Everyone in the States may have celebrated a holiday on Monday, but today was most definitely President’s Day in Liberia. George Bush was in town (his last stop on a five country tour of Africa) and everywhere you looked this week, there were reminders of his upcoming visit. Construction projects were completed just in time. Fresh coats of paint were added on (a select few) buildings. Billboards with George and Laura’s faces splashed across them welcomed the President and First Lady to Liberia. The major impact that my housemates and I felt was the lack of internet for the last 72 hours. We were told it had something to do with a “communications blackout” in preparation for Bush’s visit.
One of the local papers interviewed students from the University of Liberia about what they thought of the President coming here, and one elated student compared his visit to the coming of Jesus. Whoa. (Bush is pretty beloved here for helping to end the civil war and dedicating a lot of money for the rebuilding effort. Wanting to end his trip on a positive note, he capped it in Liberia.)
Some major roads were closed today, which prevented a majority of our Liberian colleagues from getting to work, so we essentially had the day off. A few of us wanted to see how close we could get to the action, so we decided to start walking around town (my housemate Jenna actually won the prize, managing to join a colleague in the audience for Bush’s speech at the University and ending up one row away from Condi).
The city was buzzing this morning. Walking around town, we saw many Liberians carrying U.S. and Liberian flags and wearing t-shirts with faces of both Presidents on them. We passed by children playing who were chanting “Jah Boo! Jah Boo!” (George Bush! George Bush!) The people of Liberia were so excited about hosting Bush that a special song was created and played incessantly on the radio (“Welcome to Liberia George Bush…you are our Iron Man” – they call their President the “Iron Lady”).
Ultimately we made it very close to the University, but the UNMIL and other international soldiers standing guard weren’t letting us pass. Some senior staff we work with happened to be walking from the area we hoped to get into, and they convinced security to let us through. Thinking we were on our way to meet up with Jenna, we were pretty excited, but we were ultimately restricted to a shady bus stop for a couple hours with a Bosnian UNMIL peacekeeper as we waited for the motorcade to drive up. Don’t think we didn’t question ourselves every 15 minutes or so about why we were actually waiting for Bush, but there was little else to do, so when the motorcade drove up I took a couple of little videos of all the black cars. I’ve posted a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.
You can read about Bush’s visit to Liberia here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/world/africa/22prexy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Also, I must say that after reading the comments to my last post and some recent emails I’ve received, I think I’m sending a message that Monrovia is some sort of oasis! While we are living in a bit of a protected bubble – where I have a more active social life than I did in Worcester – it’s more of a survival mechanism than anything else. You sort of have to make your own fun in a post-conflict, developing country…
One of the local papers interviewed students from the University of Liberia about what they thought of the President coming here, and one elated student compared his visit to the coming of Jesus. Whoa. (Bush is pretty beloved here for helping to end the civil war and dedicating a lot of money for the rebuilding effort. Wanting to end his trip on a positive note, he capped it in Liberia.)
Some major roads were closed today, which prevented a majority of our Liberian colleagues from getting to work, so we essentially had the day off. A few of us wanted to see how close we could get to the action, so we decided to start walking around town (my housemate Jenna actually won the prize, managing to join a colleague in the audience for Bush’s speech at the University and ending up one row away from Condi).
The city was buzzing this morning. Walking around town, we saw many Liberians carrying U.S. and Liberian flags and wearing t-shirts with faces of both Presidents on them. We passed by children playing who were chanting “Jah Boo! Jah Boo!” (George Bush! George Bush!) The people of Liberia were so excited about hosting Bush that a special song was created and played incessantly on the radio (“Welcome to Liberia George Bush…you are our Iron Man” – they call their President the “Iron Lady”).
Ultimately we made it very close to the University, but the UNMIL and other international soldiers standing guard weren’t letting us pass. Some senior staff we work with happened to be walking from the area we hoped to get into, and they convinced security to let us through. Thinking we were on our way to meet up with Jenna, we were pretty excited, but we were ultimately restricted to a shady bus stop for a couple hours with a Bosnian UNMIL peacekeeper as we waited for the motorcade to drive up. Don’t think we didn’t question ourselves every 15 minutes or so about why we were actually waiting for Bush, but there was little else to do, so when the motorcade drove up I took a couple of little videos of all the black cars. I’ve posted a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.
You can read about Bush’s visit to Liberia here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/world/africa/22prexy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Also, I must say that after reading the comments to my last post and some recent emails I’ve received, I think I’m sending a message that Monrovia is some sort of oasis! While we are living in a bit of a protected bubble – where I have a more active social life than I did in Worcester – it’s more of a survival mechanism than anything else. You sort of have to make your own fun in a post-conflict, developing country…
3 comments:
The 72 hour communications blackout is totally freaky! Does this mean the US has the power to shut off general necessities for any developing country it feels like? Who's watching us?!?!!?
Check this out:
http://orenotes.blogspot.com/2008/02/africanews-seeks-reporters.html
Maybe something to consider? Dunno.
I noticed a few things in the picture - one kid wearing cleats and another with the bling bling Boss belt on. Interesting...
Back from Key West today will chat with you soon!
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