i am in monrovia! ellen's country.

it was a hell of a trip to get here (600 km from Freetown). actually, it probably just seems so because of the border crossing. on the sierra leone side we had to get out of the car, and show our documents 9 times (julie and i tried to recount afterwards). these "immigration" "customs" "police" "health post" or whatever (bamboo pole across the road, bamboo hut, offials lounging in uniforms ... the usual) started about 30 miles before we got to the border. and then got more and more dense as we got close.

we did make it across without any issues (our laisser-passer viewed a million times and our information recorded almost a dozen times), crossed the bridge that seperates the country (a phat UN tank and Namibian "casque blue" guard post on it) and then were met by a GTZ vehicule on the other side. We followed them to Manrovia and they dealt with the logistics for us for most of the other stops on the Liberian side (how can there be customs and immigration 100 miles into the country and every 20 km?!). A lot of UN posts as well (cement bags with barbed wire, a white tank and a casque blue or two). They never stopped us, but apparently do at night.

But I have to say, the various officials were over all friendly ("welcome to Liberia!" "May you have a good stay!") and introduced themselves as friends. Also very rigurous about entering our data in their logbooks! yet never checked the back of the car to see what we were carrying!

the Sierra Leone side was unpaved (red soil road/track through the jungle/forest past mud hut villages). We didn't see a single other vehicule all day! On the Liberia side the road is paved. The GTZ guy who met us said "Liberia used to be great. It was 'little America'" (this before Charles Taylor and the war).

Now Manrovia is again bustling and coming to life. There a plenty of burnt out buildings, but the city is full of shops with consumer goods, cell phones work better than in bamako, the UNMIL is based in a huge administrative building behind cement walls.... I've never seen so many white UN vehicules in my life. They are all driving around the city.

Today Julie and I went to explore the city a bit with her car. We got stopped by the police twice. I don't think they've ever seen foreign plates here. They were all friendly (David, Anthony, Joseph, Tony)... wanted little bribes (which they didn't get) or eventually just Julie's phone number! We bought a chain & lock for Julie's spare tire and after we were tired of that went to the beach. Burnt out hotels on perfect sand beaches and among palms trees. Again, they fought a war in Paradise.

Last night we met up with International Rescue Committee folks (some of which Julie worked with in Sierra Leone). Tonight we are going out for drinks and an International Red Cross party.

I need to figure out a way to get out of here and back to Mali (I got a new contract there for may - august!). The whole road back through liberia, sierra leone, guinea and mali ! oh boy. :)

Photos!
(these photos relate to some of the stories told below)...



(In the Fouta Djallon, Guinea, with Mme Sow who invited us to eat mangos).



(To the Island Roomie off the coast of Conakry, Guinea. It is heaven and only 18 hours of bushtaxi from Bamako!)



(The biodiversity rich Fouta Djallon Mountains, Guinea. Unfortunately threatened by deforestation -- see the smoke).



(The "taxi-brousse" passing each other through the hills of Guinea. These are the transports I used to get from Bamako to Conakry to Freetown. Some 1500 km.)


(The fishng port in Conakry).

am in freetown! i'm staying with some of julie's friends (she moved out of her place last month as she was about to leave..) and i told the guys that i had come from bamako overland. Overland?! they were impressed. when i told them I'd come overland by Bush-taxi (rather than private car), they were even more impressed. but actually the journey all in all wasn't as grueling as i thought it would be (cramped in taxi-brousse for hours/days) and i am glad i got to see the transition of climate, vegetation, village architecture, people...


i'm sitting in julie's office in the GTZ building looking at freetown through the window. it is raining here, so not much fun for exploring or going to the beach. we're planning to go to the beach and the chimp reserve this weekend.

i talked to 2 college students (friends of julie's boyfriend) about the war yesterday. they say they dont want to talk about it. don't want to remember a thing. or say if they were to start talking theyd talk for 6 months. "we lived by the grace of god."

the war lasted for 13 years in the country, but in the city of freetown came only towards the end. yet 13 years, that is really the whole childhood of these youths. i am amazed by the urge to move on. my first impression of freetown when i arrived on Tuesday night by bush-taxi was that it was a party town. beat music coming out of the road -side stores, the public transport minivans (or "potpots") brightly painted and blaring hip-hop, and youths in hip american rap clothes gleaming and strolling like it were saturday night. There is no electricity and very little running water throughout the city. folks or businesses that can afford it have generators. otherwise things are sold by candle light.

julie says that when she first got here that were no billboards. now the place is plastered with them. Coca-cola and Celltel. The market is crowded with people selling imported clothes, shoes, radios, phones, etc. the fibrancy of the private sector. much of it controlled by lebanese (like the diamond trade).

