Blog #1 – The first 17 days…

30 January 2008

Y’all hello – oh!  <pronounce quickly as one word, something similar to “yollo” or so)  and that is how you say hello in Liberian…  I’ve never written a blog before so, bear with me.  This first entry is going to be a doozy as it’s going to cover the past 2 ½ weeks, and believe me, a lot can be seen and experience in 2 ½ weeks…

I’ve been debating about how to organize this monster.  <Yes, Z, my need to organize is coming out, of course> so this first post will be done in sections, albeit, stream of conscious ones.  After this, who knows.  Okay, so, without further adieu…

Really, the adventure began on the flight out of Frankfurt, if you can believe that.  Oh, I might throw in here that this is going to be long and you may want to read in parts if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands.  As you all know, I can talk, and talk, and talk and may never even make a point or come to a conclusion, this is going to be much of the same probably.  J  Anyway, my flight out of Frankfurt was delayed for an hour which made my 2 hour layover in Brussels already tight.  Normally, an hour would be more than enough time for a layover, except that, I had to grab my bags in Brussels, recheck them, and get ticketed.  All not a big deal, except that, it took literally 20 minutes to get my bags.  The first 2 showed up quickly, maybe within 5 minutes of my making it to baggage claim, the third took literally the other 15 minutes.  So, there I was with 40 minutes left before my flight <insert the beginnings of panic>.  Upon exiting baggage claim there weren’t signs for ticketing (shocking, I know) so I asked the first couple of aircrew guys I came across.  They said it was a floor up, perfect!  So, off to the elevator I go (did I mention I have 2 very large suitcases, a seabag, and a roll-on? Hey, I’m gone for 6 months AND have gear issue, give a girl a break…) Anyway, I pop in the elevator, hit my floor, but not before someone has already hit a floor 2 floors down.  So, down I go, then up I go… I get out and am immediately relieved to see the Brussel Airways ticket counter.  I go to counter 1 where I am quite politely told that the Monrovia flight leaves from counter 12, “past counter 10, through the hallway, at the end.”  <insert, a feeling of urgency>  so, I go jog off with my luggage.  I get to the counter and the ticket agent is very helpful, until I tell him I’m carrying a weapon.  “A weapon?”  he asks.  “Yes,”  I quickly reply (does he know that my flight is leaving in 30 minutes and they’ve commenced boarding?) “but, it’s not loaded and I have no ammunition, and it’s in a locked case inside of a locked case”  I respond it what I believe is not only one breath but perhaps even one word.  Well, he calls a colleague over and to make an already long story just slightly shorter, I ended up with a Belgian policeman in a room similar to the examining rooms you see on TV showing the 9mm and filling out paperwork.  Alas, I’m finished with him and run back to the ticket agent.  2 of my bags were checked but I had to bring the third one with me because I was going to need to re-lock my weapon in it.  They tell me there’s not time for them to take the third bag as my flight is boarding so, they get a guy with a luggage cart who loads my bags and we start running.  We make one stop where he deposits the last of my checked bag and then we run.  I shimmy through passport control quickly but then get caught up at security because of the laptop in my bag and they need to send it through again… That accomplished it’s a sprint to the gate.  And, luckily I made it with time to spare… I mean, why would a flight to Monrovia leave on time?

So there we are, Roberts International Airport.  It’s 5:40PM, the flight was a bit delayed, but we’re here.  We walk down the stairs to “passport control” which happens to be 4 people sitting at desks in 4 corners of a room just calling people to come through them.  After getting stamped we enter into another room, where we, no kidding, proceed to wait for an hour.  They only let a few people out at a time to claim their luggage.  This is because there are people who check the baggage claim numbers so that no luggage can be stolen.  Lucky for me they were tired by the time we rolled through because in my rush through Brussels, I did not get my baggage claim tickets.  The parking lot had quite a few locals offering to carry our bags to the vehicles.  A few of them actually did help…  The ride from the airport to the hotels we were staying at is approximately 40km or so and takes a mere 1 ½ hours… As for the drive itself, it was absolutely pitch black except for the vehicles lights (both our caravan as well as cars from the other direction.)  There were tons of people out walking on the road.  I mean, tons.  Like many other third world countries, much socializing goes on outdoors at makeshift markets and outside houses at night.  Part of the driving adventure was avoiding the people and the potholes.  It truly was an exercise in patience.  And, you’re not allowed to go faster then 100km/h in UN vehicles or you get a ticket.  The vehicle issues you a ticket!  Well, not right there on the spot, but, it makes a note and then you’re ticketed later.  You’re only allowed to get 2 or 3 of those before your driving privileges are revoked.  You really don’t want to drive too fast anyway, people jet out into the middle of the street without even looking.

And there completed Day 1.

