To boldly go... to Liberia (10 to 13 June)

So many Brits go to Spain for the sun or if they are brave enough to stay in the UK, maybe Cornwall and some hardened northerners (I think I am one) go to the Lakes, North Wales and Scotland and even camp! I very much doubt that many lasses from Wigan have ever been to Liberia on holiday! Ok well it was more of a long weekend and Helen and I were actually the only ones on holiday as everyone else went on very serious missions.
The motley crew was Gavin (organiser), Faye, Dave, Helen, me and Idris the driver. We set off over the mountain from Freetown at 6am as the journey ended up being 13 hours to Monrovia and almost half of the time on rough dirt tracks.

The journey made was slightly longer as we distributed footballs along the way to schools we passed. Gavin brought them from the UK, they were donated by friends and neighbours. Kids here use plastic bags filled with rubbish, or rice if they are lucky, as footballs (see photos). The football distribution was a great success and really worth the time taken. However, the main time stealer was progressing through about 9 check points plus both sides of the border.

At the check points, we had to deal with various requests (for money, something for the office, proposals of marriage, lifts to somewhere along our journey) and accusations (breaking the law, paperwork not in order etc) but we also met some helpful officials and wondered at the number of times its possible for our passport details, occupation, address etc to be written down in big A4 books and why!! After a while we learnt to send only one person out of the car and started to time how long they got us through the checkpoint. The quickest time was 7 minutes, the longest was at the border, where we lost the will to live never mind measure the time! The main way of dealing with all this was to be polite, firm and constantly mention the football (that's the world cup mum, its on at the moment!!) as this diffused any situation.

We also had to have our Yellow Fever certificates checked at 'Port' health although we were miles form the sea. Helen amazingly managed to blag her way through all of the checks with only a scanned copy of her document, havin left the real thing in Kailahun! I think she should join the secret service when she gets bored of being a midwife.

So what was Monrovia/Liberia like? Its a hard question to answer because in many ways, the country is very similar to Salone, a poor, post-conflict country with the population and government working to rebuild their lives and towns. However Salone does win on a few fronts (not that its a competition or anything, well not much). Freetown I think is bigger and more diverse although possibility more run down/more slums than Monrovia, but hard to judge in a day. The infrastructure in Liberia seemed a little bit better (pavements, street lights and better housing stock on the route we took), however it didnt feel as friendly. We spent 2 nights in Monrovia staying as guests with the Office of Tony Blair team and they had splendid flats (air con, baths and get this...hot showers!) and oh, a lovely pool outside the apartment, I managed 2 swims. Of course they were all nice folks too and we had a couple of good fun evenings out with great food (even sushi), but it was the facilities (lying by the pool in the sun) and the day's sightseeing in Monrovia plus the 2 Watermelon Martinis on the 2nd night that really made it feel like a holiday! I did also learn something about Liberia especially that it has had loads of presidents since independance in 1847 and it now has its first female president: Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (remember for the next pub quiz).

The final night was spent in Roberts Port. A resort on the coast where we stayed in 'luxury' tents at Nana Lodge (they have a website). This was really relaxing and we enjoyed swmming in the sea, watching the England game and fresh fish on the beach. The accomodation came with its own inidividual wildlife inside the tent (not the human kind) and all for free with no nets!

Finally on Sunday morning, all too soon we had to set off back home, without Helen, who we left in Monrovia on Thursday evening to find her way to the airport and then flying to Ethiopia for a week with her sister. I can however report that Helen is safely back in S/L after taking public transport all the way from Monrovia to Freetown (surviving part of the journey in a taxi with 11 others in an ordinary car with 3 on top). So I've figured out that compared to many here, I'm not really much of an adventurer or that tough after all!

Final big thanks goes to Gavin and Faye who organised the whole trip. You are both fab!