The Daily Talk

Today I decided it would be fun to explore a different neighborhood in Monrovia, so I called Colin, the brother-in-law of my cousin Sarah, and asked for a tour of his neighborhood, called Sinkor. I've been there a few times, but haven't walked around much. Colin lives a much more authentic Liberian life here than I do. He shares a home with one of his Liberian co-workers, eats traditional food for most meals, and only has power in the house when everyone agrees to pay for the gasoline to run the generator. The life I'm living here is much more typical of an American or European ex-pat (a car to drive us around, a gated compound, consistent electricity -- which means, most importantly, air conditioning!)

One of the best parts of the afternoon was something we did first. We walked up to The Daily Talk, a large blackboard (maybe 7 feet wide by 3 feet high) on which Alfred Sirleaf shares key headlines of the day, sports scores, a Bible passage (on Sundays), and other bits of news that Liberians would be interested in. The New York Times did a feature on the board and its founder/editor that you may want to check out: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/africa/04liberia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The organization Colin is working for recently provided some funding for Alfred to refurbish the structure, and they know one another, so we got to spend about 30 minutes with him as he walked us through the day's headlines as well as his motivation for keeping The Daily Talk operational day in and day out. The article captures it well, but as he shared with us, the illiteracy rate in Liberia is incredibly high, and he believes many of his country's leaders, and other players involved in recent conflicts, like the U.S., have capitalized on a malleable population. He wants to inform the masses about the news of the day, believing it will move his country in a more positive direction. As cars drove by and honked at him, and he waved at people passing by, Alfred appeared almost as the informal mayor of Liberia, having filled a void in town that people are clearly grateful for.