Actually, before I move on to day 2, let me just tell you that Liberia from the air is beautiful.  You can see the jungle come right up to the beaches, with rivers cutting through it all, amazing. 

My second day was spent doing all of the normal checking in items – UN badging, embassy badges, etc.  That evening however, I did have my first experience with a beach I had read about before getting here in a book called Blue Clay People in which a guy described his life here working for an NGO.  The beach was affectionately called, “poo poo beach” due to people relieving themselves on the beach!  And yes, I actually did, sadly enough, see a guy out there “communing” with nature…

My first impressions of the town of poverty.  But, oddly enough, not as bad as I was anticipating.  I mean, the poverty for sure is as bad as I was thinking, but, it’s not as crowded nor as … I don’t know, foreign? as I was anticipating.  I would say it’s worse then Hanoi for sure… and even worse then Tijuana… maybe it is as bad as I thought it would be and therefore am not surprised.  The electricity definitely goes in and out and has multiple times since I’ve been here. (Everything is run off of generators)  The scenes are directly out of National Geographic – women with huge loads balanced on top of their heads, crazy drivers, dirt paths, potholes the size of small meteors… Interesting sights as well, for example, I saw 2 Muslim women (faces covered) buying lottery tickets… so, I guess folks pick and chose what they want to follow.  The Muslim population is very small, Liberia remains heavily Christian. 

And now Day 3 (keep in mind, you only have 12 more days to read about…

Actually, Day 3 was more checking in but Day 4 I had the big driving test.  In order to drive UN vehicles you must pass the driving test.  The first part is a class with a written test at the end (easy) then there’s the driving test.  At the time we took it, 18 Ethiopians had already twice failed (you only get 3 times until your repatriated).  On my day, there was my group (10 Americans), 2 Jordanians, 4 Norwegians and 2 Peruvians.  The first part of the driving section involved parallel parking into a spot outlined with stacks of tires in the shape of a “].”  You couldn’t hit the tires or the rope.  (Let me insert here that the tires were only stacked 3 or 4 high, we were driving 4×4s, it was really, really hard to see the tires at all!)  The second part was after finishing that we had to reverse into a “U” spot outlined by tires; the idea being we were reverse parking into a spot.  The instructor actually helped me through it by telling me what to do the entire time.  Then I had Adam (one of the guys on mission, Z’s college roommate oddly enough) behind me directing me by facial expression (we weren’t allowed to help each other verbally).  So, I passed that section.  Then there was the street driving.  That was fine except that the instructor then explained to me how to drive a clutch afterwards.  I nodded and thanked him for the information… um, yeah… I think he was just picky or something.  2 guys in our group didn’t pass.  One army guy failed the first part because he stalled out twice.  Andrew didn’t pass because the instructor thought he needed more work on the clutch.  That was weird because although Andrew has only driven stick twice before, he actually did a good job I thought.  Definitely not enough to be failed.  That took up the entire day.  I mean, the instructor took folks one at a time to do the first part of the test so there was a lot of sitting around and waiting. 

After the course ended we headed out to a beach just North of Star Base (the UN Logistics base).  It was incredible.  I mean, so different from Monrovia beaches.  The sand was white and clean!  There was also a bar and restaurant with a little cabana style area set up.  Apparently on weekends there is music and lots of people there.  On that occasion they cooked us up chicken, rice, fried rice and fish.  The fish was really, really good.  It was sort of a hail and farewell type event for all of us.

Okay, Day 5! (Do you need a bathroom break yet?  

I’m turned over with a Pakistani army Captain named Asif.  He’s a talker!  Between him and another Pakistani in the office, Tariq, I must have been told to relax 50 times.  Seriously.  My position is as a Special Projects Analyst in the JMAC (Joint Mission Analysis Center) in the G2 (Intelligence).  I work with another Special Projects Analyst, Francisco, who is from Ecuador.  My job entails following monitoring what ex-combatants are currently doing as well as keeping abreast of Liberia’s natural resources: forest, rubber, diamonds… I am also in charge of 4 Liberian translators

I was hit on the 5^th day with a thought I hadn’t had before,  but, everyone in there is an intelligence officer.  I’M WORKING WITH A BUNCH OF SPIES!!!  Everyone from the French guy across from me, to the British Colonel, the Pakistani Deputy, the Jordanian… so, that was a little bizarre when I came to that conclusion.  It was reinforced the Deputy asked me if I’ve done Human Intelligence.  I must have had a puzzled look on my face because he said “Humint.”  I knew from then on it would be an interesting 6 months.

