It's typhoid

Well I finally found out why I've been feeling horrible this past week. I have typhoid. Unlucky. Unlucky because I also had the typhoid vaccine before I came...but it's only about 80 per cent effective. I happen to be in that 20 per cent. I went to the clinic again. I explained my symptoms; I'd been there just a week before. At first the attendant suggested perhaps it was the change in the weather, or maybe I needed to turn down my air conditioning. I asked for a typhoid test. It came back positive. At least I know now why I've been feeling ill.

Reminder: Pay your taxes!

I got spammed today. By text message from MOF. The message said, "Pay your taxes for better education of your children, the provision of good health facilities, housing, good roads and better security for all".

I suppose it's a pretty effective way to get the message across, but really, how many messages do they need about paying your taxes? And with the recent presidential decree that means those who earn less than, I think, 40,000 Liberian Dollars (just over US$600) a year don't pay income taxes and with 85% unemployment, I'm not sure who these messages are aimed at. Perhaps it's to businesses? This isn't the only avenue I've seen used to disseminate the message; you see posters all over the place. Best way to expand the tax base?

Census taking

About this time last year, Liberia took its first census in over 20 years. A big undertaking, encompassing a census and housing survey. A lot has changed in the past 20 years; with mass migration and significant population changes, particularly Monrovia. A lot of people came to the city during the conflict and stayed. Monrovia used to be a small city with a population of only a couple of hundred thousand, but now has about a million inhabitants. Liberia itself is only about 3 1/2 million.

So a census was conducted over a few days in 2008. But they also did it over Easter, so I'm not sure how accurate and indicative it was of actual population patterns.

At least it's not malaria

So I've been feeling ill for the last week. Monday I decided to visit the clinic; my first visit. There was the queue outside on the bench, then I was shown to the registration room where I registered at one table, then paid the consultation fee at another. With my receipt in hand, I went to the main building, where I sat in another queue. Had my temperature and blood pressure taken. Another queue. Several queues, lab visits, walks from building to building, I had my malaria test. A small prick on my finger, and then blood smeared on a slide. Remarkably simple. No sign of malaria, the lab tech said. That's a relief. But neither could they tell me what was wrong with me. So I've been sick, wondering what illnesses I may have contracted, not knowing. I thought about going back to the clinic again, but I wondered if it would help. Today, though, I have made it out; I think it's getting better.

St. Patty's Day...

I find there's usually two things you find in each city: a Chinese restaurant and an Irish pub. There are a couple of Chinese restaurants here, but surprisingly no Irish pubs. But there is an English pub, with a good ol' English name: The Red Lion.

St. Patrick's Day rolls along, and of course we had to visit the pub. And have some Guinness - one of the few beers they sell here, though it's only available bottled and tastes completely different. I never thought I would, but I actually missed going to the pub.

The Red Lion is a small pub off Broad Street downtown. Inside, there's the requisite bar and red soft sofas and wooden tables. You could have been anywhere in the world, so long as you didn't look outside. They even had a guy playing a guitar in the corner, though it was a strange, eclectic mix of American pie, Elton John, and other random songs. I did have my Guinness though!

Obama Mania

Another photo!

They really do love Obama here. Here's a filling station on the way to Thinker's Beach. In Congotown there are signs for Obama Groceries, and downtown, there's an Obama Video Center...

This is for Adam

It's all about food.

A few of you have asked what the food is like. What is Liberian food? From my experience so far, it's mainly a lot of rice, cassava, soups and stews. And bush meat.

What is bush meat? Basically whatever they capture in the bush. If you're lucky, it's dik dik (a kind of antelope) or monkey, and if you're not so lucky, it's giant rats or other such things. It's usually served in a soup (so you can't always tell what it is...), and mostly found in the country-side. I haven't had it in the city though I'm not really looking for it...

Otherwise, there's rice. Lots and lots of it. In fact, the vast majority of their rice is imported, though they do grow rice here. There's also lots of cassava, in a variety of forms, with fantastic names: fufu (a doughy mound of pounded cassava, usually served with soup); doughboy (a slightly coarser mound of cassava - though really I'm not sure if I can taste the difference); acheke (grated cassava such that it kind of looks like rice); bong fries (yes, cassava fries!).

Quite a few of the meals consist of some type of stew/soup with meat (usually a variety of different types) served with rice or cassava. Some of the dishes on the menu that I've tried:

Palm butter - a reddish-yellow stew/sauce made from palm nuts
Jollof rice & fried chicken (pictured above)
Palava sauce (it's a slimey vegetable, as it was described to me when I ordered it; and it is)
Collard greens
Cassava leaf
Potato greens
Fried plantains, fried fish
Goat soup

The fish is great here, though you usually see these tiny over-cooked fish sold on the side of the streets. Shrimps are great too. Have to check out how to buy fresh seafood. I did have sushi here the other night; it served the need but wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

Fresh vegetables, sadly, are not so common. It's fairly easy to find bananas and pineapples - I have to find the mangoes! I'm told it's the beginning of mango season...

