. A hundred all shops selling “Prague Drinking Team” shirts seems so repulsive. But the gardens were way cool and moat was slick too.

So after Prague we headed back to Germany. Our first stop was Dresden. I really like Dresden. Apparently Dresden was bombed back into the stone age by American bombers in WWII. We sure are big fans of air strikes aren’t we? So the whole city has been completely rebuilt this century. This was evident by the wide streets, side walks, and plenty of parking. But they still kept the European aesthetic. So it was the best of both worlds. Car and pedestrian friendly, but with old world charm. We visited this old church that had just finished being rebuilt a couple years ago. That was awesome. The church was really pretty, and it was also kinda cool seeing that style of building looking so new. I felt like the interior wasn’t real since I’m used to old cathedrials with their drewry colors. This place was all bright and very pastel. Felt a little like a Precious Moments church or something.

From Dresden we went to Wittenberg to visit the church that Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to.  Wittenberg was a fairly quite and small town. The church is part of a college and was built into some other education buildings, so it didn’t like like your typical church. The door that the thesis was nailed to burned down a long time ago, and since then they have replaced it with two iron doors that have the 95 thesis on them. Adam and I are both Protestant believers, so it was neat to be at place where such a defining moment occurred in the history of our faith.

The next day we head to Düsseldorf, Germany where we met up with Dana Rosen. Dana used to live with me in Monrovia back in 2008. Dana and her parents were kind enough to let us stay with them for two nights. They had a really nice apartment in the Düsseldorf suburbs. In Düsseldorf Adam and I were on a mission to drive really fast on the famed German Autobahns. We had wanted to rent a BMW 330 or BMW 6, but when we called around to the local car rental agencies we were only able to find a 318d. I know, a diesel, not what we had in mind. None the less, we didn’t let this stop us. We were able to hit 220kmph, or 130mph. I know this isn’t that fast, and someone is going tell me how they did 150 in  Porche across TX, but A. this was done totally legally, and B. I was going that fast on cruise control. I do love cruise control. While in Düsseldorf we ate at a great steak place and then the next night hit up a Thai restaurant. For me this was huge. I so miss Thai food. Adam and I also made this stop motion video of our driving in Germany.

Dana’s father works for Siemens doing power generation, so we asked him about the huge windmills we’d seen all over the country. He said the area covered by the wing span of the blades is equal to a soccer field. And that each one generates 3 mega watts. Coming from a country that is powered solely a bunch of 1-200 kilo watt generators this was just amazing. I mean all you’d need is 2 or 3 of these and you’d have more than enough power for all of Monrovia. Granted Monrovia doesn’t have enough wind, but still. The really crazy part is that we probably saw a couple hundred windmills in Germany and they only make up 3% of German’s power.

After our two day sojourn in Düsseldorf we drove to Amsterdam. The first day we got there we just found this sweet little English style pub and watched the French open, played darts, and hung out. It was really cool. Every time someone walked in everyone at the bar would turn and be like, “Hey Charley.” It was like being at Cheers or something. It was way cool. The next day we walked around and checked stuff out. Amsterdam was another terribly touristy city, so I just wasn’t terrible impressed. We walked through the red light district and it just felt trashy.

So later that day Adam and I parted ways. Adam stayed the night in Amsterdam and flew back to the states while I drove back to Brussels, dropped off the car and then flew out the next day. All in all an awesome trip.

So a while ago I was out doing some GT research work, and I kept seeing these dump trucks full of sand. A new on would roll past every 15 or 20 minutes. After wrapping up the days work we decided to check it out. Because of the regularity of the sand we thought they might have a back-hoe or front end loader on the beach, but no, it’s just a lot of guys.

I was probably the first white guy to ever show up on their beach. I met the owner, the manager, the head security guy, and everyone else. They were all very nice, and after some talking agreed to let me take pictures as long as I used them to show people how hard they are working here in Liberia. And they are working very hard. These guys are out here in the sun throwing shovel’s full of sand into dump trucks 14 feet in the air non-stop.  They asked me to appeal to the international community for assistance. They’d like a back hoe. I think it’s just awesome that they have jobs and are working so hard. Others in Liberia turn to less honest means, and even more just sit around a do nothing. So here’s to these guys for being motivated.

And on a slightly related note check me out on this wave at Robertsport from the swell that rolled through three weeks ago. Needless to say it was awesome. And yeah, my stance needs some work.