Okay, maybe just a wrap up of the two weeks since then because even I am getting bored!  Ha!  My first Saturday was spent in Gbaranga (seemingly pronounced Bonga) watching a Bangladeshi medal parade.  Although long, it was definitely interesting to see all of the pomp and circumstance.  And, thankfully, only 2 men were led off the parade deck due to heat exhaustion.  Afterwards as we were walking around we became (we meaning the 4 of us Americans on the trip and Francisco) attacked with guys wanting pictures.  I mean, no kidding, the paparazzi had nothing on them!  I’ve heard two reasons for this onslaught.  One was that the Bangladeshi army has only recently starting getting women officers, so, for them it’s an interesting experience to see us there.  A Chinese major reiterated essentially the same sentiment but said that they really don’t see that many female officers all together at one time anywhere.  What I don’t think they realized which I thought was interesting, is that the 3 women who were out there were all of different services.  A Bangledeshi major who works in my office and was there later told me that he sent someone to save me but the guy wasn’t able to… All of our cheeks were hurting by the end.

On my first Sunday here we had a JMAC party on the beach.  The Pakistanis are phenomenally generous people who don’t do anything small.  For this party on the beach (not poo poo beach) we had a huge sound system, lighting, dancing, Pakistani food the whole works, and we were only out there for about 2 ½ hours!!!  It was definitely an interesting experience with some great food. 

I spent all of last week in an induction course for the UN.  One week of painful briefings.  However, I was lucky enough to get pulled out on Thursday to go on a trip to Guthrie rubber plantation.  We received interesting briefings and even got to see a rubber tree tapped.  After that we went to a town called Tubmanberg where the Pakistani contingent is.  Let me insert here that the UN has divided Liberia into 4 sectors, Monrovia is Sector 1 and is controlled by the Nigerians, Sector 2 is run by the Pakistanis, Sector 3 by the Bangledeshi and Sector 4 by the Ethiopians.  We were taken to “Pakistani Point” which is on a hill with beautiful views all around including Bomi lake which was once a mine but became filled when an underground water reservoir was hit.  On the Point, lunch had been arranged with the regiment commander who was a Pakistani 1 star general.  The general was quite the comedian.  At one point earlier in the day during a brief with him he turned to me and asked me where I was from.  I said the US.  He said, “The US?”  I said, “Yes, the USA.”  With a puzzled look he asked where that was.  I was taken aback and suddenly found myself at a complete loss of words (if you can believe that) and turned to my Colonel (British) to get help.  He whispered that the general wanted to know what state I was from.  “OH!” I said, “California.”  The General, replied, “no, where is the US located?”… it then became evident that the joke was on me.  Apparently he said people become flabbergasted that he doesn’t know.  Somehow, I didn’t deem it appropriate to tell the general that I thought it was crazy he didn’t know where the USA was located. 

This past weekend we returned to Bomi lake only this time on an unofficial visit.  We met up with our Pakistani friends for a day of motor boating around the lake (about a 8 minute trip), lunch (again provided by those great Pakistani cooks) and chatting.  This week I am in full job mode. 

I am currently on Day 17?  I am comfortably situated in the new apartment.  Lookswise, it seems great.  Tons of room, 3 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, living room, dining room, ocean view… what more could someone ask for?  Just don’t look too close or you might notice that even Ikea wouldn’t stoop to the cheapness of the furniture, that “renovated” means something different here then other countries, that electricity and water are privileges not rights, and that it is possible to see 5 different type of insects in your apartment on the first couple of days living there… 

Other thoughts in no particular order (but still grouped together by subject line)

Food: Many of the “acceptable” restaurants to eat here are owned by the Lebanese.  I’m going to be a pro in Lebanese ordering before all is said and done.  However, they also own non-Lebanese restaurants such as the two sushi restaurants in town.  I don’t question the fact that they import all of their fish from Lebanon, but rather, am thankful for it.  I have not yet braved the street food.  The fried plantains look edible as do the muffin type items they cart around.  I’m not so sure of the bbq’d items.  I was told that whatever they don’t sell they just wrap up and sell the next day.  Many don’t have refrigerators so, the items aren’t kept refrigerated.  I’m pretty brave but think I’ll wait until my stomach has adjusted to the normal food, much less the random bbq. 

 Electricity/Water/Phones: During the war, the electric plant was destroyed as was the only water purification plant.  As of right now, all of the electricity here is produced by generators.  In order to cut costs for our apartment (which, to give you an idea, are comparable with Manhattan) we have asked to have our power off 4 hours a day.  Not much of a difference but, it may help.  That and that the power goes off on its own anyway at its own chosing throughout the day.  Same thing with the water.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  I still haven’t gotten to the point where I’ll brush my teeth with it, but, who knows.  Maybe I’ll do it on the same day I eat some of that street food, I’ll adapt eventually, right?

Okay, I think that’s enough for one entry.  Tomorrow I’ll talk about what it’s like being UN here and the people themselves.  Sorry for this being so long.  Hope you got a good nap in!