Monrovia

Things are looking up!  My body is recovering so feeling more confident it is not something serious and the weather cooled off yesterday and today 15 degrees or so.  Liberians are talking about how unseasonably cold it is at a comfortable 80 or so.  It is really nice here in the shade with ocean breezes but always intense in the direct equatorial sun.  

Monrovia is much like any big city except still no reliable electrical grid or water supply unless you pay $200 plus per night in the high end places.  Most people have to rely on generators and water delivery services.  We are paying $60 a night for a nice clean Airbnb with a generator 7pm to 7am, limited water and wi-fi to generator hours, but the friendliness and service are 1st class.  Our room has new carpet so when they saw our dusty condition when we arrived they made us dismantle all of our bike panniers so they could scrub them for us.  They washed my shoes.  

I also found fresh milk and corn flakes in a grocery store this morning and they had Ben and Jerry’s I might return for later.  It was expensive but that is understandable here where you have to have a generator running 24/7 to have refrigeration.  But labor is cheap, I also got a razor blade shave on the street this morning for about 45 cents.  Not a straight razor, just a blade which made me a little nervous at first but I noticed he opened a new blade and did a great job without any nicks or cuts.  

As my health continues to strengthen and I have a few days here to rest before the flight home I hope to reflect more and post more coherently about some of the amazing people we have met.  Everyone assumes we are aid workers because the place is flooded with them and there are literally no tourists yet since Liberia has suffered the double whammy of a brutal and long civil war that just ended in 2003 and the Ebola 2014 to 2016.  Pretty tough stuff.  There are tons of health aid workers here but the most interesting man I have met was a Liberian Physicians Assistant who worked here through the Ebola crisis.  He said the PA’s were the front line, 80 percent of the Dr’s left the country in fear and half that remained died.  He talked in a very somber way about days where everyone in the hospital died during his shift.  He said the late world assistance combined with the complete lack of readiness by Liberia created a situation where when people got sick they would try every other remedy they could get their hands on but not report because going to the clinic was a death sentence.  We have seen billboards with public health notices to respect the dead according to your beliefs but do not touch them.  I can’t even imagine what it must have been like. 

But, these days Liberia is full of hope.  The new president is very popular and was elected and took power peacefully.  

Going to the beach this afternoon, maybe I’ll get that first tropical drink under a grass shade hut photo that everyone thinks about  for a beach on the equator!  Somehow I don’t think that will be the case but whatever it is, it will be interesting that’s for sure.