So yeah, I kinda left off in the middle of the story and then started another road trip. What can I say, I’m a terrible blogger. Anyway. So Day 4 we make it into Guinea. Guinea was awesome. The roads were better, they were worn and had character. They weren’t some newly cut trail made by the UN that washed out every 3 days, they had grooves worn smooth by thousands of vehicles. It was a lot of fun to drive on. Then we got to the paved road, which even had a shoulder, and I made the mistake of taking this picture. The guard at the check point saw me and got really upset, but by the time he walked up to me I now had the GPS out, so I told him it was a GPS. Then Jeff took over in french and we spent the next hour trying to explain what a GPS does, and then explaining that we weren’t spying out the location of their bridges. I wanted Jeff to tell them about Google Earth, and that we already know where everything in the world is, but I didn’t think that’d be wise. So after a while we were allowed to go, but it was quite an ordeal. They even pulled the “In your country you don’t go around taking pictures of things” line, which we can’t stand, because America is free country, and as long as your not on a military base, you can take pictures of anything and anyone.

We got to Nzerekore and spent the night in the Hotel Bakoly. Jeff and I went to the market and bought some vegetables and then the nice lady at the hotel whipped up an amazing salad. We all ate it and felt great. I also discovered a crack in the frame of the cargo rack of my bike. So we took it to the local welding shop where they stuck a piece of rebar into the hallow tube frame and welded it all back together, stronger then over.

On the way out of Guinea we had some of the most amazing driving ever. The road was windy, up and down, no gravel, and best of all, there were no villages along the way to make you slow down. It was awesome. I crouched down low, and gassed it. I was flying around corners as fast as I could. Then, I got passed by a Guinean cyclist. I tried to keep up, but couldn’t. Then, 10 minutes later, I got passed again, and this time, by a guy who had a passenger. So much for my awesome driving skills.

Right at 5 we pull into Liberia. We got stopped by immigration because I didn’t have my yellow fever card. I’ve been in and out of countries in Africa 7 or so times and have never been asked for it, now the one time I forgot it, I’m asked for it. We told the immigration officer that we wouldn’t have residency permits if we didn’t have yellow fever vaccines and after a while they let us pass.

We spent the night in Ganta and had dinner at the legendary restaurant, Abudja. As usual it was delicious. We then spent the night in some guest house that had DSTV. We watched a wonderful National Geographic show on poisonous animals and talked about how we’d be screwed if we got bit by a snake in Liberia. I’m told that all the anti-venom in the country is in some hospital in Sinoe or Maryland, and we weren’t driving near those counties.

The next day we headed to Buchanan along the rail road from Yekepah. It started off as a wonderful drive, but got more and more… what’s the word… developed. Wide roads, they got smooth, traffic even. It was just lame. The upshot is that we went through 3 counties in Liberia and only stopped at one check point. Compare this to my European vacation where we drove through 5 countries and were stopped at, well, there were no check points.

In Buchanan we visited DJ Bob who had just moved the world famous club “Black and White” form Harper to Buchanan. As always the place was looking good and Bob’s remixes were the delight of the evening. We even got a tour of the place by Mrs. Bob. Which included their stash of 90’s arcade games. I was very excited to see that shooter game “Maximum Force”. I love that game.

The next morning we easily crused into Monrovia. Both tires on my bike were terribly out of round and I needed an oil change, but life was good, and we were alive. Next I’ll finish the European road trip, but first I need to finish uploading all the pictures, and now that I’m back in Liberia, that’ll take the rest of the week and then some.

Check this out. A story was published on cnn.com about the work Georgia Tech is doing here.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/06/09/Liberia/

Thursday, day 6, we just slept it, and pretty much did nothing all day. It was awesome. At night we went out, got some sausages, and saw the new X-Men movie. I was super excited to watch a movie in a theater. We don’t really get Hollywood releases in Monrovia. We also ran into the cop that pulled me over the day before and got a picture of him. He didn’t seem to understand what we wanted, but was very nice

Friday, day 7, we did touristy stuff. Adam and I walked around and saw the Prague Castle. The castle complex seemed cool, we walked around it a bit, but Adam and I didn’t go inside anything since you have to pay for tours. Something about super touristy stuff like that just doesn’t appeal to me. I think it stems from my living abroad in a country where there is no tourism, that a prepackaged walk through of some old building seems like a silly way to get to know a place. Like I’d rather walk around in a super market to get a feel from Prague than take a tour. I’m probably a bit of an elitist too, but like after walking my self around bombed out buildings and rain forest in Liberia it just seems less cool to have someone else do it for you with 30 other tourist and souvenir shops everywhere. The day there’s guided tour of Liberia’s shot up downtown will probably be the day I move on.  But anyway…

