Liberia, Day 7

Hi Ruth! I'm still in Liberia.

I don't have any pictures from today, sorry. Today, we mostly just worked.

This morning, we were supposed to have a meeting with a woman who works for a group that tries to stop fighting all over West Africa. We called to make sure we were going to the right place, but then when we got there she called and told us to go to a different place! So we had to drive over there quick. And when we got there, it wasn't a place where we could really ask her questions, like we thought - it was a big meeting about how people from Liberia could get involved in a big conference that was happening to talk about how to help people who are poor.

In the meeting, someone from a European group talked about the conference. But a lot of people in the room wanted to know why it was a day before the conference, and none of their groups had been invited, and no one had talked to them about it until the day before, even though it was in Liberia. Good question!

We had to leave a little early because we had another meeting with a woman I met on the plane. We went to the restaurant where she was the head of catering for lunch, hoping that she might be able to tell us more about how woman who were businesspeople like her during the fighting managed to keep their businesses going. We didn't learn much about that, but we did have a nice lunch. Her daughter lives near us, so she may say hello next time she's in the United States.

Then we went to our last meeting, with a woman who now helps women learn about the legal system. We talked about how she protected her children from the fighting, and how women see themselves differently now. [Mom: She said, "thank goodness for us women, there was a war."]

Then we came home. I talked to a man at Tubman University on the phone - he lives in a place called Maryland, which is in Liberia, but is named after the Maryland we live in (remember what I said about the Americo-Liberians, or Congos?). Maryland (our state) has a sister-state program with Liberia, and I'd told someone else we met who works with it that I'd like to help out if I could. So Prof. Isaac had wanted to meet with me before I left Liberia, but Maryland (Liberia) is very far away from here in Monrovia. So we just talked on the phone.

Then, since it's my last night here (which means I get to see you soon, yay!) I went to my favorite restaurant I've found here so far, Big Treat, for dinner. Big Treat has loud music and local food - only one thing per night! Tonight, they had fish (the whole fish, even the eyes! I didn't eat the eyes).

Now I'm back at the hotel, writing to you. I love you, and I'll see you in only 2 days! I hope movie night was fun.

Liberia, Day 6

Hi Ruth! I'm still in Liberia. I was in Monrovia again today, but let me show you a photo of me handing out a prize at the graduation, now that I have Miss Susan's pictures:

From Where in the World is Dad?

Today, we were working. We got up early to go to a meeting at the United Nations mission, which is here to try to help put everything back together after the fighting. But somewhere, either I or someone at the United Nations made a mistake, since we thought our meeting was at 10AM, but they thought it was at 3:30 in the afternoon. Oops.

We couldn't make a new meeting for the morning, so we went to get souvenirs for people we love back home (like you! But I can't tell you what I got you, or it wouldn't be a surprise. I'll bring it when I come to pick you up from school on Thursday). I got Mommy a [shh! Don't tell her!] and a necklace for Grammy [blue, like she likes] and a mask for our wall. The one I got is very big! And old. Because not many people come here just to visit, it is easier to find old masks that really got used for things here in Liberia than other places I've been. The one I got was used for celebrations among a tribe called the Krahn, and it has big teeth. But don't worry, it's more funny than scary. I'll show it to you when I get home!

But, back to work. We went out of the city to visit a radio station. This radio station is special, because it plays programs for girls and women - teaching them about their rights, and the law, and how to be politicians and advocates, and the news and all sorts of things. It's especially important for lots of women and girls who live outside the city, because lots of them can't read (that's why things like Mama Tomah's school are important). We talked to the woman who ran the station and to two of the younger women who worked with her, who especially try to help with things that affect teenagers. In Liberia, traditionally, lots of women had their first children when they were only 14 or 15, and had to leave school, so they are trying to talk to young women about having children later, after they finish school. [Mom: We also heard some pretty horrific stories from them, one of which made me involuntarily sharply inhale, and Susan had to apologize for my brief lapse of professionalism.]

