Liberia has never been a place I wanted to visit. Civil war, Ebola and other diseases, high poverty and corruption, and a lack of developed tourist destinations have kept this formerly-thriving country from attracting even adventure travelers.
So when Ophelia found out that the Waterbearers were planning a trip there, we were at first not very enthusiastic about going. Getting there is both difficult and expensive, mostly because there is little demand for flights. But the more we read about the place and the projects that the Waterbearers were supporting, the more excited we got about going. And there was also the fact that two of our old friends from Vietnam, Justin and Jyoti, were living in Monrovia, the capital, where Justin works for an NGO. We hadn't seen them since we left Hanoi, and though we keep in touch on Facebook, we were anxious to renew our friendship face-to-face.
The Waterbearers are a group of women dedicated to providing clean water to communities around the world. O has been working with them for almost a year now. We knew that Liberia, as one of the poorest countries in Africa, was in great need of the help the group could bring, but though we have traveled extensively in impoverished countries, this was a step further than anywhere we'd gone before. We discovered, however, that one of the group's co-founders, Spryte Loriano, had lived in Liberia for many years, which gave us some confidence in traveling outside our comfort zone.
As we began to think seriously about going, we realized that we needed to fly to Spain and Morocco on our way, two countries that were high on our travel list. Suddenly, the whole shape of the trip fell into place.
We decided that O would go on to meet with the Waterbearers in Liberia after our visit to Madrid, while I would stay a few extra days in Spain and then Morocco before joining her in Monrovia. I'll cover my three-day visit to Casablanca in a later post.
There is only one flight a day from Casablanca to Monrovia. Somedays it's an eight-hour affair that goes though Ghana. On other days, there's a nonstop that takes only about four hours, Both flights leave at 9 PM, arriving in Liberia at either 1 AM or 7 AM if there are no delays.
There are always delays.
O's schedule was such that she needed to fly from Madrid to Casablanca to Ghana where she sat in the plane waiting for Monrovia airport to open. She finally arrived several hours late.
I got a direct flight. I was wary of arriving in Monrovia at 1 AM, but Justin was kind enough to arrange for a driver to meet me at the airport. When I got to the Casablanca airport, however, I found that my flight was on the board, but had no gate assigned. So I waited. Finally, a gate appeared. I checked in my luggage, and as it was disappearing down the belt, the agent told me that the flight had been canceled until the next morning.
Luckily, they were able to retrieve my suitcase and get me a hotel for the night. It turns out that the landing lights at the Monrovia airport had broken down, so flights could only arrive and depart during daylight hours.
I was able to get a few hours sleep before my 5 AM flight. It was overcast for much of the flight, but I got to see a bit of the countryside on the 45-minute drive from the airport to Monrovia.
Liberians seem to be quite entrepreneurial. There were lots of little business centers, shops, and restaurants all along the highway. English is the official national language, but there are also 20 or so tribal languages spoken. Most of these tribal languages have no written alphabet.
For those who can't afford a newspaper, there's the Daily Talk.The literacy rate of Liberia's 4 million people is about 47%, but the gender gap is startling: literacy among men is 62%, but only 32% among women
Great posture is one benefit of carrying everything balanced on your head.
And I do mean everything.
Education is highly valued in Liberia. The country has a high fertility rate: about five children per woman, and even though the infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world, over 60% of the population is under 25. Unfortunately, the education budget is low, and only those who are well off can send their kids to a private school.
Discarded shipping containers are repurposed as shops and homes.
There are beer bars and social clubs like the Don't Worry Spot.
An ice cream parlor by the beach.
The produce is amazing.
Liberia has the resources to be a prosperous country, but rapacious foreign corporations (historically American and European, but increasingly Chinese), endemic corruption, and lingering intertribal hostilities keep it poor.
But through the Waterbearers, we were able to find some rays of hope. They were able to meet with Kimmie Weeks, a native Liberian who has become an internationally-known advocate for children's rights. You can read about his amazing, inspiring story here.
O's group was able to bring clean water to hundreds of people, both in the countryside and in the capital's worst slum, West Point. Read her moving stories about her trip here: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.
Many people are working to help the county recover for the devastation of the past few decades. The owners of an ecolodge where we stayed have built a school for the children of a nearby village. We were able to arrange a visit.
The facilities are sparse by our standards, but they are a big step forward for the locals. The kids' enthusiasm was as contagious as their smiles.
They've also built a well that serves both the school and the village. They were very excited to get the water filters the Waterbearers brought.
I met O again at the Libassa Ecolodge, located on a beautiful stretch of beach.
The thatched cabanas are built in native style on the lushly-planted grounds.
And there's a beautiful, multilevel cascading pool. Just what we needed in Liberia's hot, humid climate.
The owners of the ecolodge have also built an enclosure for rescue animals like this duiker. Bushmeat is highly prized in Liberia,. Several endangered species are hunted for food, including elephants, pygmy hippopotamus, chimpanzees, leopards, duikers, and various monkeys. Bushmeat is often exported to neighboring Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, despite a ban on the cross-border sale of wild animals.
As I was waiting at the airport for my driver, A man walked by carrying a machete and a dead pangolin, also an endangered species.
As the sun set over the Atlantic, we had many margaritas and many laughs. And very few mosquitos.
P.
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