I hung out with the Sierra Leone students all day yesterday. They were so anxious to show me their university. the place looked like it hadn't received any investment or renovation since the 60s. old chairs and black boards, rusted broken windows. they point out a building that was burnt during the war.

We also drove by the special court for sierra leone. double line of concrete walls. barbed wires, video cameras and watch posts with asian looking military men. Two-thirds of he front page of the Standard Times was covered by the words "Charles Taylor's Concubine arrives in Town." She's here to give support to her lover. He's here on trial for human rights abuses. Julie's friends we are staying with all work at the Court. we later went out to dinner at this expensive restaurant and met other friends of hers (i think the lebanese - sierra leone party at the table next to us smoking cubans were doing a diamonds deal or selling some other one of sierra leones rich natural resources...).

there are a number of resorts on the beach. in fact it is gorgeous here. soft sand, palms, curving shore. the resorts were built before the war. one of them is used as UN headquarters. we went swimming in the pool of one of the resorts. an east-european and a lebanese family were there. it had that air of having been glamorous and beautiful in the past, but now feels empty.

later julie and i went to a little palm frond sort of bar with tables in the sand. we ordered Sierra Leone "Star" beers, dug our feet into the sand to chat and listen to the surf. In so many it could or is paradise here. Enough rains, arable soils, forests, fish... Coming from Mali, it seems like heaven. the cliche phrase describing much of Africa always comes to mind: "wonderful people, bad government." how bad things can get messed up because of bad governments...

i'm back in Conakry after 3 day tour à l'interieur du pays. it is absolutely gorgeous! the road winding up and around forested hills, palms, and little towns. they have absolutely the best avocados i've ever eaten (each one is perfect!) and tomatoes that make the ones in Mali look like they grew in the desert -- which it really is compared to this. Kaba and I loved it here and are planning to move the whole "bureau" to Guinea ;-)

"les colons" really liked guinea too and apparently came from all over west africa to spend their vacation in Guinea. One night we spent in a fabulous hotel built in 1930's with all the rooms and huge dining room overlooking the valley. and it cost only 10 dollars a night!



We got back last night. This afternoon I got a boat to take me to one of the islands off-shore with some guinean friends. c'est le paradis là bas. you'd think your in the bahamas. beaches, colorful wooden boats, palms, litte beach shacks... we went swimming and explored the island.



at a friend's house this morning, where we had avocado salad, i met a young guy who is in the diamond trade. he used to work in angola, liberia and sierra leone digging for them... crazy stories.

i'm planning to take the taxi-brousse to sierra leone tomorrow morning.

will try to put up photos on the blog when i get there.

so i didn't have time to write about my mission with le ministre de l'environnement du Mali last week. I had to finish things up quickly and prepare for my trip to Sierra Leone. Yes, I've been talking about it for 2 years: going to visit Julie Greene in Freetown, finally!
After checking out various flight options (pricey!) i decided to go overland. Bush-taxi from Bamako to Conakry (Guinea) yesterday and get a ride with Julie's former boss at the GTZ from Conakry to Freetown on Thursday. (I left early for Guinea so as to have a chance to explore Conakry and get a visa for Sierra Leone).

i arrived in conakry this morning after driving through all of guinea "en taxi brousse" all day and all night. beautiful scenery! it rained during our drive through the forested hills. it feels like a long way from bamako! i thought it resembled costa rica!
i've already gone to the sierra leone embassy. my visa will be ready tomorrow morning (unless it is a holiday in which case it will be on wednesday!) and i got in touch with Kaba (my boss who happens to be here on a conference). I'm going to try to meet him at noon.
I haven't seen much of Conakry yet, but got a glimpse of shore, ocean, palms, fishing boats... as we drove from the bus station to the hotel this morning. i am staying at "hotel golfe," recommended by the mother of the taxi brousse driver.
most of the city appears not to have any electricity during the day, unless by private generators. this since 2002 when the turbines of the dam (built by german-italians?) got flooded by mud -- the "gereant de petite-moyenne entreprise" where i had breakfast told me all about the ills of guinea this morning.
it is humid and overcast here. the main streets are crowded by cars, but a block in kids are brushing their teeth in vegetable paths... cette apres-midi je vais essayer de voir le musee, la mer, le centre culturel franco-guinean...