After that, we had to split up. I went to talk to some people at the United Nations about what they are doing to help the police, judges, and lawyers, and teach people about the laws. Miss Susan went to talk to other women who work outside the government to help women, including one who was part of the movement that stopped the fighting.

[Mom: One big question we've been trying to ask lots of people is why, given that they were part of a peaceful movement, they were demonstrating in favor of a US military intervention in 2003. The answer we got was, basically, 'oh, if the US came in, the fighting just would have stopped!' So I'm thinking about how to write something explaining that local movements may not always have a full consciousness of the consequences of militarization...]

One of the cool things about where Miss Susan went was that one of her meetings was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is guarded by these people:

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Those women are members of something very neat - India (Mommy can show you where it is on the map) has a unit of police here with the United Nations who are all women. The United Nations hopes that police who are women will be better able to help girls and women who are having trouble, and women with problems may feel more comfortable coming to them. But, they're part of what's called a "formed police unit," who are police that know not just how to stop crimes but how to stop fighting and help people get away from danger (that's why they have the big truck, it has armor for in case there's fighting near them).

Part of why they're guarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that it's where Liberia's president works - did you know that Liberia has a woman president? Her name is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, but lots of people in Liberia call her "Ma Ellen." She's very popular here. Not everyone likes her, of course - some people are upset because they think that she's not fixing all the problems Liberia ended up with after the fighting fast enough. There's an election at the end of this year, in November, and that's why one of her campaign slogans is "Monkey is working; Baboon wait small."

After our meetings, we came back and took care of some phone calls, but it was already late. So we went for a late dinner, and now I'm back at the hotel, writing this to you.

I miss you and love you very much. I'll be home in only 3 days!

Liberia, Day 5

Hi Ruth! I'm still in Liberia. Today, I went to Brewersville, which is a bit outside Monrovia, to go to a school graduation.

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We were invited up by the same woman who invited us to Thinker's Beach yesterday. The school, in fact the whole village, is run by a woman named Mama Tomah. She's a Zo, which is a kind of priestess in a local religion called Sande. Many people who know her probably believe that she can do magic, but why she's important to Liberia right now is that she's helping rebuild a whole town. For instance, she runs a workshop where they do traditional weaving to sell, and she has people who work there - both men and women, which is unusual in Liberia, where men don't usually do things like make clothes, or knit, or cook dinner - who she lets work only part of the day so they can also raise their families and go to school. Because of the fighting, many people in Liberia, even grown-ups, have never been to school.

Here're some of the weavers, getting the loom ready:

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And here's Mama Tomah, herself, dancing at the graduation:

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The graduation was a lot of fun. The children put on a play, about how parents should send their children to school instead of making them work all day. I couldn't understand all of it, because even though they speak English in Liberia, the English in the rural areas is very different.

From Where in the World is Dad?

From Where in the World is Dad?

Then there was more dancing, and lots of music, both from the band and from the students' choir. I took some videos that I'll show you when I get home, but my internet is too slow here.

This is Mama Tomah's daughter, dancing:

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And one of the student's grandmothers. She was a very good dancer!

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The choir:

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Everything finished up with handing out small gifts, like books, or bags, or lunch boxes, to the children who had done the best in school. They even had Miss Susan and me hand out some of the prizes:

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(I also got Mommy a present I hope she'll like, and a pink shirt for me. Pink!)

I love you very much, and I miss you. I'll see you soon, in only 4 days.

Liberia, Day 4

Hi Ruth! I'm still in Liberia. Today, I went to Thinker's Beach!

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It's a bit north of the city, past a place called Congo Town. I'm not quite sure about the name of the town in particular, but it probably doesn't mean people from the Congo lived there. Liberia was actually settled by Americans who were freed slaves - that's why there's a place here called Maryland, just like at home. There were people already living here, of course, from a whole bunch of different tribes, like the Krahn, the Gio, and the Mandingo. So when the American settlers arrived, they were called Americo-Liberians. Well, that was their "formal" name, but lots of people called them "Congos." So Congo Town was probably where lots of "Congos" - who were often the richest people - lived.