There are also quite a few Lebanese restaurants here. So you can get your fill of humous, fatouch and tabouleh salads and shwarmas. And of course they have Chinese food here (there always seems to be a Chinese restaurant in every city) - and I've checked out one restaurant. It was actually okay; there are quite a few Chinese people living here. From what I heard, they have their own garden where they grow their own vegetables. Otherwise, most everything is imported. So much of the food is imported here - apparently even the eggs are imported from India!

Faded opulence

Monday was another holiday. As my taxi driver, who's from Guinea, told me, "A lot of holidays here". It was the third in the little over a month that I've been here.

This time, the holiday was J. J. Roberts Day - after the first president of Liberia, Joseph Jenkins Roberts. I have a fantastic poster in my flat with a map of Liberia and pictures of all the presidents. It starts with J.J. Roberts, and finishes with the "Iron Lady" Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.









A statue of J. J. Roberts sits at the foot of a hill along the west coast of the city. On top of the hill is the Ducor Hotel, once the most luxurious hotel in Monrovia. As a field trip on our day off, we went to visit the Ducor. It was the first hotel in Monrovia, and one of the few five-star hotels in Africa. It's where all the people who could afford it stayed when they came to visit. There were about 8 floors of rooms with views over the city and the Atlantic, a swimming pool, tennis courts.

Now, it's just a shell of a building. The swimming pool is still there, but there's no water, just kids playing and sliding along the bottom. Debris is scattered throughout the building; the staircase is still there but crumbling. In the rooms, you can imagine what it might have looked like, with the balcony views of the city, but everything's gone. Even the faucets and sinks from the bathrooms have been looted. The views from the rooftop, however, are still wonderful. And the breeze is lovely. But the only thing up there are cell towers.

The hotel closed in the 80s during the conflict. It was subsequently taken over by squatters. Just a couple of years ago, the squatters were evicted by the government. I heard the hotel had been sold to Libyans. I also heard that the Americans weren't too happy about it, as you can see the embassy from the hotel. One of the guys guarding the hotel said that construction was supposed to take place in September. I think it's been in train for awhile, but nothing's happened so far. I think they're keeping the structure, and renovating, rather than tearing it all down and rebuilding. It'll be interesting to see its transformation to its former glory. I didn't have my digital camera with me, so no photos to upload I'm afraid. However, Chris has also been there, and here are some of his pictures.

Crazy Chimps!

Last Wednesday was a holiday – Remembrance Day. A day where I understand you go to visit your ancestors and decorate their graves. I only found out the day before that it was a holiday. I never made it to the cemetery, but some friends did – and they managed to start a riot. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but I believe they had to hide out and take refuge in a restaurant. All this before midday!

A day off warrants a field trip. We made our way out of the city; it’s always good to get out of the city. We decided to go to visit the crazy chimps on the island near Marshall.

A strange tourist attraction (if you can call it that), the island houses chimpanzees that were used for drug testing. Part of a drug trial run by an American pharmaceutical company apparently. The drug trials ended, but they still had the chimps. So they put them on the island. They continue to feed them to this day. The chimps, however, are a bit loopy, though we never got close enough to really find out.

Marshall is a postage stamp of a village with a collection of huts and moored fishing boats. You reach there on the road towards the airport and then down some dirt roads. Negotiations were something else. Doing anything here is anything but cheap; some of the money had to go to gas, to oil, to the community rep, the boat owner…

Eventually we set out on a long blue fishing boat. We could see the monkey island from the shore. It was lovely, being on the water, where the river meets the sea. We anchored about 200m from the shore. They (our boat guy and several hangers-on who probably outnumbered us) called out to the chimps, threw some bananas and plantains, and a bunch gathered on shore.

So they said it would be a 2-hour tour (luckily we weren't going too far and no freak storms...) but it only took about half an hour at monkey island. It was nice being out on the water, but actually, I didn't mind heading back. Trying to think of how they could extend the tour as we reminded them they'd told us 2 hours, they took us to a beach - where the ocean meets the river. A pretty nice beach, but I found I couldn't relax so much. Others managed to check out the waves, then it was back to shore and back to town.

Going for growth...

Awhile back, somebody posted this story. Maybe I wasn't crazy taking off and going to Africa. At least I'd be avoiding a recession. Perhaps. But Liberia is also in a very different context; one of a post-conflict country where output plummeted by 80 or 90 per cent during the height of the conflict. GDP per capita is still very low: estimates have it at less than US$300 (World Bank GNI per capita estimate for 2007 was $150). This compares to GNI per capita of about $46,000 in the US, $39,000 in Canada and $43,000 in the UK. (Although, some believe that Liberian GDP is currently understated, by perhaps a half. Even so, Liberia is still one of the poorest countries in the world.) A large proportion of the population live in extreme poverty.

