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Allow me to begin by enlightening you with some facts-of-life in Monrovia.
First topic: nightlife.
The nightlife of Monrovia can be best described by it's streetlights. They exist, but they are riddled with bullet holes. They don't light up because the power station for the capitol was destroyed during the 14 years of civil war that ended in 2003.
Second topic: Commerce.
Fairly large, room for lots of commerce. Three piers, one container dock, a lightering station for tankers, and approximately sixteen shipwrecks crippling the port's productivity including one on ship heeled over on the container dock.
Third topic: Cultural food.
In Liberia, most people eat once a day, unless they have to pay for something else, like going to the hospital, or bribing a police officer. On Jamaica Road, just outside of the port, I have a favorite restaurant. It's called, "Food Ready Now," or if it's closed, "Food Not Ready." They have a menu consisting of rice and fufu, the typical meal there cost 30-40 Liberian Dollars (about 50 cents). Sometimes you get a piece of meat or fish with your rice or fufu.
Fourth topic: Accommodations.
Looking South from the port of Monrovia, you will notice a large hotel perched delightfully on top of a large hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. This is Ducor Hotel, fully equipped with a swimming pool, elevators, and a marble dance floor. Unfortunately, the Hotel did not remain untainted by the long civil war and no longer has running water, windows, doors, electrical cabling, furniture of any kind, or the kind of atmosphere that would entice you to enjoy a dance on the marble floor, even if you were to over look the human excrement covering it.
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These facts-of-life are not happy thoughts, for anyone. But I would like to suggest that the people of Liberia are not without hope or happiness. While their condition is sever and their help is limited, they remain hopeful of a prosperous and peaceful future.
Last Tuesday, I had dinner at Food Ready Now. The cook, Mama Israel is constantly cheerful. Her son Israel, the bus boy, is usually playing with his Matchbox toy car. I asked him if it was fast and he told me, "No. But I still like it a lot."
When you ask a Liberian, "How are you?" the typical response is, "Tank Ga!!!" (or "Thank God!").
Most people smile and wave at westerners. Instead of blaming us for their situation. They also sing a lot.
A while back, I took a day trip to Buchanan, the second largest sea port in Liberia (currently closed due to wrecks). This was a common sight on the trip to the town.
A lot of people in Liberia get their livelihood from the sea by way of fishing. Most people fish out of canoes such as this one.
I think the saddest thing about this country is that the people here are just like people else-where. The difference is that a few people have abused the power that they have had so that they could have more power, and the little man has become corrupt because that is the only way he has found to survive. Not all people here are corrupt. Not all people in power here are corrupt, but I think that it is the norm. I think that what Liberia needs is a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift from looking at their situation to looking at their God.
