Malik Watkins's Bloglines

Whew…what a long couple of days…wasn’t as bad a trip as usual. Savannah to Newark to Brussels to Monrovia…each flight was delayed at least one hour for technical difficulties. Glad they are checking the plane though! Left at 12:16, afternoon, from Savannah on Thursday…arrived in Monrovia Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. There is a four hour difference…4:00 in Savannah…8:00 here.

Landing at Roberts field (named after the first President) is always awesome though. The coast is beautiful!!!

This must be one of the better times of the year in terms of weather.  Usually, when I come it has been between April and June…smoking hot…when you step off the plane it is like walking into a sauna with all of your clothes on.  But, the weather is fairly mild now…a bit of rain everyday…very nice!

On the way to Monrovia, you can see so many positive changes taking place since I first started coming back here in 2007.  So much cleaner, roads much nicer…and they have even started building new housing.  A big relief since when I first came there was a burned out jet with a hole in it (maybe from a rocket) sitting on the runway.  On the way in, you see all the different types of housing, fruit, palm oil and such being sold on the side of the road.  This time the driver needed something for home.  So we stopped so they could get ‘choco’.  Now keep in mind, Liberians speak English…but it is Liberian English…they also speak several different languages…but keep in mind they come from a different family of languages.  It takes some time usually to develop an ear for Liberian English…think of it as the emphasis goes to the dominant consonants  and vowels..the weaker ones get drowned out…so you really have to listen…even though I have an ear for it…it took me a minute to realize ‘choco’ was really charcoal 🙂  They use it for the ovens to cook ‘te food’ 🙂

Very nice people!  Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be heading out to Suakoko…one thing you learn in Liberia…things don’t always go as you think they might 🙂  It’s ok though…it is a part of ‘Interpreting Differences’.  So as technology allows, I will be posting…in the mean time, here are some pics from this a.m…enjoy:

Light traffic on a Saturday Morning:

Young Liberian Boy selling eggs, when I saw him later in the day…he had sold all of his eggs:

Liberian Boy and Girl selling Lettuce:

A major form of transportation in Liberia is the ‘Peh’ Peh’…imagine the sound of a horn on a motor bike, ‘Peh’, ‘Peh’…they are all over the place…everywhere you go…you hear ‘Peh’ ‘Peh’, ‘Peh’ Peh’…in some areas you will see a group of them…called the ‘Peh’ ‘Peh’ boys…sometimes if you give up some money…they’ll give you a ride…at the corner where you may see dozens or more of them…they call that the ‘Peh’ ‘Peh’ station…Liberians are known for how they put together these interesting sayings!!!

This is a common sight…Liberians can’t afford to sit back and be entitled…everywhere you look, somebody is working…like this young Liberian girl carrying her work:

On a typical day you see the yellow cab everywhere.  Talk about overload…sometimes when you see them it looks like a college frat party trick…almost to the point of arms and legs hanging out of the car…”They do what they have to do, and get where they need to get to” 🙂

And let us not forget the side street shop…carvings and such…if you need something…stand there long enough and someone will come sell it…well, not everything 🙂

When I find a place with enough internet speed, I’ll be uploading a lot of pics to my website.

Look in the Photo Gallery…

This is life in the city (Monrovia), life in the country looks quite a bit different!

More later!

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