The IMF have continually revised down their forecasts for the world economy this year. They'll probably revise them down again. Sub-Saharan Africa is no different from the rest of the world in that respect. Liberia, though expected to grown slightly faster than the SSA average, has also had their 2009 growth projections halved, from around 12% to 6%. The global downturn is having an impact wherever you are.

The most famous guy in West Africa?

AKON!

"Want to listen to some music?"
"Sure," I reply.
"What should we listen to?"
Another pipes up, "AKON!" And then laughter.
I didn't get it. It was my second day here. But soon, I found out. Akon is everywhere. You hear his songs all the time. And I mean all the time. In restaurants, in the shops, on the streets. Who is this Akon guy?

Turns out, Akon's a Senegalese-American hip hop singer. He's somewhat famous in the states, but massively famous in West Africa. They LOVE him here. Here's his official site if you want to find out more. Apparently, last year he came here for a concert. It was packed. But his show only lasted about 10 minutes as the crowd stormed the field where he was playing.

Festival Madness!

I managed to make it to the Colloquium. Those who know my 'The Indian, The Criminal and the Japanese Tourist' story in India probably won't be surprised.

It took place in SKD stadium, which I found out stood for Samual Kanyon Doe, the former president who came to power in a military coup in 1980.

The youth event had taken place on the Friday, but the main events were taking place on Saturday and Sunday to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March. This was the big event. The event that’s been over two years in the making.

It was a bit crazy, and chaotic. Last minute rushing, printing of passes, jostling of seats and placements. The schedule listed a 9am start on Saturday. But that didn’t happen.

It was the first time so many heads of state were in the country in probably 30 years. Half of the heads of state and other important guests didn't arrive till later; some arrived direct from the airport after the 9am start. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrived through the awning, and I lined up with the paparazzi/press along the red carpet (the second time I've seen her in as many weeks!).

The opening ceremonies did start. But at around 11 rather than 9. Much of the morning and early afternoon were taken up with speeches. A plethora of speeches; interspersed with songs and drumming.

One of the speakers was Michaelle Jean, the Governor General of Canada. She had promised Ellen that she would be here, so she came. I didn’t manage to introduce myself; perhaps I should have! I’d never heard her speak before, but she gave a great speech, accounting lessons learned from her encounters with different women around the world.

In the stands, sat a band and a handful of spectators. I noticed the women in brightly coloured, matching garbs. It seemed some of the women had been invited by the president herself, and had traveled for days from their villages on bumpy roads to be there. I think a lot of people here haven’t seen an event like this before.

It was like a veritable festival. Outside, there were booths with food, posters, information and arts and crafts for sale. Alas, my shopping tendencies asserted themselves. I bought a bag. But it's fantastic – it’s plastic and made with EJS cloth. it's so kitsch!

Beach holiday...or how civil unrest ruined our vacation!

I'd heard Robertsport was beautiful. On the coast, between Monrovia and the Sierra Leonian border. Great beaches, great surfing. I couldn't wait to get out of the city for a mini-break.

We finally made it out mid-afternoon. Weaved our way out of the city, through the traffic, through the markets. But when we reached the first checkpoint, we were told that the road was blocked. Apparently there was a blockade along the road near the Guthrie Rubber Plantation.

Should we turn back? We continued. Maybe it'd be okay. Maybe we could find another route. But it wasn't mean to be. It was true; there were protests at the rubber plantation and the road was blocked. We were told it'd be best if we turned around.

We reached the second checkpoint. It was the closest we got to Robertsport: 66km away. Sigh.

Turns out the protest was about pay and benefits. I think it's been resolved, and the workers got much of what they demanded. The road to Robertsport is probably clear now. But all was not lost. I did manage to get to the beach a couple of times on the weekend. Made it to Cece beach just north of the city. And if you were wondering what the beaches in Liberia look like...

Women's Colloquium

This week and weekend, hundreds of people will be descending upon Monrovia. Hotels are packed, last minute construction still underway, to house the visitors for the Women's Colloquium. Coinciding with International Women's Day on March 8th, the event will be hosted by the president herself, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and the Finnish President Tarja Halonen, seeking "to create an environment for women and their champions around the world to discuss, learn, demonstrate and act on the benefits and lessons learned from women in leadership".

Rumours abound as to possible attendees. I think Governor General Michaelle Jean will be coming, along with Baroness Amos from the UK. Still not known who's coming from the US (well, at least not known to me). Apparently some attendees have already arrived. It's been two years in the making, but like a lot of events, it's coming together at the last minute. I'm hoping to catch some of the events if I can figure out how to participate!