Liberia

[You probably concluded when you saw this post that I wrote it but I wanted to share something that i recieved via email from a former Westsider named Sheri Warren. She has left Westside to serve as an international HIV/AIDs director with Samaritan's Purse, an international non-profit Christian organization that provides aid to the world's poor, sick, and suffering. Recently Sheri landed in Liberia and sent an e-mail describing the reality of life in Liberia. Her e-mail reminded me of the superficial world in which most of us in the U.S. live. Given our current conversations on Tuesday nights I wanted to provided you with something to chew on. I know that it is long but please take time to read it and marinate on what she is saying. The world that most of us consider reality is not the world in which most people live. While you may never visit a 3rd world country, I invite you to step into life outside the U.S. by reading Sheri's most recent e-mail, see below.]

I’ve arrived in Liberia. This is my first time in West Africa. There is no way for me to explain this experience - words fail me. Pictures won’t do it justice. It is heartbreaking. The drive form the airport to the Country Directors home nearly put me to tears. This country is still ravaged by the 15 year civil war. Though it ended 5 years ago the effects are everywhere - absolutely everywhere. There are still remnants of burnt cars, looted and burnt structures, bullet holes in building facades, destroyed roads, and poverty, abject poverty, all around. The United States has some culpability in the origins the Liberia civil war. When we freed slaves we dumped those who wanted to return to Africa in Liberia. They are known here as “the Congo people.” Well, they came here and took over. They held positions of power and dominated those who had been here. Eventually the indigenous people had an uprising to take back their power from the Congo people. Once the violence started it ran rampant and even ingnited a tribal war here. It lasted until the UN stepped in. There are still UN peacekeeping troops everywhere. In the area I am in, the Pakistan army is keeping the peace. We arrived by helicopter under heavy guard from the Pakistan army. They have posts everywhere and we passed a couple of bases. Our pilots were from Russia. I couldn’t help but wonder what will happen when the UN pulls out, will war return? It’s certainly a possibility. English is widely spoken, the local language is Liberian English which is very difficult to understand. The U.S. Dollar is widely used currency and the flag looks much like the American flag, but with one star instead of 50.

President Bush was here just days before me. His picture is on billboards all over the place next to Ellen, Liberia’s president, the first woman president in Africa. Though he distributed aid to many of the countries he visited on his recent Africa tour, Liberia was not one of them to receive additional funds. Why? The U.S. government has a set of criteria before distributing this type of aid. Liberia’s corruption is so rampant they didn’t meet the standard. The U.S. is, however, paying to pave the roads and provide additional infrastructure. Trust me, that is a gift that is greatly needed and the resources are not readily available internally.

Liberia is rich with minerals, diamonds, rubber trees, and vast forests. It has an amazing natural beauty. When I reached the Country Directors (CD) home I sat on his front porch and looked at the Atlantic Ocean, watched the waves crash in to the sandy beach and admired the beauty. In a feeble effort to illustrate the conditions people live in here, let me share with you our dinner conversation. Dinner was hosted at the Country Director’s home by he and his wife. It was my first home cooked meal in weeks and a welcome interruption to hotel food. It included their two children age 5 adopted from Haiti, the Deputy Country Director, and an HR representative from UNICEF. As if it was just commonplace someone mentioned, “They still haven’t moved that body off the beach. It’s been two days. It’s starting to smell.” Yes, they are talking about a human body that washed up on the beach a few days before. I learned that this happens occasionally. Maybe somebody drowned trying to swim in the surf, but usually it is “foul play.” They told a story about an old guy that was found on the beach across the street from their house a couple years ago who had a bullet hole in his head. The police came and buried him on the beach. The CD and his wife said they always think of that man when they walk the beach - again, like it was no big deal, walking by the dead guy on the beach was like passing a McDonald’s. Also discussed at dinner, over the weekend the deputy director and CD’s wife (two women) planned to travel to a rural area of Liberia to deliver Christmas shoebox gifts and look at the possibility of doing water/sanitation projects. This area is under served, despite the presence of all types of NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and various arms of the UN. I think you’ll understand why…they practice ritualistic killings, human sacrifices to ancestors. These killings aren’t prosecuted, rather they are revered. I didn’t know there was a place on earth where they still sacrifice humans. I now know otherwise. As if these conditions weren’t difficult enough - electricity is inconsistent, it is unbearably hot and humid, bucket baths are the standard, food is, well…challenging. For example, for lunch we ate rice with sauce (a Liberia staple). The sauce was made of potato greens, chili peppers, palm oil, and bush meat. What is bush meat? No one really knows. Lisa tells me it is various parts of animal bodies of whatever animal is available. I spooned myself some greens, but skipped the mystery meat. Zayzay, a native Liberian, had two helpings. It was even unpleasant to watch him eat it, spitting bones and the sound of crunching. I think I’m on the African diet this week - eating just enough to stay healthy.

I spoke to Kenyon [Sheri's husband] this afternoon and had difficulty explaining the condition of this country. He [Kenyon] asked why I wasn’t in a hotel, I told him there isn’t one to be found. There isn’t. There are no restaurants, grocery stores, or other such ammenities. It just simply isn’t available. As we drove through various townships today, I mostly noticed the surprising number of burnt out structures riddled with bullet holes - reminders of a not to distant past.

~ by Jon Nelson on February 29, 2008.