intro to Africa

23May07 - 20Jul07 
Liberia  AFRICA





Kent’s 30 second History of Liberia:
Liberia was born out of an American colony established from 1821 by/for freed African-American slaves returning to their origins.
Declared independent in 1847.
The Americo-Liberians and natives didn’t get on so well and in 1980 some of the native guys in the army had enough and staged a coup,
Samuel Doe held power, becoming increasingly repressive.
The ‘First Civil War’ started in 1989 with the NPFL and later other factions taking control in various parts of the country, and eventually Monrovia.
Charles Taylor and his team NPFL eventually came out on top and he was elected President in 1997, but by 1999 many had had enough of his nasty ways and a ‘Second Civil War’ started. By 2003 a combination of rebel power and international pressure forced Charles Taylor into exile in Nigeria. Under the security of the UN disarmament occurred and an interim government operated from 2003 until Jan 2006 when economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president.

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(I dropped my camera in Tenerife and it don't work no more, so these photos are courtesy of ScottyP, BettyM ,GabrielaB and the MercyShips photographer on the dock -DebbieM, thanks guys!)

Arrival. 23May07.
This was the day many of the Mercy Ships crew have been waiting for, when the Africa Mercy would reach Africa and begin to take over from the Anastasis. As we entered into the Freeport of Monrovia we saw the Anastasis crew lining the decks and on the docks waving and shouting and dancing.























































"But isn't is dangerous in Liberia?"
The Freeport of Monrovia is under the protection of United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) to ensure that ships feel comfortable coming here. Between the pier and the main road is a Nepalese and Bangladeshi UN camp, at night a few lads from the UN Ghana Battalion patrol the dock riding the ships-kids pedalkarts back and forth along the jetty with their rifles nestled snuggly in their lap.
We have a 'swimmer watch' operating between 2200-0600. This is a vigil to catch the locals who try to swim from outside the secure zone to get onto the dock or climb the mooring lines onto the ship to steal things. These guys are clever, things like bicycles and drums of fuel have disappeared. There was a guy with a machete who made it on board the Anastasis a few weeks before we arrived, but he was mostly just there to take things, not to chop anyone up.
Things are safe enough outside the gates, with opportunistic theft the only threat during daylight hours. There are various ships rules to help keep us out of trouble - eg don't walk about by yourself, don't be walking around in town after dark.

photo shows path leading from jetty out to main road.
The area on the left behind the trees is an UNMIL compound.















The President. 28May07
This is Mercy Ships third visit to Liberia, so the President of Liberia- Her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came aboard to have a look at the new ship and say hi to us all. Of course she didn't just come by herself, she brought along a workmate - The Minister of Something and of course there were all sorts of security people, media, and hangers-on.


 

Orphanage. 02Jun07.

One of my cabin-mates Cliff has been supporting a rural orphanage and he wanted to see how it was going since he was last here, so a local guy Steve drove Cliff, Betty and I out there - about two and quarter hours away into Grand Bassa County.


 




































Bong Mine Trip. 09Jun07.
Opened in 1965 by German investors and abandoned in 1990 at the start of the second civil war. The railroad that runs from Monrovia to the mine is the only railroad in the country, the current owners are friends of Mercy Ships and allow us to travel out there on a Saturday train. Forty of us went out this time. Getting there is most of the fun, we loaded two landrovers onto a flatdeck carriage and travelled for almost two hours, some of us perched up on top of the landrovers, waving back at children as we passed through their backyards, through small villages and rain-forest, the driver sounding the horn all the way to clear people off the tracks ahead of us.
Then a five kilometre drive to get us all out to the lake (actually a quarry full of water) for swimming or relaxing. I managed to get sunburnt....