The Capital... Monrovia

May of Liberia with Monrovia & Harbel

An old picture of Monrovia from wikipedia

It sometime gets a little lonely here at the guest house with just 3 residents, however we have had visitors come along in the past month or so. We’ve had external auditors from Ghana, Lawyers from the US, the head of security from Nashville, IT folks from Indianapolis and finally internal auditors from Nashville. Between them all I have kept myself entertained.

The main road leading from Harbel to Monrovia

Chaotic streets within Monrovia

While the internal auditors were here we took a trip to Monrovia so I made sure to pack my camera so I could write a little about the city. Before I share some of the pictures, I will give a little background of the city.

Executive Mansion...not burnt and abandoned. Must
have been an impressive building before the war

The newly built Justice building opposite the mansion

It’s the capital city of Liberia and is less than 50 miles from Harbel which is a small town where I am based.

It takes about an hour to get to Monrovia from Harbel and is located on the Atlantic Coast as you can see in the map. Somehow it seems as though the city has turned its back on the ocean front not realizing its true potential.

The Vice President's car with its entorage.
Not sure if this picture is legal

Empty streets of central Monrovia...Sunday everything
shuts down in Liberia

The population is a little over a million, but one drive through the traffic and you’ll be convinced that it’s much more than that. One of the reasons for that could be that a large concentration of the country’s population (29%) resides in the capital. Needless to say it’s the cultural, political and financial hub for the entire country.

A dilapidated gas station

Founded in 1822, Monrovia is named in honor of U.S. President James Monroe who was a prominent supporter of the colonization of Liberia by emancipated former slaves from colonial era America.

UN HQ

Above I have posted a picture of the city from the 1800’s that I picked up from Wikipedia. For a lot of folks from Nashville or the southern region of US, this might look quite familiar and with reason; the city was based on southern architecture from America when it was founded.

The presidential escort vehicle

A busy street in Monrovia

WHO building

UNICEF Building

The main road connecting Harbel to Monrovia is called the Robertsfield highway and it’s actually a pretty nice road. Instead of the road serving as an efficient mode of transportation, seems as though the road has become prime property for local economy. There are all kinds of open air markets, and other businesses setting up shop around the road and most of it is certainly without proper licences and urban planning.

Looking at the haphazard construction I can't help but thinking that in a few years the travel time to Monrovia will double from the roughly one hour it takes right now due to the growing congestion.

Craft stores on Monrovia streets

Alfred...the guy who picked me up
when I arrived in Liberia 

Selling sweets

The United Nations and the work they do around the world is fairly well known to most people but my only introduction to the organization was in text books and news channels. Since coming to Liberia, it’s been a refresher on high school text books and what the different arms of the UN do since UN is deeply involved in the development of Liberia. The mission in Liberia is called as UNMIL (United Nations Mission in Liberia) which is a peace-keeping force established to monitor a cease fire agreement signed after the resignation of the then president Charles Taylor.

I was not in Liberia when Charles Taylor was the president so I don’t have any personal account but there is some material on the web which sheds some light on him and the civil war in general http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberia)

A nice way to dry the clothes?

Enjoying a game of checkers on a lazy Sunday afternoon

Like all web material however, I cannot vouch for the veracity of the stuff on the web so take the information with a health doze of understanding that some of the information by be subjective and prone to bias of the person writing it.

Unlike me, some of my colleagues who have worked here for a long time have met and have know Charles Taylor and have pretty eventful stories that crop up once in a while over a drink.

Wooden carved masks

Driving through a few more of the streets we could see more UN related buildings. They came so thick and fast that I could only take pictures of the WHO (World Health Organization) and the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) buildings.

There is also a drive that is called “UN Drive” as seen below but the more interesting part of the picture is the gas station in the background. Most of the gas stations are pretty run down and the pumps hardly functioning. At one of the gas stations I saw people selling gas in bottles right beside the gas pumps. Total, a French company is the first one to have opened swanky gas stations so hopefully other will follow suit.

Going back to the UN though, the different instruments of UN have helped significantly to bring stability and relief to the nation after the civil war that killed more than 250,000 people and rendered 850,000 as refugees in other neighboring countries. Eventually they will pull out of Liberia and that’s where the real test lies for the people of Liberia.

Ken biking with us

The architecture of the buildings (if you can call it that) does not resemble the southern architecture anymore, rather, the buildings look very haphazard. Fortunately, I don’t think Liberia lies on any fault lines as an earthquake here would be pretty devastating as experienced by Haiti recently.

Following are also some more random pictures from the trip to Monrovia. Guys deciding what to buy and what not too. Some of them were glad that they did not carry a lot of cash as they was a ton of stuff to take back as souvenirs.

Struggle to decide who gets to keep the donated stuff

Down below at the right is out driver Alfred (who incidentally is the one who picked me up when I first arrived in Liberia) enjoying a local candy and to the right is the girl who was selling it at the market. I did not try it but evidently it’s a local version of a caramel candy.

Looking at the camera and wondering what it is

Next week, I am heading on my first home leave to India but before I do that I will make a quick stop in Ghana to secure my South African visa. Once that is done, I will be all set to fulfill a life long dream of seeing the World Cup. I hope to get some time to explore Ghana so I will keep you guys updated on that trip.

These kids were just happy to see us

For now I will leave you guys with some pictures of Ken Dillard (who featured in my 3rd blog and is coordinating the collection of sportswear for the kids here) handing out some soccer balls and jerseys to the kids. As soon as he pulled his bag out, kids from all corners of the camp flocked around him so much so that you cant even see the ball or the jerseys in the pictures. Just want to take this opportunity to thank every one who was able to help. He still has tons of stuff that he will be shipping later so if you still have some stuff to pass on please let him or me know. Happy weekend to all!