We went up to Thinker's Beach with a woman we met yesterday (the one who works for Women's Campaign International) and one of the people who works for her, a college student named Tim. Tim is from Kazakhstan (his name is short for Timor). They invited us to go up with them (because no one wanted to have meetings with us on the weekend, of course) because they are helping to train some of the boys who live here to be lifeguards. There can be very strong tides here in Liberia, making swimming a little dangerous, even though the beaches are beautiful. So helping the boys learn how to swim - one of them couldn't swim at all in November, and now can swim even through very strong waves - will help out a lot of people.

From Where in the World is Dad?

From Where in the World is Dad?

From Where in the World is Dad?

From Where in the World is Dad?

See the tiny white crab on the black sand?


After we went to the beach, we came home and - it's boring - I mostly did some work reading. Then Miss Susan and I took a walk down to a restaurant called Big Treat where we had goat soup (yum! Even though mine had a big chunk of liver in it, which I couldn't get very into). Then we had some ice cream - I had pistachio, because I know you like pistachios so much.

And now I'm back at the hotel, writing to you. I love you very much and I'll see you again in only 5 days!

Liberia, Day 3

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Hi Ruth! I'm still in Liberia, in Monrovia.

Today we had some better luck than yesterday. This morning, we went over to the University of Liberia, to visit the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation. The campus is very busy - people everywhere, and lots of construction. But they still don't really have enough room for everyone - Miss Susan and I had to walk quietly to not interrupt a teacher who was teaching the in the hallway. We got to talk with a man who came back to Liberia from the UK right as the fighting started - he landed in Liberia the same day that Miss Susan left. He spent a long time trying to help young people were were part of the fighting go back to school, and then he worked to help people with his church out in the rural areas before coming back to work at the new University. We also met another teacher, from Germany, who knew a lot about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was a process set up after the fighting so that people could apologize to each other and try to stop being angry. But, unfortunately, we also talked a lot about how many of the people who were fighting were still getting to keep the things they took by fighting.

After talking to him, we went over to speak with a woman who is part of WONGOSOL, a group that helps to organize groups of women in Liberia who want to make things better, especially ones who work to stop fighting. We talked to her for a while about things that people did during and after the fighting to stop it, and how women - who, in Liberia, were often told that they could only be mothers and wives - decided to do so many other things.

Then we went to a restaurant where the internet worked, so I could talk to Mommy. I get lonely when I can't talk to you and Mommy.

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When we were there, I called someone we were trying to meet, and she said that we should come right away! So we did. She runs another organization that helps groups of women learn about how to talk to the government (it was set up by Congresswoman Margolis, who Mommy might know). While we were there, she had a surprise guest - a woman who was very important in rural Liberia came to visit. This woman had done a lot to help people hurt by fighting in the rural areas - she ran a school that she paid for herself, and had started a business where people could come and weave shirts and cloth and still go to school, so that people who were fighters could also do other things instead. She invited the lady we were meeting with to go see her school graduation on Sunday, and invited us too, which was a great honor. I'll take pictures!

I hope everything is better now - I didn't know you had such storms! Just remember the storm can't hurt you, and Mommy and Grammy are there. Now I'm back in my hotel room, doing some work, and writing to you. I love you, and I'll see you in just 6 days.

Liberia, Day 1-2

From Where in the World is Dad?

Hi Ruth! I'm in Liberia. My internet connection is pretty shaky, so I'm not sure I'll be able to update this every day, but I'll do my best. I miss you, and I miss Mommy.

Let me tell you, sweetheart, I hope the flight you and Mom take to come visit me in Ghana is easier than the one I had over here. Liberia is actually a little bit closer to Baltimore than Ghana, but I had to fly to Ghana first and then come back a little ways. Plus, we got stuck on the ground for three hours before we left because they couldn't figure out how to make the airplane door close right! And then I ate some yucky food that made my stomach upset.

But now I'm here. That's the important thing to remember about traveling - sometimes it takes a long time to get there, and sometimes the trip isn't very pleasant, but at the end of all the travel: then you're somewhere new. There are lots of interesting places in the world, and it's worth seeing them, and Mom and I hope that we can help you see them and learn about them.

