Nearly every taxi driver in Liberia customizes his car by painting a slogan on the bumper. Many are religious ("He gives me life" or "God is in control"), some are entrepreneurial ("best, safe ride") and still others are philosophical. This morning as we pulled into the Ministry, we saw one that falls in the latter category but was also uniquely Liberian: "who know tomorrow."
Liberians aren't really big on thinking about next steps or future consequences. They prefer to focus on the here and now (unless we're talking about football - American soccer- as most Liberians can tell you when the next big game is). I suppose on some level the slogan captures the Liberian experience for so many years. There were no guarantees that tomorrow would bring a better day or good news. In some ways it remains a very appropriate expression...commodities are increasingly expensive, access to quality health care is not yet assured, and the heavy rain means you may not get to where you need to go today.
Luckily many Liberians don't let the uncertainty paralyze them. People keep on moving, laughing, trying. And if they don't feel like telling you exactly how they're feeling, they let their taxi do the talking.
This isn't my picture, it's from a friend's blog, but it does the trick.
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