Speaking of war, we saw this really cool mural of the never ending cycle of war and development. Coming from Liberia I can really identify with it. We don’t have any idea who painted this or why. If you can’t make it out from the thumbnail it’s mobius strip with alternating tanks and bulldozers/backhoes/front end loaders on it. To round out our Friday we saw a string quartet perform some classical greatest hits including the Spring and Summer from the four seasona and Cannon in D. They played at an old church right by the river. We were a little weary of how touristy this may be, and it was touristy, but they played very well and I enjoyed it.

Saturday, day 8, we went to Cesky Raj. This translates to Czech Paradise. It’s the country’s oldest national park and is very pretty. We only saw a part of it where the forest is met by some very impressive sand stone pillars. We did a 3km hike that had lots of off shoot trails that led to some amzing views. And as always just seeing the countryside was amazing as always. We took a bus out to Cesky Raj so it was nice to just sit and watch the country side roll by and then fall asleep.

Today we have a guest blogger, my travel companion Adam McQueen:

I’ll be taking over for John today to provide a different perspective and give John a little break.

Some days start off better than others.  We were due for a stretch of bad luck since John embraced the local superstition and rubbed the gold dog on St. Charles bridge expecting good luck.  Those things never work.  So, against all logic, reason, experience and advice, we took the Smart Car into town again.  And what would have been a 10 minute tram ride turned into an hour drive.  As I tried to navigate us to a large American style breakfast we ended up on a pedestrian only street.  We passed a cop going the other way and when he didn’t flag us down we hoped we were safe.  Not so.  There were a couple cops on foot that pulled us over on the other end of the square.  1000 Kč later we finally found some parking and got breakfast served by a nice Czech woman doing a terrible Irish accent.

That’s the last time we drive in Prague.

After breakfast we drove out to the amazing Czech countryside.  Its tough to still be irritated about a traffic fine while cruising down tiny tree lined back roads through towns untouched by tourists.

We ended up at Konopiste, the home of Archduke Franz Ferdinand before his famous assassination.  The archduke was an avid hunter and had over 100,000 mounts lining the halls and rooms of his castle.  The only way to see the inside is on a guided tour and the only guided tours were in Czech.  So I am sure there are many interesting facts about the duke or the castle, but we don’t know what they are.  It was worth it to see the huge collection of trophys and weapons.

From there we set out again across the country side to Sedlec Ossuary.  Over 40,000 people unknowingly contributed to the macabre art within.  The small chapel was filled with pyramids, banners and a chandelier all made exclusively from human bones.  It was hard for me to connect these intricate displays with the idea that these bones once had names, parents, and dreams.  The poorly translated info guide had a surprisingly evangelical tone, which seemed out of place in a town with many lingering affects from the decades of communism. 

As we made our way back to Prague we stopped in Kutna Hora for some groceries and beer.  John really needed some dark beer and it’d been a few days since I’d sampled some local blue cheese.  You have to rent grocery carts just like the lugage trolleys at cheap airports.

After getting completely lost on the way back into town, we finally made it to Natalie’s apartment to hang out, watch the UEFA championship and just relax.

Today we didn’t do quite as much as previous days. We hung around Natalie’s apartment till 1:00 and then went out for lunch. On the way out we saw an army surplus store that had a confederate flag flying out side. Not what we expected to see in Eastern Europe.

So after lunch we walked around Prague for a bit and just took it in. One thing that caught our eye was how they tow vehicles. They don’t tow them, they just lift them off the ground and put them on the back of a truck and drive away with them. This is a little scary when you drive a 231lb Smart Car and they’re picking up a full size SUV.

Then Adam and I drove around the northern end of Prague looking for a shooting range we never found. That was kinda a bummer, and then we hit some horrible traffic trying to get back into town and got lost for a while.

After an hour we finally met back-up with Natalie. From there we had dinner at a great little place and then continued to tour Prague at night. We saw some really great squares and ended the night with a drink in a bar that was in some underground catacombs. It was way cool. On the walk home to the tram we got rained on and the temperature had dropped a little. I was very happy to get to wear my jacket for the first time since being stateside in November. I miss occasional cold weather.