Right now, I'm here to learn about fighting. It makes me sad, but that's why I'm here. When you grow up more, I hope you'll understand more why fighting makes me so upset. [I'll tell Mom this, because it might upset you, and she can decide what to tell you, or whether to let you read it if you ever come back to this when you're bigger and you can read: it makes me sad because on the way in from the airport I saw a whole soccer game being played by boys on crutches, because they were all missing legs.]

Yesterday not much happened. Because our flight was delayed, we didn't get here until late. I managed to buy a phone that would let me call you and Mommy from here - that's how I got to hear you ask me about cows after dinner with Grammy.

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but I haven't spent much time looking around the city yet. Sinkore, which is part of Monrovia, where I am, is a very different place to be. Because of the fighting, lots of places - like my hotel - don't look very nice. It's very nice inside, and the people who work here are very helpful and friendly, but one of those friendly people is our private security guard. Here in Monrovia, people don't trust that the police will come if you call them - it's a little complicated why, but basically it's because lots of the police aren't paid enough to live on and have a home and take care of their children, and so they don't always do what they're supposed to do. And around the hotel is a very high wall, and on top of the wall is barbed wire that would hurt anyone who tried to get in and steal things. Most of the houses and businesses here have walls like that - so when you drive down the street, a lot of what you see are walls and fences instead of houses or businesses.

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The other thing that there's a lot of - and this is good, I guess, in a way, because it means that the fighting is mostly over - are people like me, who aren't from Liberia, but are here trying to learn, or trying to help out. Right across the street from us is a wall that says "CRS," for Catholic Relief Services. And there are plenty of others around - IREX, USAID, Save the Children, etc.

Today, I went to three meetings. I know, you think that all Mommy and I do at our jobs is go to meetings! I can't tell you everything about all of our meetings because I promised people that we wouldn't say some of the things they told us.

First, we stopped by to see someone works to help people start organizations to help each other - like, groups that get together to try to change what the government is doing, or try to stop people from fighting (but mostly to change what the government is doing). She also works to help get radio stations started so that people can listen to the news. We asked her a lot about what she's doing now, and how the groups are going. We also talked about how a lot of the people in Liberia believe in magic (sort of like the magic The Shadow Man has - voodoo, which is the name for the kind of magic he does in the movie, is something people in real life believe in too, and a lot of the ideas come from Africa). She thought it was a bad thing - I'm not so sure.

Next, we were supposed to meet with a woman who helped stop the fighting in Liberia, but she couldn't see us because she had to go out of town.

So, instead, we had lunch. I asked the man who was driving us around to tell us someplace not expensive to have lunch, and I think he misunderstood me because he took us some place very expensive. I will have to be clearer next time!

Then we came back to the hotel to make a lot of phone calls (I know, exciting!). Some people we called said they'd be happy to meet us and talk to us. Other people said to call back later, which often means, "I don't really want to talk to you, but I don't want to just tell you so."

After that, we went to dinner with Mr. Boie. Mr. Boie is the brother of a man I work with, Mr. Sam (Mr. Sam might be at our BBQ later, if he can make it). Mr. Sam came to the US from Liberia in 1989 to go to school, right before the very bad fighting started, and he hasn't been back ever since. Mr. Boie stayed in Liberia, even during the fighting - he's very brave - and took care of the rest of the family. He also coaches the Liberian basketball team. [To Mom: They practice at the stadium, which is still called the Samuel K. Doe Sports Complex, which no one can explain to me.] Mr. Boie told us a lot about waht things were like to live here, and about what he does now - he's an accountant for a company that exports chocolate (well, cocoa, which is made into chocolate). Right now, it's rainy season in Liberia, which means they aren't growing much chocolate here - but unfortunately, there has been fighting in a country next door, Cote d'Ivoire, that grows cocoa, and so people have been shipping Ivoirian chocolate out through Liberia.

And now I'm back in my hotel room, doing some work, and writing to you, and being sad and missing you and Mommy. I love you, and I'll see you in 7 days.